Adventure Number 2: Inside a Trans-Mongolian Train

After bidding a fond farewell to my travelling companion Kiwi Dave who had again joined me for the last part of this trip, I started out on the final journey which would take me into Europe and home. The start was a little upsetting however, as within five minutes of the train leaving the station in Mongolia, I discovered that my purse had been stolen. However instead of dwelling on the toe-rag who had lifted it, I decided that no-one was going to taint my once-in-a-lifetime trip and so I will tell you of the wonderful things which followed, turning a potential disaster into merely a drama! The police were notified straight away thanks to Kiwi Dave whom I'd left in Mongolia. I didn't starve on the 5 day train trip because the people in my carriage (Carriage 6) were amazing (Winnie West from Denmark is an angel in disguise) I had no way of contacting the outside world and so a German couple contacted my ticket agent when they left the train before I did, and a food parcel was waiting for me a few stops up the line. An American father and son kept me supplied with peanut butter sandwiches and an Armenian man made sure I never ran out of vodka. An Irish guy threw some dollars into my cabin and ran away so I couldn't protest and the wonderful Sue Roberts got an email from the same couple and went into action cancelling cards, informing insurers and even paying for my hotel in Moscow so I didn't have to spend two nights at the airport. All in all quite an international finale to my six months of traveling - but it reminded me once again that it is the Good people who make up the vast majority of our world

As a by-the-way: when Visa say they will replace stolen cards within 24 hours they don't actually mean it -well not if you're in Moscow anyway! However they will wire you some cash from Miami to the nearest Western union: in my case that was less than 3 miles away form the hotel which was fine for a Sunday morning stroll (i couldn't get a cab 'cos of course all my cash was also stolen!)
Anyway I digress ... back to life on the train.

It was a 6 day-long trip, part of the trans-Siberian network and does in fact cross the Gobi desert and part of Siberia - which I have to say was warmer than my first day back in Wales! I took so many pictures that I decided to put 'train' ones in this album and 'views' in another - don't want you dozing off too soon! Each carriage has two conductors (female in my case) and they are stern and non-English speaking women - one of whom developed a sense of humour and a smile by the time Carriage 6 had finished our five day trip! I have to say that Carriage 6 was amazing - completely international and everyone was good fun. It was Canada day during the trip so I rummaged in my pencil case and finding, coloured paper, string, balloons and scissors Winnie West (my cabin-share) and I set-to making banners. My ipod has a selection of National Anthems on it (what? doesn't everyones?) so we shoved it through their cabin door as a wake up call! I managed to read The Last Rhino and enjoyed it and my other achievement was to take lots of blurred photos through increasingly dirty windows - none of which opened more than a centimetre or two. Air conditioning kept the cabins quite cool: these were two berth with table in between and each bed turned into a sofa during the day with plenty of storage space underneath. two toilets which were kept very clean catered for the carriage - as there were only 12-14 of us, there was never more than a few moments waits: the worst time was when we were approaching and stopping at a station and then toilets were closed and legs were crossed if your timing went wrong!
All in all an experience which could never be repeated thanks to the amazing, open-hearted and fun people I met in Carriage 6.