Russia

Having devoted a post to each of the other two countries we have travelled through, Russia certainly deserved a separate post too.
The major part of our trip has been travelling through Russia, such an interesting and diverse country.
Crossing the border from Mongolia into Russia was not as full on and intense as the crossing from China into Mongolia. However, several security personal boarded the train to check various things such as if we were harbouring stowaways and a sniffer dog to check for substances. When we boarded our first Russian train the lady attendant appeared quite brusk and unfriendly, but we soon got to experience the other side of her. We won her over by buying some souvenirs from her.

Generally we have found people friendly and accommodating and in most cases have been able to be understood. However, having Vladimir to translate and explain things to us has been a godsend. We have been fortunate in not only having Vladimir as our tour guide for the whole journey but having local guides at each destination to show us around and explain points of interest to us.

Because the value of the Rouble has dropped, items are quite cheap in Russia. So much so that the Mongolians travel across the border in to Russia to make purchases. The area across the border is also inhabited by a lot of Mongolians. Easy to identify by their distinctive features.

Travelling on the train across the Siberian Taiga we passed through many pretty villages with the design of the houses not quite how we had imagined.

One thing that was not clear to us was where the boundaries were for the separate regions and were wishing we had a map to refer to. The first area we were in was the Buriatya region around Ulan Ude, covered quite a large area with a definite Mongolian influence. Passing through from East to West we travelled through several time zones covering almost 5000 kms through very picturesque country side, mainly forests interspersed with little villages and also passing through large towns with industry.

We learnt that we moved out of what is known as Siberia once we passed through the Ural Mountains and in fact the Urals are the border between Europe and Asia.

With each city and town we travelled through we learnt so much about the history of the regions, with the Royalty and the various different rulers and their ways.

All the places we travelled through in Russia were also incredibly clean, especially the bigger cities where there were trucks constantly driving around washing and sweeping the streets.



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