"The Vodka Train"

The Trans Siberian Railway. The only way to travel over land from Russias capital to the far, far eastern parts of this enormous country.

This is a railway with extreme importance for the Russian economy, and it's people. A stabile transport connection, second to good communication is the most important reason for economic prosperity in the remote parts of any country. The vast, almost endless area of Sibiria is supplying the rest of Russia, and much more of the world with commodities like timber, natural gasses and fresh water. (This might be where China can buy their drinking water in 20 years, considering how scarce a resource it is in the world's most populated country. And also, almost all the water they have in China is polluted. The efforts they over the past few years have put into saving an cleaning water will never make them sufficient to supply them selves.

This first part of the Vodka Train, from Moscow to Omsk, about 42 hours on the train, has been a very interesting journey. I met one man who spoke some English, and he had been to Odda, Norway for 5 months in 2002. This was a new train, so comfort was better, and everything was clean, but I still liked the old trains better. Anyway, the rest of the people around me were moms traveling with their kids, or old bab'kas with thick black mustaches.

Hours pass while I am looking out of the window, just enormous plains, everything is flat, and many places they have planted thousands of trees along the rails to prevent snow from blocking them. I also read a lot. The book I am reading now is Jim Rogers - "A bull in China". China is an interesting country for investments, and in this book he tells about how it is possible to do it on the various exchanges. I have read another book by this author before, "Investment Biker". In this book he and his girlfriend drove across all continents (except for Antarctica). This was in 1989, it took 22 months and they passed through 54 countries. One of my best reading experiences, ever. It is both about travel and finance, the perfect combo, and I could recommend it to anyone interested in any of the topics!

I have been careful with taking out my electronics, because I want the freedom of leaving my seat, so if nobody knows I have anything of value I believe it is less likely someone will steal it! Not that I find this to be likely anyway. Everyone in this train just leave their stuff to go to the bathroom, the restaurant or to another car to talk to someone. Even their computers they leave just laying on the bed!

Now (as I type this) am about 90 minutes from Omsk. It is only -23 C / -10 F outside, and way too warm inside. The electronic board in front of me shows +24 C / 75 F in this car, but I am laying in the upper bunk, so probably closer to 28 C / 83 F for me. I am in the last car, which is nice, cause then I don't have all the through traffic of people going to the restaurant wagon. The prices in the restaurant wagon are very high (around 450 rubles) for a main course. That is only 90 KR / $15, so not really expensive, but compared to nudels I bought before I got on the train, which were less than 5 KR / $1, that is a lot.

The nudels are great in many ways. They come in a bowl, so you just add warm water, which is free on the train, and they fill you up. Remember to buy the ones which the whole box is wrapped in a plastic foil, cause then you are sure they stay closed even if they break inside the backpack! This almost happened to me, in my food- backpack. That is also a tip. Put all the food in a designated backpack, that is the only one you will need to access on the train. Also bring many tea bags, you can borrow a cup for free, so tea-drinking is a given way to pass the time!

I also bought some bread and dry toppings before I got on the train. The bread was sliced and just 5 rubles (nothing worth translating), and I bought some apricot jam, and a glass of peanut butter. The peanut butter cost me almost as much as a cheap dinner in a restaurant would in St. Petersburg, around 260 RUB But it is so handy because I don't need to keep it cold, and I need some protein.

I also bought nuts and raisins in a large outdoor market in a suburb of Moscow. 250 RUB for 1 kg, that is plenty of nuts!

All the small towns we pass on this almost 3000 km / 1900 miles, train ride are really mysterious to me. Some places in the middle of nowhere you see all kinds of small wooden houses. Mainly there are two kinds of roofs. One that is very steep on both sides, like an arrow, about 30 degrees angle. This is probably for the snow to fall off easily in the winter. But They do seem like they would waste a lot of energy. This tall narrow construction must be hard to keep warm by the floor when all the heat rises to the useless top 2 meters of the ceiling / attic. The other one has 3 angles. One that is about 150 degrees in the middle, and on both sides there is a bend that almost angles 90 degrees to the ground that allow the snow to fall down instead of hanging far out over the sides of the house when it melts. This construction seem smarter, energy wise, but the fundament needs to be solid to hold so much of the snow. Many of these houses are leaning to one side or the other, most likely from the weight of the snow.

It is also weird to see how cities along the line has this kind of small tree houses, almost as suburbs for the Soviet cement buildings, both factories and apartment buildings. It is obvious that the small houses have been there long before Soviet times. Proof of this is the remains of beautiful decor all around the houses. Art like this was not common in communist times. Blue and green painting, often on wooden carvings decorate around windows, doors, along the edge of the roofs and on fences. This is beautiful. I remember having read about this before, both on the internet and in "Investment Biker" , and it was really cool to see it with my own eyes. Especially in places where there was no factory in the background. Some of those small place did not even have roads between the houses. And for sure no electricity! I could see old men moving slowly around on skies.