After taking an hour-long bus from the center of Ulan-Ude, Datsan Rinpoche Bagsha appears in sight, almost like a castle standing over the city.
View from Datsan Rinpoche Bagsha
The clock in the wagon says 10PM, but right after the first step outside, it’s 4AM. Feels like magic, since everything concerning time on the train (i.e. stops) follows the Moscow time, even if the train is already 5 time zones away.
This time confusion makes the “train lag” even more interesting as on the train people eat, sleep and chat at whatever time they see fit.
So, early in the morning and sleepy, I arrived in Ulan-Ude, where patiently my host and her dad had been waiting for me.
Wooden Houses in Ulan-Ude
Along the long way, it is impossible not to get lost in the wilderness and vast emptiness of the Siberian landscape while looking out the window.
View from the Train Window
Being confined to a train, and often just to a small bed, for days and days sounds daunting and boring, but usually twice a day the train has a longer stop at a station.
So, for about 25 minutes, it is possible to get out, breath in the gelid fresh air, walk around and buy some food and water.
Station of Новосибирск (Novosibirsk)
If someone wants to get to the other side of Russia, there are only a few feasible options available: either flying, the most obvious and fastest one, or taking the train, the slowest but more interesting one.
I picked the latter as it would give me not only the chance to see a bit of Siberia in winter but also to experience the famous Transiberian Train: “At a Moscow-Vladivostok track length of 9,289 kilometers (5,772 miles), it spans a record eight time zones. Taking eight days to complete the journey, it is the third-longest single continuous service in the world.”
Wanting to head to Mongolia, I would stop at Ulan-Ude (roughly 3/5 of the complete route), after 4 and a half days of train.
Preparing the Train
As the train arrived in the early morning, Moscow welcomed me with the first (but definitely not the last) snow of the journey.
The city was as bustling as I thought it would be, but it still had its charm, especially outside the Red Square.
Saint Basil’s Cathedral
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