Train 111 Siberia

A lazy start to the day. Standard breakfast in the hotel (yogurt, pancakes, tea, coffe and chocalates $3 each).

Walked for a few hours along the lake and to the "beach".

Since we left the big cities of Vladivostok and Khabarovosk, we noticed the people were much poorer. There are so many old Lada cars that are falling apart.

Also the people look different. In adition to the "normal" Russian appearance, there seem to be two main types - Firstly a lot of Central Asian/ Mongolian looking people (especially the labourers). Then all the vendors in the market look Turk/Middle Eastern.

And now we have left the city, the tracksuit is the "in" fashion. Especially camouflage tracksuits. Worn by men and women! And smoking is extremely common. So - imagine a young mother wheeling her baby down the main (only) street wearing army camouflage tracksuit with a fag hanging out of her mouth! Welcome to rural Russia.

Had pizza for lunch (nice but expensive $15) and then back to the train station for our next journey. Another very old train but again perfectly comfortable. This is our longest single leg of the journey, so we made ourselves comfortable for a two night journey.

The Provodniks (attendants) seem to be getting younger on each trip. This time we got two dipsy teenages who did nothing but play with their smart phones all the journey. Consequently the train was dirty and toilets were smelly. The comfort definitely depends on the competancy of the attendants!

The scenery out of Severo Baikalsk was very impressive through mountains. Looks like they are doing significant construction and we went through a new looking very long tunnel.

A slow 3 star day