Genghis Khan Express
Enter a World Where
Many Western Assumptions No Longer Apply
By Arie Farnam
The Tien Shan Mountains hung in the evening sky before us and the sun was sinking behind us, an orange ball in a purple sea of dust. An eight-year-old Kazakh girl traveling to Almaty with her grandmother stood beside me by the open window of the train rocking eastwards on a single line of glistening tracks. She pointed at the sky, then the camels, saying the words in Kazakh. I pointed and said the words in English. We exchanged language lessons all the way to Chimkent.
Three days earlier, I had left Moscow for Almaty, Kazakhstan on a train known as the Genghis Khan Express and entered a world where many Western assumptions about reality no longer apply. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, politics and commerce have returned to a kind of local feudalism. In the midst of all this chaos, the people are some of the best educated on the planet. Physicists, doctors, philosophers, and engineers work as shuttle-traders, transporting goods from large cities to smaller towns for a tiny but significant profit.
The trains of the former Soviet Union are not only a relatively comfortable and extraordinarily cheap way to go from Europe to Asia and back,but they are also the best way to get your finger on the social and cultural pulse of Eurasia.
Whether your goal is simply to get from Europe to Asia, or to some destination in between, the trains are the ticket to a most instructive cultural experience simply because they are the main mode of transportation for all people all over the CIS. Trains are a cheap, comfortable, entertaining, and safe alternative to missing the country by flying over it in an airplane.
It took us four days to reach Almaty from Moscow; I left the train on the parched Kazakh steppe below the towering Tien Shan. Vendors who had sneaked into our car quietly cooed, "Mineral water? Milk? Yogurt? Sunflower seeds?" They scurried away when the police came around demanding bribes not to interfere.
A Few Safety Precautions
Despite the economic difficulties in Russia, a few precautions can make train travel in the CIS almost as safe as in Europe: Dress conservatively and practically; carry only as much luggage as you can easily handle yourself; don't speak loudly, gesture broadly, or otherwise draw attention to yourself; travel with a partner whenever possible, and be discreet with foreign currencies and electronic devices such as cameras and walkmans. Those with long hair should braid or otherwise contain it (loose hair is a great handhold). When you buy tickets, ask for a top bunk. Lower bunks become the common vodka-drinking area during the day.
The post-Soviet railroad network is still centered in Moscow. If you are in Europe, you can buy a ticket to Moscow, but you cannot buy a ticket to the Far East or Central Asia unless you go through a specialized (and often expensive) travel agency. Therefore, not only do you have to transfer in Moscow, you may also have to buy new tickets and change currency.
Do not come into Moscow without a prearranged place to stay, as you might in Amsterdam or Paris. Organized crime is rife, and anyone you meet on the street offering a room for rent could be part of a scam. Moscow has plenty of cheap hostels.
A special ticket office for foreigners is located at Leningradskiy Prospekt 1, near the Belorussian metro station. With the economic crisis in Russia, prices vary erratically and foreigners are often charged two or three times the official ticket price. Current prices are about $100 for a ticket from Central Europe to Moscow, about $50 to cross the Urals from Moscow, about $100 to get into Central Asia from Moscow, and $200-$300 to reach Moscow from the Far East. These are second class prices. First class tickets are from 50 to 100 percent more.
Crossing Borders
In Moscow, virtually all exchange outlets and banks engage in currency speculation. Changing money may be a significant problem. If the dollar is high against the ruble at the moment you happen to be in Moscow you may go to several exchange counters only to be told "Rubley nyetto!" (No rubles for sale!).
The Russian-run trains from Prague to Moscow do not operate at European levels of punctuality, cleanliness, and customer service. Schedules can change quickly, so always check with international ticket offices in the European city of departure before making plans.
In Belorus and the Ukraine visa regulations, like train schedules, can change in the blink of an eye. Cautious travelers will have a transit visa for every country they might touch.
When you enter the CIS from either Europe or Asia, the train tracks suddenly become wider. This means a three-hour wait while the train cars are physically lifted off their wheel carriages by huge hydraulic jacks and industrial cranes.
You can enjoy this experience from the ground, or you can stay inside the car and have the eerie sensation that Godzilla really does exist.
"Bandit Country"
Every time I have taken any of the Europe-Moscow trains, there have always been several points, usually in the Ukraine or Belorus but also in Poland, when the conductors announce that we are in "bandit country" and proceed to lock themselves in their cabins for a few hours. Although there are locks on every door, conductors have been known to sell keys to the mafia for hefty sums. I carry a chain and a padlock, which can be fixed to most doors to provide additional protection. Although you will hear plenty of horror stories about thieves and robbers in the post-Soviet train system, I have traveled it extensively without ever having even a close call. As you move east, the incidents of organized crime against foreigners actually decrease.
I am always relieved when I find out that my roomies are shuttle-traders because I know that they are less likely to try to rip me off and will actively protect our cabin from intruders. The last thing a trader wants is trouble with the police or a robber. They also do not drink vodka nonstop on the trains. They have work to do and goods to protect. Many of them have families back home who depend on the safe delivery of those goods for survival.
Life on the Train
The trains are set up to be livable for long periods of time. A train from Moscow to Vladivostok, for example, takes more than six days to reach its destination. You can rent clean sheets from the conductors for a small fee. On some trains the conductors will actually bring you tea. On others you can get boiling water from a large samovar in the corridor. Drink only boiled water. Water-born illnesses are becoming a major problem throughout the CIS.
At small markets set up at the stations people sell every manner of food and occasionally good-quality souvenirs such as hand-knitted wool gloves, musical instruments, felt boots, and, of course, matrushka dolls.
The range of culinary styles and traditions in the CIS is vast. The main food to avoid is meat. Cheese, sour kiefer, and ice cream are usually safe and of good quality, but I would not buy milk or eggs on the trains. Carry powdered varieties, if you must. Vegetables and fruit must be washed in clean water (i.e. boiled or bottled). Look for bottled water with sealed caps as there is a significant business in reusing mineral water bottles to bottle normal tap water, which is often heavily polluted. Packaged candy and crackers are generally fine.
Safe Travel Where Few Tourists Go
The CIS railroad can take you from Berlin to Riga, from Tashkent to Novisibirsk, and from Moscow to China. You can explore rugged mountains, vast desert steppe, and remote Siberian taiga. You are likely to encounter Arabs, Poles, Turks, Ukrainians, Mongols, Germans, Chinese, Russians, Koreans, Latvians, Tatars, and just about anyone else. You can join in the everyday life of people in places where few tourists ever go. And as long as you are careful and considerate of local behavior, you should have a safe trip.
ARIE FARNAM, who lives in Prague and works as a writer, photographer, and videographer, recently made a documentary video in Kazakhstan.
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