Apart from usual load of selfies and wonky pictures, there will be some guide-like addition to each post. The reason is to document our hard work when preparing, and also hopefully to help other people planning to do something similar. We've found many guides, but only few offered details really needed to organise a trip.
The whole story was based on my wife's dream to travel a transsiberian train - very loose and ambiguous term, but definitely influencing imagination. Doing that actually is pretty simple: all you need is to search for 'transsib' and instantly tens of offers pop up. Have 2 weeks and big pocket and you can spend lovely 7 days on board of a train and visit Moscow and Beijing.
Our problem was rather thin wallet, we wanted to see more than Moscow, Beijing and the train, and some of us (those of 5 years of age) would be bored to death after 7 hours, not 7 days of travel.
We wanted to see Moscow, Irkutsk, lake Baikal, Ulaan Baatar, Beijing and travel over Transsiberian and BAM railway lines. One can now guess the meaning of the name ;)
The list above proved to be a big obstacle: even staying in each place for 2-3 days, it quickly appeared impossible to squeeze all within 3 weeks (mind one way train travel Moscow-Beijing alone takes a week!), so some compromises had to be made. First of all we limited the stretch covered by train: as first several thousand kilometres from Moscow goes through pretty flat area, starting from one of airports on the route (Novosibirsk, Kransoyarsk, Irkutsk) saves plenty of time without many attractions sacrificed, and actually adding extra city that can be visited. Also from Beijing back to Russia, instead of going transmanchurian route, we used shortcut by flying to Khabarovsk. This again saved time and added one more place to be seen, although admittedly limited our sightseeing of China.
As mentioned before, it was family trip with a boy, so we also couldn't go the way students/vagabonds can: just keep the direction, use whatever (the cheaper the better) means of transport, eat what you find, sleep where you can, and be limited only by visa expiration time. You can find many descriptions of such adventures and if you can travel that way - do it!
Details of organising the schedule will be described later, now let's jump to the story!
Moscow Domodedovo
Upon arrival at Moscow Domodedovo airport we enjoyed the slowest passport
control ever: good half an hour in the queue and another 15 minutes just us
three at the counter to be blessed with migration card and entry stamp. When finally got to luggage collection, our belt was empty - it appeared our bags got offloaded and were waiting at the
lost baggage counter. That seems to be a typical practice on some busier airports.
We couldn't find any toilets at arrivals, so followed the signs down to the departure hall
and then underground, through narrow corridor with one very low ceiling section. It looks like these
toilets were an addition (there are more on 1st floor), but even with them, their number is heavily
underestimated, with long queues of women pointing to each one.
Upstairs there is children play area (follow
patiently signs to sector D), and a restaurant / food bar (Му-Му Moo-Moo)
right next to. We were actually given their leaflet when downstairs, so clearly
they take advantage of the location. As
the food is displayed at the counter, there is no problem to just point out
what looks fancy enough. The reason to mention this, is that unless you can
decode dishes names, only salads have their English translation. The prices are pretty reasonable as for Russian and airport standards, especially in comparison with those charged in main dining area upstairs.
Down the corridor between the restaurant and the playground there are hidden toilets with much shorter queues.
When checking in with Ural Airlines for the leg to Irkutsk, it
appeared my rucksack was an oversized item (weight of only 15 kgs). I was
directed to the counter, and there pointed to a lift. After 5 minutes it
arrived, so I got in. Luckily some helpful soul told me the lift is for baggage
only (women scanning tags wasn't bothered).
Before getting through security the tickets are stamped, and then
there is a big hall with scanning machines and several tables with trays on them
on the opposite side. It seems their system is that you get ready away from the
scanner and the come forward with filled trays. I somehow cannot imagine person
with small children managing that. When the baggage is X-rayed, you go through a
teleporter-like body scanner, and on the receiving end there is also no stretch
of the conveyor to pick the bits up, and all the tables are covered with trays - mess.
The terminal itself looks modern and is clean, although that comes at a price: cleaning machine operators do not care about passengers and their luggage and we had an incident with one literally ramming into us.
Generally staff is not helpful and few of them seem to know English - and that is pretty much general rule in Russia. Together with bureaucracy at the border, shortage of toilets, uncomfortable security check and expensive food (especially in the main area upstairs - like 260RUB (~£5) for a coffee...) it wasn't an enjoyable experience.
When planning to visit Moscow, mind that Domodedovo is like Stansted for London - you need 1h train ride (Aeroexpress) to actually get downtown. The airport has got good website, there is also free wi-fi available across the terminal.
Next: Circum-Baikal Railway
Next: Circum-Baikal Railway
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