Railway to Almaty

en route, Siberia Railway

2010/09/20

In Moscow YH, I met a Dutch couple, Wouter and Chloe, who had the same destination as mine. We were going to Almaty-Kazakhstan by train. It’s a long way. We would spend 3 full days in the train.

The train would depart at night. I had my last day in Moscow relaxing, after an emergency that I found I bought the wrong date ticket and rushed to station for changing. I was very nervous because my Russian visa would expire if I couldn’t catch my train.

We left YH at evening and took subway to the station with our packs which made us very conspicuous. We waited our train with beer. Since arriving Russia, I had drunk a lot of alcohol, especially the strong Vodka. The time was up. We separated, got in our cars.

The second night, the train stopped at a station for a long time. It’s midnight. I guessed here was the border. We stopped for some official procedures. I was lying on my low berth. An officer in uniform came in and checked our IDs. I handed him my passport. Obviously it’s not common here. He checked it for more seconds and then asked some questions. Finally he asked me took off my glass to see my purple color. Then he gave me a friendly smile. “Welcome to Kazakhstan” He said.

After a while, the attendant handed back my passport with a stamp on the visa. The train started again. It whistled in the night. The steel wheels clattered the rail. I watched outside the window. Obscure scene started to move backward slowly.

This was my first time to cross the border, overland.

******

In fact, the passage in train was not so interesting. However, I didn’t expect too much in advance. My Chinese train-traveling experience had made me realized that it depends on luck to meet something interesting just like anywhere else during journey. Train traveling isn’t interesting itself.

The third morning, I was lazy in my mattress. The rising sun shone light in our compartment. I looked outside the window. The shining half-orb was just above the horizon of the field. We were running on an unknown boundless wild.

I went to Wouter’s car which was next 3 cars to mine. We talked for a while. Chloe said this was her first train traveling. Wouter told me it’s no boring. He enjoyed watching the landscape changing gradually.

I had a nap and awoke up at dusk. The light was gentle. I watched outside again, and the sun was falling. It’s sunset. My brain was empty. I was thinking of nothing and bathed in the warm sunshine silently. We were still running on this field, the field in Asia, the field that Mongolian horse had ever galloped across to conquer Russian, and then to sweep Europe.

The night fell. The wild was swallowed up by dark. Our train was the only dim moving light in this darkness, like luminous mystical creature, migrating in the silent night.

*****

The train stopped at a small station. I stepped down to the platform for a rest. I walked backward for Wouter and Chloe. I saw a crowd of venders surrounding them with hubbub. They flocked to them not only for trade but also for fun and curiosity. A Slavic-like man was translating for them and it’s the cause of this hubbub. They both got a window to communicate. He was their new friend in their carriage, a Slavic with Kazakhstan nationality. (Only little bit more than 50% of the population of Kazakhstan is Kazakh people.) He invited us to have beers that night.

Near midnight, I walked through the aisle, cross the gaps between carriages to their compartment. The train stopped in a small station, they went to buy some beers and snacks. “We almost lost the train! It starts earlier!” They gasped out with excitement.

We closed the door. The obscure compartment was illuminated by the dim light over our heads. 2 Kazakhs joined us, too. We cheers and drank, and started to talk about traveling inevitably, because of their curiosity about us. I was little drunk and started to address the story I read, which was about the Roman history took down by the ancient Roman historian Polybius.

When the great Roman general Scipio ordered to inflame all Carthaginian vessels and ships harbored in the port, and moreover the city would be destroyed completely by him, he gazed the burning harbor and city, the enormous fire was devastating the Carthage, and the night sky seemed also burned….He shed tears for his enemy, not only because of the empire’s catastrophe, but also because he suddenly realized that his country, Roma, would extinct one day, as the burning, dying and disappearing Carthage Empire, which had ever been such a great country, owned so powerful navy, occupied so large territory. If so great Empire like Carthage would die someday, how Roma could escape from this inevitable fate? I believe his sadness came from the awareness of some kind of essence of life in this universe. That is death. Everything will die, no matter how strong it had ever been.

How deeply moved I was by Polybius’ description? And yes, because of the feeling caused by the great people with so profound thought and sensitive mind who existed there, I want to visit the land they ever stood on. Of course, I knew this was too romantic and deviated from reality. I have to adjust my expectation later. But, we always need something romantic to ignite our passions, doesn’t it?

“Sorry, I’m little drunk. I occupy too much time of you” I said.

“No, it’s a…..you told a very nice story…Thank you…” they responded. They said they were impressed.

It’s very late. We said goodnight and dismissed. I walked through the cars in darkness, passed the gap with smell of rusty rig and fuel, to back my car, my compartment. Every traveler fell asleep. It’s very quiet, except the rhythmic clatter of wheel rolling on rail. My roommates had fallen asleep. We didn’t talk, because of language. I lay down on my bed, with less sleepiness. This was the last night in the train. Tomorrow morning, the train would arrive to its terminal, our destination, Almaty, Kazakhstan.