The Trans-Siberian railway is undoubtedly THE epic train journey of the World. There is no longer continuous train ride anywhere. From Moscow to Vladivostok it covers almost 6000 miles (9288km) and 7 time zones, stretching across the vast expanse of Siberia to the Far East of Russia.
It would take over 7 days to travel the full length of it in one go but we chose to go slowly and split the journey into sections so we could visit the towns and cities along the way and get a real feel of what life is like here in the middle of a Siberian winter. A Winter Journey across Russia on the Trans-Siberian was going to be a true epic.
A Winter Journey across Russia on the Trans-Siberian
Check out the previous blogs on this journey Part 1 – St Petersburg to Moscow and Part 2 – Moscow to Irkutsk
Trans-Siberian Part 3 – Baikal to Vladivostok
You’d better put a jacket on and get yourself nice and warm before scrolling through this post. It’s enough to send a chill down your spine. In fact i’m feeling cold just thinking about it all right now. Winter on the Trans-Siberian…Brrr!!
From Irkutsk we took a Marshrutka (which is a minibus used as public transport) the 60 km South to a lovely little village called Listvyanka on the shores of Lake Baikal. The plan was to get out of the cities and experience the true feel of a Siberian winter in a more natural environment. The idea was to spend 3 days by the lake. Going for hikes around and on the lake and soaking up the pure stark beauty of a unspoiled snow white Siberian winter. We were certainly not disappointed.
Lake Baikal
Even in summer, when it’s not covered in snow and ice, Lake Baikal is an enigma. It is the worlds largest freshwater lake holding over 20% of the World’s fresh surface water. It is the World’s deepest lake at over 1 mile deep in places and it is the World’s oldest lake at over 25 million years old.
Figures aside, it is stunningly beautiful. In winter it freezes over 2 metres deep in places. The ice is thick enough to drive trucks on which is what they do. I’d say, outside of the polar regions, it is one of the most extreme places to go for a hike in winter. So that is exactly what we did!
Getting as comfortable as we can when it’s pushing -30
We found a great little log cabin room on booking.com called U-Batushki. It was 1000 Roubles a night ($15 US) for a double. It was clean and cosy. More importantly it had a heater in it. This is very important as it was -23 degrees when we arrived and Mandy’s eyelashes had frozen on the walk from the bus stop.
This place is severe. The whole time we were here, we couldn’t be outdoors for longer than a few hours as the temperature was brutal. The locals don’t seem to mind. They wrap up well and go about their daily lives.
Listvyanka is a summer resort but in the winter people entertain themselves in many ways. They go hiking on the ice, go dog sledding, riding skidoos and quad bikes on the ice or there is even a hovercraft to joyride on.
An ice rink is set up to skate on and also there is an ice sculpting competiton every winter. So when we were there we some some incredible sculptures made of ice blocks out on the lake.
In Listvyanka we stayed at U-Batushki. A great little log room.
Hiking on frozen water
We were reluctant to walk out onto the ice at first. Then a huge truck drove past us down a stretch of the lake that seemed to be being used as a road. Quite a few vehicles were using it. People were wandering around on the lake and kids were playing on it. It was obviously fine to walk on the frozen water although it still felt daunting to us.
When the top layer of snow blew away in the bitter wind, it would reveal the jet black water below. The ice had big cracks running in all directions and occasionally you would hear creaks and groans as the ice moved around in the depths below. Mandy really struggled to step on these cracks. Of course it was perfectly fine. You could jump up and down on it all you liked. It wasn’t going anywhere.
A wonderful place to be
We thoroughly enjoyed our 3 days in Listvyanka. It was a magical winter wonderland. I’ve never been anywhere quite like this before. The scenery and the whole experience was out of this world. I’d recommend this place to anyone for a winter visit.
It’s obviously not a common thing for foreign tourists to do. We did not see another one the whole time we were there although there were plenty of Russians.
Watch our Trans Siberian journey on YouTube
Too extreme for comfort
One day i decided to go out for a long hike by myself on the lake. I left Mandy in the comfort of the cabin reading her book. I donned all the clothes i had. 9 layers in all including my 2 fleeces, big down jacket, windproof coat, hat ,scarf and mountaineering gloves.
I thought what i was wearing would be enough but I discovered it most definitely wasn’t. I hiked out across the lake walking in a straight line towards the endless white horizon.
After an hour of walking i’d gone about 4 km. I thought i’d be out of sight of the village but i could see it clearly behind me. The silence out there was astounding. The only sound was the squeak of snow under my feet and the whistling wind which seemed to be getting stronger…
The wind blew up fast from the N/E straight across the ice and cut into my head and side of my face. It blew snow particles across the black ice and caused an amazing effect. It was so bitter cold I was suffering badly and knew it was dangerous to continue. With the wind chill it would have been below -30 and I was nowhere near adequately dressed.
My scarf froze solid in front of my face which was forming a layer of frost on it. My ears and cheeks were burning red raw and my fingers were throbbing in pain from the cold. This environment was way too hostile for me and I knew I had to get out of there quickly or I could be in real danger of exposure.
A hasty retreat
I turned and yomped as quickly as i could back towards the shoreline and the sanctuary of our warm room, keeping my gloved hand over my face to protect it from the full force of that ferocious Siberian wind. I made it back a lot quicker but it seemed like forever in those harsh conditions.
Luckily it wasn’t a white out and I could see my destination although I had taken a compass bearing just in case. I was so relieved to arrive safely with no damage done. I felt battered and beaten and frozen to the bone. Siberia had broken me. It was a frightening experience that I wasn’t prepared to repeat!
The 08.36 from Irkutsk to Ulan-Ude
It was a mere 8 hour journey from Irkutsk to Ulan-Ude. A short hop in Trans-Siberian terms. We were travelling 3rd class, platskartny again and were sharing our space with Toli, a hard faced Russian and Oleg, the bear hunter.
Really… Oleg was a bear hunter! Well he had hunted a bear for a Chinese friend. I didn’t disbelieve him. He had an incredibly large and sharp knife which he used skillfully on all the food he handled. They looked like the kind of guys you would normally cross the street to avoid but they turned out to be very pleasant train mates once we’d broken the ice. We ended up sharing food and stories all the way to Ulan-Ude.
The scenery was spectacular of this leg of the Trans-Siberian. Probably the best along the entire journey. We had the entire expanse of the frozen Lake Baikal to the North. To the South lay the stunning mountain ranges of the Primorsky mountains and the Khamar-Dhaban.
In between were snow covered forests of ceder, birch, and pine interspersed with some picture postcard villages. This was the Siberia I had always imagined. Even though there were some smoke belching factories thrown in along the way to spoil the idyllic views, it was still a peach of a journey.
Ulan-Ude
We were now in Buryatia, land of the Buryat people. Ulan-Ude is the capital city. The Buryat people are a subgroup of the Mongols. Their land borders Mongolia and their culture is a lot closer to Mongolian than Russian. They practice Buddhism, speak Buryat and outside of the cities they practise nomadic herding and live in Gers. It reminds me very much of Kyrgyzstan.
It felt like we were no longer in Russia and had finally crossed an invisible line into Asia proper. Ulan-Ude is an interesting city with a real Asian feel although the Soviets made their mark on the place in a show of power. A fine example of this is the World’s largest Lenin head statue that takes pride of place in the main square. At 7.7 metres high it is a real whopper!
In Ulan-Ude we were fortunate enough to meet a very pleasant local Buryat girl, Maria. She was well educated, well informed, friendly and interesting. She was happy to share her local knowledge with us and invited us along to come and visit a Buryat Buddhist monastery on the edge of Ulan-Ude.
I went, along with a French traveller who was in town. It was fascinating to be introduced to the traditions and the religion of the Buryats and I felt very privileged for the experience and to have met such wonderful and generous people.
In Ulan-Ude we stayed at Clean Hostel na Borsoeva. A great hostel close to the railway station.
The 17.03 to Vladivostok
The 008 train to Vladivostok was to be our final train on our epic voyage on the Trans-Siberian. This leg was to be the longest. A 67 hour journey over 3 nights all the way to the Pacific coast, 3rd class all the way. It was full to capacity with passengers and luggage.
We were sharing our area with 2 young soldiers in full uniform, off to a posting in some far flung corner of the nation, a surly looking Central Asian and an insular Russian. Our first night was to be a quiet one as nobody seemed interested in interacting. It was enjoyable to just stare out of the window and watch the endless expanse of the Siberian taiga roll by.
It was -30 degrees outside first thing in the morning. I stepped out in Cherneyshevsk – Zabaikalsky but didn’t linger. The biting cold gnawed at me. I bought some blini (pancake) snacks off the old babushkas lined up along the platform. They were wrapped up that much they looked like dumpy little Michelin men. How they survive out there all day, i’ll never know.
The Russians wandered up and down the carriage all day in their tracksuits and slippers going backwards and forwards to the samovar. They were drinking copious amounts of tea and socialising. Our neighbour spent the entire day shelling and nibbling on sunflower seeds so I named him ‘chipmunk’.
Along the borderline
We’d lost a lot of the trees now as we were heading from Siberia into Russia’s Far East. The treeless plains were how i’d expected Mongolia to look and indeed it wasn’t far away. Further along we started to follow the Chinese border and we could almost see into Manchuria.
Here it was a stark, frozen desert. The rivers were frozen to a standstill and the military had put up temporary fences across them to protect the sensitive borders and bridges which they patrolled vigilantly.
In small corrals horses shivered together, their carts pulled up in the snow. Not much grows here at all as the permafrost keeps the land barren. I watched the sun set whilst listening to Dostoevsky’s ‘The house of the dead’ as an audiobook. Alexandr Petrovich’s tribulations in a Siberian gulag seemed an apt background to this foreboding landscape.
Along the Amur
The next day we followed the Amur river past the 8000 km mark. The Chipmunk had got off during the night but the Central Asians stayed on. They were going all the way to Vladivostok to seek their fortune in Russia’s wealthy Far East.
They marvelled at the golden Lenin statue at Belogorsk railway station like he was a symbol of the affluence they sought. He gleamed as bright as their gold teeth.
The land was swampy but frozen here. It is supposed to be the breadbasket of the East but looked pretty bleak at this time of year. There were tumbledown, clapboard houses and Soviet style tower blocks. There were huge, ugly smoke spewing factories that looked more like prisons. They could have been both. It wasn’t pretty at all.
It was an awful night’s sleep with passengers coming and going. Our final day on the Trans-Siberian train saw us following the Ussuri river South. Close to the North Korean border and the Chinese border here. Not a place to get off!
Eventually we got a peek of the sea. Well, sea ice anyway. Cars were parked on it and the owners had drilled into the ice and were sitting in the freezing cold, trying to catch fish. We followed the Sea of Japan coastline into Vladivostok.
This was the end of the line for the Trans-Siberian train, Kilometre 9288. 7 days after leaving Moscow it pulled in to Vladivostok at 14.38, spot on time!
Vladivostok
Vladivostok was buried in snow when we arrived. It had received a huge dumping overnight. It was incredibly difficult to walk the frozen streets. Trucks, diggers and front end loaders were busy clearing it up and dumping it into the sea which was a sight to behold. We didn’t expect much from Vladivostok when we planned the trip but we were really pleasantly surprised.
It was far more modern and lively than we had expected. It had the good vibe of a City that was prospering. We went out to celebrate our achievement of completing the Trans-Siberian – 3rd Class all the way! We hit the Whiskey bar, drank way too much vodka and fell over in the snow on the way home!!
Vladivostok the fortress
The next few days we spent slipping and sliding over the icy, frozen paths of Vladivostok enjoying many of the sights it had to offer. It was a fascinating place to see. As it has such militarily strategic importance, controlling Russia’s Eastern seaboard, it is a fortress of a city. It was closed to westerners during the cold war years and it was protected by a huge arsenal of gun batteries and a network of bunkers to protect it from air and sea attack.
We visited the fortress museum, one of 14 huge complexes of military defense, up on a hill overlooking the harbour. There was an array of heavy duty war machinery there which had had it’s heyday during World War 2 and into the 70’s.
Walking through the deep snow from bunker to bunker amidst the enormous guns and military might felt surreal, as though we’d ventured onto a cold war movie set.
We also had the privilege to step inside a second world war S-56 submarine which is now moored on land and open as a museum. My first time inside the close confines of a submarine. It was chilling to stare down the torpedo tubes that had fired torpedoes and sunk 14 ships and took so many lives during the war. Outside in the snow and ice Russian navy ships lay moored in the harbour, ready for action if needed.
In Vladivostok we stayed at The Gallery and More Guest House. A great, central location.
The end of an incredible journey
My last night was spent at the Dynamo stadium watching Vladivostock play FC Orenburg in a mediocre Russian 2nd division football match. It was -11 degress and snowing through much of the game.
The army had been drafted in to clear the pitch of snow during the day so the game could go on. Russians sat outside in deep snow covered stands drinking vodka and tea whilst watching the game. The ultra hooligan gang in one section of the stand had their shirts off for the entire game!
Russians are a hardy lot and a bit of snow and cold weather was not going to stop them enjoying themselves. I had great respect for their strength and tenacity. A hard environment creates hard people.
This journey had been a real eye-opener for us. We had experienced a nation of people that outwardly had a hard, cold exterior but once we’d gotten to know them they had revealed a warm and hospitable side. Once again the experiences of travel had totally blown away the preconceptions!
If you feel inspired by our story and you want to make your own journey on the Trans Siberian, then your first port of call is to book train tickets on the Russian RZD railways wesite here.
For more information on how to do your own independent Trans Siberian trip, we have written a post on exactly how we did it. All the information you need to organise your own amazing adventure!
We hope you enjoyed our journey across Russia. Have a look at some of our consequent trips on our Grand Tour of the Eurasian Continent to China, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and onwards!
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What do you think of our Journey? Would you like to travel on the Trans-Siberian?
If you have any questions to ask us… Please leave a comment in the box below. We’ll glady answer any queries you may have.
Happy Travels!
8 thoughts on “A Winter Journey across Russia on the Trans-Siberian – Part 3 – Irkutsk to Vladivostok”
Hey Lee and Mandy! Thank you so much for this post. Very informative!
I have a few questions:
1. Any suggestions on websites or other resources to learn basic Russian and the Cyrillic alphabet
2. I have never read any works by a Russian author. Can you recommend any books or short stories? Something light, a quick page turner to begin with so I can ease into the heavier ones by Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky later
3. Do you use an app for the podcasts and the audiobooks?
4. What type of footwear? Snow boots or can I survive in my waterproof hiking shoes?
5. Do you need a Russian mobile SIM card?
6. Beyond the visa sticker on the passport, any other docs requested at the border crossing? Insurance, return tickets, hotel bookings or cash / proof of funds?
Hello Ram
Thank you for reading and enjoying the post, and for the great questions!
1. We really enjoyed the YouTube channel, R is For Russian. Her 2 hour Cyrillic lesson helped us learn and remember the Cyrillic alphabet.
An excellent introduction to learning Russian is with the Russian Made Easy podcast – the 30 lessons were a great place to start.
Also, the Speaking Russian podcast is excellent for vocabulary and learning sentences.
And this is an excellent resource, Daria from Real Russian Club. We’ve signed up to her newsletter and she is now producing excellent YouTube videos: https://youtu.be/PyOWLEC897M
2. Lee went straight into War and Peace, followed by Crime and Punishment so we don’t really have any recommendations for light books… we’ll let you know if we hear of any!
3. I use the Castbox app for podcasts and audiobooks, and really like it
4. We wore hiking boots but any type of comfortable waterproof boots or shoes with good grip would be fine. Remember to take slip-on shoes for the train as everyone wanders around in comfy shoes and clothes
5. We didn’t have a Russian SIM but would recommend getting one if you want to stay connected. Cafes etc offering free WiFi often required a Russian number to send the code to!
6. We had our hotel bookings saved in Booking.com and took a screenshot to show the guards on the Finnish/Russian border but they just wanted to see our visas and letters of invitation. Have screenshots available though of insurance etc.
Let us know if you have any further questions 🙂
Hi, I just was wandering internet, when stumbled upon your nice post. Some remarks from a local:
2. About literature – you can try reading Chekhov, he is really good and easy to read since he has a lot of short stories. There are a lot of other great authors of 19th – early 20th century, you can try reading different, just search for Russian classics.
4. If you want to go hiking in the snow – you definitely should get some snow boots that won’t allow snow inside. Having wet feet is really unpleasant if you are more than hour away from warmth. Also if you plan hiking or long walks – having wind-proof trousers can add a lot to comfort. With right clothes you can stay outside for a long time with comfort.
Excellent tips, Alexsandr – thank you!
Incredible photos, looking at them, I kind of was there. Thanks for this opportunity! I’m impressed!
Thank you for your kind words, Victoria. I’m glad you liked it and it inspires you to go to Siberia in the winter. It truly is a wonderful place. We’re about to post a video on our YouTube channel about it very shortly if you want to check it out. It will bring it to life even more!!
PS. Sorry for taking so long to respond. I somehow missed the notification of this comment.
Travelling Trans-Siberian railway is on my bucket list. I really enjoyed reading your experience. Thank you for sharing yor story!
Thank you for the kind comment. It was always on our bucket list too and it was one of the best travel experiences we’ve ever had. We thoroughly recommend doing the journey in winter. It is so beautiful!