siberian welcome

today is completely different. we've lost the weather and now the train ploughs through cold air and thick rain. it seems to have subdued the passengers, there is a hush over the train only disturbed by a party of about 30 french on a package tour who exodus to the restaurant car like clockwork at very definite times in two groups, all noise and shouting and dressed in their best clothes. marie-eve tells us they are moaning about stupid things as they pass us. it's a notable oddity in this otherwise relaxed life.

the changed weather has pulled away all the energy. amelie has literally slept for a solid 18 hours. marie-eve plays an electronic sudoku game and matt reads. i've also slept more than i thought possible, curled up in a ball at the bottom of matt's bunk.

i turned my phone on to text mum that i'm still alive. i got a text offering me "a free samsung upgrade with 1800 minutes and 180 text messages." those guys even follow you to the centre of the map.

the siberian landscape is now covered in the expected siberian weather. assisted by the overcast sky it looks cold and barren and unwelcoming. small wooden villages spread now and again over seemingly impractical spots; on a steep hill, next to a stagnant pond. probably a wise old logic has placed them there. they look like borat's town in kazakstan in the film. this morning matt saw a cow chained up in an auto-mechanic's garage, presumably awaiting a new leg or something.

wild dogs sniff around the tracks hoping for thrown scraps. mosquitoes are the size of birds. when the train slows down we sometimes see ancient local people watching us intently through thick clothing and beards. men and women.
we would like to see a bear, but have resided to just imagining a bear's head on the dogs. it is not entirely the same thing.

mysterious smells waft up and down the carriage, fish mixed with vodka and a hint of coffee and pine. i drink very sweet coffee, but i'd kill for an ice cold coca-cola.

i finished the time traveler's wife last night. a really well written book i could hardly put down. i read it in about 5 sittings. it's a heartbreaker but i do wish someone would write something i couldn't predict the end of.

i'm going to sleep more i think. or try and find out why we've stopped and haven't moved in 15 minutes. and why the driver has just appeared outside the train with two oil-covered engineers.

---

i guess it was nothing, we moved off 5 minutes later.

there are clues that people manage to inhabit the endless landscape. even far away from villages you'll see tyre tracks through mud, bio-degrading wooden planks forming a perilous walkway across a swamp, a rotting goat-head with sharp looking horns skewered on a stick watching the trains go past. i'm serious. i can't help but play "dueling banjos" from deliverance over and over in my head.

part of the inspiration for this trip came from ewan mcgregor and charlie boorman jumping on motorbikes and following a similar looking route across eurasia. the entire journey took them about 4 months, but was edited down to a 10 hour documentary series. it was hard to get a true idea of the scale of some of the tough terrain they fought across, each chapter edited down to about ten minutes of footage. until now. we're traveling much much faster than they did and this impossible stretch of muddy land has been beneath us for nearly two days.

the series also inspired me to finally get a motorbike license, which i did. currently they are on bikes again riding from the northern tip of scotland to the bottom point of africa, so i wonder where that's going to lead me (thinking about the jeep i'm planning on buying when i get back home).

i wonder if me and matt will get sick of each other living in each other's pockets for so long. i've known him about 14 years and lived with him for 3. we know each other's histories and quirks. so we will see. i think he's the best person i could've done this trip with, we're just about the most easy going two people i know and there's never been a problem between us. but we're both homely guys; we like the warmth and comfort and security of our house in norf london. we are a long - scratch that - a very very very long way from that, although the uncomfortable feeling of "what the hell are we doing?!" has long subsided and now we're just living it.

it's good this is. and my beard is getting big and bushy.

5 days down, 23 to go.