It takes a while I guess in Russia, but people do warm up after travelling a while together. There is this nice little family, a couple of cabins away, with two kids, Andre and baby Natalia. Another couple who I thought were young but are parents to 17 year olds.

I am unable to converse but I do see slices of Russian family through them. When we do talk, I have a feeling we are talking about entirely different subjects. I have not had a conversation I could get a grasp on what is going on. This seems very different than Japan. I was thinking Japan would be a lot more difficult which it was not. On the other hand, I thought I might be ok in Russia, but proved wrong again.

It is alright I guess, I am still alive and surviving well with friendly smiles once in a while.

The more chronic issue I have is related to food. It seems to me that there is potentially quite a bit of vegetarian food but since I am unable to communicate, I am not getting anything. Am sustaining on liquid diet for the past couple of days and am looking forward to pop into a good place in Irkutsk to get a good meal.

Other than the monotony, inability to speak and lack of good food, I guess everything is alright

It doesn’t sound much like a trip eh, but really, it is enjoyable. The tiny villages we stop in, I see a lot of trade , milk, soft drink and supplies are offloaded. People trying to sell stuff by the platform, drunks walking up and down etc. We went past thus town which incidentally reached 62 below zero some years back. Kind of cool (pun intended) if u think about it.

About 36 hrs on the train now. I am used to long train journeys, but this feels different. It probably is the acute difference in temperature – it is +25 inside and according to my British neighbors, -40 outside this morning. The windows are freezing literally – what moisture remains has stuck to the window and frozen overnight.

It is probably because I am cooped up in the compartment unable to do much. Probably it is because the scenery outside is a constant whiteout peppered with dried out conifers braving the winter. I am not sure. But I need to sit in for another day before I get off at Irkutsk.

The sunrise and sunsets are beautiful. And the photo ops are excellent if u are willing to run out in the icy weather to look for them. Train rarely stops for more than a few minutes to explore.

I think my sense of time is lost. Trains are running at Moscow time and my watch is calibrated to Vladivostok time. I am guessing I have passed 2 time zones but I have no way to tell. I have no idea what station I am passing by. Unable to read or understand when someone is trying to explain.

Being lost is space and time feels liberating if I were able to be outdoors knowing what to do. But that being not the case, I am spending my time staring out of the windows waiting for Irkutsk.