Moscow and Beyond: The Trans Siberian Adventure - Gautam Banerji

I returned to a different Moscow in 2018 from what I had experienced in 1996. My earlier visit was a follow-up to an extended sabbatical from UNICEF at the LSE to cool off the heat from four years under a complex emergency in Iraq. The short visit to Moscow and St. Petersburg was close on the heels of Glasnost and Perestroika when Russia was still evolving out of the trauma from the collapse to shape a new destiny with a new identity. The 2018 fund-raising mission with YMCA International for a youth project in Moscow and in turn beyond, through a seven-day, six-night train journey across seven trans-Siberian time zones, terminating in Vladivostok was a different story, a lifetime experience.

I had a long-cherished dream of doing the trans-Siberian since the age of sixteen. It had to wait till I was well into my sixties through retirement for it to materialise. When I was approached as a Trustee of YMCA Indian Students' Hostel, London, if I would join YMCA International on the journey, along with Madhu, we grabbed the offer. In addition to Madhu and I, there were sixteen others, an American couple, a Ukrainian poet, a Russian writer, our Norwegian Secretary General of YMCA International and his wife and six other friends of his from Norway, including a lawyer.

It was a rather privileged train ride after two nights in Moscow, YMCA Russia having negotiated with the railway authorities for an exclusive first-class compartment, all for us, comprising nine coupés with two berths in each. The compartment in turn was placed between the engine and the dining car so there was no trespassing. Meals were served in our coupés.

After breakfast each morning, we retreated to the dining car between meals, again exclusively reserved for our use, where the Ukrainian poet and the Russian writer led discussions on contemporary Russian history and heritage. It was the first time that I heard Pushkin recited in Russian and even though I did not follow the language, the rhythm of speech resonated with the rhythmic movement of the train on its journey. And so we moved on, awestruck and inspired!

I have tried to capture this lifetime experience in the photo feature put together for you. In all, I had taken some eight hundred photographs throughout the journey. I have limited myself to only a few here. The pictures speak for themselves. If I have added captions to them, they are to thread together and aid the narrative and no more.

And so, this is where it begins......

We followed the Trans Siberian Railroad in green from Moscow to Vladivostok.

The Hilton, Moscow, where we stayed, towering against the night sky

At the entrance to The Hilton on our first night out

Red Square and its neighbourhood are all lit by night

Return to the hotel on our first night

Our guided tour of Moscow the next morning began at the Foreign Ministry buildings

Ramparts of the Kremlin: a bird's eye view

The changing skyline of Moscow

A new Basilica, posing a new image

Touch me not!

At the art gallery: how 19th-century Russian travellers visualized India

At an Uzbek restaurant for lunch with the group

The 'journey' begins

Having boarded, Madhu reflects on her mirror image

Books and pamphlets to add to knowledge

The Mongolian train to Ulanbatar on the adjacent platform

The Mongolian attendant in attendance: 

they left ten minutes ahead of us at each station till we parted company in Baikhal

The dining car where we met each morning after breakfast served in our coupé.

Awestruck by Pushkin

Madhu as she weighs and considers each word spoken.

That's what much of the journey looked like through the steppes

Stretch of grasslands

...till the vegetation begins to change

I fantasised much about my teenage dream of a ticket to ride

Some views were spectacular

Stations get busier as we approach Lake Baikhal

 

It took us three hours to skirt around Lake Baikhal, the largest freshwater reserve in the world.

The last sunset on our journey

Approaching Vladivostok

On arrival at Vladivostok

Vladivostok is much about ships and sailing

...with some commemorative monuments

And the suspension bridge

A visit to the Maritime Museum

Fish....

Our last supper together

Madhu, having dined and wined.

That's how the Norwegians chant their goodbye, we learnt!

Gautam can be reached at gbanerji@hotmail.co.uk

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