11 ms·

Across Kazakhstan by rail

210 points by sleepyshift 5y ago

walrus01 5y ago
railway system map: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Railway_Map_of_Kazakhstan_(kk).png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Railway_Map_of_Kazak...
hannob 5y ago
I crossed Kazakhstan by rail+bus in 2013, I wrote a few blogposts: https://blog.hboeck.de/plugin/tag/kazakhstan https://blog.hboeck.de/plugin/tag/kazakhstan
- vbezhenar 5y ago
  Thanks for your blog, it's always fascinating to read about my city. I'd like to comment to "Astana is quite the opposite. Nothing here is old, large parts of Astana were build within the last two decades. Dirt or waste in the streets was almost zero and the traffic seems pretty civilized. Until 1997, Almaty was the capital of Kazakhstan, due to some complicated political compromises, it was moved to Astana and there began the growth of this boom town." Actually Astana was that average town just 20 years ago. And of course there's plenty of old buildings in Astana. And some areas are outright poor. Here's link to street view of one example, you can move around, and that's the same Astana: https://yandex.kz/maps/-/CCUqnJEh0C https://yandex.kz/maps/-/CCUqnJEh0C There's "old city" (or "right coast", contrary to "new city"/"left coast") where ordinary buildings are everywhere. It's not poor, it's just usual. Of course capital status means much more money for everyone, so people generally are more wealthy compared to other cities. There's no point for tourists to go to other city parts, though.
  - noduerme 5y ago
    If that street view is the poor part, it looks pretty wealthy based on the cars and houses. Much nicer than a lot of places. It could be somewhere in Argentina. The only giveaway that something is weird is the mess of electrical lines in one place and the absence of them somewhere else.
davidw 5y ago
Reminds me a bit of a friend who took surface transportation from Vietnam all the way to where we lived in Padova, Italy at the time. Busses to China, then the trans-Siberian train, then various trains to Europe and down to Italy.
w1ntermute 5y ago
Reminds me of this great travel blog from 2008: http://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/ http://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/ The writer traveled from Vienna to Pyongyang by train, giving him 36 unsupervised hours in North Korea.
- extr 5y ago
  Cool link, thanks. Love reading stuff like this, it reminded me a lot of that forum thread of the couple traveling through the DRC.
- iso1210 5y ago
  > The writer traveled from Vienna to Pyongyang by train, giving him 36 unsupervised hours in North Korea. He hacked the north korea visa entry and used his entry visa in an unexpected way - arriving at a different entry point, which was technically not disallowed, but not set up to handle western travel. The normal Beijing-Pyongyang train is set up for westerners, and the loophole has since been closed. Previous HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=vienna-pyongyang.blog...
dustintrex 5y ago
More train travel: https://driftingclouds.net/2018/07/04/from-siberia-to-tibet-life-on-a-train/ https://driftingclouds.net/2018/07/04/from-siberia-to-tibet-...
lmm 5y ago
I spent a few days on the train in Kazakhstan in 2012 - went Moscow-Shymkent-Almaty-Urumqi (on my way from London to Osaka). It was striking looking out across the steppe and seeing a line of telephone poles, and then a completely empty landscape all the way to the horizon. The baths in Almaty were wonderful too. Edit: the kind of scene I'm talking about: https://www.amazon.co.jp/photos/share/8PiwLfaaWMNCyULYDTAvy1vOSoLFv3iRYRwaJLOGTKH https://www.amazon.co.jp/photos/share/8PiwLfaaWMNCyULYDTAvy1...
- ImaCake 5y ago
  I’ve seen similar scenes driving in north western australia. The immensity of the flat desert landscape is something else.
- soared 5y ago
  The descriptions in this thread and your photo are interesting because you don’t need to travel all the way to Kazakhstan/etc like most commenters. In Wyoming/Colorado/Idaho/Montana you can drive for tens of hours and see the exact same thing!
  - lmm 5y ago
    Wyoming/Colorado/Idaho/Montana are further away than Kazakhstan, and very difficult to get to without flying.
    - soared 5y ago
      Sorry I meant the internet’s “royal you” - the one that assumes everyone is American.
baybal2 5y ago
My late father used to ride K3, and K4 Beijing-Moscow train very often in early nineties, when Russia had visa free travel with China. That's where he made his first money. The train was called "Bazaar on wheels" back then. Amazingly, kids were usually just waved off at immigration at the time.
zhte415 5y ago
A related YouTuber: https://www.youtube.com/c/baldandbankrupt https://www.youtube.com/c/baldandbankrupt He treks around former soviet countries (mainly) on his own creating commentary travellogs.
- ilaksh 5y ago
  I'm a subscriber. Really interesting videos. I heard he used to work for MI6. Not sure if that is just a rumor to try to get more subscribers or what. But there are some more Youtubers who seem to travel around to hotspots. I am a little suspicious they work for the CIA or something. Seems like the perfect cover. It may be some of them just get paid not to actually spy but just to verify that westerners can travel and film in those places.
  - themodelplumber 5y ago
    That's interesting about bald, it's a neat channel. I used to be one of a group of people who other people thought were spies. I was living abroad at the time. At first this aspect was extremely irritating. Some locals would point at me and say "spy". But the more I thought about it, the more I met people like me who I thought would make terrific spies, and the more I met local friends who I thought I could probably recruit as spies to have local culture on my side. Then I started to casually explore the countryside like a dumb tourist, and I would emerge from a random forest to see locals' gaping mouths, later to learn it was a sensitive area. I started to think--no wonder they think we're spies! Later on I went home and found out that a LOT of people who did what I did were recruited as legitimate spy-types. One of them was a childhood friend who apparently drank some magic government potion and became a CIA officer who went on to be extremely visible in US national politics. It's a fascinating lens on life, superficially at least. Misdirection works for you and against you. You can make just about anything seem true or false. And weirdly while supposedly a hyper-objective effort (go $my_country!) I understand it often has a tremendous personal impact on those who are deeply involved. > But there are some more Youtubers who seem to travel around to hotspots These are the ones I'd recruit for a modern-day BRIXMIS. If you watch the BRIXMIS videos, the officers interviewed had a tremendous psychological overlap with traveling Youtubers who are very curious about things, to the point where _touching_ or _going to those things_ feels like a victory of its own. Digging up poop near an encampment because Soviet soldiers used log pages as toilet paper--they did that.
hardwaregeek 5y ago
There's something so beautifully romantic about trains. Perhaps that's why filmmakers love them. I can't help but think of the characters in Days of Heaven, migrating across the Texas Panhandle for work and a new life. Or the wonderful opening scene of Clouds of Sils Maria, with Kristen Stewart ducking and weaving, the barrier between Juliette Binoche and the frenzied celebrity culture of the outside world. Or the scene in Pather Panchali where the young kids encounter a train for the first time and you understand that they haven't just seen a train, but indeed they've gotten a glimpse at modernity, at a brave new world that they don't understand, but will come to encompass them. Everybody loves their road films but I think trains are the ultimate film vehicle.
- chadcmulligan 5y ago
  Trains are very comfortable to travel in as well imho. Better than planes, because no airport hassles and the seats are better, and you can move around if the baby next to you is crying; better than buses because a smoother ride; and better than driving yourself because you can relax and read a book.
  - paganel 5y ago
    > better than buses because a smoother ride; I'd also add better toilets, or more convenient, at least. Most of the buses do not have them and those that do have them are just too cumbersome (you risk half of the bus hearing you doing your thing while inside in there). And "holding it in" (so to speak) until the next stop is no civilised way to travel, especially after a certain age.
  - seszett 5y ago
    > better than buses because a smoother ride It really depends on where you are travelling. In Canada (or at least Quebec) sure, train was more comfortable than bus in my experience, and I'd expect anything to be more comfortable than the absolutely awful experience I had with Greyhound in the US. Commuter trains in Montreal weren't what I'd call comfortable though, but that's probably the same everywhere. In France, bus is less comfortable mostly because it's so much slower, but the ride on the highway is smooth (you can't beat TGV but the other trains often ride partially on older, uncomfortable track). And you can't really move in trains if a baby next to you is crying, as seats are reserved (they are on TGV and IC trains but not on TER though). You can always take the risk to go to an empty one but you will probably have to move again next stop (and maybe find yours occupied in turn). In Vietnam, bus is infinitely more comfortable than rail, on one side you can find cheap enough buses that are very comfortable (both the ride and the on-board amenities) and on the other side the train is definitely not smooth at all. I take the train because I like trains, but there's no question buses are more comfortable (and generally faster as well). Well-maintained, modern trains on good tracks are comfortable, but they're maybe not as common as you might think.
webmobdev 5y ago
As kids, long train journeys was an exciting part of our vacations. India has an extensive railway network connecting all parts of the country, and thus have their own "Railway Tourism" segment. Some of the really famous and popular india super luxury trains include: 1. Maharajas’ Express - https://www.the-maharajas.com/ https://www.the-maharajas.com/ 2. Palace on Wheels - http://rtdc.tourism.rajasthan.gov.in/palaceonwheels http://rtdc.tourism.rajasthan.gov.in/palaceonwheels 3. Deccan Odyssey - https://www.deccanodyssey.com/ https://www.deccanodyssey.com/ 4. Golden Chariot - https://www.goldenchariot.org/ https://www.goldenchariot.org/ 5. Buddhist Circuit - https://www.irctcbuddhisttrain.com/index https://www.irctcbuddhisttrain.com/index
vishnugupta 5y ago
Some of my earliest childhood memories are about traveling in train, in India. For a few hours during a journey, a train compartment becomes home away from home, in almost literal sense. IMO trains are by far the best mode of travel for journeys under 700-800KM.
dym_sh 5y ago
hey, at least it's dry rail
pachico 5y ago
You don't have to go to these remote places to feel the vintage-discomfort of old, smelly and unpunctual trains! Just visit Italy, where even diesel trains and optional time-tables will make your journey through art exceptional! I still remember those 2 (some times 4) daily train trips from Modena to Bologna to get to the university (yes, this is in a developed and rich region of Italy) where you had to sit in the floor, where windows didn't work and there was no air-conditioning...
- NackerHughes 5y ago
  No air conditioning? The horror!!! It amuses me to no end how Americans seem to equate lack of air conditioning, something the human race has survived perfectly well without for tens of thousands of years, to unsanitary conditions in a third-world country or some sort of dystopian post-apocalyptic nightmare.
  - pachico 5y ago
    When you are forced to sit in the floor because the train is packed and there is no room to even walk inside, when temperatures are beyond 35'C, air conditioning is not a western commodity (btw, I am not from US) but a necessity.
  - Ansil849 5y ago
    Does it likewise amuse you when Europeans freak out if they are not allowed to smoke or if there is no designated smoking area in the vicinity?
    - pachico 5y ago
      I must say Europe, or at least part of it, got much better about this :)
  - jstarfish 5y ago
    COVID and global warming are both proving how medieval these conditions are.
deanclatworthy 5y ago
All the sentimental comments here around travelling by train make me wonder if Europe is just not good at this. I did the interrail about eight years ago and some of the worst nights sleep were had on the cramped bunk cabins. Arguments over air conditioning (too cold low down, too hot up top), people staying up late when you want to sleep, bad hygiene etc. Even the night trains to the north of Finland which are seen here as some kind of benchmark are noisy with earplugs. They stop multiple times in the night so you wake to the beeping of the doors opening and closing. I think there’s a market for rail travel. I love the idea. But it’s just not comfortable at all, or at least not economical to travel comfortably.
- BelenusMordred 5y ago
  You can pay a fraction more and get your own compartment if communal sleeping takes it toll.
  - deanclatworthy 5y ago
    At least when I was doing the interrail those options were not available with the ticket without paying considerably more. I've taken 2 person cabins here to Lapland (from Helsinki, Finland) and they exhibit the problems in my original comment. And of course, if you're going to go solo in a 2 person cabin then you'll have to cover the cost of the other person.
  - Doctor_Fegg 5y ago
    Indeed, on the British sleeper routes, you no longer have the choice to travel communally - i.e. the railway company won’t ever book you into a cabin with a stranger.
- 88840-8855 5y ago
  China's approach seems to be one of the best: bullet train soft sleeper, capsule-like design, individual windows. https://youtu.be/DAOYz8FcDiQ https://youtu.be/DAOYz8FcDiQ Japan has also nice sleepers, but they are not bullet trains, plus, way way more expensive, and not a mass phenomenon.
jacksonkmarley 5y ago
Nice article. Now I'm inspired to go back and reread Paul Theroux's travel books (mostly by rail except for the one where he walks around the coast of the UK, I think).
xioxox 5y ago
Kazakhstan is an interesting place. The huge open landscapes are completely different to what I've experienced in Europe. There are seemingly endless rail tracks and telegraph poles. I've been to Baikonur to see a proton rocket launch from there, which is not typical Kazakhstan, but a little bit of Russia in the middle of Kazakhstan. Unfortunately the launch was delayed, but I did get to see the rocket itself. I put some photos here (https://photos.app.goo.gl/W8tkAdjkeZsP3Sqh6 https://photos.app.goo.gl/W8tkAdjkeZsP3Sqh6), but this includes some of the Energia control centre and a space museum. I do have some better photos on my camera, but I still need to process them...
- rantingdemon 5y ago
  Great photos! I see there seems to be a stairway to go into the Buran rocket. Can you go inside and have a look?
  - xioxox 5y ago
    Yes, but I think it's a mock-up and not a real Buran. It was mostly empty inside (and dark!). They showed us the hanger which partially collapsed and damaged the Buran inside, as we were being driven along.
  - namibj 5y ago
    While not quite the real deal, the aerodynamic test vehicle OK-GLI is at the Technik Museum Speyer in the same-named German City, open to the public (the nearby (30min; car) museum in Sinzheim has a both the french and soviet supersonic passenger planes (Concorde/Tu-144) in it's exhibit). I can recommend both museums (interests have to match, of course). [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK-GLI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK-GLI
    - NamTaf 5y ago
      Seconding this recommendation. Spend a day each at both Sinsheim and Speyer; I spent about 4 hours at each and I was practically jogging around the place to see things.
jakub_g 5y ago
Semi-related: I've been to Uzbekistan before pandemic with friends. It was very fun. Country is modernizing fast but has some remnants of the old era, which make a fun mix. Very nice people; at the same time, the controls on rail stations are airport-like, with x-raying people and the baggage, triple checking the tickets etc (but it seems mostly pro-forma). What was surprising is that they have very modern high-speed trains, and super new train stations (most of them built just a few years ago). The country is huge but very well connected by train (and air; we first flew to the far west, and then came back east by train and visited a few cities along the road). For one of the trains we bought regular tickets, but the ticket inspector friendly insisted on us to get an upgrade to the "lux" class :) (probably the regular class was busy), which was a good decision; the upgrade was absurdly cheap, and worth it (4-people compartments, very spacious and comfortable) due to the length of travel (several hours). Another fun story: in another train we've been in an "open space" w/o compartments; it had TVs on the room which first played Michael Jackson concert, and the some TV series :)
- yeetaccount 5y ago
  > x-raying people mmWave or X-ray?
- Cthulhu_ 5y ago
  > What was surprising is that they have very modern high-speed trains, and super new train stations (most of them built just a few years ago). Is this from the country being fairly rich and having money to invest, or is this part of China's massive infrastructure project?
  - thealienthing 5y ago
    Several of the Stan’s such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are quite wealthy due to a high amount of natural resources such as oil and coal. Kazakhstan’s main city capital Astana is incredible. It looks like a small Shanghai or Dubai and it’s all largely because of their wealth from oil.
  - jakub_g 5y ago
    The country opened up a few years ago once the long-term president died and was replaced by a more progressive one. There was a moderate amount of western investment since - modernizing rail, telecom infra etc. Also as mentioned by another commenter: Uzbekistan is more wealthy than other countries of the region; it's a major exported of things like gas, cotton, silk.
anticodon 5y ago
Traveled several times across Kazakhstan by rail and my impressions are quite the opposite. You wait to arrive to your destination for days and nothing changes outside the window: just the same scenery with endless sand or steppes with no sign of trees or animals or people. Probably the most boring experience I had in my life. Funny how western media can't resist poking the dead enemy at every occasion: > Adylet: ‘Anyone who still mourns the Soviet Union today is out of his mind!’ Well, if you'd really talk to people, you'd find out that significant percent of population still mourns the Soviet Union and they have all the reasons to.
- maeln 5y ago
  > Well, if you'd really talk to people, you'd find out that significant percent of population still mourns the Soviet Union and they have all the reasons to. It really depends where and who you ask. You probably not going to find any sympathy for the USSR in central Europe. But it is true that in Russia and central Asia, you still find people, those who were mostly kids/teenager during the "golden-age" of the USSR, who fondly remember the USSR. Considering that the USSR got replaced by various dictator in those places, its not that hard to understand.
  - anticodon 5y ago
    You will find people that mourns Soviet Union in all parts of the former USSR and among all age groups. Just like the opposite opinion. But percent of people mourning USSR would be quite big. This has nothing to do with western stereotypes about dreadly life in USSR (mostly invalid propaganda) or various dictators (can you, without checking Wikipedia/Google, name the president of Kazakhstan, and say if it is a authoritarian or "democratic" place?). USSR was destroyed for a number of reasons but none of the reasons had anything to do with the goal to improve life of USSR citizens. One goal was to destroy a global economic competitor. Another goal was to open huge new market to the western corporations (both goals achieved by shutting down and destroying all the USSR industry almost overnight). Third goal was for the crooks to be able to become super-rich and be able to pass the inherited power and money to the offspring. All these goals mean that life of the ordinary person in the former USSR states was to become much worse than before. And it happened as everyone born before 1991 knows out of unpleasant and sad experience. But my comment wasn't about that. It was about that the West is still so afraid of the USSR it still tries to kick the USSR in every article even if it is not really relevant.
arpanetus 5y ago
the weakest apa in central asia vs the strongest male in europe > “You can’t even defend yourself if you don’t eat meat. Kazakhs are born to be warriors; that’s why they eat a lot of meat!” she says and promptly challenges me to an arm-wrestling match, which I accept but quickly admit defeat.
gk1 5y ago
If you liked this I humbly offer my own stories from traveling across Siberia by train, starting with: https://www.gregkogan.com/journal/russia-trans-siberian-railway-st-petersburg/ https://www.gregkogan.com/journal/russia-trans-siberian-rail...
cambaceres 5y ago
One thing I love about travelling by train is that when I reach a new city and leave the train, I am right in the middle of the city, instantly surrounded by locals doing their thing.

210 points by sleepyshift 5y ago

railway system map: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Railway_Map_of_Kazakhstan_(kk).png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Railway_Map_of_Kazak...

hannob 5y ago

I crossed Kazakhstan by rail+bus in 2013, I wrote a few blogposts: https://blog.hboeck.de/plugin/tag/kazakhstan https://blog.hboeck.de/plugin/tag/kazakhstan

vbezhenar 5y ago
Thanks for your blog, it's always fascinating to read about my city. I'd like to comment to "Astana is quite the opposite. Nothing here is old, large parts of Astana were build within the last two decades. Dirt or waste in the streets was almost zero and the traffic seems pretty civilized. Until 1997, Almaty was the capital of Kazakhstan, due to some complicated political compromises, it was moved to Astana and there began the growth of this boom town." Actually Astana was that average town just 20 years ago. And of course there's plenty of old buildings in Astana. And some areas are outright poor. Here's link to street view of one example, you can move around, and that's the same Astana: https://yandex.kz/maps/-/CCUqnJEh0C https://yandex.kz/maps/-/CCUqnJEh0C There's "old city" (or "right coast", contrary to "new city"/"left coast") where ordinary buildings are everywhere. It's not poor, it's just usual. Of course capital status means much more money for everyone, so people generally are more wealthy compared to other cities. There's no point for tourists to go to other city parts, though.
- noduerme 5y ago
  If that street view is the poor part, it looks pretty wealthy based on the cars and houses. Much nicer than a lot of places. It could be somewhere in Argentina. The only giveaway that something is weird is the mess of electrical lines in one place and the absence of them somewhere else.

davidw 5y ago

Reminds me a bit of a friend who took surface transportation from Vietnam all the way to where we lived in Padova, Italy at the time. Busses to China, then the trans-Siberian train, then various trains to Europe and down to Italy.

w1ntermute 5y ago

Reminds me of this great travel blog from 2008: http://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/ http://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/ The writer traveled from Vienna to Pyongyang by train, giving him 36 unsupervised hours in North Korea.

extr 5y ago
Cool link, thanks. Love reading stuff like this, it reminded me a lot of that forum thread of the couple traveling through the DRC.
iso1210 5y ago
> The writer traveled from Vienna to Pyongyang by train, giving him 36 unsupervised hours in North Korea. He hacked the north korea visa entry and used his entry visa in an unexpected way - arriving at a different entry point, which was technically not disallowed, but not set up to handle western travel. The normal Beijing-Pyongyang train is set up for westerners, and the loophole has since been closed. Previous HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=vienna-pyongyang.blog...

dustintrex 5y ago

More train travel: https://driftingclouds.net/2018/07/04/from-siberia-to-tibet-life-on-a-train/ https://driftingclouds.net/2018/07/04/from-siberia-to-tibet-...

lmm 5y ago

I spent a few days on the train in Kazakhstan in 2012 - went Moscow-Shymkent-Almaty-Urumqi (on my way from London to Osaka). It was striking looking out across the steppe and seeing a line of telephone poles, and then a completely empty landscape all the way to the horizon. The baths in Almaty were wonderful too. Edit: the kind of scene I'm talking about: https://www.amazon.co.jp/photos/share/8PiwLfaaWMNCyULYDTAvy1vOSoLFv3iRYRwaJLOGTKH https://www.amazon.co.jp/photos/share/8PiwLfaaWMNCyULYDTAvy1...

ImaCake 5y ago
I’ve seen similar scenes driving in north western australia. The immensity of the flat desert landscape is something else.
soared 5y ago
The descriptions in this thread and your photo are interesting because you don’t need to travel all the way to Kazakhstan/etc like most commenters. In Wyoming/Colorado/Idaho/Montana you can drive for tens of hours and see the exact same thing!
- lmm 5y ago
  Wyoming/Colorado/Idaho/Montana are further away than Kazakhstan, and very difficult to get to without flying.
  - soared 5y ago
    Sorry I meant the internet’s “royal you” - the one that assumes everyone is American.

baybal2 5y ago

My late father used to ride K3, and K4 Beijing-Moscow train very often in early nineties, when Russia had visa free travel with China. That's where he made his first money. The train was called "Bazaar on wheels" back then. Amazingly, kids were usually just waved off at immigration at the time.

zhte415 5y ago

A related YouTuber: https://www.youtube.com/c/baldandbankrupt https://www.youtube.com/c/baldandbankrupt He treks around former soviet countries (mainly) on his own creating commentary travellogs.

ilaksh 5y ago
I'm a subscriber. Really interesting videos. I heard he used to work for MI6. Not sure if that is just a rumor to try to get more subscribers or what. But there are some more Youtubers who seem to travel around to hotspots. I am a little suspicious they work for the CIA or something. Seems like the perfect cover. It may be some of them just get paid not to actually spy but just to verify that westerners can travel and film in those places.
- themodelplumber 5y ago
  That's interesting about bald, it's a neat channel. I used to be one of a group of people who other people thought were spies. I was living abroad at the time. At first this aspect was extremely irritating. Some locals would point at me and say "spy". But the more I thought about it, the more I met people like me who I thought would make terrific spies, and the more I met local friends who I thought I could probably recruit as spies to have local culture on my side. Then I started to casually explore the countryside like a dumb tourist, and I would emerge from a random forest to see locals' gaping mouths, later to learn it was a sensitive area. I started to think--no wonder they think we're spies! Later on I went home and found out that a LOT of people who did what I did were recruited as legitimate spy-types. One of them was a childhood friend who apparently drank some magic government potion and became a CIA officer who went on to be extremely visible in US national politics. It's a fascinating lens on life, superficially at least. Misdirection works for you and against you. You can make just about anything seem true or false. And weirdly while supposedly a hyper-objective effort (go $my_country!) I understand it often has a tremendous personal impact on those who are deeply involved. > But there are some more Youtubers who seem to travel around to hotspots These are the ones I'd recruit for a modern-day BRIXMIS. If you watch the BRIXMIS videos, the officers interviewed had a tremendous psychological overlap with traveling Youtubers who are very curious about things, to the point where _touching_ or _going to those things_ feels like a victory of its own. Digging up poop near an encampment because Soviet soldiers used log pages as toilet paper--they did that.

hardwaregeek 5y ago

There's something so beautifully romantic about trains. Perhaps that's why filmmakers love them. I can't help but think of the characters in Days of Heaven, migrating across the Texas Panhandle for work and a new life. Or the wonderful opening scene of Clouds of Sils Maria, with Kristen Stewart ducking and weaving, the barrier between Juliette Binoche and the frenzied celebrity culture of the outside world. Or the scene in Pather Panchali where the young kids encounter a train for the first time and you understand that they haven't just seen a train, but indeed they've gotten a glimpse at modernity, at a brave new world that they don't understand, but will come to encompass them. Everybody loves their road films but I think trains are the ultimate film vehicle.

chadcmulligan 5y ago
Trains are very comfortable to travel in as well imho. Better than planes, because no airport hassles and the seats are better, and you can move around if the baby next to you is crying; better than buses because a smoother ride; and better than driving yourself because you can relax and read a book.
- paganel 5y ago
  > better than buses because a smoother ride; I'd also add better toilets, or more convenient, at least. Most of the buses do not have them and those that do have them are just too cumbersome (you risk half of the bus hearing you doing your thing while inside in there). And "holding it in" (so to speak) until the next stop is no civilised way to travel, especially after a certain age.
- seszett 5y ago
  > better than buses because a smoother ride It really depends on where you are travelling. In Canada (or at least Quebec) sure, train was more comfortable than bus in my experience, and I'd expect anything to be more comfortable than the absolutely awful experience I had with Greyhound in the US. Commuter trains in Montreal weren't what I'd call comfortable though, but that's probably the same everywhere. In France, bus is less comfortable mostly because it's so much slower, but the ride on the highway is smooth (you can't beat TGV but the other trains often ride partially on older, uncomfortable track). And you can't really move in trains if a baby next to you is crying, as seats are reserved (they are on TGV and IC trains but not on TER though). You can always take the risk to go to an empty one but you will probably have to move again next stop (and maybe find yours occupied in turn). In Vietnam, bus is infinitely more comfortable than rail, on one side you can find cheap enough buses that are very comfortable (both the ride and the on-board amenities) and on the other side the train is definitely not smooth at all. I take the train because I like trains, but there's no question buses are more comfortable (and generally faster as well). Well-maintained, modern trains on good tracks are comfortable, but they're maybe not as common as you might think.

webmobdev 5y ago

As kids, long train journeys was an exciting part of our vacations. India has an extensive railway network connecting all parts of the country, and thus have their own "Railway Tourism" segment. Some of the really famous and popular india super luxury trains include: 1. Maharajas’ Express - https://www.the-maharajas.com/ https://www.the-maharajas.com/ 2. Palace on Wheels - http://rtdc.tourism.rajasthan.gov.in/palaceonwheels http://rtdc.tourism.rajasthan.gov.in/palaceonwheels 3. Deccan Odyssey - https://www.deccanodyssey.com/ https://www.deccanodyssey.com/ 4. Golden Chariot - https://www.goldenchariot.org/ https://www.goldenchariot.org/ 5. Buddhist Circuit - https://www.irctcbuddhisttrain.com/index https://www.irctcbuddhisttrain.com/index

vishnugupta 5y ago

Some of my earliest childhood memories are about traveling in train, in India. For a few hours during a journey, a train compartment becomes home away from home, in almost literal sense. IMO trains are by far the best mode of travel for journeys under 700-800KM.

dym_sh 5y ago

hey, at least it's dry rail

pachico 5y ago

You don't have to go to these remote places to feel the vintage-discomfort of old, smelly and unpunctual trains! Just visit Italy, where even diesel trains and optional time-tables will make your journey through art exceptional! I still remember those 2 (some times 4) daily train trips from Modena to Bologna to get to the university (yes, this is in a developed and rich region of Italy) where you had to sit in the floor, where windows didn't work and there was no air-conditioning...

NackerHughes 5y ago
No air conditioning? The horror!!! It amuses me to no end how Americans seem to equate lack of air conditioning, something the human race has survived perfectly well without for tens of thousands of years, to unsanitary conditions in a third-world country or some sort of dystopian post-apocalyptic nightmare.
- pachico 5y ago
  When you are forced to sit in the floor because the train is packed and there is no room to even walk inside, when temperatures are beyond 35'C, air conditioning is not a western commodity (btw, I am not from US) but a necessity.
- Ansil849 5y ago
  Does it likewise amuse you when Europeans freak out if they are not allowed to smoke or if there is no designated smoking area in the vicinity?
  - pachico 5y ago
    I must say Europe, or at least part of it, got much better about this :)
- jstarfish 5y ago
  COVID and global warming are both proving how medieval these conditions are.

deanclatworthy 5y ago

All the sentimental comments here around travelling by train make me wonder if Europe is just not good at this. I did the interrail about eight years ago and some of the worst nights sleep were had on the cramped bunk cabins. Arguments over air conditioning (too cold low down, too hot up top), people staying up late when you want to sleep, bad hygiene etc. Even the night trains to the north of Finland which are seen here as some kind of benchmark are noisy with earplugs. They stop multiple times in the night so you wake to the beeping of the doors opening and closing. I think there’s a market for rail travel. I love the idea. But it’s just not comfortable at all, or at least not economical to travel comfortably.

BelenusMordred 5y ago
You can pay a fraction more and get your own compartment if communal sleeping takes it toll.
- deanclatworthy 5y ago
  At least when I was doing the interrail those options were not available with the ticket without paying considerably more. I've taken 2 person cabins here to Lapland (from Helsinki, Finland) and they exhibit the problems in my original comment. And of course, if you're going to go solo in a 2 person cabin then you'll have to cover the cost of the other person.
- Doctor_Fegg 5y ago
  Indeed, on the British sleeper routes, you no longer have the choice to travel communally - i.e. the railway company won’t ever book you into a cabin with a stranger.
88840-8855 5y ago
China's approach seems to be one of the best: bullet train soft sleeper, capsule-like design, individual windows. https://youtu.be/DAOYz8FcDiQ https://youtu.be/DAOYz8FcDiQ Japan has also nice sleepers, but they are not bullet trains, plus, way way more expensive, and not a mass phenomenon.

jacksonkmarley 5y ago

Nice article. Now I'm inspired to go back and reread Paul Theroux's travel books (mostly by rail except for the one where he walks around the coast of the UK, I think).

xioxox 5y ago

Kazakhstan is an interesting place. The huge open landscapes are completely different to what I've experienced in Europe. There are seemingly endless rail tracks and telegraph poles. I've been to Baikonur to see a proton rocket launch from there, which is not typical Kazakhstan, but a little bit of Russia in the middle of Kazakhstan. Unfortunately the launch was delayed, but I did get to see the rocket itself. I put some photos here (https://photos.app.goo.gl/W8tkAdjkeZsP3Sqh6 https://photos.app.goo.gl/W8tkAdjkeZsP3Sqh6), but this includes some of the Energia control centre and a space museum. I do have some better photos on my camera, but I still need to process them...

rantingdemon 5y ago
Great photos! I see there seems to be a stairway to go into the Buran rocket. Can you go inside and have a look?
- xioxox 5y ago
  Yes, but I think it's a mock-up and not a real Buran. It was mostly empty inside (and dark!). They showed us the hanger which partially collapsed and damaged the Buran inside, as we were being driven along.
- namibj 5y ago
  While not quite the real deal, the aerodynamic test vehicle OK-GLI is at the Technik Museum Speyer in the same-named German City, open to the public (the nearby (30min; car) museum in Sinzheim has a both the french and soviet supersonic passenger planes (Concorde/Tu-144) in it's exhibit). I can recommend both museums (interests have to match, of course). [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK-GLI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK-GLI
  - NamTaf 5y ago
    Seconding this recommendation. Spend a day each at both Sinsheim and Speyer; I spent about 4 hours at each and I was practically jogging around the place to see things.

jakub_g 5y ago

Semi-related: I've been to Uzbekistan before pandemic with friends. It was very fun. Country is modernizing fast but has some remnants of the old era, which make a fun mix. Very nice people; at the same time, the controls on rail stations are airport-like, with x-raying people and the baggage, triple checking the tickets etc (but it seems mostly pro-forma). What was surprising is that they have very modern high-speed trains, and super new train stations (most of them built just a few years ago). The country is huge but very well connected by train (and air; we first flew to the far west, and then came back east by train and visited a few cities along the road). For one of the trains we bought regular tickets, but the ticket inspector friendly insisted on us to get an upgrade to the "lux" class :) (probably the regular class was busy), which was a good decision; the upgrade was absurdly cheap, and worth it (4-people compartments, very spacious and comfortable) due to the length of travel (several hours). Another fun story: in another train we've been in an "open space" w/o compartments; it had TVs on the room which first played Michael Jackson concert, and the some TV series :)

yeetaccount 5y ago
> x-raying people mmWave or X-ray?
Cthulhu_ 5y ago
> What was surprising is that they have very modern high-speed trains, and super new train stations (most of them built just a few years ago). Is this from the country being fairly rich and having money to invest, or is this part of China's massive infrastructure project?
- thealienthing 5y ago
  Several of the Stan’s such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are quite wealthy due to a high amount of natural resources such as oil and coal. Kazakhstan’s main city capital Astana is incredible. It looks like a small Shanghai or Dubai and it’s all largely because of their wealth from oil.
- jakub_g 5y ago
  The country opened up a few years ago once the long-term president died and was replaced by a more progressive one. There was a moderate amount of western investment since - modernizing rail, telecom infra etc. Also as mentioned by another commenter: Uzbekistan is more wealthy than other countries of the region; it's a major exported of things like gas, cotton, silk.

anticodon 5y ago

Traveled several times across Kazakhstan by rail and my impressions are quite the opposite. You wait to arrive to your destination for days and nothing changes outside the window: just the same scenery with endless sand or steppes with no sign of trees or animals or people. Probably the most boring experience I had in my life. Funny how western media can't resist poking the dead enemy at every occasion: > Adylet: ‘Anyone who still mourns the Soviet Union today is out of his mind!’ Well, if you'd really talk to people, you'd find out that significant percent of population still mourns the Soviet Union and they have all the reasons to.

maeln 5y ago
> Well, if you'd really talk to people, you'd find out that significant percent of population still mourns the Soviet Union and they have all the reasons to. It really depends where and who you ask. You probably not going to find any sympathy for the USSR in central Europe. But it is true that in Russia and central Asia, you still find people, those who were mostly kids/teenager during the "golden-age" of the USSR, who fondly remember the USSR. Considering that the USSR got replaced by various dictator in those places, its not that hard to understand.
- anticodon 5y ago
  You will find people that mourns Soviet Union in all parts of the former USSR and among all age groups. Just like the opposite opinion. But percent of people mourning USSR would be quite big. This has nothing to do with western stereotypes about dreadly life in USSR (mostly invalid propaganda) or various dictators (can you, without checking Wikipedia/Google, name the president of Kazakhstan, and say if it is a authoritarian or "democratic" place?). USSR was destroyed for a number of reasons but none of the reasons had anything to do with the goal to improve life of USSR citizens. One goal was to destroy a global economic competitor. Another goal was to open huge new market to the western corporations (both goals achieved by shutting down and destroying all the USSR industry almost overnight). Third goal was for the crooks to be able to become super-rich and be able to pass the inherited power and money to the offspring. All these goals mean that life of the ordinary person in the former USSR states was to become much worse than before. And it happened as everyone born before 1991 knows out of unpleasant and sad experience. But my comment wasn't about that. It was about that the West is still so afraid of the USSR it still tries to kick the USSR in every article even if it is not really relevant.

arpanetus 5y ago

the weakest apa in central asia vs the strongest male in europe > “You can’t even defend yourself if you don’t eat meat. Kazakhs are born to be warriors; that’s why they eat a lot of meat!” she says and promptly challenges me to an arm-wrestling match, which I accept but quickly admit defeat.

gk1 5y ago

If you liked this I humbly offer my own stories from traveling across Siberia by train, starting with: https://www.gregkogan.com/journal/russia-trans-siberian-railway-st-petersburg/ https://www.gregkogan.com/journal/russia-trans-siberian-rail...

cambaceres 5y ago

One thing I love about travelling by train is that when I reach a new city and leave the train, I am right in the middle of the city, instantly surrounded by locals doing their thing.