19.02.2018
I arrived at the train station in Komsomolsk-na-Amure almost 1 hr early … but being a good German I rather am too early than too late. I went into the station building and passed the security set up. Not that anybody cared about x-ray or the gate beeping like crazy when I passed. Well, I am still in the Wild Far East and who would care taking anything dangerous on the train, the rail line being one of the few life lines they have…
My train was # 363Э and was leaving at 10:58+7 for Tynda – 38 hrs for 1469 km and one timezone to go. It was already set on track 2 but not yet open. However, Komsomolsk-na-Amure is not exactly Berlin Main Station and there was no fly over or track crossing to be seen. I did remember arriving the day before at 10:28+7 on track 1 and that was a daily train. So I precautiously – like everybody else – lugged my suitcase stumbling across the first track through the snow to my coach #4 and waited there. No way was I going to be stranded on the other side and would have to walk all the way around a rather long train! Better wait it out in the cold.
The other train from Vladivostok arrived on time and at the same time our train was opened and I could move into my upper bunk # 20. There came an elderly man to my cabin and straight away started talking to my in Russian and asked if I would drink vodka with him. He said he speaks German. Yeah, he did. “Ich spreche deutsch!” …. and that was it. Fortunately also woman moved in, so they talked with each other. She did not speak English or German either, but between the 3 of us we got a long very well. A police patrol walked past our cabin and questioned the old man. I guess he looked strange or maybe be had already a bit too much vodka before he got on the train. I did not understand much, but the woman just told me Vsjo charascho! All is good and not to worry. They left us women alone anyway.
I settled in my bunk and had some salami and crackers and an Amur beer.
The Samowar by the Provodniza’s office was already hot and so was the train.
I guess they always overheat them, so nobody can say it is too cold.
I slept early and well all night.
20.02.2018
The train was slow and stopped at every little station. In the night a woman came into the 4th bunk. In the morning the old man had already disembarked and the 2 women left around 08:00 am. Then I had the cabin to myself until the afternoon.
The Baikal–Amur-Mainline (BAM) – Байкало-Амурская магистраль (БАМ), Baikalo-Amurskaya magistral’ – is traversing Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East. It is 4,324 km long and runs about 610 to 770 km north of and parallel to the Trans-Siberian railway. The BAM was built as a strategic alternative route to the Trans-Siberian Railway, especially along the vulnerable sections close to the border with China.
Construction began in the 1930s to access timber and minerals in the Lena Basin, but work was stopped by WW II. It effectively resumed again in 1974. It was built with special, durable tracks since much of it was built over permafrost. Due to the severe terrain, weather, length and cost Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev described BAM as “the construction project of the century”. The route was cut trough nameless landscapes and virgin taiga and blasted through anonymous mountains. It was built by patriotic volunteers and was therefore called “The Hero Project of the Century”. New BAM towns grew with the railway, often populated by builders who decided to stay on. However, the final opening of the BAM coincided with the collapse of the centrally planned USSR in 1991 and the regions bright Soviet future never materialized. Today only a handful of passenger trains use the line. (OK OK, I copied that part from LP!)
The train stopped on every little station. Some were only marked by small container-like buildings and a sign.
But there was always somebody getting on or off. Mostly it seemed to be rail line workers who would check the tracks or such. And there were always some bags with apparently mail or newspapers loaded off as well. There were also some bigger stations which had a fancier station building. None of those were alike, all were different from each other.
It was cold outside in the morning, -27°C, but sunshine and blue sky and lots of snow! Taiga, taiga, taiga! Trees, trees, trees! Not much else. I have reached Siberia!
When the train stopped every now and then for 15 – 20 min, I went out to get some fresh air. In those stations there was always a truck coming alongside the train stopping at every coach and the men would load coal by buckets. The coaches were all heated separately by coal! Imagine that!
The train had only 5 coaches, though. Also, the toilets were still the old style I remember from my childhood. You step on the foot paddle and the hole opens and you can see the train track below. In that freezing cold there were also a lot of icicles down there, too. Before those bigger stations the toilets were also locked. Not allowed to poop while in the station! And here I thought we were living in the 21st century!
In Fevralsk there was a pretty blue and white church near the station, unfortunately still too far to walk closer. Not in my live was I going to miss that train in the middle of nowhere in winter at -17°C!
In the afternoon my cabin got occupied again. A group of younger men, apparently travelling home from work, moved in. Their friends were in the next cabin over, but all decided to hang out in my cabin. Well, 6 men drinking vodka and eating dried fish and speck (bacon) – very cliché, I know, but that is what Russians do! They had sausages, cucumbers, the works – everything that belongs to a proper Russian picnic – and bottles of vodka, of course! They closed the cabin door, so the Providniza would not interfere. They did ask me, if I want to come down from my bunk and join them. But gosh, there was no space down there and I am not that crazy. I mean, I am crazy, but joining 6 guys who I do not know or understand properly drinking ridiculous amounts of vodkas …. No, I am not that crazy! But with them being in there it got really hot and smelly in the cabin with a closed door. And they turned the train’s radio on full power – I do think there was only an on or off, but no volume thing – and the speaker was right next to my head. I could not even concentrate on reading anymore. Do not get me wrong, they were very friendly and polite to me and at no point did I feel threatened, it was just a bit too much. So I went to sit outside in the corridor for a while, because it was cooler and there was a socket to plug in the mobile phone to charge. I got another of my noodle soups out and of course I had my own supply of vodka and berry juice – dutifully disguised in a water bottle, of course. When they all piled out at yet another station to have a quick smoke outside, I went back up my bunk and turned the honestly wonderful – but way to loud – Russian music off. They did not let up partying any time soon, though, the feast went on. When I wanted to go out in the corridor again to cool off because it was like a fishy smelling sauna in there, they got the hint. One of them actually spoke like 3 words of English and they opened the cabin window – Njet problema! Russian clima condition! Vyj govorite and ja open! – Yes, I tell you when it is to hot and you will open the window! Spasibo! I am pretty sure, opening the window in winter is not allowed, some of them are even siliconed shut. But well, fine with me!
Finally all of them had enough vodka and the crowed thinned out, they went to sleep as well, somebody even turned the cabin light off and closed the door. By that time I slept already.
21.02.2018
Very early in the morning there was already a lot of movement. At 06:47 local time the train arrived at its final destination in Tynda. Before that everybody had to clean up their act, bring the bed sheets to the Provodniza and put all those layers of clothes back on. The weather app said -29°C in Tynda! The guys helped me get my suitcase down from the space over my bed and even out of the train. Then I waved them Do svidanja! Vsjo charasho! – I am fine, thank you!
I needed to get my bearings and dig out more gloves. The station building is huge and even though it was rather early it was very busy. There are not many trains passing by here, but Tynda is a train hub on the BAM. Trains end and start here in both directions and there are tracks up north on the in-progress Amuro-Yakutskaya Magistral and south connecting with the TransSib in Bamovskaya.
It was very early and once outside the building I did not see taxis and really could not be bothered this early in the morning, so I decided to walk the 1.5 km to the one and only Gostiniza (Hotel) Yunost. Monkeyshrine did not have connections here and there was nothing on booking.com. Somewhere online I found however a Russian site bronevik.com where this Hotel Yunost was bookable and even in English. Funnily enough they confirmed my booking, stated advanced payment is necessary, but never asked for money or send a link or wanted credit card details. But then yesterday I received an e-mail from that booking site that my reservation was cancelled because no payment had been made. Oh well, I guess I would just play stupid….
Tynda is informally referred to as the capital of the BAM and has roughly 30 000 inhabitants. Originally a first settlement was founded here in 1917 on the route to newly discovered gold fields. In the 1930 the settlement came into view as a possible hub station in the BAM. In the 1970 Tynda was then placed under the patronage of the Komsomol brigades from Moscow, which gave it its symbolic status as capital of the BAM.
The lay of the town is straight forward in parallel streets along the Tynda River. There is a footbridge across the river from the station which is about 1 km long and connects to the main road Krasnaja Presnja. There I had to turn to the right for 500 m. It took me some 3o min in the still dark morning to wheel my suitcase over the packed snow up the small slop and to the hotel. But at least I was warm from the exercise!
I found the Hotel Yunost easy enough, but it did not look like a hotel, it just had a tiny sign next to the entrance which I almost missed.
I went in and at the Information window asked – Eto Gostiniza? – Da da! – Ja ja! OK! I pulled out my reservation which was in English and caused some commotion between the 2 women in the cubicle. I gathered that they could not figure out the payment, as the reservation had also no price on. So I said in Russian, that I had not paid yet! Aaahh! Charasho! The room is RUB 2000, no breakfast, RUB 250 for passport and visa copies, pay now in cash! No problem. I got charged for 24 h, so had to check out the next morning 08:00 am, single room, bathroom on the corridor. Fine! I was happy to have a place to stay at all. I was prepared for everything having read – against my usual habit – the very few reviews on tripadvisor. But I was pleasantly surprised. The elevator was not that trustworthy, but the 3rd floor in the old Soviet style block building was newly renovated. My room had a very narrow entrance – suitcase and me had to go in sideways – but then opened up to a spacious enough single room with a sink in a separate corner, flat screen TV, mini frigo, big window and central heating. It was perfectly clean and the bathroom right across the corridor was spotless as well. I rested for a while, because I had already learnt that in this cold nobody went out before 10:00 anyway.
There was no city map or tourist information here, but google maps was helpful enough. Around 09:30 I went off to explore.
The town is like a blast from the past! Soviet style buildings from the 1970s and 80s and lots of old Lada cars and UAZ-452 mini vans here!
The main point of interest is the BAM Museum which opened at 10:00. I had time to see the dramatic sledgehammer-wielding BAM worker statue near the Hotel first. It is a huge silver statue and looks to me more like Superman. But then again, everybody who worked here in those conditions probably had to be Superman!
The BAM Museum was at the other end of the main street and in a small building surrounded by residential blocks. On the way there I passed by another monument – the town has many monuments! There was a small one for all locals who died in locals wars or maybe in wars as such.
That small monument was in the middle of a residential area as well. It was very well taken care of and kept and stood out in contrast to the old residential block behind it, which had clearly seen better days. The state of the old buildings is probably proof that the BAM never received the status it was supposed to get before the USSR collapsed.
After I found the house with a tiny sign for the BAM Museum and dared to walk in a non-described door and then another one, I met a lady on a desk who was surprised but happy to see a tourist interested in the museum. She even spoke good English. The ticket for the museum was RUB 150 plus RUB 100 for the photo permit. They had a cloakroom to leave jacket and backpack. Then I was pointed to walk along a long corridor all the way to the end. It seemed there was some sort of town administration maybe also in this building. Anyway, at the end a friendly babushka who spoke only Russian welcomed me and turned the lights on in the different rooms as I went. She was so happy to have a visitor that she explained some things in Russian. I only really got a third of it, but she was so happy about my few words and telling her were I came from and that I was there at all, I pretended I understood perfectly. There were several rooms about the first settlement, the native Evenki culture and the BAM itself from the very beginning until now.
Everything was in Russian only, but plenty photos and charts and since I was somewhat familiar with the history and can read Russian I got most of it. While I was in the second room, the lady from the front desk brought 2 more tourists along, a French couple who I had already seen in Komsomolsk-na-Amure passing by in the hotel. They spoke absolutely no word of Russian and of course could not read anything. Tough for them! The babushka did not care, but talked to them nevertheless. I chatted a bit with the couple – in English, because with Russian in my head the French did not really want to surface! They were young and were joining an over the ice/over land tour from Severobaikalsk to Ulan Ude in a few days.
When I finished with all the rooms – and I took plenty time not only because it was warm here, but especially because it was very interesting – the babushka send me off along the long corridor to the front again. There were some exhibits in the corridor as well and many photos and posters about the BAM on the walls. I lingered there and found one of Dean Reed – an American singer and actor who lived in East Germany and was very famous there – playing a concert for the BAM workers in 1979.
For me being from East Germany that was another blast from the past. While I studied that particular poster a man started talking to me and pointed to yet another room for more exhibits. There was the lady who spoke English again and she was very proud telling me that it was their boss I just talked to and who showed me in here. Those new exhibits were about the minerals of the region and flora and fauna. All in all, that museum is very well set up and cared for. She also apologized that there are 2 more rooms still being set up with more exhibitions and still closed. She said I should come back next year when it will be all finished!
From the museum I walked around a bit. I found the town’s Lenin Statue in another residential area. It is small and somehow looks like it has been moved here out of the way at some point, because usually Lenin statues are rather central or on bigger squares. Not this one, though. Nevertheless I found it and got my photo with Lenin holding the rising sun in his hand!
I also visited the very nice, prominent church in the center and then walked down to the train station to take a photo of the old steam engine in front of it and the very special station building.
Pretty much every major trains stations along the BAM and the TransSib has an old steam train to show off as a monument. The station building from Tynda is the proud of the people because it is unique. In the museum I learnt that every one of those building along the BAM is one of a kind because all the Soviet republics which were involved in the construction had one station building along the line specially designed.
I was too lazy to walk all the way back to the center and there was one of the public busses just in front of the train station and it had the name of the main road written on its sign. That is the good thing with the small town busses, they have a sign with all stops in the windows. So I motioned to the driver if he is going up there and he motioned back get in. RUB 26 I had to pay straight to the driver and it was a short ride up to the church again.
There in the center are some shopping arcades as well. The thing is, they are not so recognizable. Because here with the weather as it is a good part of the year, there are no huge windows in the shops. You cannot recognize shops from outside, but only by reading the big signs. The entrance doors are usually very heavy metal doors which get you into a cold sluice and then into the very well heated shopping area. I found a sign for a Café and eventually found the place as well. It was time for some food and I had a very good Soljanka – another blast from the past since it tasted exactly like way back when at home – some pickled salad and a Sibirskaya Corona Lime, which is a shandy. The guy at the self service counter was very excited to have a German tourist this time of the year in his Café!
While I had lunch I contemplated what to do next and read in the guide book there is a Magistral Monument near the train station. I had missed it and needed to see it! Now I knew how the public busses work here and off I went for RUB 26 to the train station again. I found the monument quickly and took a photo and was back on the same bus for another RUB 26 back to the center shortly after.
By now it was early afternoon and I had seen every monument in town and done everything there could be done in this cold. Mind you, the sun was out all day and the sky was blue. But it was still -25°C!
I eventually found a supermarket to buy juice, noodle soups, smoked cheese and dried fruit for the train ride. They also had Sovietskoje Champanskoje! Another blast from the past! It is a brand, though, but nevermind, I had to have a bottle because it fits into the blast from the past thing I had going all day! It is very cheap anyway.
I went back to the hotel to wash some of my stinky clothes and drape it over the central heater to dry. I put the Champanskoje outside on the window sill for a few minutes to get cold, because the mini frigo was not plugged in.
I watched some TV, too. No foreign channels here, though. Most of the foreign movies are not really dubbed but only have a voice over in Russian. It is very irritating, though, because you cannot really follow the original either. So I only watched Nat Geo.
Around 17:30 I put all my clothes on again and went for a walk in search of some dinner. I found a couple self service joints but none of them had any guests. Again I was very early for dinner. However most of them would close at 19:00.
I could not be bothered with any of them and ended up in the Café on the ground floor of the hotel. The man there was not very friendly at first, which is a very Russian thing to do anyway. But when he realized I could order in broken Russian he got a little friendlier. I was not really hungry and had Borschtsch – because, as I mentioned before, you can never go wrong with ordering Borschtsch! And it indeed was very good and very cheap.
I had a very good sleep that night after a well needed hot shower and finishing my bottle of Sovjetscoje Champanskoje!
22.02.2018
In the morning I got up early and checked out at 08:00. I went to the Café downstairs and the man actually smiled at seeing me again. I took the breakfast variation #1 which was omelet with vegetable and sausage, sirniki (thick cottage cheese pancakes) and coffee.
At the next table there were 2 ladies from Switzerland with their guide and we got talking. They had arrived on the night train this morning, were going to visit the museum and would then take the same train as me. Well, I guess, the next train ride will be interesting, too!
I had however the morning still free and asked the man from the Café, if I could leave my luggage here for an hour. Of course, he said, no problem. I went for another walk around to see the BAM worker Superman statue again and I found the I ❤ Tynda sign as well.
I even found a kiosk where they had some souvenir fridge magnets to sell!
I then asked the hotel information desk to call me a taxi which was there within 5 mins. The driver was fascinated to drive a tourist foreigner and dug out his 2 words of German along with his 5 words of English. I was fascinated as well when he all of a sudden turned off the main road into a small track through the woods so not in the direction of the bridge over the Tynda River. He looked at me and laughed – Russian taxi driver! No bridge! Relax! And there I went for the first time driving on an ice road over the frozen Tynda river! Exciting!
He laughed again. Shortcut to the train station, he said. There are only 5 taxis working this time of the year, he said. I am best taxi driver in Tynda, he said! Well, I believed him, because I was happy driving over the ice! It was not just across, the road rather led for about a kilometer along the river until it went up the other bank near the train station. And all that excitement cost me just RUB 100 for the taxi ride!
