Journeys – Wandering Henry

Epic Journey – The taxi

7th Nov 2019 HenryLeave a comment

Note: events from 16th September

After resting a day and a night in Aktau, the plan was to get to a place called Nukus across the border in Uzbekistan a mere 1000km away. We were all planning to link up with the Silk Road and the first proper bit of civilisation in Uzbekistan was Nukus. We had planned to take a sleeper train from Aktau all the way to Nukus which would take around 26 hours. We did some research however and worked out that it was actually cheaper for the four of us to take a taxi the whole way! It seemed insane. A helpful man who worked at the hotel and who spoke a little English got a quote for us and it came back as $50 to go the all the way to Nukus! It did seem to good to be true but he insisted it was all legit. I had read how cheap the petrol was in this part of the world.

We rose early the next morning and waited for the taxi, but alas it never arrived. And worse still, our man in the hotel who spoke English was nowhere to be seen. We wanted to get going as it was a heck of a long journey ahead and so I volunteered to go and speak with the fierce looking old lady behind the front desk. She spoke not a lick of English but quickly produced her mobile phone with google translate on it and began speaking into it.

Central Asia was really the first place where I discovered how good google translate is. Whilst it can be a rough instrument you can almost always make yourself understood with a little perseverance. Plus some of the translations can be hilarious. You can type in the text or if there’s an internet connection you can speak straight into your phone and it directly translates it.

After the lady produced her phone what ensued was an epic 30 minute back and forth trying to explain and resolve the taxi situation. I was trying to make her understand that we had booked one and that it had not shown up. Sometimes you have to try several different ways of saying something before it’s understood. When she spoke into her phone she would turn away and speak into it as if it was a person. Her tone was harsh and aggressive and she would wag her finger at the screen when talking. I had to work hard not to laugh.

Eventually after much back and forth I thought we may have arranged another taxi. At that point the man from before arrived, much to our relief and before long we had another taxi on the way. It cost more and would only take us up to the border but was still very cheap. We didn’t know it at the time but this turned out to be a blessing.

Our ride for the 5 hour drive to the border

Off we went. Our driver drove like an a absolute maniac. Careering along at hair raising speeds, he would tail get lorries in their blind spot just a couple of inches from their bumper and then swing out to overtake regardless of whether there were oncoming vehicles. I think it’s fair to say we were all pretty terrified. As Nick put it ‘my arse hole was twitching like a rabbits nose’ (I may have paraphrased that slightly).

After a while, thankfully there was no traffic for us to weave in and out of and we just hit endless empty road. The surroundings were incredible. I’d not seen landscapes like this before. The scale of it was most impressive. Just never ending desert and the occasional herd of camels or horses. And that was it for the five hour drive to the border.

We were treated to some local music, which didn’t get at all tiresome

The journey was fairly hard going as the seat quickly became uncomfortable and I slowly lost the feeling in my left side. There was a brief moment of excitement when we passed a dead camel on the side of the road that had been beheaded, we assumed in a collision. But later came genuine elation as we saw something on the horizon that we had all been hoping we for. A lone cyclist. We got the taxi driver to pullover a little way ahead at the top of a hill. It was Niklas, who we’d met on the boat a few days earlier. We waited for him to approach and gave him some cheers as he reached the top of the hill. He looked abolsutey scorched from the sun using only a t-shirt wrapped around his head for protection.

After a fairly brief encounter and having loaded him up with biscuits and chocolate we said our farewells and off we went. He was on the same route as us and still had thousands of kilometres to go through Central Asia. Absolutely in awe of this guy!

It’s a strange thing, having driven for hours through absolute nothingness to suddenly come upon the border crossing out of nowhere. We’d made it though. There was still a big unknown in that we had no idea whether we’d be able to get transport the other side! It was hundreds of kilometres in either direction to the nearest civilisation so we’d be in a bit of a pickle if there wasn’t. I felt confident however, even if others in the group were less so.

This is the sight we were greeted with at the border. The vehicles wait many hours or even days to cross. Good thing we hadn’t arranged a taxi to go across!

Excited to do our first border crossing on foot

We walked past all the vehicles up to the check point where a Kazakh soldier ushered us through. It could not have been easier and despite carrying heavy weaponry all the border guards on both sides were very friendly which was a surprise. After leaving Kazakhstan, the Uzbek border guards treated us like VIP’s and even led us to the front of the queue of locals, much to their dismay and our discomfort. It could not have been easier.

Whilst we were in the no man’s land, I saw figure out of the corner of my eye shifting around by a hanger. I immediately recognise them. It was Matt who we had left at the ferry port. He was still wearing the same clothes and looked rather disheveled. They had waited 6 hours at the port in the end for their ride and then driven through the night to the border. They had been waiting at the border since 4am (it was early afternoon at this point) and by all accounts would be waiting a while longer. I’d never been happier about a decision. We’d been to Aktau, explored, ate well, refreshed and had a good night’s sleep in the same time. I’d love to say I didn’t feel a little smug, but I did. I felt bad for him and Anvita though. They were seeking an ‘authentic experience’ and they certainly got one! We wished them well and off we went.

Photographs are strictly forbidden at the border checkpoint but I couldn’t resist sneaking a couple of snaps. I like how it said ‘good luck’ as you enter Uzbekistan. Turns out we’d need it.

Another sneaky photo of Nick, Bryony and Josep about step foot into Uzbekistan

On the other side of the border it was chaos. Luckily, it seemed getting a car wasn’t going to be a problem but we were mobbed by people all trying to negotiate a taxi ride or change money. It was a little overwhelming. We walked off for a bit before taking a deep breath and heading back into the mele to barter for a ride. This was hard work as they were asking for a lot more than we were willing to pay. We initially agreed a price but then saw the state of the car and thought better of it. After much drama we negotiated a driver to take us the 400-500km to Nukus for $50 and off we went.

This guy wanted a photo with me so I reciprocated

The next leg on this journey was tough, really tough. The road, well you could hardly even call it a road. It was just a series of interconnecting pot holes, some of which were the size of bath tubs. It was painfully slow and we had to weave in and out of these all the while being smashed around. Often the best bit of road was actually off the road entirely in the ditch beside it. This went on for hours. How the driver kept his concentration I’ve no idea.

Some idea of the conditions

We were driving though Karakalpakstan, one the most desolate places on the planet. It was just empty, flat, shrubby desert for as far as the eye can see. Impressive at first but it soon got tiring. My mind started playing tricks on me as distant camels on the horizon looked like cars whizzing along a road amidst a mirage. It was bizarre.

We did see some small desert rodents by the road sides, the occasional eagle and I even saw a desert fox trotting along.

Endless desert

Because of the abominable road the journey took far longer than anticipated. We kept on going, the sun eventually disappeared over the horizon and it was nightfall by the time we started to get close to civilisation.

By our estimations we were about 45 minutes from Nukus when we pulled over into a lay-by in the highway. The driver gestured for us to get out. We were all a little confused and as we got out we were quickly surrounded by men and another car had pulled up. When the taxi driver switched the engine off, and in the absence of headlights we were plunged into darkness, I confess I was quite worried.

A man approached and produced his mobile phone and google translate. He started speaking into but it was a while before anything sensical came out. It was along the lines of you need to pay the money now. We were still a long way from our destination so that wasn’t an option. It then appeared they wanted us to get in another car but kept saying we must pay all the money now. This situation seemed pretty dodgy. I was the one doing the google translating with the guy and couple of quite sinister translations came through. One which said ‘you must stand there with the bodies!’ Another however said we must ‘bring the mascot out onto the pitch’. I made a conscious decision to remain calm and preserver. I suggested we pay half the money now and the rest on arrival but they wouldn’t accept that. I didn’t want to outright say that they were trying to screw us over, in part because we were surrounded by a crowd of men and also if things went wrong we could be stranded on a roadside in the middle of nowhere, in the dark.

I eventually chose to say that this arrangement was ‘unusual’ for us and that was the turning point in the conversation. Immediately the whole tone and body language of the men changed and he translated back ‘please don’t worry, we mean no harm’. A bit more back and forth and finally I cracked it! Our driver who’d been going for about five hours at this point was near his home, was tired and he wanted to transfer the taxi to a friend. We had to pay him the whole fare and then he’d arranged for this other guy to take us the remaining distance. There were sighs of relief all round as we paid up, got in the new taxi and were driven to our hostel in Nukus. Definite case of lost in translation!! Twelve hour and two taxis over about 1000km had cost us $100 so $25 each! And one hell of an adventure.

And that was the end of this epic journey. Having left Tbilisi I’d travelled 2000km almost non-stop over 4 days by train, boat and car.

Epic Journey – The Boat

31st Oct 201931st Oct 2019 HenryLeave a comment

Note: I’m writing this whilst in China although the events are from 14/15th September.

Following the customs and immigration checks we made it onto the boat. It was a struggle to haul myself up the steep metal stairs to the floor where the cabins were. I pretty much dumped my stuff, made my bed with a little help from the others and lay down to go to sleep feeling totally out of it.

To explain, the boat we were taking was a cargo ferry which carried mostly Azerbaijani, Turkish, and Kazakh lorry drivers and their cargoes across the Caspian. It was an old ship and pretty rough and ready. Above the hold were the cabins for passengers, mostly truckers, the galley/mess room where food was served and a small area with a few seats and a television. Up on deck was simply some space and all the workings you would associate with a working ship. You were free to wander around the ship. You could check out the engine room or go up to the bridge. A big regret is that I was too unwell to do any of that.

The cabin which I shared with Nick, Briony and Nicholas (the cyclist) had no window and was cramped. During the night this led to the room turning into what can only be described as a hell hole (for me anyhow). It was unbearably hot and coupled with a fever I really suffered. I tossed and turned, delirious. I had to escape the cabin to be sick several times in the night. The first time I left I was puzzled as to why they were blasting music out of the ship’s speakers. I got back into bed and was further surprised to hear it in the cabin as well. What further torture could I endure! It wasn’t long however before I realised I’d accidentally started playing music from my phone and that was the source! I wasn’t quite with it. I’d managed to wake everyone up with it in the night.

Not being able to bear the conditions in the cabin anymore and feeling in a bad way I relocated to the seating area by the tv and tried to get some sleep there. I lay out on the seats but was then told off by some truck drivers for having my feet on them. After some pondering I repositioned myself with my feet resting just over the edge of the seats instead. No further complaints.

It was the early hours of the morning and the engines were definitely going but there was no way to tell whether we’d left the port or not. I couldn’t make it out on deck. I’d heard it takes many hours to load all the lorries. Besides the fever I had an underlying anxiety about getting sea sick as well, which I often do. That really would have added insult to injury. Whilst spread out on the seats a few Kazakh truck drivers had gestured to ask what I was doing and I did my best to signal that I was unwell. Despite their rough appearance they seemed very nice about it.

Around 6am or so and after a couple of hours of broken sleep I returned to the cabin until the others started to stir. My fellow travellers were extremely kind to me and really looked after me throughout the journey. We eventually ventured up onto the deck. We were definitely on our way and out at sea, and it was a beautiful day. The sea was flat as a pancake fortunately. The others sat and chatted on the deck whilst I lay and snoozed in the sunshine.

During the day I spent quite a bit of time sleeping back in the cabin. I managed to venture out for meals though in the mess room. The food was very simple but actually surprisingly good, all freshly cooked. I didn’t manage to eat much apart from a little bread and a few slurps of soup but it all helped. It was quite an operation in the large kitchen preparing meals for all the truckers, and although we never quite figured out the system there appeared to be two sittings. A couple of times we arrived at the advertised time only to find the door chained shut with everyone inside. There was a nice young chap however, who ushered us in through the kitchen whilst the remaining regular passengers had to wait for the next serving.

My fellow travellers spent the day exploring the ship, playing card games and Rumikub up on deck and trying to get a bit of exercise by pacing about. I missed quite a bit of this but by the end of the afternoon I was feeling significantly better and was able to join everyone up on the deck for a chat, even if I couldn’t manage the games. I’d also encountered the Kazakh drivers from the night before who gestured to see how I was feeling now which was really sweet.

Nick and Anvita trying to meet their step targets

By sunset I felt much more human and we all congregated on the deck to watch the sun go down. At that point I decided to go below deck to fetch my camera and returned to find out that the others had seen a few Caspian seals over this side! Gutted. Apparently these are very rare.

The sun set and everyone was in high spirits. We had some fun and games making some sunset videos with our silhouettes. Nick produced a portable speaker, put some classic tunes on and then Rob appeared with a large tea pot of hot water and a load of glasses he’d commandeered from the kitchens and we made some luke warm coffees, the closest we could get to cold beer. We stayed up a while chatting and sharing stories before turning in for the night. Definitely one of those moments I will never forget.

As the evening drew to a close and we still didn’t know exactly where we were or when exactly we’d arrive in Kazakhstan. Our best guess was that it would be sometime in the morning. Following the horrendous conditions of the previous night we decided to sleep with the door to the cabin open.

We were all rudely awoken at 2am with loud banging on the door and shouting. This we assumed meant we were coming in to port. The lady making all the noise had been dubbed ‘Helga’ by my fellow travellers. I’d not encountered her the previous evening as I was festering in my bunk but she was a ferocious Kazakh lady who had yelled at some of the others over the cabin arrangements. In charge of the accommodation and food, she ruled with an iron fist and was not to be messed with. Rob had had quite a running with her the night before. Within a few minutes she was back yelling and banging on the door again and so we came to and started to pack and gather our belongings.

Matt and Anvita, the British couple appeared to tell us that they’d met some men who were driving a convoy of cars into Uzbekistan which was in fact everyone’s next destination. For around $80 they would take us all the way there. It seemed like a good deal, and following some brief discussions myself, Josep, Nick and Briony decided to get in on it. Nicholas and Rob were on bicycle and moped respectively and the less than sociable German/Austrian couple were not consulted. Still recovering from my illness all I really wanted was a bed in a hotel in which to convalesce but I decided to stick with the group.

We arrived in port and it was unclear how we got off the ship. They had taken our passports when we boarded and so the first job was to retrieve them from the cargo decks which we eventually did. We then found out that we had to venture back to the upper decks to the crew’s quarters where a temporary customs office had been set up. After a short wait, brief interviews and mug shots taken we were able to disembark. It was a joy to be back on land and feeling better.

We were ferried into a minivan to negotiate further border checks on land and then we were out the other side in a small car park, in the darkness, in Kazakhstan!

Speaking with Matt and and Anvita it seemed we would need to wait for our ride. It was 4am and there was a solitary, obese Kazakh taxi driver eager to take us to the next town. The nearest civilisation was a place called Aktau which was about an hour away. We were torn between waiting for the ride all the way into Uzbekistan or heading to Aktau for some R&R. We’d heard that it can take up to 6 hours for cars and ferries to get off the ferry and go through customs but we really didn’t know. After initially holding back I voiced my view much to the relief of the others as were all thinking the same thing. A night’s sleep in a hotel was far preferable to many more hours driving in the back of car with an unknown wait before we could even get going and then who know how long after that to the final destination. Matt and Anvita were determined to stick it out and were clearly chasing a different sort of adventure and so we left them to it.

We said out farewells, especially to Rob and Nicholas who had one hell of adventure ahead of them. I was much in awe of what they were doing and extremely envious.

With a hilarious back and forth using google translate we negotiated a fare to Aktau with the taxi driver and off we set. The excitement in the car was palpable, and there were quite a few comments along the lines of ‘by Jove, we’re in bloody Kazakhstan!’ None of us had been anywhere quite like this. As we set off the sun suddenly appeared on the horizon and all we could see in any direction was endless desert. The scenery was epic….and then camels! Camels everywhere. On the sides of the road but often just sitting or standing in the middle of it. We sped along towards Aktau with the taxi driver blasting his techno music out of the speakers. Another unforgettable moment on the trip for me.

Taxi Selfie – all very excited. (Eyes on the road please driver)

Initial views as we set off

Camels!

More camels!

Epic Journey – The port

4th Oct 20193rd Oct 2019 HenryLeave a comment

I’m now several weeks behind present day but will endeavour to catch up. This is mostly because I’ve been busy travelling and I teamed up with other travellers which has meant less time on my own.

I left Tbilisi by night train heading for Baku in Azerbaijan. I was hoping for a few days in there but little did I know I’d be embarking on what seemed liked a never-ending journey towards the heart of Central Asia.

I had planned to meet up with Nick and Briony in Baku so that we could take the boat across the Caspian Sea together. Things didn’t go so well for me though. On the train to Baku I started to feel unwell. Overnight I got a fever. Everything ached and I was tossing and turning all night long, slightly delirious. Waking up in the morning I felt slightly better but not much.

The first class sleeper cabin. I had to share e

I faced a dilemma. Stick to the plan or sack it off and check into a nice hotel to recover for a few days. The plan was to take a ferry across the Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan. There is very little information about the boat however, and no set timetable. The only thing you could do was to get someone to phone every day to see if a ship was coming in, and if it was you’d make a dash for the port. The other alternative was to just head for the port and wait. The boats arrived around every 4-5 days.

Nick and Briony had been in Baku for a couple of days already, phoning every morning through their hotel. I wouldn’t know until I arrived in the morning and could get WiFi what the score was. The way I was feeling, if the boat was leaving that day I would have to abandon ship so to speak.

As the train was arriving in Baku the next morning I met an English guy on the train who was with his wife and also planning to to take the boat. He believed that it was going that same day. They were keen to share a taxi to the port straight away but I decided to head for my hostel and touch base with Nick and Briony. Once I’d made contact I found out the boat was indeed leaving. Despite feeling awful I decided to push on and go for the crossing. I had just enough time to check into my hostel, take a shower, carry out my essential ablutions and then check out again! We then hopped into a taxi for the hour long journey to the port of Alat.

We arrived at the port and were deposited by the entrance and some barriers. We found some guards who checked our passports and then gave us some vague directions to the ticket office. The place was huge and seemed to be just a giant car park for trucks waiting to make the crossing.

After quite a bit of hunting around we bumped into Matt and Anvita, the couple I’d met on the train and they directed us to the ticket office.

We ventured in to find two guys in the their slightly primitive office. They weren’t exactly enamoured with us for some reason but we managed to communicate that we needed tickets. We were after the 2 berth cabins but they didn’t seem interested in offering us a choice and we were given tickets for a 4 berth cabin. It was a strange system. We were issued a slip of paper which we then took around the corner to the ‘bank’, another shipping container, where we paid for the ticket and then returned to be issued with the actual ticket. During this process one of the guys seemed to get irritated with us for talking to each other and sent us outside like naughty children until he was ready to hand over the final ticket. But eventually we had them!

At this point we met Rob, a Dutch fireman who was riding his Honda moped from the Netherlands to Australia to meet his family. An amazing guy. He’d been waiting at the port for three days already so we felt quite lucky to be arriving on the day of departure. We weren’t given any information about when the boat would leave but he was under the impression it would leave at 9pm. It was at that point 11am so we were in for a long wait!

We found a tiny little restaurant where we were able to get a simple meal. I was still feeling dreadful but decided I needed to eat.

Carbohydrates three ways, with a tempura chicken sausage stuffed with mystery cheese substitute

The waiting game started. I was not feeling well. Everything was aching and my stomach was not in good shape. I had to make a visit to what can only be described as the worst toilet in the world (although I would later discover there are worse). It was logistically and emotionally testing but I made it through, just.

We basically camped by the ticket office as there really wasn’t anywhere else to wait, and gradually a motley crew of travellers started to gather. Besides ourselves, Rob, Matt and Anvita we now had Nicholas, a young German chap who had cycled all the way from Germany and was heading to Shanghai, Josep, a Canadian on a round the world trip and a German/Austrian couple who didn’t have much to say.

It was a shame because it was becoming quite the social gathering but I just couldn’t offer anything. I pretty much just lay down by my bag. Despite it being hot, I was freezing. I had to put on my down jacket. I still had a fever. I think I’d felt better in the morning following the adrenaline rush of the dash to the port but I was starting to feel worse and worse. The hours rolled by and everyone was getting to know each other and a few games were on the go. All I could do was take out my inflatable sleeping mat and lay down. I didn’t want to make a fuss about feeling unwell so I think everyone’s first impressions were of a grumpy bloke who just lounged around keeping himself to himself.

Half hearted attempt at a thumbs up my me. Robs and his bike to the fore, Anvita and then Nick and Briony towards the back.

Information about the departure was highly variable but the latest we’d heard was that it would now leave at 11pm. As darkness fell I got into my sleeping bag, shivering and went to sleep.

I was rudely awakened at around 11pm to be told we needed to board the boat. There seemed to be a hurry and Everyone was grabbing their stuff frantically. It was pretty stressful trying to pack everything back into my bag. It kind of all just got stuffed in any old way. I was now feeling worse than ever and picking up my rucksack was a real struggle. People were really kind and helped carry my surplus belongings though. We had to walk over a bridge to get to the border checkpoint where we strolled to the front of a queue of cars and vans. Rob and Nicholas had brought their bikes around as well. Here we had to wait for about half an hour for the border guards to even start checking our passports. I couldn’t stand so I just slumped down against my bag again like a sack of potatoes. It wasn’t a good moment for me. I thought I was going to chunder at any moment and was trying to recce a good spot to go but there weren’t any. I was also wondering if they’d let me on at all if I was sick all over the check point. I managed to hold it back though and eventually we had our passports checked. This seemed to take an eternity but I then found myself staggering towards the boat.

To be continued…..

The Dogu express

8th Sep 20198th Sep 2019 HenryLeave a comment

The journeys continue to be one of the more challenging aspects of this trip.

From Cappadocia I made my way to Eastern Turkey using another sleeper train called the Turistik Dogu Expresi. As a solo traveller you couldn’t book a single bed in a two bed cabin so I had to book the whole thing to myself. It was a little expensive but definitely worth it.

I arrived at Kayseri train station two hours before departure because of my transport options form Cappadocia. The departure time was 23:22. I was hopeful that there might be some restaurants nearby to grab a meal before I headed off. I arrived by taxi to be greeted by what looked like an abandoned train station.

I walked around the area but only found a few little shops and some vendors specialising in Turkish sausage and so I headed back to the station where there was a little cafe. It was completely empty at that time but I managed to purchase a wholesome meal to keep me going. Two mystery meat subs.

I also made a lifelong friend

Then, it was really a waiting game. I later found a manned ticket office in a portakabin and showed my e-ticket as I wanted to be sure I was in the right place. He just gestured towards the platform. Time passed very slowly and the platform gradually filled with people. I didn’t see any other travellers like myself, just locals.

the departure time came and went and the platform was now pretty full. Ten minutes later, to my a relief a train came rumbling in.

As the carriages came rolling by one after another my heart started to sink. I knew the train I was getting was supposed to be a sleeper only. All the carriages on this train were just seating. I was trying to figure out what was going on. Perhaps I’d made a mistake? I walked down the platform, through all the people and to my relief I saw two other travellers looking as confused as me. They were two young Dutch ladies and so I went over to see what was going on. They were getting the same train. We tried to ask the staff on the platform what was going on but they couldn’t speak any English. Eventually after some slightly frantic toing and froing and with the help of a local bystander who spoke some English we established that this wasn’t our train (it just coincidentally arrived at the same time) and that ours was either 1 hour late or was arriving at 1am. It was hard to tell but the guy definitely indicated a 1. To add to the confusion, due to the late arrival there was also another sleeper train arriving at a similar time now! We were warned to make sure we got the correct one.

After quite a long wait, and some further confusion we eventually managed to board the correct train at about 12.45am.

As with the train into Istanbul, it was really comfy and it was a bonus to have a cabin all to myself. I had a pretty good sleep and awoke to some spectacular views as we trundled through Anatolia. I could just lie in bed, looking out the window like a movie screen.

The train was a new tourist train that had started in May. I’d heard it was supposed to make some stops on the way where you could see some sights. The Journey was schedules to take 18 hours.

The first ‘excursion stop’ happened at around 9am I think. I heard a guard walk down the carriage shouting something in Turkish but it wasn’t until we’d been stopped for a while that I ventured out to see what was going on. Nobody really knew. Word got around that we’d be stopped for 2 hours. The station was pretty much in the middle of nowhere next to a fenced off lake. There were some taxi drivers waiting in the car park although it wasn’t clear where you could go. A few people got into the taxis, some to the nearest town for food and I believe some went to a viewing point. They were asking very high prices though. I decided instead to venture up a hill to see what was around. Nothing. There were some fantastic views however.

After two and a half hours we eventually left. Feeling peckish, I went to the restaurant car although I was a little disappointed to find a meagre selection of cold snacks on offer despite there being a fully equipped kitchen. Another delicious meal:

Later in the afternoon we made another stop. Same procedure. Complete confusion, no information about where we were, what was happening or what there was to do and we’d stopped with nothing anywhere nearby. After 15 minutes or so I was on the platform having scouted out a small tuck shop. A guard gestured to me to ask if I was staying here which had confused me a little. Moments later I saw the train slowly leave the platform. Not a great moment. All my belongings were on board. I suddenly thought that maybe the guy was asking if this was my stop!? For a split second I contemplated giving chase but quickly accepted my fate instead. For a short while I believed I’d been left behind. There were thankfully some Australian guys nearby who thought the same. At least I wasn’t on my own. We decided there was little we could do and then came to the conclusion that it can’t have left permanently without so many of us. To our relief, after 20 minutes or so the train returned into the station on a different platform. We spent another two and half hours here. Annoyingly we found out that a group of people had taken a minibus to a waterfall somewhere nearby but no one had said anything about it.

It didn’t exactly seem like the ‘tourist’ train. Us tourists were generally confused and had no idea what we could actually do at these stops. No one spoke English. The guards on the other hand had a jolly old time sitting in the restaurant car eating the hot meals that weren’t available for us and then enjoying huge banquets of food at the stops which had been delivered to them whilst we were left scrabbling around for a few packets of crisps and biscuits in the tiny shop!

Despite all of this, it was a very comfortable and enjoyable train ride and it was by far the most scenic train ride I’d ever taken. And we only arrived two and half hours late!

Sleeper to Istanbul

26th Aug 201926th Aug 2019 HenryLeave a comment

I departed Sofia on the express sleeper train bound for Istanbul. This is the first time a mode of transport has exceeded my expectations. I’d booked a bed in a 2 berth sleeper carriage for 66 lev (about £30) which seemed good value.

Upon boarding, the guard disappeared with my ticket promising to return it in the morning (which he did). I was then led to my cabin and was pleasantly surprised. It was clean, comfy looking with a sink and even a little fridge containing some complimentary water and snacks

It wasn’t long before I met my companion for the next 12 hours or so. I had been a little unsure when booking the ticket as it would mean sharing with a stranger. I met Rus, from Russia. He didn’t speak great English and my Russian was a little rusty but we were able to hold a conversation. We got chatting and he told me that he was a Life Coach and that he had been travelling through Switzerland and Germany where he had some clients and was heading to Turkey before heading home to Russia. One of the things he did was help people with phobias using Buddhist techniques and he proudly told me that his record for curing someone was 25 minutes!

Rus didn’t strike me as a life coach with international clients if I’m being honest. He was travelling only with a tiny rucksack for a month’s travel and there was a moment in the morning when he picked a used cigarette butt from his bag and sniffed it for a while before disposing of it. This wasn’t long before he washed his face with alcohol hand sanitiser, not a technique I’d considered before. He was a really nice and friendly guy though and it was no bother bunking in with him.

I know from previous experience that I find it hard to sleep on trains, even when you’ve got a bed. It was comfy enough but the motion of the train makes it hard to nod off. I managed a bit of sleep but not much. We got woken up at 4am for the Bulgarian border checks and then had to stop and get off the train at the Turkish side a short while later to show passports. It was quite a smooth border crossing compared to previous ones. I was thankful that we were several hours late as this meant a bit more time trying to sleep!

Digs

Me and Rus looking a little haggard after a night on the sleeper train

The slowest train in the world?

24th Aug 201924th Aug 2019 HenryLeave a comment

My faith in train travel is somewhat restored.

Belgrade to Sofia

I started the day in style. After a stay in a hotel the night before I decided to just book a car through the hotel to avoid any funny business with taxi drivers. And so I rolled up to Topcider train station on the outskirts of town in chauffeur driven Mercedes, a lot fancier than I had imagined. I did draw some looks from some of the other travellers decamping from the tram nearby as my driver took my rucksack out of the boot and helped place it on my back.

The train was pretty much on time and was just made of two carriages. Nothing fancy.

The seats were basic but unlike my previous journey I ended up having a whole 4 seats to myself to make home for the next 11 hours or so.

This meant I was able kick back, take my shoes off and spread across the seats which was a luxury compared to the previous journey but still resulted in a sore bottom after so many hours.

The only downside was that there was no air conditioning and it did get pretty hot in the afternoon. The windows were all down but the issue was that the train went so slowly there wasn’t any breeze generated even if sticking one’s head out the window. Especially towards the tail end of the journey we can’t have been going more than about 10-15mph. It was so frustratingly slow. The total distance travelled is less than 200 miles but it takes pretty much half a day. At least I could get up and stretch my legs. Even with some Netflix, a bit of reading and writing some postcards it was pretty boring. Thankfully I’d brought a fairly wholesome picnic with me which kept me going throughout the day.

We eventually arrived at Sofia’s central train station just a while before ten, only an hour late.

Night train to Belgrade

20th Aug 201918th Aug 2019 HenryLeave a comment

I took the sleeper train from Podgorica in Montenegro to Belgrade Im Serbia. In large part my reason for doing this was that I couldn’t stomach another long bus journey and I also would then be able to take trains all the way to Georgia.

When booking the train there weren’t any places left in the sleeper cabins, only seated. There was a day train but I impulsively bought a seat on the overnight train instead thinking I would save the cost of a night’s accommodation. This turned out to be a poor decision. What unfolded was my most crazy journey so far.

Boarding

Taking a train is not inherently a difficult task, nor should it be daunting. When you’re on your own in foreign lands, don’t speak any of the local language and are the only non-native waiting to get on the train it can feel so however. Mainly because you don’t know what you’re walking into.

The train arrived.

I managed to get a guard to point me in the right direction from the platform and then spotted my carriage and got on. There were lots of people on the platform and it was a bit of a scrum. The train was already packed and upon reaching my seat which I’d paid €3 to reserve there was a large grumpy man parked there. I tried to show my ticket and gesture but was quickly ushered down the aisle by the irritated people behind me. It was clearly a free-for-all and so I walked further down and managed to bag a seat next to another enormous grumpy man who didn’t seem pleased to have me next to him. He insisted on having his short stocky legs fully spread encroaching on a good deal of my leg room. I decided it best to just let this go as he was a stern and serious looking gentleman.

This photo doesn’t really show the full extent of the situation (I was a little worried he’d see me take the photo) but I had to sit at an awkward angle for most of the journey.

Once seated, some people were trying to enforce their seat reservations. Arguments were erupting everywhere. It was chaos. I thought that maybe I should have tried harder to sit my reserved seat and I was now waiting for someone to come and yell at me for being their seat. Aware of my inability to communicate this was an uncomfortable twenty minutes or so. Thankfully I came out of it unscathed. The train conductor arrived amid the fracas and made a half-hearted attempt to resolve the matter before giving up and telling everyone to sort it out themselves, at least that was my interpretation. It did eventually die down and the seats were filled. The train departed at 8.10pm

The train, empty

The toilet party

The area in between the carriages where the toilets were quickly became a smoking area despite the no smoking signs. The automated sliding door kept opening due to the sensor and so the whole place stank of smoke. By 9pm, this area was starting to fill up and people were drinking and chain-smoking in there. This was about 15ft from my seat. By 10pm after some rushing back and forth, a wireless speaker emerged, and the space then effectively became a temporary bar/nightclub where an increasing number of people were joining. The music was terrible. Some sort of high tempo, local ballads. By midnight, the music was blaring, there was dancing and the singing had started the volume was getting much louder. The door sheltered us from a lot of the sound, but every time it opened, which was often we got a fresh blast of stale smoke, music, singing and shouting. Between me and the door were two families with several very young children. The parents seemed to put up with it pretty much although one of the dads tried in vain to get them to keep the door shut. The children occasionally woke and burst into tears. One child who must have not been more than one was quite sick and had a rough time.

In the four hours whilst this was going on we made two stops for the Montenegro and Serbia border agents to board the train which took about an hour each. This didn’t deter the revellers who partied on. When the stern looking squad of Serbian Border police finally reached me on the second stop and checked my passport I heard one of them say ‘UK!….Brexit’ and then laughed.

The Drunkard

Somewhere in the middle of all this, a couple of hours into the journey, a young chap appeared in the carriage, heavily intoxicated swigging from what looked like a medicine bottle. You have to imagine how an Orang Utan walks when it’s on two feet. This is how I would describe his attempt at getting down the aisle. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that he fell down the carriage, although in truth he never actually hit the ground. This caused much amusement to everyone including the children.

He was closely examining the luggage in the overhead storage compartments as he stumbled along. I think he’d either lost his bag, or more likely was lost himself and didn’t know where to return to. He then started shouting and starting loud arguments with anyone he could. He disappeared and then returned wearing glasses but this sadly did not help him in his task. He continued to roam up and down the train for a good few hours, with intermittent outbursts, occasionally being berated by the conductors. I don’t know if he ever found what he was looking for.

Rave

By 1am, there was a full on rave taking place at the end of the carriage and it showed no sign of letting up. The train guard had a couple of hours before told them to stop but when they didn’t he just opted to make friends with them. I can say I wasn’t feeling great about my prospects of any sleep at this point but I somehow managed to eventually drift off around 2.30am. My sleep was regularly interrupted by pains in my neck and back due the angle I had to sit at and a fear of falling asleep onto the large Balkan man beside me which I did do once.

Wild West

At 4.20am the man to my side woke me to leave his seat and it looked like he was leaving the train which he eventually did. This was an uplifting moment as I could now move to the window seat and attempt some proper sleep and the party had ceased. I did this until about 10 minutes later all hell broke loose.

The man in front of me suddenly leapt from his seat toward a young lady who had been drinking heavily with the revellers earlier. He grabbed her and was yelling. I can’t be sure, but from what I saw I think she was trying to take a blanket that had been placed over the young children who were asleep under it. Understandably he was not best pleased about this. She gave back as good as she got however. People were jumping out of the their seats and shouting at the top of their voices and holding each other back. It was mayhem. I had no idea what was being said but it wasn’t pleasantries which were being exchanged. The guards turned up and threatened for the police to be involved. I had to laugh at this point.

Things eventually settled down and I even got a little sleep before the train rolled into the station at 7am, only one hour late. It’s hard to know if the seating area on the sleeper train is always like this or whether I had rather rotten spot of bad luck. It certainly wasn’t a boring journey.

The train arrived at Topcider station which is an old station several miles out of the main city. You basically hop straight off the train and walk across the tracks to get out. Once out, I Immediately paid massively over the odds to get a taxi to take me straight to my hostel. I was quite happy to be ripped off in this instance.