I am writing this after my first night on the Trans Siberian Railway. I hope I’ll be able to post it in Yekaterinburg tonight. This first leg of the railway is my training exercise – one night aboard followed by a night in a hotel (rather than the hostels I could only afford in St. Petersburg and Moscow). Tomorrow night I begin a three-night leg towards Irkutsk.
Quick first impressions of the train journey so far:
• Staff service better than expected
• Toilet nicer than expected
• Breakfast much more delicious than expected
• Vodka (last night of course) cheaper than expected
• Dining car much less a social centre than expected
[I wrote this on the St. Petersburg to Moscow train two days ago, but could not access my blog until today.]
I am currently travelling from St. Petersburg to Moscow on what will be the most luxurious part of my travels. Even after spending four nights in a (very clean and comfortable) hostel dormitory – with more cost-saving shared dormitory nights to come – I decided to travel first class on the new high speed St. Petersburg to Moscow train. None of the nine nights I’ll be spending on the Trans Siberian Railway will be this comfortable.
The train reached 201 Kph but averaged less than 1050 Kph. Service was exemplary. I can only afford this level of quality for this short ride - but I am sure I will enjoy the Trans Siberian anyway.
It took me a day or two to realize notice but then I really appreciated that Havana has little or no public advertising. I saw no billboards or sponsorship of bus stops or any other such commercialism. Lovely.
Havana need not be an expensive city. I paid a lot for a chic hotel (previously checked out on my behalf by Sting and Jimmy Carter) but could have found comfort for a lot less. Meals in the excellent restaurants I enjoyed cost no more than they would have in Ottawa and a lot less than they would have in Oslo. Drinks are cheap everywhere. As I remembered from Veradero in the 1980s a Cuba Libre is hardly tainted by Coke – because Coke costs more than the rum. Bartenders free-pour absently and will top Cuba Libres up with rum once you make some space. Mojitos are made sweeter than I prefer but you can ask them to use less sugar. I am not an expert in rum – I enjoyed the stuff that is cheaper and safer than the water but I saw a 15 year old bottle for $125.
I had dreamed of travelling to Santiago de Cuba and back on the ‘tren francais’ which I learned about from The Man In Seat 61. I couldn’t find which days it runs anywhere on-line so I wrote to ask my hotel but they never answered. Perhaps they only use the "INTERNET" for bookings. The driver of my taxi from the airport said it hadn’t run for a year and I didn’t investigate much more because it seemed unlikely that I could fit that expedition into a week – and because I was enjoying Havana so much.
Havana is an excellent place for people who like to look at women who care about the way they look. Current fashion seems to include mini skirts and patterned stockings – even if the wearer is a police officer. The other mode is tight low-rise jeans and every woman wears high heels. Age is no limit.
Almost every tourist restaurant has live music and every other restaurant plays music all the time. I found music as prevalent as in Angola but Cuban’s don’t seem to dance as spontaneously. The instruments are always drums and guitars and percussion and often flutes. I’m pretty sure every single song was about love gained, love lost, or love carrying nicely on just for the time being.
Havana is not a good place to avoid Americans. They may have had to arrive via Panama or Toronto but that doesn’t stop them. Cuban authorities famously don’t stamp passports and I am now kicking myself for forgetting to ask for mine. I read a Cuban book (The Cuba Project: CIA covert operations 1959-62 – The Secret War, by Fabián Escalante, former head of the Cuban Secret Service) and visited a couple museums so I got a good refresher on Cuban propaganda (which I think is no more or less over the top than American propaganda) but the only public anti-American sentiment I noticed was posters calling for America to provide compassionate visas for divided families. Canadians are adored but I had to participate in the normal conversation I’ve heard a hundred times in a dozen countries as follows:
Friendly local person (insert ‘Cuban’, ‘Afghan’, etc.): “Where are you from, Friend?”
Me (with resignation): “Canada”
F.L.P.: “Which city? Toronto?”
Me (knowing what’s coming next): “No. Ottawa. The capital”
F.L.P.: “Really? I have a cousin/brother/sister/uncle/aunt/daughter/son/cat in Toronto”.
While in Goa we hired a car and had a lovely day at the Dudhsagar Waterfalls - second highest in India. I expect they're the only waterfalls in the world that are crossed by a train. The photo above shows the configuration better than the ones we took when a train actually crossed the bridge.
Photos here
I have never felt cleaner than when I swam under the falls. The monkeys were real monkeys though.
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