trains | Jason Around the World

Brazzaville to Pointe-Noire, Congo by train

Congo, New Years 2013-2014, trains 1 Response »

Jan 222014

Up at the crack of dawn, checked out of the hotel, and grabbed a cab to the train station. Picked up Jordan along the way, and we were there at about 5:15am for the 7am train. We’d been sternly warned that we had to be there two hours in advance…which turned out to be quite a joke. A picture of the station, waiting to get inside. Unfortunately poor quality because of the lighting, but enough to get the idea:

A shot of the ticket window, courtesy of Jordan. He got much better pictures than I did of several parts of the train ride, and several of the pictures in this post were taken by him.

As the sun started to rise while we waited, a picture looking back onto the town from the front of the station:

…and the vendors were out in full force, selling food for the journey. Bottled water, bread, fruit, cookies, and gum seemed to be the most common items for sale.

Soon it was 6:15, and finally time to Board. A quick passport/ID check inside the station, and we found the car that would be our home for approximately the next 13 hours – Car #111 in First Class:

Daytrip to Samarkand, Uzbekistan – Part 2

Attractions, Europe and Central Asia 2013, trains, Uzbekistan No Responses »

Jun 112013

This post is going to be very heavy on the pictures, since you can read the history online. Reflecting back on it now as I put this together, I’m absolutely amazed at how much I managed to see in just over six hours!

After a filling lunch, it was off to the next sight, the Gur-Amir or Tamerlane Mausoleum. This was built in the early 1400s and contains the tombs of not only Tamerlane/Timur, but also his sons and grandsons, including Ulug Begh whose observator I’d seen that morning.

A couple photos outside the mausoleum, with and without me and random tourists:

…and a couple of artsy shots inside the complex. I don’t know why, but for some reason Samarkand seemed to really lend itself to getting artsy shots with the iPhone.

Samarkand, Uzbekistan – Part 1

Attractions, Europe and Central Asia 2013, Restaurants, Uzbekistan No Responses »

Jun 102013

When I got into this part of the trip, I realized there are a ton of pics and details from this day, so I’ll be splitting my daytrip to Samarkand into two parts. This is part one, covering the train to Samarkand, a morning of touring, and lunch. I was lucky to have a day off from work this weekend, and wanted to make the most of it!

Had to get up super early this morning, because I’d been booked on the 7am train from Tashkent to Samarkand. I had hoped to be on the 8am so I could at least get a little sleep, but unfortunately there was confusion, and my driver picked me up at 6am to go to the train station, leaving me operating only about 5 hours of sleep. And no breakfast. And no caffeine. Well, actually a little caffeine…I’d found a bottle of water the night before, but it was sparkling so I used the gross in-room water kettle to boil some up and make a little instant coffee that was in the room. Better than nothing!

The drive to the train station was only about 10 minutes, and security was tight. There were at least three security checkpoints to get into the station checking tickets and passport, but by the time I got it they were already letting people onto the train. I’d booked the new-ish highspeed train, which made the trip in just a little over two hours, traveling in excess of 200 kph! There were three classes on the train – regular economy, first class, and “VIP class.” The price difference really wasn’t that much, so I booked the VIP! I was too curious not too!

A few shots of the seats:

One thing that became clear quickly. There were carriage numbers printed on the tickets, but no seat numbers. It was first come, first served, with the attendants trying to sit groups somewhat together. It all worked out on the trip down, but the trip back was a hot mess!

I won’t talk too much about the train trip, since I got many more details on the return when I was more awake. There was a food and drink cart, and it had Red Bull, so that helped to wake me up a little bit. I really should have had a second one…and just like that, a little after 9am we pulled into Samarkand station.

I’d debated if I wanted to hire a guide/car before arriving, and in the end, I’m glad I did . The sights were a bit spread out, and I got a good amount of history. Plus, a car and guide for an 8 hour day for $80 (or so I thought) was pretty reasonable. He was waiting for me at the station with a sign with my name on it, and we were off. He asked what I wanted to see….and I said all the historic sights. Isn’t that what people come here for? “No club? No sexy lady?” Uh no, and yes, I had to spend several hours getting grilled about girlfriends…him cracking jokes about “only 3 kids, that I know of, I have girlfriends in many countries.” It was irritating, but I tuned it out more or less.

After convincing him I really wanted to see all the typical boring historic sights, we were off. The first stop was the Ulugh Beg Observatory. It was built in the 1420s in order to determine the midday point. The most annoying part of this site were the two giant tourbusses full of Korean tourists. No idea why they seem to come to Uzbekistan in such large numbers, but they apparently do.

Anyways, back to the Observatory. A picture of the outside:

Cuzco to Aguas Calientes on the Vistadome train

Peru, Peru 2013, trains No Responses »

Mar 142013

We purchased our tickets from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes (the town at the foot of the mountain Machu Picchu sits on) about three weeks in advance on the PeruRail website, which was quite easy and straightforward, although knowing which train you want takes a bit of research. There were three options:

1) The “Hiram Bingham” train – a super luxury train that (as far as we could tell) only had the advantage that it served you a gourmet meal on the way. Price was around $300-350 return.

2) The “Vistadome” train (which we took) that was said to be comfortable with great viewing. About $75-100 return. Reviewed below.

3) A local commuter train, which if I remember right was like $50 return, but was said to be quite slow (at least an extra hour) and unreliable. Everything I read in advance said it was well worth paying the small amount extra for the Vistadome.

It wasn’t completely clear that we needed to print the tickets or anything, so the day before the train when we arrived in Cuzco we went to the PeruRail office (easy to find on the Plaza de las Armas) to see what the story was.

It was a good thing we went, because we found out not only that we needed a printout, but that heavy rains had washed out part of the track from Cuzco, so the first roughly half of the journey would be replaced by a bus. The only upside is that the bus would leave from a station in downtown Cuzco, only a 5 minute taxi ride, instead of the normal train station well outside Cuzco maybe a 30 minute taxi ride away. Small miracles I guess?

The busses seated around 25-30 people, but for some reason when we got on the bus there were only 6 of us total. On the way back, however, when the train unloaded straight to the busses our bus was full. Either way, it was a bit over an hour ride and decently comfortable. There wasn’t a ton of legroom, but there was enough that we didn’t feel squashed.

One important note, you are only allowed one small carry-on on the train, no more than 5kg in weight. We never saw anyone checking them, but this is because basically there’s nowhere to put any luggage. Lots of people are on daytrips so it’s not a big deal, but if you’re planning on an overnight stay (or two nights like we were) this could be a bit inconvenient.

On the way to Aguas Calientes and back the train was almost completely full. They seem to add cars as needed – on the way there there was only one car, but on the way back there were six or seven. This ensures most of them are full, if not almost full. Still, for the barely 90 minute journey it was plenty comfortable. A few fews from the train on the way to Aguas Calientes:

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