10 October

Woke at 0700 with the sun through the window. Decided I could wait a little longer so got up about 0730, had a trickle (shower with a little water, just enough to wet a washing mitt but not me) and then dressed for the day. Outside the windows it was the odd fall of snow.
I started the day off with a cup of tea and chocolate teddy bear, accompanied by another TimTam. The Chinese staff certainly are aggressive in not accepting the offer of any chocolate biscuits. When we came near Lake Baikal, I woke Christopher so he would be ready to see it. The peaks nearby were all snow-capped. After that it was a matter of looking out the windows, chatting with the others (Dan, Christopher and Tom here, the English couple from the other first class carriage and a few others walking by) and taking photos. Every so often a rather drunk Russian would wander by, offer a few incomprehensible words and then kiss me on the forehead.
I wandered a few carriages down and caught up with Christopher and the Russian woman who could speak English. She lives in Mongolia, is married to a New Zealander and they run a milk/juice packing business in Mongolia. She is travelling with her mother, who is returning home to Urkutsk. I invited her up to see some photos of Australia before they get off the train.
The rest of the morning went similarly, and she popped down about noon Beijing time. I showed her the photos of Australia (some areas very like Mongolia), gave her a kangaroo pin and my email contact. She gave me her email address, but of course there is nothing I can do until I reach an Internet connection.
I had a chat with Tom (he has my contact details) and then he left the train at Urkutsk, as did Svetlana (with her mother).
The afternoon went slowly, with sightseeing through the windows and talks with Dan, Christopher, Alan and Julie, now the only English speakers (as far as I know) on the train. During the afternoon I saw many of the birch trees, which had had green or yellow leaves when I passed them on the Trans-Siberian now with no leaves. It showed how quickly autumn had arrived.
Towards dusk there were a lot of sights outside, including children returning home from school, mothers with young children waiting (presumably for husbands returning from work) and a few teams of people doing sports training.
After dusk and a stop at Zima, Christopher, Dan and I watched some episodes of Futurama (but couldn’t watch more than three as the power was off and I was losing charge in the battery too quickly. After that it was change and into bed and I was very soon asleep, hoping for the longest sleep so far on the return journey.