In Europe, the thought of spending three nights in a row on a train would never enter my mind, but in Russia it`s quite comfortable - certainly more comfortable than some other places I spent the night, but I`ll tell you about that soon.

From Ulan Ude to Khabarovsk, I was on the Rossia, train number 2, the real trans-siberian from Moscow to Vladivostok! I was awfully lucky that it wasn`t full yet when I bought a ticket a mere 20 hours in advance (long after the train left Moscow), as one needs a passport to buy train tickets in Russia, and mine was at the Mongolian consulate. At the same time I bought an onwards ticket from Khabarovsk to Komsomolsk (I would be there before the Rossia reached Vladivostok), and a return ticket from Khabarovsk to Ulan Ude. Buying train tickets can be quite an ordeal (in Moscow, I queed before the wrong window unaware that each train had a corresponding window, and was told "nyet" without any further explanation; in Novosibirsk, I had to wait 1,5 hours, and then the ticket-seller went on a break just before it was my turn; in Irkutsk, the train I wanted to take was sold out so I had to take a later one), so having them all was a load of my mind. And there weren`t even the usual long ques in Ulan Ude, and the ticket seller was even friendly!