Somewhere between Krasnoyarsk and Nizhny Udinsk
Timofei and Boris had retired to the restaurant wagon on the Transmongolian (Moscow to Ulaanbaator, but boarded in Krasnoyarsk, and were to detrain at Irkutsk).

The purpose of their venture was food and beer (Baltica No 7).  It all started when some loud poms arrived.  They occupied a table and began to complain about the weather. Soon; Timofei introduced himself and had every piece of information that could be extracted without resorting to tools of the inquisition.  It turns out they were travelling from Moscow to Beijing.  And they were doing the trip in one journey.

Sounds as exciting and boring as a Butlin holiday camp. Our heroes felt this group had missed Russia in the process.  They were soon joined by the Swiss Germans who were traveling from Zurich to Bangkok by train – what an objective! They were stopping off along the way.  The Swiss French remained in their compartment.  After much conversation, the groups called it a night and allowed the officientka clean up the restaurant wagon.