Our First Train Experience (Day 1)

Have you ever traveled on a train before? It is a common mode of transportation out here, but our experience this last week was my first.

As with planes, there are a few types of tickets you can purchase for traveling. We purchased coupe tickets, which are the mid-range mode for train travel. A coupe ticket gets you a bed in a room like this:
All the rooms in our train car looked like this, with four beds. Generally the four beds mean there could be four passengers, but children don't require a ticket, so there is definitely potential for a more crowded room.

Shortly before leaving Almaty we were joined by a nice young woman. At some point she was called out of the room by one of the two conductors for our car, and when she returned she removed her bags and went to another room. We weren't really sure what happened, but wondered if she didn't want to stay in a room with a baby, until Chris was asked to join the conductors in their room. There he was told that it was possible to assure us that no one would join us in our room if we paid a small price. Chris wasn't willing to pay the asking price and made a counter-offer (let's be honest, having your own room is nice) and then returned to me with his story.

Later in the evening Chris was again asked to join the conductors in their room, but he didn't go. It was late and he was tired and didn't feel much like going. During the night we had two passengers come and sleep in our coupe for short lengths of time at different intervals. Otherwise, the room was ours alone.

A glimpse into our room. We were assigned the beds on the left:
These beds on the right stayed mostly empty:
Views of the top bunks:

At the beginning of our journey:
The sleeping travelers:
Some of the sights from our window:

It is rather hard to snap pictures of what you want when you are speeding by... I was able to catch this herd of horses, but not the horse herder.
I believe this is Lake Kapshaghay, and Chris told me that the water is this amazing blue color because of silt.
Shepherds!
I love that this shepherd is sitting on a power box!