FROM RIGA TO VLADIVOSTOK.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1929, Page 22 (Supplement)

FROM RIGA TO VLADIVOSTOK.

THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILAVAY. (By E. AL Almcdigen.—Special to News.) Day and night, day and night! The tremendous express tore 6ii from the bleak sandy Baltic shores, through-the hilly well-wooded heart of Central Rus-' sia, past the great rivers, along the gigantic bridges, further and further Eastwards. Plunging into the very core of the awe-inspiring Ural heights, it tore on across the Asiatic border, through dense untrodden forests, skirted, the Bajkal lake, swerved a little down to the' south and still kept eastwards, on to Vladivostok, “the Lord of the East.” And after the fourth day, train life became ! almost normal, the jostling led to no' more exclamations of surprise, the very clattering of wheels ceased to be noisy. That journey from Riga to .Vladivostok, over immeasurable spaces,, over changes of tree, hill, weather, wind and j mountain, taught yon far more than an extensive geographical course could have done, always provided you travelled with your eyes wide ope)). Tribe succeeded tribe! One climate followed on the heels of another. The Far East .came to you in terms ofc gigantic pine and silver-flash-ing cataract and purple-peaked mountains. Dialects raced one another as the train went on covering its mileage —■ thousands .and thousands of miles! Day and night! Speed varied seldom, 'but the eye quickly grew accustomed to lightning observations, and pictures were imprinted upon your memory, strange customs, strange tribal attire. Halts provided food for reflection for those “after twilight hours” when you sat in your compartment while the fitful shadows outside the window stole in to darkness. The Great Siberian Railway —the biggest railway route in the world—was no real luxury, but a highly valuable invest-' ment. , Day by day fresh knowledge came to you. Day by day new* peoples crowded past. How many tribes live there! Ham-, lots, settlements, towns! On and on went tho express. And at last ATadivostok, the gate: of the Far East, with all its elements —Russian, Siberian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese an eyen Siamese; with the freedom of the eastern seas in its gigantic port, and and the none too languorous grace of the Far East in the streets, for the proverbial Oriental ease has no room in the Far East. But yon were not keen on hectic sight seeing during the first days at Vladivostok, The journey .stayed, in your memory and you wanted, to .be alone with your recollections, to sort them but, io fix them in your mbuL for ever.