The station agents

Time is running out for babushka selling their tasty goodies. Pictures / Jim Eagles

The moment the Trans-Siberian train stopped at Mariinsk station it was surrounded by a swarm of babushka - mostly middle-aged women - offering food for sale.

When we climbed carefully down the steep steps to the platform we were assailed by the alluring smells of an array of cheap, tasty goodies. My stomach indicated it was time to eat and the prices were incredibly cheap so I didn't try very hard to resist.

There were pirozhki - Russian pies that looked more like deep-fried dumplings - stuffed with fillings like cabbage, egg and spinach, potato (R10 [5c] each) and spicy pork R15.

Add a plastic bag of potato dumplings swimming in melted butter (also R10 each) and a loaf of freshly baked bread (R8-R20) and you've got a delicious cheap main course.

And for dessert? Blini pancakes stuffed with sour cream (R10) and rolled up waffles (R10) with caramel filling. Who could ask for more?

There were also fat little crawfish, mini-pizzas, chunks of roast chicken with cucumbers and tomatoes, mince kebabs, icecream, apricots and cherries.

One of the joys of this great train journey across Europe and Asia was jumping off the train, selecting the babushka with the food you wanted, negotiating a price with sign language and a few words of Russian and English, then moving on to the next course, keeping an eye out for signs of departure.

But, sadly, it may soon be a thing of the past.

In the course of our four-day 5185km journey from Irkutsk to Moscow we found the babushka at only three or four stations.

Russia's transition from Bolshevic communism to crony capitalism has led to a realisation that there is money to be made from charging people to sell food to train passengers.

So at most stations instead of middle-aged women with baskets, you have little glass-fronted cubicles displaying groceries, with a small hatch in the middle through which you are served.

These have fixed prices and mostly sell the usual pre-packed groceries, though by shopping around we were able to get tasty extras like hard-boiled eggs, freshly baked rolls, chunks of piquant cheese, sausages of salami and juicy tomatoes.

Our suspicion that such kiosks seem to be the way of the future was confirmed when at two stations we saw police officers hassling a couple of women who had turned up with baskets of food to sell.

Finding the right food is a key part of a successful train journey from Beijing to Helsinki and you never know what is going to be available.

On leg one, from Beijing to Ulaan Bataar, we were told not to expect a dining car and so boarded laden with pot noodles - you can get hot water from the samovar in every carriage - bread, cheese, fruit and muesli bars.

But lo and behold there was a dining car where we were able to enjoy a cold ale or three.

After we crossed the Mongolian border the dining car was replaced by a Mongolian one with magnificent wood panelling and decorated with the fur hats, swords and riding gear of Genghis Khan's warriors.

While there was a huge breakfast menu, only a few items were available. It was a choice between omelette with onion and, for nearly twice the price, omelette with cheese.

Not keen on onions so early in the day, I went for the cheese option ... and got an omelette full of partly cooked onions with a slice of processed cheese laid on top.

On the second leg from Ulaan Bataar to Irkutsk there was again a dining car but we preferred to rely on supplies from the state department store in Irkustk and a few bits and pieces from stations along the way.

On the third leg we had planned to rely on the babushka but in their absence we decided to try the dining car with its appetising menu of Russian dishes like borsch and stroganoff.

The food was cheap but the borsch at lunch was lukewarm and the portion of stroganoff for dinner was not enough for a growing lad.

So it was back to buying from the stations as well as pirozhki from a woman who had evidently bought the rights to push a trolley laden with food and drink up and down the corridors.

It was pleasant sitting in our cabin eating bread, cheese and tomatoes, cutting off slices of tangy salami with a Swiss Army knife, sharing a rich deep-fried potato dumpling, maybe washing it down with a sip or two of vodka, and watching the Russian countryside go by.

There was plenty to see on this stretch of track, too. Huge forests - we spotted a white fox slipping between trees - meadows filled with flowers and lofty mountains beyond.

There were also some fascinating towns along the way where the train stopped briefly - including:

* Krasnoyarsk, on the Yenisey River, with a marvellous 1km bridge offering great views of river life.

* Omsk, on the Om River, where the great author Fyodor Dostoevsky was exiled.

* Tobolsk, on the Yura River, the old capital of Siberia and filled with churches and fortresses.

* Yekaterinburg, capital of the Urals, best known as the birthplace of Boris Yeltsin and site of the execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family after the revolution in 1918.

* Kazan, on the mighty Volga River so beloved of Russians, capital of the Tartarstan Republic and bristling with the spires of mosques rather than the domes of churches.

* Nizhny Novgorod, also on the Volga, the third city of Russia and historically its commercial capital.

* The medieval town of Suzdal, on the Kamenka River, which glistens with onion-shaped golden domes, the most dramatic being those of the Saviour Monastery of St Euthymius.

* Vladimir, on the Klyazma River, once the capital of the ancient state of Rus and still presided over by the majestic white Assumption Cathedral.

But perhaps the most significant sight was the white obelisk in the Ural Mountains where Asia officially becomes Europe.

After Yekaterinburg, the last (or first) station in Asia, we sat glued to the windows, counting down the distance markers alongside the track: 1800km from Moscow, 1780, 1777, here it comes ... oh, that must have been it.

For such a significant divide it was disappointing to find such an insignificant marker - but at least we knew we were now in Europe and well on our way to our next stopping point in Moscow.

Trans-Siberian by air

Singapore Airlines flies 19 times a week from New Zealand direct to Singapore. And from Singapore there are three-weekly flights to Moscow.

By train

Perth-based Travel Directors runs train tours from Beijing to Helsinki called Beyond the Trans-Siberian, which include time in China, Mongolia and Russia. Tours cost $13,000.

Further information

Email info@traveldirectors.com.au or see website link below.

Travel Directors' New Zealand representatives are Go Holidays, phone 0800 464646.

* Jim Eagles' trip was assisted by Singapore Airlines and Travel Directors.