Deviate with Rolf Potts · Monday, September 7, 2026
Rolf Potts recounted a misadventure on the Trans-Siberian train where he and his cousin missed their train due to misunderstanding that the timetable was based on Moscow time. They had to hire a taxi to catch up, a situation made more interesting by cultural misunderstandings and local animistic beliefs observed by the driver.
“Like when I took the Trans-Siberian train, I knew that I was going to write about it, but I didn't know that there was going to be a really boring seven-hour stop on the Russian Mongolian border and I was going to wander outside and sort of meet some people and hike around and come back and the train was gone.”
“We realized that when you take the Trans-Siberian train, the timetable is only on Moscow time. So even if you're in Siberia, even if you're seven time zones away, the train is going according to Moscow time. And so we were just these dumb Americans who completely misunderstood the things that's no secret about how the Trans-Siberian train works.”
“And so we had to hire a taxi to catch up with the train, which sounds like this cinematic wild adventure until you realize how slow the Trans-Siberian train goes.”
“But that was not an organized part of the adventure, but because it was an misadventure, it made it way more interesting from a story telling perspective.”