long train trip in Ukraine - sleeping berth

[Vasilisa]

I read a story of a man who was drugged and robbed by two girls, one met at agency and the other a translator.
they put it in is drink, he woke up, money gone computer gone and camera gone.
they did not take wallet or credit cards.

hmmm maybe you should only drink coke and bagged chips

I read a story of a woman who married an American man and was killed by him and his friend.
I read a story of the man who never left his home town and stayed single and had a cardiac arrest and died when he was 40...

PS: It reminded me of a story. Long time ago living in the US I had a conversation with  an American man who had lived in Ukraine for a year or so. There was a wedding, that was how we met and of course we had a conversation about his life in Ukraine. Other Americans were listening, too. So he told some really amazing stories about being drugged and robbed by someone there, when I asked how he knew he had been drugged he explained that he had woken up and when he had looked at the calendar it had been a different date, he had slept for 2 days. One time he was attacked by someone walking along a street and when he was in a hospital he contacted his Ukrainian friends and they were very mad that he had asked them to come, etc.
My reaction was:"OMG, that was very rude of them, blahblahblah".

Later I realized that there were not so many Americans that were of a high opinion of him either: on his days off he took some drugs  with alcohol  and slept for a couple of days after that, he was a lot into all kinds of night parties with trashy women, had been in Thailand for a sex tour, etc, so my guess was that the Ukrainian that had been  mad about his call had known what type of a person he was and got tired of him and his criminal stories combined with non-stop partying.

[CDW]

CDW, honestly I have no idea why you are trying to date foreign women, all this idea of traveling to a different country is about risk and adventure, you face thousands of risks every day everywhere , even staying in your own country, but when you travel it means you are ready for adventure and some fun after all, I have read a lot of your posts and it's all about being extra careful, cautious and negative.
I am not saying it's normal to accept food from strangers, etc, but you can get drugged by anyone, how can you travel and date women you have never met before without being afraid of being drugged by them on the first date? Just an observation.

Lots different between dating a woman and meeting strangers on the train.  If you are not being careful, you will end up DEAD!

Since you are a woman, why don't you walk alone in the night in strange streets?

[mendeleyev]

CDW, first off I'm not being critical and wish you great success.

I have taken hundreds of train rides. Some were alone, others with family, sometimes with groups of journalists. Some of those trips were in Spalny (first class), Kupe (2nd class) and some in Platzkartny (3rd class). I've also traveled on short run electric trains from city to city and the only times I ever felt the need for concern was being confronted by drunks in the dining cars.

In the passenger wagons I've always felt secure. Even in 3rd class you have 53 other passengers, made up of all sort of folk, and if you were threatened I can say with confidence that a majority would tell the offender to back off and leave you alone. Nobody gets on the train prepared to poison a Western tourist.

I've gotten mildly sick a few times by eating some foods I should have shunned, but the person who offered the food wasn't trying to drug or kill me. Most of those very few incidents were from food items purchased along the tracks at a stop but I still buy food that way, perhaps from a desire to genuinely assist the person who needs that income in order to exist. Most of the time those purchases, or the sharing to food with a kupe mate, turns out to be a delightful experience.

On a typical day you're far more safe on a Russian/Ukrainian train than you are on a city bus in Detroit or Cleveland.

[Ooooops]

I remember one time we were on a train from Moscow to St. Pete in a 2 berth sleeping compartment and the cart attendant gave us a chain and a padlock to secure our door handle.   Talk about customer care.        Of course it was a long time ago, in late 90s, so may be now it's all rosy in this department...

[Ooooops]

He-he, remembered another train story involving padlock - I bought tickets for train journey from Kiev to Prague, but due to my stupidity didn't check the details of the trip.   Turned out that it was not a direct train, but a train cart that was first attached to Ukrainian train Kiev - Krakov and then got re-attached to Polish train Krakov - Prague.   Plus we had 8 hour layover in Krakov, that I didn't know about either, but it was cool - just enough time to see the old city.  Anyway, when we got back to our train and asked the cart attendant for some drinks he said that he's all out and told us to go to Polish restaurant cart for that.   Ok, we went to the vestibule that connect 2 carts, opened our door and... there was a huge rusty chain & padlock on the door of Polish train!!!   Welcome, our dear Ukrainian neighbors!   

[Voyager36]

Has anyone ever been on a long train journey in Ukraine?

I am planning to go on it:  Kiev - Kherson

Train Kiev - Kherson (N 101/102) starts about 21.00 from Kiev and arrives to Kherson about 10.15 next day (road will take about 13 hours).

Here aproximate prices for tickets from Kiev to Kherson:
1st class sleeping carrriage (cabin for 2 persons, in russian pronouncing like “spal’nyi wagon”) - 330 ua grivnas;
2nd class (cabin for 4 persons) [in russian pronouncing like “coupe”] - about 100 grivnas
3rd class (has sleeping places for 6 persons) [in russian pronouncing like “platzkart” or “platzkartnyi wagon”] - about 70 grivnas.


About 1st class, ever shared cabin with someone else?   How will you trust this person?  He/she could be a thief?

Does the train have food & drink services?  Wash cabin, and so on ?????????

Any one?

Good advice so far. I've taken this exact trip to Kherson several times.
The chance of getting drugged/beaten/robbed are slim to none, there is an attendant in each coach throughout the night. (mostly serving tea etc)
Buy the whole cabin if you are worried about it, it's also much less cramped.  100 griven should be about 8 quid I guess, so you can get the entire 4 person cabin for £32, pretty reasonable don't you think?
If you don't have time to get to a minimarket you can at least buy some biscuits & crisps & drinks at the station to take with you