Lake Baikal Serenity

We finally arrived in Irkutsk where we were met by our local guide in order to head directly to Lake Baikal. According to our handy "The Lonely Planet: Trans-Mongolian Express" guidebook, Lake Baikal is located in Eastern Siberia and is the biggest and deepest freshwater lake in the world. As we arrive, it's late at night so we can barely appreciate the vastness of the lake as we drove by. We would be spending the night one of the most charming and coziest all wooden Bed & Breakfast homes I’ve ever seen. There was a full meal waiting for us as we arrived which included a fairly oily vegetable soup, potato salad, cheese, and cookies. It was delicious, but the oily soup left some of the group feeling not so great the next day.

The night brought us the nicest sleep we would have on the entire trip, well deserved after the fast pace of the journey through Moscow and St. Petersburg and the number of nights on the not overly comfortable train bunks. But I couldn't wait to wake up the next morning. Crawling out to our balcony we laid witness to a beautiful valley that spilled out into a the pristine Lake Baikal at the end of it. Being the city dweller we all were, you can’t help but appreciate the calming silence with the exception of two dogs having a barking war from opposite ends of the valley. It was the kind of day you just never really wanted to get started, but breakfast was waiting.

Following breakfast we decided to go exploring the local communities. Wandering down towards the lake were a number of old charming homes in a wide variety of colours with highly decorative shutters. It wasn’t uncommon to see goats grazing in somebody's front yard or cows wandering around the hillside. As we arrive seaside we can see the lake spreading out forever. We had heard that the lake water is completely drinkable without any further filtration due to a species of sponge in the lake that is able to clean the water. We witnessed many people dunking buckets at the end of a long rope into the water to take back for their home water.

Our local guide the day before recommended a hilltop lookout the next valley over so we ventured out on a 5km hike to find it. It was a nice hike and we came across many quirky sites along the way (stuffed bear, Mongolian mannequin, pink castle) that turned the day into a free-for-all for taking goofy photos. We struggled a bit with finding the path up to the hilltop but Jeff’s intuition and a little luck managed to get us there. We were given an option of hiking up or taking a ski-lift, but after the 5km hike we opted for the latter. Wandering down a path we found the lookout which was surrounded by scraps of cloth tied down to trees, poles, and handrails. We weren’t sure of the significance of this other than people marking their presence at the spot. We had been mocking Johainah’s wearing of a pink turtleneck on a warm day like today so Jeff had the idea of removing the turtleneck from the sweater so we could leave our mark as well. Joh being the good sport she was donated the piece of her sweater and we all signed and tied to an empty spot on the pole. We may have gotten a little carried away afterwards as we went onto to modify her sweater further by ripping the sleeves off as well. Made for a great picture though as we posed her next to another stuffed bear at the ski-lift going down. Good times.

The afternoon our group split between those that wanted to go further sight-seeing in the towns and those that wanted to get some chill time on the patio back at the B&B with some Russian beer. It was a great afternoon for both groups. The night before we had made arrangements to head to a Banya after dinner. A Banya is basically a Russian steam sauna that consists of three rooms: an entrance room, a washing room, and a steam room. We arrived in the entrance room to remove our outer clothing into our swimsuits and have some warm tea. We then moved into the washing room which was already fairly hot and consisted of a shower and some benches. We spent a great deal of time in here as the steam room itself was incredibly hot and could only be tolerated for about 3-5 mins before you needed to come out. They had these dried birch branches with leaves soaking in water which we were able to smack against each other. Actually felt kind of good, more like a back scratch and helped cool you down. It’s actually common following a stretch in the steam room that people would either run outside and take a dip in the lake or else roll around in the snow. There was no snow and the lake was ½ km away so neither would be included in our Banya experience.

The next day we would be heading back to Irkutsk but first we’d be hitting a Wood Museum which was along our route back. When they dammed the Angara for hydroelectric power they saved some of the old wooden buildings and made a fascinating open air architectural museum which was a re-creation of the typical houses and villages from the early Evenks (similar to the North American Indians) through to the Buryats from Mongolia and the Russians during the 1800’s - 1900’s.

We’d only have a number of hours in Irkutsk before heading out on our next leg of the Trans-Mongolian so it would turn into an opportunity to catch up on email and stock up on supplies. I had grown very fond of the Russian string-cheese so being our last day in Russia we ventured out on a task to find some as well as some vodka for Greg to make the long stretches of time through customs at the Mongolian border a little more tolerable.

Next stop .. Mongolia!

Greeting from Central Russia

Since we left Moscow we spent one night on a train to Ekaterinburg. This was the first leg of our Trans-Mongolia adventure. After settling into our cabins and getting used to the confined space we decided to be a bit adventurous and look for the dinning car which we found about 4 carriages down the train. Nothing entertaining was going on so we walked back to our cabins, likely causing a stir along the way with our loud and excited chatter. We all settled down to one of many naps we would be taking. After waking up, Jeff, Greg, and Johainah decided to go back to the dining car to play some cards and have a beer. That was where they met a few local friends and initiated the night with their first shots of Russian vodka on the train. With a mixture of sign language, using Jeff's Iphone russian translator, and the basic english words the locals knew, they had our own party going. Since they weren't allowed to drink the vodka they brought with them in the dining car, and the vodka on the train left much to be desired, they quickly moved the party back to our carriage and hung out by the door. They polished off the second bottle along with the orange juice chaser and decided it was time to pack off to bed before things got too friendly.

The next evening we arrived in Ekaterinburg. Ekaterinburg is mainly a university town and lies close to the Euro Asia border. It is an interesting place because we really started to notice the locals are starting to look very mixed. I suspect from now on, the local people will start to look more Asian as we move east. We spent the next day on a guided walking tour of the city where we saw the Church of Blood, where Tsar Nicholas' family (4 daughters, 1 son, mother and father) was assassinated/murdered. We visited the local parliment, and went to a stone museum of a private collector. In the afternoon we took a trip out to visit Euro Asia border.

The next morning we prepped for the next leg of our journey, two nights on the train to Irkutsk, Siberia. The two day journey from Ekburg was quite an experience. We boarded the train and settled in. A little more experienced and a little more comfortable, we were ready for the next two days. Jeff and Joh had two cabin mates who had already been on the train for two days and had another 5 days to go. They even had a plant in the cabin to provide some greenery and watch something grow! With only two days ahead of us, there was not much to complain about. We passed the time chatting, looking out the window, reading, listening to music, playing Uno and other card games, and napping. It felt like a real vacation of rest and relaxation was starting. The first evening on board we spent the better half in the dinning car competing at Uno. Towards the end of our match we were invited to join a small Russian feast of smoked salmon with onion, borcsht, and pie which was to be eaten only after taking shots of Vodka. This time however, we were joined by the second captain of the train, a military officer who had a good living at 1000 dollars/rubles (???) a month and an Afgan Russian man who just had a baby. Russians were very friendly people, especially after some vodka, they all of sudden spoke more English and the universal language of hand gesturing. We closed the dinning cart and made it back to our cabin just before two in the morning. The next day moring, barely awake we received knocks on our cabin. It was the Russian guys from the night before. They came ready with another fresh bottle of Vodka and were ready to party at 0815 in the morning. We now can offically say Russians are crazy! We however, did turn them down…We spent the rest of the day doing the usual, napping, reading, cards, and such, and the next morning looked forward to disembarking later that day and get to some much needed showers. By this time we were all smelling pretty ripe. With the eagerness to get off, we almost did so at the wrong station but Joh's cabin mates stopped us. At the correct stop we got off, met our local guide and started our journey toward a resort town on Lake Baikal in Siberia.