.....and relax....

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Hi All,

I hope this missive finds you all well! We are still alive so the St Petersburg Mafia have not found us after our last e:mail. I fell I should add that everyone else we have met so far who has been recently has really not liked it either other than people who have lived/worked/studied there so perhaps it's more of a locals place.

Anyhoo, we will start with the Trans Sib. After 3 city breaks in a row we were ready for a rest and a rest is what we got. 4 days aboard train 10 was quite honestly, just brilliant!

It was a late start (11:30 pm) so we had plenty of time to get excited (me) or nervous (Claire) and stock up on Pot Noodles, Vodka and Chocolate before the journey but it we set off on time and were soon speeding into the night. It didn't take too long to get familiar with the room, it was comfortable enough though and we were lucky enough to get the whole 4 berth room to ourselves so it wasn't too much of a squeeze.

Our fellow passengers were mainly Russian and there were quite a few children who kept us entertained. We all quickly slipped into the rythym of the passing countryside, watching the small wooden villages flash past (well almost flash it's not the fastest train in the world) and trying to spot the kilometer markers so we could tell where we were and work out when the next stop would be. At all the smaller stations there were plenty of people on the platforms some already there some appearing from underneath the trains selling a random selection of items ranging from beer and snacks through to vases, woven baskets and 4 foot high cuddly Giraffes!

We managed to pick up supplementary food (and beer obv!) at a few of these, which were much appreciated as we quickly got fed up with pot noodles and Borscht cup a soups (why can you not buy them in England?)

We crossed the Urals overnight so missed the hillside stuff but the rest of the views were just so relaxing, watching mile after mile of forest, lake, dacha villages and steppe slide gracefully by all to a piped russian pop soundtrack (including a daily Hank Marvin cover versions hour) was a great way to recharge.

Crossing two time zones a day was quite interesting too, it made finding mealtimes a little tricky, although as we were losing hours it meant we could drink beer earlier in the day than perhaps we normally would!

Halfway through, another travelling couple joined the the train (Hi Matthew and Rhian if you are reading, will you be in Mongolia for Naadam?) who are taking pretty much the same route as us so we shared stories, dried squid, Beer, Vodka and Gherkins (it's surprising nobody was sick!) until Irkutsk where we all disembarked with sore heads!

We arrived in Irkutsk in a proper downpour, fortunately we were met at the station and taken to the hostel which was pretty useful as we would never have found it. Although we are getting quite used to the customary russian lack of signage! We had a wander around town, took in 'the sights' which took a couple of hours and got used to being back in a town again.

We had planned to leave for Olkhon Island the following day but our visa registration took longer than expected so we found the bus station and after a bit of a struggle we managed to buy tickets for the 8 hour bus ride to Khuzir and got ourselves on the right minibus to go to Listvayaka for the afternoon for our first proper look at Lake Baikal.

Listvayanka is a very pretty little village strung out along the coast of Baikal where the River Angara meets its shore. It was a bit misty so the views were not great but we managed our first (but definately not last) taste of Omul, a type of fish specific to Lake Baikal and walked for miles to find the local museum whos main exibit was two, very fat, very bored looking Nerpy seals (again specific to Baikal) worth the walk? perhaps not!

After another dorm night, we were off to Nikitas at Olkhon.

The bus was pretty old, and seemed to be held together only by the dark grey curtains which I believe were once cream. We were not sure it it would make the 8 hour trip on bumpy, potholed and ,once we got on the island, gravel and sand roads but it did and hot and sweaty and following the directions of a very drunk Russian man (thanks drunk russian man) we crossed town to find our accomodation.

Nikitas is pretty much the hub of the tourist industry here and has the theme park decor to match we were a bit early season so they seemed to be building parts of it around us but it was friendly and full of a full cross section of travellers from around the world and all directions with plenty of russian holidayers too. Thanks to everyone for their advice and conversation but special mention to Irina from Novosibirsk who tought us how to banya russian style and was great company!

Again we found poor maps to be a bit of a problem as we attempted a cycle ride to a healing spring but ended up randomly lost in the taiga somewhere with the only direction seeming to be up! No spring then but we did find a frozen lake on the way down which surprised us!
There were plenty of walks along beaches and across steppes where you could not get too lost though so we took advantage of them to enjoy some of the most beautiful scenery we have seen so far, just a stunning, virtually untouched place (only the odd broken vodka bottle to show anyone had been there) and the tour to the north of the island revealed dramatic cliffs, bays, shamanic pole sites and old Gulags (exibiting the largest collection of smashed asbestos sheeting we have ever seen!).

Just one more thing to mention about Nikitas, the food. It's all included and you get what you are given and it is all pretty darn good. Pretty darn good if you like fish! (which we do) I didn't realise there were so many things you can do with an Omul it's possibly the most versatile fish there is. We reckon we were on about 3 fish a day!

Our fishy adventure is now over though and we move on to a mutton diet. Mongolia tomorrow. One last thought on Russia, it is a great country to visit if you leave the major cities alone and visit the country.

Dasvirdanya

Dan and Claire(a)

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Comments

[sandy]

Sounding more awesome by the day. If only there was a map to accompany your tales (I'm far too lazy to sort it out myself!) News from home - Andy Murray is in the quarter finals of Wimbledon. He now faces Nadal.....you never know what could happen tho. Other than that, everything is much the same.