Irkutsk to Mongolia

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Paul again.
Let me start by apologising. There will be no more photos added to the blog or facebook until we get home in about 5 weeks.
We seem to have lost some of the photos we have uploaded so they are online, but not on our memorycard in our computer.

So from our last blog we have been to Almaty in Kazakhstan, an interesting city, no longer the capital, but bustling with markets and beautiful buildings everywhere. But ther scenery on the way. That was the thing. SO nice, mountains that capture your imagination all around. Open fields that seem to go on almost endlessly, and green everywhere. Even the border control that we walked between from Uzbek to Kazak there was a significant difference in treatment and facilities.

More trains back to Russia, more border control, these are getting to be so boring and predictable now. Waiting hours on hot trains with little airconditioning.
Our last train ride we almost missed, the over enthusiastic attendant confused my visa number with my passport number and would not let us board the train. Not much fun in the rain, in a foreign land, but we got on in the end. It was one of the nicest trains we rode too. My only complaint really was the AC not being on. 45 degrees plus in a train is not nice.

So we ended up in Listvyanka, on lake Baikal. Three nights in a place that deserved one. In hindsight we would have had one night here, then returned to Irkutsk earlier, but that never happened. We imagined it to be a green relaxed village on the lake with a homestay. We were in a soviet built flat, 4km out of town. The road to town was lacking a footpath so we were almost in the path of cars constantly. 😞
Oh, and the hot water stopped after the first day!

But we had lots of time to walk, the lake was lovely with mountains all around us. We spent lots of time reading and sleeping wich is hard on the trains. Our little stay there got me 1/3 the way through war and peace!!

Now in Irkustsk for an afternoon to take the 8:30 train to Ulaan Bataar in Mongolia. After all the last few days we thought that it would be a treat on the trains, but now have heard there is trouble in Mongolia with the government in the last few days.
Still, bring on the Nadaam Festival (and Michelles' 30th on the 7th of july). Down to our last 5 weeks away now, and the final return to Australia to (try) and settle down.
bye for now, Paul

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