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On 16 May at 9.10 we arrived at the station in Irkutsk after 52 hours on the train. We were then taken to the village of Listvyanka, about 1 hour drive. We shared the car with Natasha from South Africa and Derek from England. Both had been traveling the Trans Siberian from Beijing to Moscow, so Ben and I had plenty of questions. They told us the stories of the Mongolian traders crossing the border to sell goods in Russia. In Mongolia it is much cheaper. The stories of how the traders hide their merchandise was quite scary. Amused us for some time. This region of Russia is very different from what we had seen so far and the day before it had snowed in Irkutsk. We still saw from the train the snow that had not melted. It was sunny but quite cold. In the first day as it got later the weather improved. In Listvyanka we visited a museum where we could see how the lake evolved geologically and there were also exhibits of the types of animals and plants that live in the lake and surroundings. There is a type of fish called Omul which is only found
Lake Baikal
A little beach with pebbles there. After the museum we visited an 18th century church built in Wood and with no nails. After the sightseeing in the little village we visited the local market. By then it was afternoon and very sunny but with a bit of wind. At the market locals and also from the villages around were enjoying the sunny day sunbathing and eating smoked fish and drinking beer. It was Saturday after all. Ben and I tried the fish for dinner. Quite tasty. On our second day we went trekking in the taiga. We got a local guide called Sacha. He used to be a teacher but now seems to be working with tourists only. We climbed a few hills and the wind that Sunday was blowing quite strongly. It was about 5 degrees Celsius. After a long walk we stopped at the bank of the river and Sacha cooked lunch for us. We amused ourselves with stories about vodka, different foods and drunk lots of tea. We probably made our way back to the village a bit earlier than planned because of the cold weather. For dinner we went to a pie shop and boy, those fish pies were delicious.
Wild life in the lake - Baikal Seals
We took this picture in the aquarium in the museum. After two days by the lake we made our way to Irkutsk at lunch time. In Irkutsk we did some sightseeing in the area where lots of typical wooden houses are still preserved. We sat in a local stall in the market and drunk Brahma (Brazilian beer) which seems to be sold everywhere in Russia at the moment. We did some food shopping for the next leg of the train and went for dinner. We found a Russian restaurant and the waiters did not speak English to help us understand the menu. We averaged the prices of the starters and chose a middle priced one by pointing it to the waiter on the menu. The restaurant is very nice and is called "Clermont" (translated). When the started arrived, I am not joking, it was a plate with slices of pig's lard and mustard to deep in. We braved our way through the dish as much as we could. We eventually managed to order a type of skewer and this time it was the meet part of the pig. It was a marvelous Russian dish. We enjoyed the experience and definitely tried something local. At about 9 pm we made our
Washing my face
Legend goes that if you wash your face you get 10 extra years of life. So here it goes. way to the station for the train to Ulan-Ude, our last stop in Russia.
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