Russia

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Again greetings from the trans Siberian train. This time we are on our way from Irkutsk to Novosibirsk but more of that in the next blog.

The train

The last time I wrote we were on our first of four legs on the trans Mongolian/Siberian train heading from Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia towards Irkutsk in Russia.
Mongolia can be surprisingly hot and we were sweating in our non aircon compartments. You are mistaken if you think this was due to me wanting to save some $$$. There just was no aircon carriage in sight. Then again I wouldn't have booked it to save $$ anyway 😊
The trains are of an older rolling stock with a lovely 70s interior but are kept in pristine condition by the Provodnitsas who are ticket inspectors, carriage attendants, cleaning ladies, provider of linen, carpet layers and law enforcers all at once. They make sure that everything just works and seem to clean everything every 5 minutes - one even pulled the blinds down to wipe and clean them, another tacked the carpet protectors down over the "nice" antique 70s carpet.
Toilets are a improvement over the the Mongolian steppe dug out toilets. You can even admire the tracks below the train when you flush the toiled, as the content of it is dumped onto the tracks. That also requires the toilets to be locked when the train pulls into a larger town. Not great when you travel with a little one who realizes that he has to go 2 minutes before he really has to go...
Most trains also have a restaurant car which we tested for our first breakfast after we entered Russia. The menu is quite extensive and contains favourites such as pancakes with fish eggs (had my name written on it). It also turns out that they are fairly expensive and the bill was 188 Rubles more expensive than our combined Rubel stash. Didn't seem to bother them too much though..we weren't asked to wash up.

Welcome to Russia

Ok back to the border crossing. It was already 30+ degrees in the carriage at about 11pm and then we pulled into the last station in Mongolia. For reasons only border security experts can comprehend we had to draw down the blinds over our open windows which basically transformed the compartment into an oven with us inside roasting. The Mongolians were friendly and we only had to wait an hour before we moved again blinds open. The next stop was the Russian border where yet again we had to close the blinds.
Now I don't know what your expectations are from a Russian border crossing. I was imagining a grumpy old soviet red army guard barking at me while doing a strip search. The suspense was even bigger on Kathy's side as she didn't have a "proper" tourist visa but a special business visa card which in theory should let her into Russia but no one was sure if the border guards in these remote areas have seen this card before. We had said our good byes in case Kathy got kicked out and was sent to a Gulag for reeducation.
"Unfortunately", as it would have been a better story, the border guards were friendly and very efficient. The worst part was sitting in the carriage at 35+ degrees, sweating and fearing for the worst. To all our surprise the border guards knew even of Kathy's visa and let her in. We finally fell asleep at 2am with the window open and a cold Siberian breeze of coming in. After over 24 hours on the train we pulled into our first Russian city Irkutsk which also concluded our first of four legs of the trans Mongolian/Siberian train journey.

Irkutsk

Irkutsk is a stepping stone to the largest attraction around here which is lake Baikal but is also a pleasant city in itself with a few attractions. One of the biggest surprises was the amount of old wooden houses still standing in the city. Think more of ornate multi storey dark timber block houses than the weather board houses we have in Australia. Some of these houses are over 200 years old and in some cases this could be easily seen as they were often lop sided and no longer square. The majority of the city is the usual European style 3-4 storey housing blocks but some streets were pretty much wood from one to the other side. There is a niece city walk by the historic buildings of the city but I spare you the details as we will have more exciting cities later on.

Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal is the real reason why most people get off in Irkutsk. The Lake should better be classified as a mini ocean. It is one of the largest lakes by surface area but it is the number one lake when it comes to water volume. 20% of all flowing (as in not frozen) fresh water in the world is contained in the lake. It is also the worlds deepest lake and in some areas it is nearly 2km deep. The water is crystal clear and the visibility can be up to 40 meters. As nice as it all sounds, taking a bath is only for the brave/stupid as the water temperature in summer hovers around 8-10 degrees. We are in Siberia after all.
The air temperature however is not what one would expect from the name Siberia and easily reached 30 degrees during some days of our stay.
We stayed in the lakeside village of Listvyanka were we got four seasons in only a few hours...changing from hot sunny, to windy, bland and cold. From Listvyanka we explored the surrounds which included a trip to a now mainly unused part of the original trains Siberian railway which passes along the shoreline. We walked along the tracks and through tunnels. We also visited a Russian version of Timber town, which is an open air museum with old wooden houses which had been reallocated from various parts of Siberia and include government offices, school houses, churches, prisons and a bundle of timber walking stilts for us all to try...and of which Kellie seemed to excel (perhaps due to her lower centre of gravity).
The cold lake water seems to encourage the fish to be extra tasty. That is especially true for the Omul which when smoked is very delicious and we had quite a few of them for lunch. Our accommodation was conveniently located right next door to the fish/souvenir market, right next to the lake and nearby to numerous street/beach vendors BBQing kebabs. We enjoyed kebab and beer which is bottled while you wait on the narrow pebble beach as the sun set behind the mountains on the other side of the lake. This beats working any day.

Random observations

• Dill - dill is the universal herb for everything in Russia. It's in soups, on fish, in chicken with rice, .... wouldn't be surprised if I find it in my coffee next time. They are completely obsessed with it.



• Traffic - the Russians obey traffic laws better than most Australians. We could confidently step out on preservation crossings and be sure cars would stop. Safety belts however are pure ornamental in Russian cars. No one wears them and I'm sure I got some strange looks when I put mine on

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Photos

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The joys of travelling is to learn foreign languages
Even better i they use a different Alphabet

Russian signs. Not the bottom left
Only alcohol above 40 prevent are forbidden...

Timber town
Most of the buildings have been relocated from villages around the area

Inside timer town
Forgot what this was

The worlds fattest seal?
Endemic to the Baikal lake. They will need the fat for the winter I guess

Smoker Omul
Tastes a lot better than it looks

Have beer and bottles will bottle beer
A strange but ingenious way to serve beer. Fill it into the bottle while you wait