DAY 25

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Cereal in a cup for breakfast again before arriving at Irkutsk, the capital of Siberia, at around 8 am. We were met on the platform by our new guide Sergay who carefully ushered us out to our bus and our new driver Sergay (yes, they were both Sergay). We were driven to our hotel just so we could exchange some cash before heading out to the lakeside town of Listvyanka 70 km away where we would be staying for the next 2 nights. We headed out on the Eisenhauer Road (which was originally built for a visit by the then US President who actually never got to use it due to a falling out between governments - Sergay is so full of information!) and stopped at the mouth of the Angara River, the only river flowing out of Lake Baikal. We listened to a bit of history and legend regarding the river and had a chance to dip our feet in the water (supposed to add 5 years to your life! - a whole body immersion is supposed to add 25 years if you survive) current temperature is about 9 deg so it was just my feet. Little further on we came to Listvyanka which is a popular little holiday town that has a lot of dutchas (what we call batches), a fish market, several tour boats, a museum and even a small ski field. We were staying in a lovely Swiss style chalet which had about 12 rooms run by Titiana who served us tea and coffee when we arrived. After we freshened up from our long train ride we wandered down to the beach were we sampled the local fare and a few adventurous souls decided to add 25 years to their lives (maybe I’ll do it tomorrow). The beach was lovely and the weather was perfect but like a lot of places we’ve seen they don’t seem to finish things off. They could have a really nice promenade and steps down to the beach and finish off the footpaths and gutters properly but they don’t seem to bother, nevertheless it still can’t spoil the natural beauty of the lake. (Note to Stu: according to our local sage Sergay, Lake Baikal is not in fact shrinking, maybe that was the Aral Sea you were thinking of) We checked out some of the shops and bought ourselves a bottle of Vodka to celebrate coming to Russia in the traditional way and headed back to the chalet and tried to catch up on a bit of blogging before dinner. Pre-dinner drinks on the deck at 6.30 was followed by dinner, Titiana served us chicken with 2 salads and pasta all laid out on the table for us to help ourselves and it was all very tasty. After dinner some of our group went next door to experience the traditional Russian Banya, which is basically a sauna/steam room with the cold bath outside and the added extra of being able to beat each other with birch leaves - it was supposed to be very stimulating but Jac and I declined. We were ready for bed and despite the fact that it wasn’t getting dark until around 11.00pm I don’t think anyone was having any trouble getting to sleep.

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Photos

The Chalet at Listvyanka
Sitting on the deck on arrival waiting for our rooms

Listvyanka Fish Market
They mainly sell smoked Omul fish. A bit like a herring but of the salmon family

Dutcha
One of the older dutchas in the valley

Dutcha
This one's older still