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Published: September 29th 2011
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I was quite amazed that I woke up on time right before the alarm was due to on, even though I had very bad moment before I went to sleep due to some other fellows in the hostel were thunderous snoring, but I still had a very good sleep, after my long tiring rides from Olkhon Island.
To see this great lake in Siberia, there is another way to explore - The Circumbaikal Railway. The 94km long railway, an essential way to explore the lake by tons of travellers nowadays, used to be part of Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow in early 1910s but did not really used until they constructed and extended into Mongolia. Nowadays the railway still running as twice weekly return purpose, mostly packed with local visitors or weekend break students. My main reason of getting on this railway line is because I'd like to see the other side (The westen) of the lake, and also to see all these 40 tunnels and more than 200 brdiges along the 94km railway line, imagine it was pretty harsh to build these up in old days, especially during their dark winter.
When I book my ticket I clearly knew
that the train was due to leaves at 08:10 but when I got into the station that morning at 07:30, I was looking at the departure screen and realized my train is actually departing at 03:10 which was 5 hours earlier, I asked and and I found out there was a group of people were holding the same ticket as mine, and finally I've found out, in Russia, regardless of the place of departure, all departure and arrival times are based on Moscow Time which is GMT+4 instead of Irkutsk Time GMT+9.
The 13 carriages, carrying more than 300 passengers this morning (Thanks for the information by the train attendents), has 3 classes - First, Business and Economy. I bought my First Class ticket for 2200 Rubles (US$75), packed with rich Russian families and children, which is about almost double the price as Second Class, the seating config is 2-2, with huge dining table and nice attendent who take care of all amenities on board, and there is also a huge LCD Screen, showing the current location of the train, and some documentary about the lake. While Second Class was still not too bad at 3-3 in config similar
to those Econmy seating in an airplane, there is foldable table at each passenger seat, while their Economy Class, or what I can describe is Cattle Class, is 4-4 face to face, head to head, toes to toes wooden seating, and it's all crammed with people and bags, pretty harsh to sit considering most Russian are huge and tall. There is also Bar Carriage at Carriage No.4, where you can get plently of foods and drinks, from Soup Noodles, to Dried Fish, Chocclates to Chips, Juices to Vodka, but of course, getting these things always not cheap at the train.
During the first two hours journey, there was nothing much to see as the train went down south from Irkutsk thru the forest and some ugly industrial areas and at around 10:15am, this is where the main railway starts. We arrived one little fish village called Slyudyanka, where is just located the western most tip of the lake, all passengers were required to get off and get some drinks, or souvenirs as the train had to change the locomotive to the opposite side of the train as the train will go backwards. Within 15 minutes, everything done and we
all got back to the train again and starts to go towards east to Port Baikal.
It was really wonderful to see the views of the other side of the lake, the scenery is so much different from what I saw in Olkhon, the mountains were filled with gold, red and yellow leafs, tall pine tress, while the lake was still as emerald green and clearly blue as I what I have seen in Olkhon, the train goes just above the lake at times I can't see the land when I look down out of the window and the other side it was cliffs, trees and mountains upwards. Most part of the railway is in two-lined while the other one had taken away and abandoned since long time ago. We had number of stops along the way to look at how things had changed on the line, other than this, the most thing that keeps my camera flashing around was the lake infront and the mountains behind. I followed other people around and listened to some explanations in Russian that my guessing, was the history of this stop and about the lake.
During the 10 hours jounery, there
was a Russian lady on the train that was explaining everything to all passengers such as the railway history, story and stopping times. I was the only non-Russian on the train, although I soon after realized there were few Chilean and American sitting other side of First Class but they were with tour group that had Russian guide to translate. Actually I had some printouts that contain all information about this railway history and information of each station but somehow I dropped it in the toilet sink during my onboard convenience, so ended up I asked the American Tour Guide and she was so kind and explained everything to me.
The water in Lake Baikal is incredibly clear, pure and fresh, the train stopped at one beach area for almost 1.5 hour and I saw people get down to swim, or just charter a high speedboat for a quick return.
Finally at 20:00 we arrived at Port Baikal, where all passengers were transferred by a small ferry to Listvyanka, a little fish village and resort place, 70km south of Irkutsk, where people could make an overnight stop, or just hop on one of the bus to Irkutsk. It
was really a lovely beautiful day, and I can't believe time flies so fast that I was almost to take my flight back home in the same evening.
I got back to Irkutsk at 22:00, had a great hot shower, some coffee before I went to Irkutsk Airport - And that was the end of my trip in Stunning Siberia.
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