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Published: June 13th 2009
We arrived in Ulan-Ude about 6 am. We had a home stay with Andrey and Svetlana. Andrei picked us up at the station. At their home we had a good breakfast with pancakes that Svetlana had prepared for us . We had some rest and about 11 we left with Andrey to visit the Atsagatsky Buddhist Lamasery. The last Tzar also consulted the Lamas in this temple. The journey from the city to there was really enjoyable. Siberia finally unfolded under our eyes. The landscape is barren but with abundant wildlife. After the Lamasery we visited a Buryat village . Ghelya greeted us at the gate of her log cabin with green tea and milk. The Buryats were nomads in the past. Like the Mongolians they are very proud of their dairy products. That part of Siberia was their country until colonization arrived. Same old story. For what it seems there has been a revival of Buryat culture in the area though.
Ghelya's log cabin is very interesting and she explained that the door faces south because evil spirits come from the north. For lunch she prepared bread, salad, salamat (sour cream cooked with flour) and we helped prepare our own
dumplings called bosy. We drunk tea with a Buryat rum prepared with more than 20 different types of herb. After lunch we visited the Yurka (ger) and dressed up in Buryat costume and played 'ankles'. It is a traditional game made with the bones of a sheep or goat I do not remember clearly. She won of course. This village that we visited is an interesting place and is the only one in the region connected by tarmac to the 'motorway'. Andrey explained to us that in 1990 when Princes Anne visited Ulan-Ude she chose to pay a visit to this particular village so the tarmac was laid overnight and ended at the little surgery at the entrance of the village. Andrei suggested that this overnight performance by the then Soviet authorities could be added to the Guinness Book of Records.
Back in Ulan Ude we visited the city centre. It was very cold so our trip did not last long. On the way home we took the wrong tram and got lost. A Russian woman helped us to make our way back and she even paid our fare to the driver. The only problem is that she misunderstood where
we wanted to go and the instructions she gave to the driver were not really what we needed. When passed 'our' area neither the driver nor the other passengers allowed us to get off the mini van (we upgraded our mode of transport). There we were, lost again. When the van stopped and they allowed us to get off we needed to start all over again. Eventually we got back to Andrey and Svetlana's home. We had Plov for dinner, it is a type of risotto with meat. By now Ben's cold was really bad.
The next day we went to visit the Ivolginsky Datsan, another Buddhist monastery. They are all new as the ancient buildings had been destroyed during soviet times and from the 1940s people were allowed to practice their religion again . It is a beautiful and colorful place in the middle of Siberia. It consists of several temples. The Buddhism practiced here is Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama has already visited both the Lamasery from the day before and this one. After the Datsan we had lunch at a road side cafe. In the afternoon we visited a village called Tarbagatay. It is a
village of old believers, orthodox Christians that did not accept the reforms of the church a few centuries ago. During the reign if Catherine the Great they were sent into exile in Siberia to develop the land as they are skilled in agriculture. The old believers are often compared with the Amish in the US but we learned it is not exactly the same. The local priest has created a museum with a collection of treasures from the region including mammoth fossils and relics from old times. Really really worth the visit. The church is full of ancient icons that were kept safe and hidden by the inhabitants during the soviet regime, some need urgent restoration. On our way home we stopped in an area by the Selenga river. Undoubtedly the most beautiful site we have seen in Siberia. On our way to Ulaan Bataar the next day we also could see it from the train. Ben's cold was really bad by now so we did not do any more sightseeing and went home. We ate meat balls and mash potato for dinner and Svetlana baked a really delicious cake with condensed milk and mayonnaise. Find it weird. Wait until
you try. It is gorgeous. After dinner Ben played backgammon with Yasha, their son, he also taught Ben a new game. Their daughter is studying French at University so she practiced a bit with Ben.
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frans
non-member comment
Hoi Benoit en Robson ik volg regelmatig jullie blog en zo te zien is er heel wat te beleven. Prachtige streken en toffe mensen om te ontmoeten. Moet een heel beete toegeven maar kben een beetje jaloers op al die ervaringen die jullie opdoen. geniet ervan , groeten vanuit het zonnige lombardsijde Frans