Ulan Ude

---

After a short (in the grand scheme of things) and uneventful train journey from Irkutsk to Ulan Ude we arrived at our homestay in the early moning. We were staying with a woman called Lera in another Soviet apartment block. After crashing for a few hours we had breakfast. It turns out that our house mother was a gourmet chef in a previous life and for the first time ever we enjoyed our breakfast in Russia.

After breakfast we were collected by our driver Andre (Also a political pundit) and our guide, Sveta, and whisked away to a Buddhist monastery outside the city of Ulan Ude. We had a brief tour of the tiny monastery that is still being rebuit. (after the Communist era).

We then went for a tradtional Buryati lunch in a small Ger beside an izba. A ger is a large tent similar to those in Mongolia. The ger was beautifully orinate and we were served dumplings (which we made ourselves), noodle soup, butter milk and berry whiskey sanctioned by the Dali Lama (apparently). We then got to try on a traditional Burayti costume. We then tried our hand at some archery but due to poor wind conditions we failed to come within 20 metres of the target. She also taught us a local game played with sheep ankle bones, which involved flicking them at each other. (A bit like Subbuteo).

When we got back to the city we wandered around for a while. Ulan Ude only has one tourist attraction, the words biggest sculpted head, which is of Lenin of course. It is certainly apparent that they dont get too many tourists as for we seemed to become a bigger attraction than Lenin.

After another gourmet meal of beef wrapped in cabbage in some kind of pastry thing. We also did our first clothes wash since Zagreb and took over her apartment with our wet jocks hanging up all over the place. Lera then recommended a local bar for us, so we had a few bevvies before an early night. The following morning we were again met by our guide and headed off to "an even bigger monastery". It was a huge place with a lot more activity as it is the centre of Buddhism in Russia. It was the only functioning monastery during Soviet times.

Afterwards we headed back to the city and went to a Far Eastern Medical Clinic. We wrangled a consultation with the deputy clinic head. Through pulse analysis and some questions about our bowel movements, he was able to give us some really accurate detail about our medical histories. Scarily spotting that Ciaran had a tooth ache at the time even pointing out the actual tooth involved. He prescribed an increase in Ciaran's dairy consumption, if that is humanly possible. For Ronan he prescribed marriage!!!

More Ommel for dinner was followed by an evening of repacking our bags with some urgently needed clean clothes. We had an early night to catch our train out of Russia.

Next stop Ulaannbator, Mongolia...

---

Photos

Our Front Door
Lovely eh.....

Yep It's A Big Head
The Largest Sculpted Head In The World In Fact

Prayer Wheels
10 Million Prayers In Each

Our Room
Tidy As Ever

Comments

[Siobhan]

Russian Bride
Brats, whats going on with the dress!! There will be no upstaging me on August 24th, ya hear!!

[Finbar]

Man Utd 2 Liverpool 0