Blogs from Ulan-Ude, Siberia, Russia, Europe - page 4

I am starting to get the idea that the local deities like their offerings. This afternoon, whilst visiting the Open Air Ethnographic Museum of Transbaikalia Peoples with my local contact, a charming young man called Pavel, I was just about to put a couple of coins onto the bronze age 'little deer' stones, as is custom here, when my beloved Celine sunglasses fell off my head. Before I knew it, I had stepped on them and broken them. Dismayed, I realized they were completely ruined. But Pavel was impressed and indicated that I should lay them on the stones as an offering. 'Tradition!', he said, 'good sign you broke them here! Don't be sad. It's good!' The local deities seem to have an expensive taste in sunglasses. The problem was soon remedied, however, as I was ... read more

The sleeper train to Ulan-Ude, despite its promising name, unfortunately doesn’t involve any sleep at all. Thanks to a non-closing window allowing passing trains to blow their cheery 1000 decibel whistles directly into my ears and the fact that our enthusiastic train driver slams the brakes on hard every, oh, 15 seconds, allowing me to execute graceful somersaults backwards and forwards across the cabin, I don’t get an ounce of kip and tumble off the train at 06:30 at something slightly less than my most radiant. Still, excited to be in Ulan Ude we dash/stagger to the closest accommodation where the receptionist confides that there is no water available. Niet! However, never ones to shy away from a shower-free experience we shrug limply in the face of the water issue and take a room anyway. On ... read more

Day 128, 6th October Ulan Ude - Ivolginsk - Datsan Was up early packing the bike, had breakfast with Scott and checked on the other guys, hangovers from hell had descended on them. At twelve we assembled at the Lenin head for a photoshoot that didn’t materialize - it’s a good job really considering the state we were in. Tobes looked as rough as hell and we had to wait another hour till he was ready, then, we were off, out of the city on an overcast day. As soon as we left the city we were surrounded by grasslands and rolling hills, it looked lovely. Some hilltops had radars on top of them, probably due to the close proximity of the border. Other hilltops were totally bare. On the far western side of the valley ... read more

This morning we came to Lake Baikal. I think it was morning but somewhere between here and Moscow there is about a 5 hour time difference. With little to do other than sleep, read and play cribbage it’s hard to keep track. Fortunately for us we had Hilda who was constantly jotting notes on a flow chart of where and when we should be. After questioning her, I rightfully guessed she was a math teacher. Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world at a maximum depth of 1637 meters. This tranquil lake doted with the odd fisherman is the only thing to break up the monotony. We are about to turn south towards Mongolia and should reach the border in the late evening. Well we have reached the border of Mongolia. Sam asked the ... read more

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