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Published: February 6th 2007
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Pebbles in Lake Baikal
The water in the lake was amazingly clear. I just returned from a 2-week business trip to Russia. I was with a joint Russian-American team who site visited 9 Russian universities in 6 cities in 4 different time zones. While the schedule was brutal and there was little time for fun, I wanted to post a few photos.
I was lucky enough to get upgraded to business class on the transatlantic flight to Moscow, which was pretty sweet. On the same night I arrived, we took off for Irkutsk, which is a 5 1/2-6 hour flight from Moscow. Irkutsk has a tiny hut of an airport. They throw the baggage through a hole in the wall and onto the conveyer belt.
Irkutsk is a really interesting city close to Lake Baikal and is less than 200 kilometers from the Mongolian border. It has these neat old houses with beautiful wooden trim. The city is very Russian, but there are many Mongolian and Chinese traders passing through on the Trans-Mongolian Railway, which gives it an interesting frontier atmosphere.
Like many Siberian cities, there is a long-standing emphasis on education and the arts. When the tsars exiled the Decembrists and other dissidents, many took their entire libraries with
them. As a result, there are extensive collections containing millions of engraved manuscripts, religious texts and other books in libraries across Siberia. There is even a story about an exile who carried a rare plant under his fur coat all the way to the famous botanic garden that I visited in Tomsk last month. Because Siberia is so far from Moscow, even the tentacles of the KGB could not reach all the way to remote places like Irkutsk. Books that were officially banned were sometimes accessible in far-flung Soviet cities like Irkutsk.
Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake in the world. Around 20% of all available fresh water in the world is in Baikal. The lake is so large, there are even freshwater seals living there.
I have always wanted to visit Lake Baikal, so this was definitely the highlight of the trip. We had a day to take a boat trip out on the lake, and were very fortunate that this was the one sunny, non-snowy day in Irkutsk. The water is unbelievably clear and you can see every pebble and fish in the water. Our hosts arranged a fish barbecue for us, and that was
some of the freshest, best fish I have ever tasted. All of this was washed down with vodka shots, naturally.
It's nice to know that the Soviets did not foul up such a pristine place, though the factory on the edge of the lake is an eyesore. There are a few "pink castles," but for the most part, there is little development on the lake. This is the classic catch 22 faced by many governments. Do they develop tourism at the lake and get more visitors to come, at the risk of increasing pressure on the delicate ecosystem? Or do they not do much, and have the locals determine how the lake will be used for water, lumber, fish, and other resources? I'm not sure what the best solution is, but there needs to be a more clear strategy developed for the long-term preservation of this amazing place.
I spent several days working in Moscow before taking off for Ufa. This was not my first trip to Moscow, so I didn't do anything touristy there. Since we went to a different city every night that week, we chartered a private plane. That was really amazing-what fantastic service! I
could definitely get used to being spoiled like this.
Having your own plane has definite perks. Rather than standing in a huge line in Shermemyetovo 1, pushing to go through x-ray to even get to the ticket counter and shove some more (those of you who have flown on Russian domestic flights know exactly what I am talking about!), you go into a private hall for business flights. Instead, they give you a voucher for tea or coffee and you sit on a nice comfortable chair while the staff checks your bag for you.
The plane comes with its own 4-person crew: pilot, co-pilot, flight attendant, and flight engineer. The food was awesome and each dinner was enough to feed 2-3 people. If you want to leave early or you are running late, all you have to do is call up the crew and tell them what you want to do, and they'll take off early or hold the flight for you. Such service! I've gotten really spoiled, and it will be hard to go back to economy class.
I didn't see much of Ufa except for the airport, hotel, and university. It was too cold to
walk around, and I was busy working the whole time I was there. That was true of every city I passed through on this trip.
After Ufa, we flew to Izhevsk. I had never heard of this city before, but Izhevsk's most famous son is the inventor of the Kalashnikov (AK-47). He lives in Izhevsk and there is a Kalashnikov museum in town which, alas, I did not have time to visit.
I passed briefly through Tambov. My main memory of Tambov was the bizarre set-up of the hotel's breakfast area. It was more like a disco, complete with techno music, a disco ball, dance floor, and life-size figurines of Michael Schumacher and other Formula 1 drivers.
I spent 2 nights in Yaroslavl', which is a gorgeous historical city a few hours from Moscow. There are many beautiful churches and old buildings in Yaroslavl', which I saw from the outside during my quick drive-by tour. The city was named after its founder, Prince Yaroslavl. Adding an l' to the end of a name was a possessive form in old Russian, so the city would more accurately be called "Yaroslavl's." I'd like to come back to Yaroslavl again
during the summer. It was too cold to walk around, but the historic center of Yaroslavl is pretty compact and must be a great place to walk in nice weather.
Russia is already freezing, and it was snowing pretty hard everywhere we went. I was surprised how well the pilots landed. For example, in Tambov, right after we landed, they turned off the lights and closed the airport because the weather was so poor. Good thing we took off from Izhevsk an hour early!
My perspective on Russia is very different than other countries. First of all, you always see a different part of a country's culture when you are doing business there and are not a tourist. Secondly, I was able to go to some pretty far-flung places in Russia that are well beyond the normal Moscow-St. Petersburg tourist circuit. Finally, I was able to meet with a lot of local folks who are working in something besides the tourist industry.
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