Onto Lake Baikal

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So we boarded our train Friday evening which was two nights long, another long one! For this train we were unable to get the cheaper plaskart (3rd) tickets so we had our first experience of Kupe (2nd class), which was a lot better all the price was over double, but still only 60 pounds each which isn't bad for a train that takes around 34 hours! Kupe has the same four bunks beds, but thats it and its in a little closed compartment with no extra beds along the sides, so that means less people are crammed into the carriage which means the toilets are little more bearable. Ste and I had beds on top of one another which made things a lot easier for us, on the opposite top bunk was a youngish Russian lad who didn't really speak to us and on the bottom bunk was a 60 year Russian man named Sergie who didn't stop talking to us, even though his English was very limited! We got on the train at 7pm and had some noodles, read a bit and played some cards until Sergie introduced himself. He had a load of food with him but wouldn't eat any of it, he kept patting his stomach saying he needs to keep fit so kept passing all this food to us some of which were a little interesting. He had this huge lump of something that resembled pork fat, he cut little slices off and put them on some granary bread. Ste was good and ate some, but I really couldn't hack it, tried a little but it was pretty disgusting. He then got out a load of cheese which he kept cutting us blocks off and then finally some biscuits were really yummy 😊 He left the compartment and came back with 3 cups of tea 😊 He told us all about his life in the army and his work now getting out all his work documents trying to show us them, told us all about his family and gave us his sons number who lived in Irkutsk and told us to call him if we have any problems, then once he noticed our cards he showed us all these cards tricks for about an hour. He was a bit of a legend though, asking us all questions about our family, our lives and our trip saying that we were good young people 😊 After he got ready for bed, we left our compartment to let him get to sleep and went two doors down where we had overhead an English couple so we went and joined them. They had some youngish Russian lads in their compartment that were really nice, was really funny us all crammed into this tiny compartment so much lack of communication!

When we woke up in the morning Sergie was leaving the train that morning and he had left us all of his food and put them into 2 little piles, with a label saying breakfast and another label saying lunch 😊 Was soooo sweet of him, really nice. This day on the train was pretty relaxed, we spent time doing more reading (the English couple had lent us their Mongolia Lonely Planet) and playing more cards, eating and an early night as our train got in quite early and Irkutsk was 2 hours ahead so we lost some more hours sleeping.

Arriving in Irkutsk Sunday morning was a bit of a shock as the temperature was 0 degrees and it was freezing!!!! First time we had got all our hats, gloves and scarfs out. We sat around in some cheap little cafe waiting for it to get light, attempted to order some food 😊 and then made our way to our hostel which was nice as going over the bridge into the centre you get a perfect view of sunrise 😊

Hostel was great, let us check in straight away and the woman started helping us plan our trip to Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal. They had a minibus that left the hostel everyday so we decided to get that tomorrow and spend the day in Irkutsk catching up on some bits. We had a nice walk around the city, found a pub called Liverpool, but it was closed 😞 The temperature had completely changed since this morning and was now about 15-20 degrees.

So Monday morning a minibus of us all headed off for the 7hour journey to Olkhon Island, most of the people in the minibus were staying at Nikita's hostel (the only main Hostel available to stay in on the Island that has got a huge reputation and people think the Hostel alone has boosted the tourism for the Island) and some others were staying in a homestay. We had opted for the hostel, they were the same price, but we kind of wanted to meet some other travellers and do some trips. The journey is was ok, tiny old minibus with loads of us crammed in, bags on our laps, under our feet. But after the ferry crossing once we were on the Island the roads stopped existing and became dirt tracks that were unbelievably bumpy. But we made it that in one piece. It was nice going as a group with people from the Hostel as we had met many of them the night before and it was good that we were all doing something together as most people we have met so far are heading in all different directions.

We were in a 4 bedded dorm with 2 others from our bus journey, a dutch girl called Liz and a spanish guy called Jorge. Our room had no heating but some wooden fire/stove thing which the kind of maintenance man came round a lit everyday, when he came into our room he have us a little tour of the hsotel site and showed us the banya (russian sauna - very typical all over, many houses have their own, although they might not have a shower, so this would be their alternative), he also told us he was doing a free concert in the restaurant after dinner tonight on the accordian. The hostel we were staying in was full board so just before dinner we had a walk round the back of the hostel which led right to the cliff edge with an amazing view of the sun setting. Dinner was good, Lake Baikal is famous for its fish, so every meal was fish, yummy though. They had some other random dishes with it some buckwheat stuff, vegetables and some sweet buns for dessert. Soon after, the maintenance man came in all dressed up smart and gave his little concert, was really nice, he played some local songs and some european stuff. 2 russian women got up and sang too, 1 of whom was our receptionist! We spent the evening with Liz and Jorge, and two other Spanish Javier and Marta, they were in a different room in a separate house which had a large common room, we stayed here talking and drinking as their room was much warmer than ours 😊

Tuesday we had booked an excursion to go to the North of the Island called Cape Khoboi. We had all booked on the same excursion and were in the same bus, plus the other girls who weren't in the hostel but the homestay so it was really nice to all be together. The excursion was basically a drive up to the North end, but the driver stopped loads along the way to let us take pictures and wonder a little. The scenery was absolutely amazing, the lake just went on forever and just looked so calm and peaceful, it made you want to just jump right in, except that it was freezing (scarves hats thermals & gloves again!!) Once we got to the North end, the driver let us wonder for an hour or so and told us to meet him back at the van for lunch. At the north end you can see the lake and it just never ends. When we got back to the minibus the driver and layed out all our lunch on a picnic table, made a massive fish soup, cheese sandwiches, cakes, tea ahh it was lovely. Was so nice as we were all just expecting a packed lunch. The journey back the driver did the same, stopped off on some places for some pictures. The journey was so bumpy, the dirt tracks were beginning to dissapear and just driving though the trees, ah it was mad. And sometime he would drive and you can see the lake ahead and it looks like you are about the drive right of the cliff but then you go down this huge slope and you aren't actually anywhere near the cliff, you just couldn't tell. Well we made it back in once piece, had a little nap, ate dinner and then spent the night in the common room again playing games and drinking.

One the wednesday everyone else was leaving to go back to the hostel, but Ste and I had booked for 2 nights, so we had a day to oursleves. We went on a bit of a walk around near the hostel and along the cliff and came to a beautiful bay, it looked like we were in some exotic Island in south east asia, except it was freezing. Many people we had met on our trip so far said they had swam in the lake, we thought we would give it a go, but after seeing and feeling how cold it was we had kind of changed our mind. We went down to the little beach area and had a feel of the water and yes it was freezing, but now we were here we were thinking, ah if other people can then so can we. I managed to persuade Ste to go first and he did, was so funny!!! He just ran straight in swam a little and ran back out. So now he had done it, I though I had to too, so ran straight in, i didn't swim at all dunked under a little and ran out fast. Coming out wasn't actually that cold, it was when you were in there that was cold, your chest kind of freezes over so you can't really shout. But at least we had done it!!!!

We spent the rest of the day relaxing around the hostel. The hostel owner was once a table tennis champ, so in the hostel there was a room with the tables in for table tennis, so we had a few games, Ste won them all!! And then Nikita (the hostel owner) came in and played with his friend, ah it mad, they were soooo fast and it distracted us far too much from our game. We tried the banya also. There are 3 rooms, one to get changed in, then another room where you can wash yourself, quite mad as we had to wash ourselves using buckets, there was a huge barrel of cold water and then a hot water tap. Was quite fun though. Then the final room was the sauna, was nice after being out in the cold but after a couple of minutes it gets too hot, so its quite good to run back into the wash room and just throw some cold water over ourselves then go back in.

That evening after dinnner there was another free concert same as before and we spent some time with a couple of scottish girls we had met back in the hostel in Irkutsk. Then this guy turned round calling Steve, and it was this french guy we had met at the couchsurfing party back in St Petersburg. So was really nice to catch up with him.

Thursday morning our bus back to Irkutsk left at 6.45am so really early morning, got back good timing though and had the day in Irkutsk. The hostel we had stayed in before said we could come back and use the shower and computer etc, so we did that before heading off the get the overnight train and bus to Mongolia.

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Photos

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Our Kupe compartment

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Sunrise walking over the bridge into Irkutsk

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Sunset on Olkhon Island by the cliffs just behind our hostel

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Nikita's hostel reception. All the houses with the dorms in were like this too, little wooden huts.

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Our group :)

Comments

[Lara]

SOunds amazing and I want a segie how cute was he! xxx

[Jen]

Hey
Hey Guys, Your latest pics look amazing. Can't believe you swam in lake, must have been freezing. Hope your both ok, all good here Jen x x

[Sarah]

Pictures look amazing, sounds like you are having a brilliant time and meeting some nice people. I'm really enjoying reading the blogs - keep up the good work! Lots of Love xxx