Lesnaya, 7 Irkutsk

... started with a basic hostel, then added a floor to their own accommodation to provide private<br>apartments. The latest addition, still within their enclosed grounds, is a block of &#8220;luxury apartments&#8221;. They are also the owners of an adjacent shop supplying not only visitors but also the local community; the lady buying her weeks&#8217;s supply of cat food weighed out from a large bag of dried food and another lady clearly getting a ...

... month so we decided to have a little luxury and book ourselves into a hotel for a few nights. The restaurant was not too expensive, and was also very good in our opinions. The view from our room was astounding, we could see the whole of the Angara river and see the sunset and all the twinkling lights upon the river at night. An added bonus were the pool tables, but we steered clear of the Russian billiards.<br><br ...

<br>The Route<br>Arrived in Irkutsk - 9:48am, Monday Sept 14th<br>Depart Irkutsk - 9:50pm, Tuesday Sept 15th (Train 362)<br>Arrive Ulan Bator - 6:20am, Wednesday Sept 16th<br><br>IRKUTSK<br> <br>The big thing to do in Irkutsk is to see Lake Baikal. I had one night in town.<br><br>Lake Baikal is just over an hour bus ride from Irkutsk and it's huge. It's 630km around the shores and 1.5km deep. It's huge and it holds 1/5 of the ...

... br><br><br>3rd class it may be, but it's a luxury compared with the lot of the million-plus convicts exiled to provide labour in Siberian mines in the late 17th and 18th centuries for 'crimes' as minor as fortune-telling, snuff-taking and driving with reins (considered too European!). These unfortunates were herded cross-country on foot for months until the opening of the railway, when they enjoyed the relative comfort of being ...

... stretch our legs, buy food etc from local sellers on the plastform <br>but always under the watchful eye of our lovely carriage attendasnt.<br><br>The dining car proved to be a bit of a challenge as no english spoken eg whem ordering breakfast of scrambled egg with ham we got frankfurter and chips!<br><br>The carriage is suprisingly clean considering the number of people, this was down to the efforts of the carriage attendant<br><br>There are many nationalities on the train ...

... kind of mince ball from the bushabakes (Russian name for grandmothers) for around 1 pound all very nice. There is a Norwegian guy in our group that no one really lieks and he keeps geting inritated with the mongolians on bored swearing at them and being aggressive when they push past him or do something, some times travellerscan be very ignorant heis a good example of it.

... locker room or something.<br><br>After that, basically just wandered back and relaxed and read. Been doing lots of reading finally. Lastly, if you talk to a Russian that knows English well and try to help "translate"&#8230; well&#8230; just don&#8217;t. I didn&#8217;t, but saw this a couple times at the hostel and the response from the staff lady was usually dead pan humour of some level. J

... hanging around. I think I&#8217;m the only American here currently. Went to dinner with a few of them as well. It was a very nice chill group and very diverse. Had a native Russian (although grew up in England), Englishman, Norwegian, Italian, and myself. We also ran into more of the hostel folks at the restaurant (called Chili&#8217;s), whom were Australian and Irish. I think next time I go to Moscow, I either need to bring my crew, or do a hostel ...

... br><br>We were by now used to Russians being surly. An Australian guy described them as 'a severe race', constantly grumping and barking at us and one another, no smiles in sight... but Finola and I were stunned, really and truly stunned into exasperated silence, by the contempt that the woman serving showed toward us. She looked loathe to have us in the shop, curling her lip, rolling her eyes, looking down her beak of a nose at us. We ...

... companion and we had another spare berth. Corina and Ritchie lay on their top bunks taking pictures of the view from the open windows - Train no. 6 was slightly older but it had it's advantages like being able to open windows - until we all fell asleep.<br><br><br>When we woke later the scenery was starting to change, the thick forests of Siberia were already giving way to the flat grassy plains that Mongolia is renowned for. Alongside the Selenga river we ...