Best Eastern Gloria Irkutsk

... are the private mini buses which also operate on set routes but
depart when the driver feels he has enough passengers. Whichever you use, there is one fare,
regardless of distance. No scrabbling about for change to feed the machine and no problem for foreigners who don’t know where they are going, never mind the correct fare.



The weather also plays its part in highlighting how ...

... of there. Cant believe how long it took.

I now realise why some of the other guys I met caught the train to Ulan Ude then take the quicker and cheaper bus to UB. However we (all us tourists in the cafe) decided they were cheating and not doing the 100% Trans-Siberian experience.

Arrive Mongolian Border 8pm

Things get a little hazy here.

Dom, Russ and I have a few more beers then crack open the ...

... transformed by a deep white layer - I imagine it would be beautiful. But for now, I'm just happy to be in the protection of a railcar and not exposed to the wildlife as was George Kennan, who travelled this way in 1887 and reported being "so tormeted by huge grey mosquitoes" that he was "blotted from head to toe as if suffering from an eruptive disease". Nice.


While the train rumbles on through trees and time-zones life ...

... stretch our legs, buy food etc from local sellers on the plastform
but always under the watchful eye of our lovely carriage attendasnt.

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!

The carriage is suprisingly clean considering the number of people, this was down to the efforts of the carriage attendant

There are many nationalities on the train ...

... rush back to Russia. I know thisis a common feeling amount our group but it is also hard to really judge the country as it is so big and I have on seen a small section of it. Passing through the Siberian countryside you see alot of broken down houses and run down factorys and dirty tower blocks. The Mongolians continue to provide entertainment mind you with there ...

We're actually 70 kilometres on from Irkutsk staying on Lake Baikal at Listvyanka, which is a sleepy Siberian village but a trendy enough spot to host ex President Putin, who recently did his torso-flexing thing here, swimming butterfly stroke in the freezing waters, after having dived to the bottom in a submarine apparently to observe the unique flora and fauna of this particular eco-climate. Yes ...

... plan: find an internet cafe, and use that to find our bearings and a place to stay. We knew that the russian for internet was something like "internet-a" or "internet-u," and for half an hour we went around asking people on the street, shop owners, office workers... and people either found us impossible to understand, or simply didn't know where to direct us. Finola suggested that we try asking in a pharmacy, since they might be "better educated." We ...

... br>

- So as mentioned in the last update I have the man flu! Ive sort of had a cold since I started the trip but now it has become man flu but hope I can get over it soon. Not feeling too bad today.

- Managed to have a conversation today with someone ...

... By then I was getting used to the coldness of the Russian people, but this was getting personal. Is this how Russian women date or did I not wear enough deodorant? Either way, I wasn’t about to try to figure out the reason let alone what goes on in a woman’s mind. So I slept the night off watching a marathon of Russian cartoons.

The next day was a bit awkward since Vera was my tour guide for my city tour of Irkutsk ...

... I felt trapped and tried not to think of all the photos of marshrutka accidents that I've seen. I start to study my fellow passengers - there's a young guy in sunglasses sitting next to me, a woman who looks like my former Russian prof sitting in front of me with her eight year old daughter, and an extremely fat man taking up two seats at the front. he ends up getting into an argument with a guy who has crutches, as he refuses to move to let the crutches ...