Victory Hotel Irkutsk

We arrived in Irkutsk this morning at 6:15am in the dark and heavy snow and -1C. Thankfully this time we found our hostel without incident, just a 10 minute trudge through the snow.

I'm pleased to report that the Transiberian train from Moscow to Irkutsk did not disappoint. We hit gold on the fellow passenger jackpot. Our room mates, Yasay a fireman and Lena a nurse were a ...

... threatening just to cross the road. It was one of the group's birthdays (Luke), so we all went to a superb Mongolian meal - Timur even managed a birthday cake - bless him!! and the restaurant even presented Luke with a present - an umbrella!!

25th Sept - a free day to explore Urkutsk - we walked around the food markets, but very polluted in general - not our favourite place, but good to see. In the evening we left the hotel for the overnight train to Baikal.

... favourite football team (not on my radar!), and despite clearly failing their credibility test, repeatedly gave me the thumbs up and told me I was "a cool girl"! They tried hard to ply me with beer and vodka but I had to politely decline, on account of not wanting to oversleep and miss my next stop. They happily donated me a team scarf and then, on learning of my planned route, excitedly gave me their email addresses, asking me to ...

... see people of all ages with a bottle of beer, including middle aged women and empty cans litter the street. But you do not see that many people actually drunk.

We now have one night in Irkutsk before an early start tomorrow to catch the train again to Mongolia ( we will have very limited, in no access to internett until Bejing).

The apartment we are staying tonight is another home stay with a nice lady called Olga. The apartment is a typical Russian two-bed apartment ...

... Stalin to develop the Gulags and we know the rest. 'The House of the Dead' was Dostoyesky's account of his Gulag experience as his sentence for treason against the state had been commuted to exile in Siberia.

Local people regard this areas as having the equivalent of ley lines and shamanism is popular. In the C16 there was a 'wako-like' incident here when a sect burnt itself alive rather than ...

Getting off the train was relatively easy, although they were slightly late which made things a bit confusing. Just like the airport, there was the barrage of Russians that can't speak English all saying "taxi" to you really loudly. Rather then bother with the bus (for $.50), I ponied up the $10 for a taxi to the hostel I was staying at.

So I decided for Irkutsk I would stay in a hostel instead of hotel. It’s much cheaper and easier to meet new ...

... en route if we could 'help'. We werent that keen but in the end Francois wore a v dodgy denim jacket and mum and dad had lovely mongolian slippers on! The smugglers were up and down the corridors with bundles of stuff for much of the journey and were likely to have been the reason for our 6 hours at the Russian border from 9pm til 3am!!

... the Irkutsk downtown hostel.

There was no room at the inn... but very helpfully the receptionist made a booking for us at the nearby Admiral hostel, and sent us on the 10 minute walk to its small but comfortable dorms.

We ventured to the nearby supermarket, then cooked ourselves a hearty pasta dish, with the famous local 'Dolmio' sauce, drank some cheap beer, and discussed how we would like to spend Finola's birthday the following day...

... Ulaan Baator…pilsner beer…cultural show…contortionists…ger camp…rain…cards and wine…buuz maing…archery…vodka party…Summertime…Old MacDonald…horseback riding…ger district…drinking wine on the Russian border…swimming in Lake Baikal…Nikolai's banya…infected spider bites ...

... only the bravest go for a dip. Apparently, if you go for a swim, so the legend says, your life will be extended by 25 years. If you survive. I decide not to chance it, and dipping my hands in (plus one year!) I content myself to sit on the shore, wondering if the dip I took in the Mongolian river will have any effect. I figure I'm good for at least an extra 10 years, as that river flowed into Baikal.

At the section of lake that I am at, you can see ...