Mother Russia...

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  Irkutsk, Russia
Monday, September 3, 2007

Welcome to Mother Russia.....get out your roubles....

We definately ran out of time in Mongolia. Great place and so much to see and do, especially out in the country side. For us though it is back on the train for 30hrs and headed to Irkutsk, Russia. Cath and I have got our own little train routine sorted now and it is often with a satisfied sigh that we slip into our cabin, don the comfy clothes and make the first of many cups of tea, coffee or instant noodles. Still the same dilemma though, read, look out the window or nap..??? We all have difficult choices to make so I wont go on about ours :) The train ride was comfortable and the scenery as the sun was going down was same old same old....spectacular! As per our last train ride, crossing boarders seems to happen between 9pm and 6am meaning an interupted nights sleep. We hit Mongolian customs about 9.30pm and departed Russian customs about 5am in the morning. Customs is a story all in its own...

In the preceding hour approaching a boarder crossing the train becomes a hive of activity. People (men, mothers and grandmothers) scurry from carriage to carriage with armfulls of jeans, vodka and other assorted items. The parcels go from cabin to cabin until almost everybody seems to have a parcel (or several) stashed under their beds or in their luggage locker. This is the smuggling racket..... Everybody is now carrying several pairs of jeans and a couple of liters of 'Chingis Kahn Vodka, Gold Label' that can be passed of as presents for friends.

cows on the loose

The customs officials board the train and begin their search, all the secret panels and storage containers in the train are opened and inspected and the officials look on with an understanding and somewhat resigned expression at the very evenly distributed parcels of jeans, vodka etc. If there is a commotion then someone has been caught with too many bottles or too much denim and the resolution seems to be that the customs official will relieve them off the excess (obviously contributions to the office Christmas fund) and everything settles down. this process takes a ridiculous amount of time (anywhere between 5-10hrs) and the business of checking passports etc seems to be a distant second on the priority list. Off course 10 minutes after the train has moved through customs, it is once again bustling with activity as everyone goes about regathering all the distributed merchandise until their cabins are overflowing with packages ready to be sold on the black market for a tidy profit. Who knows, maybe there is a career in it??? Anyway all the commotion does tend to lead to a rather sleepless night.

Next day the scenery out the window has changed again, not to different to what I would have expected from rural, eastern Russia. Lots off small settlements (wooden houses, all with vegetable gardens), longer grass and wooded hills. The highlight of the trip was the 2-3hrs we spent traveling beside Lake Baikal. the Lake is huge and along its length cliffs, grass and small pebbly beaches alternate.

Irkutsk1

the water looked clear and cold. The natural scenery was broken up periodically by Russian families or couples camping and sun bathing on the shores. Seemed to be an abundance of attractive (as far as one can tell when traveling by train) girls in their bikinis which I was always sure to point out to Cath....

Irkutsk was the first port of arrival where we got off the train and were at a bit of a loss as to what to do. Not a tout in sight. Luckily we had met an Australian couple on the train, travelling with their parents, who had a Russian driver who spoke English waiting for them at the station. We were able to get advice from the driver as to the approximate cost of a taxi into town and what direction it should take us... We were told 200 rubles. Cath asked the driver how much to take us into town and without blinking (imagine a thick Russian accent at this point), said '2000 rubles'. Cath was on the ball and immediately said, 'did you mean to say 200 rubles?' , to which the reply (in the same thick bored Russian accent), hrrmmm yes, 200 rubles'. We didnt feel that it had been a innocent misunderstanding, but with a fixed price we headed into town. The hostel we were staying at is recommended in the L.P. and is called The Bakailer Hostel run by a fellow called Jack, by all accounts a knowledgeable and helpful fellow. When we arrived we were greeted by Vitali, Jack was away on tour. Vitali confirmed many Russian stereotypes of unhelpfulness bordering on hostility but we did eventually convince him to please speak to the Russian person on the other end of the phone as we were trying to find out about our onwards train tickets which were supposed to be delivered.

irkutsk2

We were a bit stressed about the tickets which vitali knew nothing about and did not think it particularly an onerous request for him to converse in Russian with the local company responsible for the delivery. It turns out the tickets were on the table next to the phone and been delivered earlier..... (not to leave you with the wrong impression, had a few chats with Vitali a bit latter and he did start to thaw, just not to good on the first impressions).

We found Irkutsk to be a little intimidating at first, lots of young guys drinking as they walked down the street, aggressive in posture and with haircuts that seemed to warn of limited intelligence. Jeans (worn belly button high) were definitely in fashion, hence the cross border trade in knock offs. Many of the girls were dressed up, with mini skirts and stilettos, hanging off the arms off the beefy arms off the guys mentioned above. all this was kind of surreal with the sun still high in nthe sky at 8 o'clock at night. We found another guy at the hostel and decided to do the old safety in numbers thing as we looked for some dinner. To put it simply, the food sucked and was really expensive. Everything is expensive here...

On our second day in Irkutsk we headed out to a small village on Lake Baikal, a popular tourist spot for locals. There is not a lot to Listvyanka but everybody is in a holiday mood and sits on the shore of the lake (may as well be an ocean, you can barely see the other side), on one of the intermittent beaches of pebbles and drinks their beer whilst eating smoked Baikal fish on a stick.

Irkutsk3

It still got particularly cold (maybe 10-16degrees during the day + wind) but as they were there on holidays, there was a beach and the sun was up, this meant that it was quite all right to get around in your Speedos and bikinis. Cath and I went for jeans and jumpers. It was very nice there but there really was not much to do after you had walked dow the one street, visited the markets for your fish on a stick and then sat on the beach with a beer until getting cold and moving on. We found a nice B&B / motel with a Russian lady who spoke a bit of english. Leapard skin blankets could really have done with a wash.... Walking back to our diggs for the night it was quite a novilty to see 4 cows strolling down the narrow alleyway, blocking our path as they tucked into rubbish bins by the side of the road. they really were menaces and completely free to do as they pleased. Spent one night by Lake Baikal before heading back to Irkutsk. Cath and I both feel we are ready to move on and look forward to the 72hr journey in front of us to Moscow leaving tomorrow.

hope everyone is doing well back home, wish you could join us for the ride.

Congratulations to Chris and Helen on finally getting into their new home! Looking forward to the promised recliner action when we get home (watching movies if any one was confused...)

Till Moscow.

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Lake Baikal	smoked fish	train1	train2

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