Siberia
06:59 | 
Publié par
Benoit |
Our week in Siberia was mainly divided in 3 parts: Listvyanka and the Olkhone Island on the Baikal Lake.
Irkutsk: We were hosted by Anastasia during our whole stay in Irkutsk and around. She lives in a very comfy apartment not far from the city center which was marvelous for us. As a tourism student, she did a terrific job in showing us the best places in her city and helping us to plan everything. Irkutsk is roughly around 500.000 inhabitants, It is the capital of Siberia, and is located about 60 kms from the Baikal lake felt better there than in Moscow; probably because it is smaller for one thing, and also because I enjoyed very much the wooden style of the old houses that seem to be eaten by the ground little by little.
As often, people seem more relax around here than in the capital city of the country. Thus, the cultural life as well as the fact that the nature is not far away brings a new light on the Russian lifestyle. In brief: I enjoyed very much Irkutsk J
Listvyanka and the Baikal Lake: During our stay, we decided to take a one day tour to Listvyanka, the closest town from Irkutsk which has a direct access to the Baikal Lake. We were told that the countryside around the town would offer some pretty interesting sightseeing points. We met in the minibus a German guy (Niko) who was also on a quite long journey, and therefore spent the day together, walking around in the woods. We got kind of trap in the loop of “the-view-is-nice-from-here-but-I’m-pretty-sure-the-view-would-be-even-nice- from-the-next-hill-right-there”, and therefore we ended up walking all day long from one hill to another. The weather was perfect, the colors incredibly beautiful and we therefore quickly forgot that the combination of snow and steep hills made the “road” very slippery. The pictures I guess speak for themselves…. On the way back we tried the local fish that every Russian had told us about when we were in the train: the omoul. It is kind of steamed fish which absolutely delicious, especially after 5 hours of running around in the Siberian countryside.
Olkhone Island: The last thing we wanted to do is to stay a couple of days (or rather a couple of nights) on the Olkhone Island as we wanted both to see the Baikal lake from one of its most beautiful part and also try to camp in not so warm conditions (remember we are in Siberia in November…). The Baikal Lake is what you would call a HUGE lake, which is the size of a country like Switzerland and has 22% of the worldwide reserves of drinkable water (or at least this is what Russians claim…). Another interesting fact is that it gets completely frozen in winter, and you can actually walk or even drive on it. Trust me it is hard to believe when you see this gigantic lake, but even in Nivember we could actually walk on some (small) parts of it. If you want to know more about it, please check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Baikal. Couple of great days hiking… again, you should check the pictures. It was the first time in my life I camped in these conditions: in the middle of a forest, with view on the lake in the morning; and of course between -5 and – 10 degrees Celsius during the night. It was actually nice even though you do need to think twice before you get out of your sleeping bag in the morning. Condensation would let a few drops of water on the opening of the bag which would make your mouth and your hands wet when you wake up. Not the best feeling ever at this temperature… but overall a good experience!
Gallery of pictures:
Irkutsk: http://picasaweb.google.com/UMAE10/Irkoutsk?authkey=Gv1sRgCKyeo8me1_6IOQ&feat=directlink
Listvyanka: http://picasaweb.google.com/UMAE10/Listvwanka?authkey=Gv1sRgCLjdgJy-1szUeA&feat=directlink
Olkhone Island: http://picasaweb.google.com/UMAE10/IleDOlkhone?authkey=Gv1sRgCICLptmGoqiCSA&feat=directlink
That’s all for now… next step: Mongolia !
Benoit
Libellés :
« I do not like trains » (Dr Rajesh Koothrappali) – Transsiberian train Part 1: Moscow to Irkutsk
« Don't be silly… Of course you do! » (Dr Sheldon Cooper)
And one more time, Sheldon illuminates us with a simple fact: you have got to like trains (For those who do not understand, check out The Big Bang Theory). These magnificent beasts of steel, capable of pulling hundreds of tons of raw materials, commodities and of course humans have always been my favorite way of discovering countries (that and walking randomly in the streets, but we will come back to that later, probably in Beijing).
In long distance trains, it feels like time stops for a while. One can cross so many different cities, beautiful landscapes and weather conditions that you feel like living a few stories within a couple of days only. Taking a train is also an opportunity to meet people. Have you ever noticed that you would very rarely speak to your neighbor in a plane, whereas in trains conversation would often engage? (Well at least outside Europe, I could not say the same thing in France for example and in any case in France the recurrent topic would be the strikes…). It is the best chance you will ever have to actually meet some local people and not only run into them. You can share a lunch together, try to communicate, laugh ( a lot) or simply admire the landscapes. If you do not feel comfortable in your sit, you always have the opportunity to go and walk a bit around, or even to stretch or work out a little bit. You have time to catch up on your readings, to dream a little bit watching through the window, or simply take advantage of a sit and contemplate the country you are visiting.
In the transsiberian train from Moscow to Irkutsk we had all of this. We decided to travel in the so called third class (called platskartny). I could not describe it better than a couple of pictures, so please check them out below. Two adorable Babushkas took care of us very gently during the whole trip. As I said above: lots of laughs (they did not speak a remote word of English of course), huge amounts of tea and dozens of soups. Something I forgot to mention about Russia so far is their love for tea (chai). They drink tea ALL THE TIME. In the train you would find a big fountain of boiled water available at all time for tea and dehydrated soups (mainly noodle soups).
Everyone (including us, but not enough, of course) brings incredible amounts of food to share in the train. We heard a lot about vodka drinking in the train… beside a couple of drunken, I must confess that I was quite disappointed. We allowed ourselves once to eat in the quite comfortable but not foreigners compliant restaurant wagon (no menu in English and no English speaker in the staff) where we had a better than usual dinner (soups only so far). Nothing extraordinary though… We decided then to buy food at one of the numerous stops in the local train stations to refill our stomachs (we got some delicious kind of breads stuffed with potatoes).
Other things to mention: the train is absolutely f***ing warm. We remained at all times in our pair of shorts, covered with a T-shirt only and a pair of flip flops. Every 12 hours roughly, the train is reloaded with coal which seems to be our heating commodity. Without shower in the train I can let you imagine the feeling after 4 days and nights in there…
Pictures and movies are not really allowed in the train, and therefore we had to trick a bit the provodnista (stewardess who is responsible for one entire wagon – you really do not want to mess with her as she can make your trip a nightmare) to make these few shots.
The last funny thing that needs to be pointed out is the time issue. As the train crosses 5 time zones between Moscow and Irkutsk, no one seems to know what the actual time is. Some people keep their watches at Moscow time; some others try to adjust to local time which creates a big confusion. As a result, everybody sleeps when it feels like sleeping. Days start early and seem to finish very early as the sun goes down every day a little bit earlier. If you add that up to the feeling of being in a sauna and the fact that the so called mattresses are everything but comfortable, you almost necessarily end up tired (I slept well the first night, worse the second one, badly the third one and barely slept the last one… I could feel pain in basically all positions I tried). But that is the charm of this train… We remained stuck in the same train station for roughly one day because the train before us overturned. That is yet another occasion to meet more people and talk…
We are still stuck currently as I am writing this post… and we are supposed to arrive at destination in 2 hours where our host is supposed to wait for us. Jeez, I have no idea if and where we are going to sleep tonight…
Benoit
PS: Update, we made it to Irkutsk. Thought we would sleep in the train station as we arrived around 1.30 am and no internet working around. Fortunately we received some help after one hour and managed to reach Anastasia's place around 3 am. Anastasia THANK YOU !! (I like trains but trains stations not so much...)