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Annie and Dave's World Tour
Greetings from Irkutsk. We are in the heart of Siberia but it has been a very warm and sunny day today.
To update on previous events. From a comedy point of view, the haircut (350 roubles) was a grave disappointment. However, from a hirsure point of view, it was a masterpiece! Hair was washed twice, much clipping and effort went in, and the end result was universally agreed to be good. All that was required from a communication point of view was to nod twice at the suggested length of side (short) and top (short). No input from the stoneseller / magician next door was required, whom we visited her afterwards to get some local stone gifts and for her to give us presents and make magician-style predictions of our future. We will keep you posted as to whether they come true or not.
During the day, we had a visit to a rural museum (we were supposed to rafting on a river, but have been somewhat vexed at many stages of the trip by the mismatch between what we thougft we were going to be doing, and what transpired...). Our guide was the very helpful Maria, and our driver was the rugged, gruff but quietly charming Igor. It was a long drive to and from the museum and many a time my mind turned to thoughts of Igor and what previous job he might have had in the USSR. With one hand on the steering wheel and one foot firmly placed on the throttle, I had visions of him as a driver for the mafia (they are big in Etakerinberg where we were). Perhaps the KGB? I imagined having a shedload of vodka with him and then, after an arm wrestle, exchanging a bone crushing handshake and bidding him farewell. There are 3 kinds of driver in Russia - slow, quick and dangerous, and quick as well as relatively safe. Luckily Igor was in the latter category, though within the city limits he was a bit frisky. The odd car had the temerity to hold us up - he went 'Tsk! Tsk!' at them as though swatting a fly, and got right up to their bumper in a cordial manoeuvre which suggested they might perhaps care to move over. When they did, he gave them what looked like an extremely icy glare.
At the farming / rural museum, we had been treated to a folk sing song by some of the ladies of the village, as well as a bit of a local dance. Our guide briefed us that we were supposed to dance along with them (she gave us some of the moves in advance) so dance along we did. Let us say no more on the matter other than to note that one of the old ladies noted my "enthusiasm". AM says .... Dave also excelled in impressing city girl Maria with his agricultural abiities andn knowledge (altough I am not so sure the ability to pick up and swing a blacksmiths hammer and nodding enthusiactically after several shots of homebrewed alocohol really counts!). He also qualified to be a country Russian houswife as he could pick up an manouevre the massive iron pots they used to work with - I failed by dropping one and almost breaking a 200 year old relic - bring on stainless steel!
At 0300 the following morning, Igor picked us up to take us to the train station. I decided to test his handshake as he bade us farewell and I can confrim that he could probably break my neck with a quick flick and a testy 'Tsk'.
We had about 50 hours on the train from Ekaterinberg to Irkutsk. We had a cabin with the 2 aussies again, and time passed amiably enough (with happily no need for Immodium this time). They have a laptop with them so we watched a couple of films, which was nice. The journey was unremarkable by and large, other than to note the extreme sloth which overcomes one. You have 50 hours to kill, so doing anything can become a big event. Eg should I brush my teeth? Well, there isn't exactly a big rush so the standard answer to such questions was invariable "we've got 50 hours to brush our teeth, do it in a bit".
At Irkutsk, we got picked up and whisked off to a village on the shore of Lake Baikal, to once again complete a set of activities which were a mild mystery to us (ie not what we had booked). Lake Baikal is a very very big lake. It is the size of Belgium. That big! 20% of all the world's freshwater is there. There are lots of stats on this but I refuse to bore you on this issue. Anyway, we stayed in a Siberian cottage (which was nice), although A-M pulled down the curtains in our room in a state of confusion when she woke from a nap (not so nice). Luckily a stout Siberian son with a drill was on hand to fix things up whilst we had our dinner. We did a nice walk along part of the shore, and we also had a couple of Russian saunas. Russian saunas seem to be the same as any other the whole world over, except they are about 30 degress warmer. It was very hot indeed.
We had a couple of American girls in our cottage who had been teaching English in Korea for the past 2 years. We have learnt lots about teaching standards in Korea! Also, one of them went to see SmackDown! in the US a couple of years ago, so we all (well, some of us) happily shared notes on The Rock, Brock Lesnar, Kurt Angle etc over dinner. Happy days. Did you know that North Korea has the world's largest flag? When it rains, 50 men rush out to haul it down, or it will pull down the tower it is on when it gets wet. It needs winds of about 60mph to make it flap fully and it gets replaced every two years as it gets ripped in the wind!
Siberia was very pretty and very quiet, though perhaps a little more populated than we might have expected. This has to be partly as a result of the number of people who were sent to Siberia under Stalin and others, eg our village had about 600 people in it. That isn't that many per se, it was just that we had visions of extreme remoteness and isolation.
Siberian food, whilst perfectly accpetable per se, has nothing remarkable about it, and therefore there are no particular dishes which we can draw to your attention.
We left the village at lunchtime today. On the 2 hour trip, we were treated to a tape / CD of what I can only describe as 'mellow jazz'. I'm not sure you can say you have really experienced Russia until you have had to endure soft sax versions of 'I Want To Know What Love Is' and 'Three Times A Lady'.
We have spent the afternoon in Irkutsk, which was pleasant enough for a stroll around. Tonight we are getting an overnight train to Ulan Uday, where we will be for a couple of days, before we head on to Mongolia. Ulaan Bataar is supposed to be very good for interwebs so we should be posting an update on our stay in Ger camps in about 8 days time.
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