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Mike's RTW Trip 06/07
Well I have officially spent the longest time ever on a train. 48 hours from Ekaterinburg to Irkutsk. The train trip was pretty uneventful. What was great however was that their were only 2 of us in the cabin, so lots of space to ourselves. I met a Russian lady called Nadeesda. She was a retired woman with 3 kids and had been to Moscow for her one sons wedding. Well that's what her photos appeared to indicate :-) We spent about an hour ponting at phrases in my phrase book working out who we were and where we were going. But after an hour of this it becomes a bit of a pain. I manged to finish Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. It was ok, but not my kind of book. I might just need to find something more modern. Nadeesda did however buy about 5kg of smoked fish, which she kept in our cabin and as you can imagine it stank a little. I suppose it was better than the stinky russian 4 cabins down. I really felt sorry for them as even the smell of cigarette smoke did not make a difference. I got treated to dinner by Nadeesda which was Russian dumplings in a weak soup. It was pretty yuck, but hey it was free. I am off smoked fish for a while though.
Got picked up at the train for an hour journey to our village on Lake Baikal. I met another Englidh chap Chris who was going to be staying with me at our homestay. he was travelling the other way. He was a student and had travelled up from Hong Kong though China with 10 other mates, but then was travelling to Mongolia and Russia by himself. It was good to be able to chat to another English speaker again.
We got dropped off at our homestay and met our Buryat Mum whose name ways Zooya. I always remebered her name as Soya. Anyway the house is a traditional wood house with a toilet, 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and dining area. We then had a alking tour with our guide Lydia. She was an English teacher and she showed us the 17th C Orthodox church and the museum. The museaum was interesting in the fact that there are over 3500 wildlife species of which 2600 are endemic to the lake. Like the freshwater seal. She went on to ponit out all the stuffed animals and their fur and which fur was the most expensive. It turns out Sable is the most expensive. Liz, I'm sure you would of LOVED this museum. Afterwards we went for a cable car ride up to one of the peaks. There are some ski runs in the area, but nothing hetic. Although they have guarenteed snow from November - May and temperatures can reach up to -40C. But the average is about -28C. At the bottom of the cable car was an awesome looking downhill mountain bike course and I was gutted that there was no place to hire a bike.
After getting back to our homestay we were told that the banya was ready. Basically its a dry sauna where you have some water heated by the sauna's stove and then a container of cold water. So you use a large ladle to mix hot and cold water in a basin. You then use this to wash with. But you can sit around for a while and sweat before having a wash. Its really nice and I can imagine how great it must be in -30C.
The next day we were taken on a soft trek through the forest and down to the lakeside by our guide Sasha. He arrived and reminded me of Dopey in the seven dwarfs. Not because he was short but because he was so mellow. Anyway the walk was better than doing the same in the city and I prefer the outdoors anyway. He made us lunch along the lake which was bangers and mash. I suppose it was Russian sauages. Lunch was good. We then walked back along the lake. My stomach was having trouble after lunch and eventually I had to duck behind a bush and have a squirt. SORRY!! Anyay it helped as I safely made it back home again. We went to the local market and there was fish, fish and more smoked fish. Yip I made sure I bought a lot for my train journey! Anyway it was back to our homestay for a banya.
Afterwards I went and bought a beer and sat next to the lake around 7pm. It was a stunning evening, no wind and the sun was still high. It felt great being here.
We had dinner around 8pm and Zooya always made somthing different and traditional. The food was great, much better than eating in a restaurant. Chris and I went to the bar afterwards. I bought a glass of vodka each and 2 points of Baltika beer. The vodka was vile but it managed to settle my stomach. Bonus, now I know the cure for a stomach ailment. All this only cost 150 roubles which is about 3 pounds.
Now I'm back in Irkutsk and heading off to Ulan-Uday on the overnight train. I have a homestay there as well, which I actually prefer.
On another note, my hiking boots have been really sore whenever I used the for about 4 hours and they felt tight. Its been a while since I used them so I thought they were meant to be like that. I decided to put my orthotics in them to help easy the pain on the bottom of my feet and when I took my inners out I discovered that I had 2 pairs in them. What an arse! I have now taken the think pair out put my orthotics in and I am now walking in the most comfortable boots ever.
Well that's all for now. Will be trying to learn some Mandarin in the next few days for my trip in China. Talk about a mental challenge all these new languages.
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