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Mike's RTW Trip 06/07
Took the train overnight from Irkutsk to Ulan Uday. I managed to get zero sleep as I had one Russian guy snoring most of the time and the other up and about a lot. Plus the train driver was pretty bad and kept me awake by driving like he was running out of fuel. Anyway the one Russian left at about 4am and left all the lights on. Very considerate of him. Got taken to a home stay at 06:30 in the morning and met Julia. She owned the flat, but her Mum - Natasha and Dad - Alex stayed there during the week and looked after her child Dasha. Dasha was 1.5 yrs and was so cute. Wish I could get these photos onto the Internet. I keep forgetting my USB cable in the hotel. Was picked up by my guide and went to pick up some other tourists. Met and elderly couple Judith and George and two young English girls called Adele and (I have forgotten the others name).
We were taken off to see a Buddist monastry. It was strange seeing all there rituals and icons. Like all the prayer wheels that you spin 3 times and there are dozens of them. They also only walk clockwise around buildings and holy things. We then went back to a meseum and saw a lot of the statues and books etc that were hidden when Stalin wiped out the buddist religion, monks etc.
That night we went out to the square where they were setting up for a party. I saw a statue of Lenins head which is the biggest in Russia. Take my word for it, it is massive. The concert was really strange as they had a guy and girl dancing on stage and then had a few singers come up and sing one song each. And even I could hear that they were seeing hugely off key. Then when it got to 10pm a real band came on stage. As they started to play, a fireworks display started. So everybody ignored the band and watched the display. After the display the music stopped and everybody left. huhh!!!
So we wandered down to a bar for a drink. We had just started having a drink when a group of Mongolian students invited us over and chatted to us. It was good to get to know them and get a feel for what their life is like.
At our homestay I never really saw Julia. Her Mum always cooked dinner for me and would eat with me and chat to me. Not always easy when she spoke a little English and I spoke very little Russian. And of course Dasha was their and she was so cute. She took to me fairly quickly and was a very friendly kid.
The next day we went to another monastery and then had lunch with a local family. Here we were introduced to some strange local foods, but mostly palatable. They did give us a lot of alcohol which warmed us nicely against the cold weather. When I got back to Ulan Uday I got my homestay family some presents. I gave Alex some Vodka, Natasha some chocolates and Dasha some sweets. Alex insisted that I share the Vodka with him. So the four of us sat down and we proceeded to finish the Vodka. It was a really great experience because I got to chat to them in a very relaxed way. And Dasha was soooo cute. I really felt close to them. I left the next morning at 06:30 to catch the train to Mongolia.
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