Hi all,

Well we have just got back to Irkutsk after spending 4 days relaxing and enjoying ourselves on Olkhon Island. We have been enjoying Lake Baikal, the worlds largest or deepest (im not sure which!) fresh water lake!

We took the train on Monday from Krasnoyarsk around midday and settled into our kupe. We were sharing with two young russian guys who once again thought we were hillarious becuase we couldnt speak any russian and chatted to us for the entire journey! We got out our phrase book which they took an instant shine too and im sure that Egor (one of the guys) read the entire book from front to back! They were so sweet and could speak a little bit of english and we had such a laugh with them trying to chat and teach them how to pronouce english words. If we couldn't understand each other they would continue to chat away in Russian, which we are very used to nowadays! We continued chatting to them for a while and had a nap, some lunch and generally tried to occupy ourselves whilst siberia was dashing away outsie the window.

Later in the evening, we had attracted a cabin full of russian guys who were chattering away constanly in Russian, offering us beer and vodka! They were quite funny and we had a laugh with them. We were even bought chocolates by a really sweet guy and shampanskie (russian champange a bit like cava) by one dude who was quite annoying! Now thats the way i like to be treated, chocs and champange are the way forward!

We got chatting about relationships (our phrasebook has a great section about love, romance and pick up lines!) and somehow i ended up marrying an extremly attractive Russian dude (im sure the shampanskie had gone to my head by then!) Renny performed the ceremony and we had bottle top rings and all. It was a very special time enjoyed by all, check out the pics to see how hot he is - honestly he's a keeper! We evebtually got rid of the russian guys and amanged to get a few hours sleep before we arrived in Irkutsk, our next stop to see the wonderful Lake Baikal.

We arrived in Irkutsk early in the morning and took a taxi to the bus station where we met up with Matt and Karin who had arrived in Irkutsk the night before. We bought our tickets and some food for the journey and waited for the bus to arrive. Now, there were two types of buses pulling into the bus station. The first type were posh modern coaches that looked very comfy and pleasant. The second type were delapidated old buses that looked as if they would fall apart at any moment. Now as we had an 8 hour journey ahead of us, obviously i was hoping that we would have a nice modern bus but oh no, ours was a naff old things that stank of petrol and was really gross. We all pilled on and set off in this rickety old bus that had zero suspension and smelt like the exhaust was being pumped into the back of the bus! It was really gross and made us all feel sick so we proped open the window with a bottle!

We made a couple of stops for breaks, including one stop where the driver said we had 15 mins to get off. Me, Renny and Karin stayed on the bus as it was really cold outside as the driver and one of the passengers started having an arguement. Just as Matt steped of the bus for some air, the driver shuts the doors and pulls off leaving half our passengers behind! Karin, being a lot more perceptive than me and Renny who didnt have a clue what was happening, worked out that the guy complaining was getting off at the next stop and didnt want to wait the 15min while we had a break, so sure enough we trundled off to the village to drop this dude off who was complianing. Then we had to get petrol for which we all had to get off the bus, so there are half the passengers standing waiting for the bus to fill up with petrol and the other half of the passengers waiting at a cafe 10 mins down the road, all of us totally confused - it was hillarious!

We eventually returned to get the rest of the passengers and continue our long and bumpy road to Olkhon Island. There were a Russian/Mongolian grandparents in the seats in front of us who had two adorable kids with them. However the grandparents were swigging back the vodka and beer from mid morning and by the time we reached the ferry port, the grandfather was being sick and the grandmother was shouting at him for being drunk! The little kids were just amusing themselevs whilst the grandparents were getting wasted on the bus - only in bloody russia could that happen!!

We got to the ferry port and waited for the small ferry to come back to our side, and sure enough whilst we were all enjoying our first view of the lake, the bus disappears this time leaving most of us behind at the small port. We see it from the top of the hill, stop at the local town so we werent too worried and sure enough a while later they return having been to buy fresh fish from the village! The ferry corssing and rest of the journey were uneventful although took a long time and the roads were extremely bumpy!

We eventually (sorry if you have fallen alseep!) arrive at Nikkitas homestead on Olkhon Island, home to the Russian olympic ping pong champion Nikkita who has set up an eco friendly homestay on the island, with log cabins and traditional mongolian gers for guests to stay in. The island is very beautiful and the lake looks absolutly stunning.

Right i will continue this tomorrow as the internet cafe is closing so stay tuned peeps, ill finsh the rest tomorrow!

lots of love xx