Day 2 Olkhon Island - 9 hours in a different van

3 October
Day 2 Olkhon Island

Breakfast is at 9am but I was up by 7.  I guess I didn't need anymore sleep.  I did feel a lot better this morning.

Good enough that I went out for a walk before breakfast.  I went down to the beach and stuck my hand in the lake.  There's a ship graveyard down next to a jetty and there are a few ships with some pretty cool graffiti on them.  Walked through town a bit then headed over to the Shaman rocks which are a famous landmark in these parts.  Blessed with good weather again and they look pretty awesome against the blue of the lake.

I completely forget what breakfast was but it was completely edible and very filling again.

Enrique is joining me on the tour today which is good.  Always nice to have someone to talk to.  Our driver for the day arrived a little after 9.  Misha is driving one of those little grey Russian vans (hooray!) and looks like either he or his ancestors are from Mongolia.  We go to pick up a few more people from other hotels then head off for the day.

It seems to be pretty disorganised.  The first place we rock up to there are far more drivers than people coming out to get in cars.  Misha runs in and tries to get his turf sorted I guess and he comes back with 4 people then we take off to another hotel to pick up our last person.

There are 7 of us total.  Me, Enrique, 4 Chinese people and a South Korean lady.

The van isn't uncomfortable but it would have been better with 2 less people.  There are no seatbelts and no hand holds in the van and it's a bumpy old ride.

The rest of the day basically involves us getting in the van then being driven to a viewpoint of the lake where we get out and walk around for 15 minutes then go to the next one.  It's a beautiful day and there are some spectacular views of the lake and the surrounding snow capped mountains.

Around 1pm we stop for lunch and Misha cooks a fish soup which was OK.

A couple more stops then we start to head back.

Apparently one of the local superstitions is that if you drink the lake water you'll become revitalised and your body will be 5 years younger.  Total BS of course but I had some anyway just in case.  One of the rock formations also looks like a woman giving birth so I'm sure there is some sort of birth of a people or the lake legend associated with this.

Ran into a couple of people from the minibus yesterday on the tour today so clearly everyone does the same tourist route.

On the way back a few of the drivers pull over and have a bit of a stop work meeting.  I find out from one of the people in one of the other cars that there are some cops checking licenses or something on the route back so I guess the drivers are trying to wait them out.  I guess this means they are either driving unlicensed or don't have the relevant tourism licenses.

Eventually we continue on and we do get pulled over by the cops.  Misha is taken into the cop car to have a chat and comes back a few minutes later and continues on his merry way.  It's unclear exactly what's happening but when we got back Misha wouldn't take any money for the tour so I assume he got in trouble for driving tourists around without the appropriate license and he wasn't allowed to take any money.

I keep expecting someone to ask for it but nobody has yet so I'm just going to keep my mouth shut.

It was a long day riding in the back of the van.  9 til 6.  We probably only covered 70km all day but the roads were pretty terrible and it was slow and bumpy going.  Misha did a really good job.

Dinner tonight was a meat rissole of some kind with potato and some other stuff I forget.  I eat with the French couple again and a guy from Slovakia.  We talk for a while then I head off to sleep early again to try and kick this cold in the head.

Day 1 Olkhon Island - 6 hours in a van

2 October
Day 1 Irkutsk / Olkhon Island

Up this morning for my ride to Olkhon Island.  The bus was picking us up at 9am.  I was up really early so I went outside for a walk and to pick up some snacks for trip at the 24 hour market nearby.

It wasn't as cold as I feared outside which was good.  I really only wanted some snack food since I would be getting dinner and breakfast supplied at the hostel and lunch supplied on the day trip on the island.  I ended up with a couple of cuppa-soups, some muesli bars and some mandarins.  I also got some random food from the deli for breakfast.  It turned out to be meat and rice wrapped in a pancake.  Pretty bland but it was OK.

I also went past a 24 hour pharmacy I saw the night before and picked up some more drugs.  I definitely feel better than I did yesterday but I'm still sick.  It was much easier to buy stuff this time ... I simply showed the packet and got another one of those.

A French couple from the hostel are joining me on the ride to Olkhon.  Carina and Pierre (I'm sure the spelling is wrong) both seem nice.  I find out later they are travelling through Russia then into Mongolia and down towards south east Asia.

The minibus is better than I expected.  I kind of thought I'd have to ride 6 hours in one of the stereotypical grey Russian vans you see which don't look like the most comfortable things in the world.  The minibus is also pretty packed.  I think there ends  up being about 12-13 people in there and 1 seat free.  Most seem around the 20s-30s age group.  There are the 3 of us from the hostel, an Australian guy from Melbourne and his Russian partner, a Chinese girls who speaks English and a bunch of other Chinese people at the front who we don't get a chance to speak to.

We had a bit of a group chat for a while which was pretty cool then the conversation just naturally sort of petered out and we all just settled in for the ride.

Unfortunately the ride to Olkhon is about 6 hours.  Not the most pleasant time to be sick but the drugs are largely keeping it under control.  I don't have to blow my nose and annoy the others too much.  My new thermos was a casualty of the ride this morning.  Stupid thing fell over and the glass canister inside shattered.  You can tell it was cheap.  So there's water leaking all over the truck and I'm having to nurse the thing upside down so it doesn't spill the entire contents on the floor.

There's a stop about halfway for lunch but I decided to use the hot water I've got left for one of my soups since I'm tossing the thermos anyway.

The scenery on the ride is pretty.  It reminds me a lot of Mongolia which makes absolute sense given the border is not far away from here.  I think I managed to get a couple of small naps on the ride but it's not exactly conducive to sleeping.

After maybe 3 1/2 hours we arrive at the ferry crossing to Olkhon.  There is a significant weather difference to Irkutsk here already.  It's very windy and much colder than Irkutsk.  The ferry only takes about 10 minutes to cross then we've got another 90 minutes or so on dirt roads to travel the 30kms to the township.

The township is pretty small.  Lots of wooden buildings and dirt roads but it looks charming enough.

Olga's Guesthouse is pretty basic but it's comfortable.  I'm in a room with 3 single beds and it looks at this point like I'm going to have it to myself which would be super.  The French couple are staying at the same place.

We head up to the common room and sort out payment and I organise the tour for the next day then I head off for a nap because I feel terrible.

A couple of hours later I head up for dinner which was simple but filling.  There was baked local fish with some topping on it, mashed potato, some sort of salad and a sweet bread for dessert.  Pretty filling meal.  And of course the ever-present tea.  Olga gave me some honey to have with my tea which was a godsend for my throat.

Ate dinner with the French couple and a couple of German guys who are stopping at Baikal on the way to Vladivostok for a conference.  They work for one of the organisations which defines global standards (like ISO for example).  Interesting work.

Those guys are travelling first class to Vladivostok, I've been travelling second class and the French people are travelling third class so we compare notes a bit.  I'm going to travel third class next time I need to do an overnight train so I can see what it's like.

There is also a Finnish couple staying who join in on the conversation a bit.  It's a nice communal atmosphere here.

I went back to my room pretty early and slept until I was woken up and someone else came in to share the room.  Enrique is from Argentina and he was also in the hostel in Irkutsk.  I'd met him that morning and he seemed like a nice guy.

I feel really bad running into all these people from different countries who speak English and here I am just running around the world not bothering to learn any other languages.

Back to sleep.

Day 4 Train to Irkutsk - Arrival!

1 October
Day 4 Train to Irkutsk

It's my last day on the train!  For now anyway.  And I'm ready for the ride to be over.  We're much closer to Irkutsk now.

I slept reasonably well last night and woke up very early this morning.  I'm not sure of the time but it was a few hours before sunrise.  I'm still running largely on Vladivostok time and the sun rises earlier over there so the further west I get the later the sunrise is becoming.

I wish there was temperature control in the cabins but it's all centrally controlled.  It's so hot in these things at night!

So I stayed in bed for a while and watched the stars and lights out of the cabin window but I got bored of that eventually.  There's really not much to say about the ride this morning.

We stopped for about 15-20 minutes at Ulan-Ude.  One guy left the cabin and he was replaced by a woman in her early 30s probably.  She immediately sat down, pulled out some knitting and stared at that knitting with an intensity that said "leave me alone".

Ulan-Ude was the first big city I've seen since leaving Vladivostok.  I believe Khabarovsk and Chita and quite sizeable as well but I didn't see any of the city for those.  The Ulan-Ude station is reasonably close to the city by the looks of it and I could see some tall buildings and a bit of traffic.  Still full of dilapidated buildings that seems to be Russia across the board in my experience so far.

The scenery is much the same as we continue on but it does seem a bit milder here as there is more green in the trees and a wider range of colours in the leaves.  A few hours later I finally catch my first sight of Lake Baikal!

It's fairly dreary and overcast today so I don't see any of the clear blue water all the guidebooks rave about.  Hopefully it will clear up over the next couple of days and I will see some of that epic scenery.  It's a massive lake though.  I can't remember where but I read somewhere that Baikal will become the world's next ocean.  No doubt that is thousands of years away but looking at the size of it I would believe it.

We are basically circumnavigating the lake at this point until we branch off to get to Irkutsk I believe.  The lake is ever present out the right side of the train and the left side is full of snow capped mountains.  I'm not sure which mountain range it is but I can see some ski fields as we go past the town of Baykalsk.  It never really occurred to me to ski in Russia but I guess it seems obvious given all the snow they have and all the people with money to burn.

I am unfortunately coming down with a cold or something.  My nose is running and my throat is very sore.  I'll have to make sure I get some cold & flu stuff when I get to Irkutsk.  I'd feel sorry for the other people in the train but one of them probably gave it to me so they can get stuffed.

I had to say a quick farewell to my new army friends.  Thankfully when you don't share a language you don't have to worry about small talk.  You just shake hands, say "spasibo" and "dasvidanya" and leave.

Irkutsk was not a very picturesque town to enter.  Doesn't help that it's overcast but it just looks dreary.  There's a big river and a nice bridge which I imagine look quite pleasant on a nice day.

Exiting the train station I had to dodge a shitload of taxi drivers looking for fares.  I'm always wary of anyone actually standing in the station looking for fares ... I can't help but feel they are always people try to scam money out of tourists.  I was saying no to one of them over my shoulder and the door at the front of the station hit me in the head on the way out :(. Lucky the damn thing didn't break my glasses.

I got the tram outside the station into town.  It was challenging trying to explain where I was going to the lady selling the tickets even with an address in Russian and a map but we got there in the end.  Very old tram but it was a nice ride.  And a bargain price at 15 rubles!  That's about 45 cents.

It's not as cold here as I was expecting based on the snow I saw on the train coming in but I'm not complaining.  My hostel is in a pretty shitty looking building.  I have to access it from the alley behind the building but it was pretty clearly signed so it was easy to find.  Inside it's nice enough.  Basically a large 3 bedroom apartment that's been converted.  Only 1 shower for about 30 beds but it's not very busy at this time of year so it's fine.  The manager (Olaya) speaks really good English so it was a painless process checking in.

I booked a trip to Olkhon Island on Lake Baikal through this hostel as well.  My email exchanges with them indicated it was a package they offer but from talking to Olaya it seems more like a sequence of events where I pay as I go and the hostel owners sort of organise it the day before.  I'd prefer to just pay it all up front but as long as it works I don't really care.

A hot shower was amazing after 3 days without a shower on the train!  Baby wipes do the job for keeping you clean but they are not luxurious.

I'm sick :(. I've got a cold.  Runny nose, sore throat, cough ... the works.  So my first stop once I get checked into the hostel is to go find a supermarket or a pharmacy that will sell me some meds to make the next couple of days a bit more tolerable.  I've got 4-6 hours in a bus tomorrow to go to Olkhon and in my experience there's nothing worse than being stuck in a bus with a bunch of strangers and no airflow when you've got a cold.  Happened in Vietnam as well and it was shit.

While the supermarket I went to didn't sell anything like this there was a pharmacy a couple of doors down where I got what I needed.  She kept bringing me things that looked like throat lozenges (strepsil is a brand here!) but eventually brought me some capsules which looked like what I wanted.  They were the real deal (or really good placebos) because I took some and a short time later I was feeling a bit better.

Irkutsk is actually pretty well set up for tourists.  They've had a real boom in tourism over the last few years because of Lake Baikal and Irkutsk is a base for a lot of people who visit.  They've got a green line painted on the footpath which is basically the tourist path.  Follow the green line and it will take you past all the big tourist spots.  Pretty nifty idea really.

I had intended to follow the green line after I got my drugs but I was distracted by a nice building, then a street market, then a Lenin statue and before you know it I was halfway across the city blazing my own trail (I followed the Ingress path :D).  It's actually a really pleasant city to walk around.  There are some really beautiful old buildings, there's a lot of public art and it's not too big.  I really enjoyed my couple of hours wandering around.  I'll probably do the green line the day I leave Irkutsk because my train doesn't leave until around 4 in the afternoon.

For dinner I headed down towards this area they call the 130th District (130 Kvartal).  They have basically built a bunch of buildings that are supposed to be replicas of traditional Siberian wooden houses.  They may be true replicas but they've filled them all with restaurants and shops and to me it just looks like a completely kitsch tourist scamming location.  It seemed to be very popular with tourists and locals alike though and I did end up eating at a restaurant there that was recommended in the Lonely Planet and having traditional Russian food.

A lot of the clientele were tourists but the food was really tasty.  I had:

- Dressed Herring which was basically herring sashimi with some oil and herbs on a small piece of bread with a layered potato salad stack.

- Beef Rassolnick which was a vegetable soup with beef in a bread bowl.

- Liver stroganoff with buckwheat

My eyes were bigger than my stomach because it was a lot of food (I expected smaller portion sizes) but I really enjoyed it.  And it was nice to have some real food after a couple of days of what I was eating on the train.

I went back to the hostel after that and crashed pretty early to try and get some rest so this cold would go away quicker.

Day 3 Train - Vladivistok to Irkutsk

30 September
Day 3 Train to Irkutsk

I slept a little better last night but still woke up a few times.

Only 2 of us in the cabin which didn't really make any difference though it was nice to have the room to spread out and put my legs up.

I was awake pretty early so I hoped to get the sunrise from the back of the train.  Unfortunately the doors are locked and I wasn't allowed back there.  I can only get to the back of the cabin section of the carriage (not right to the back) going backwards and to the dining cart going forwards. I can't get all the way through the train like I could on the train from Beijing to UlanBaatar.

It does start to feel a bit confining after a while so I look forward to the infrequent stops so I can get out of the train and walk about a bit.  The carriage attendants and I have got into a ritual where I go out for some fresh air and they let me know how many minutes I have to wander around before the train will leave.  There is a schedule but I want that confirmation in case things have changed because we are ahead or behind time.  Then I try to make a stupid joke or say something in Russian and they correct me.  Seems to work well for building a relationship so they will help out if anything goes wrong.

I inadvertently caught a bit of the sunrise in a photo this morning at one of the stops.  I was trying to get some of those beautiful dilapidated buildings in the shot but the phone auto darkened the shot. Decent photo just not of what I wanted.

The stops on the train range from 1 minute to about 30 minutes.  The bigger the station the longer the stop seems to be the general rule.  On any stop longer than about 10 minutes there tend to be vendors on the station platform selling various things.  The most popular thing seems to be what I think are variations on piroshki.  Essentially fried bread with meat and / or vegetable filling.  They are generally pretty tasty and cost about 40-50 rubles each.  I'm trying to pick up something different each station to try out a bit of the local food.  It all seems much the same so far so I'm interested to see if it changes as we go further across Russia.  Around the Lake Baikal area they are supposed to do grilled fish of some species that only live in this particular lake.

Pretty quiet day today.  Mostly just long stretches of travel wth 4-6 hours between stops.  A couple of new guys joined the cabin today and went immediately to sleep for most of the day.  They woke up a bit later for a meal, stared at their phone for a bit then went back to sleep.  It's pretty standard for a lot of people on the train.  Lots and lots of sleeping (or trying to sleep).  While I'm not sure I really like the look of the 3rd class section of the train I may give it a go for one of the shorter sections of the trip.  Apparently it's being phased out so might as well experience it while I can.

I'm surprised at how few other tourists I've seen on the train.  As far as I can tell I'm the only English speaker in my carriage.  There were a couple of Asian girls (Chinese I would guess) a couple of cabins down but they don't speak any English.  The rest of the passengers seem to be Russian.  There's a full spread of age groups from a family with their 2 young children all the way through to some people that look like retirees.  It's a good spread and there hasn't been anyone annoying or obnoxious yet.

That said it's the little petty things that get annoying after a while in anyone's company.  I wish I could talk to one of the new guys in my cabin about his eating and drinking noises.  Every time he drinks tea he slurps as loud as he can then let's out a giant sigh after he's swallowed it.  Same thing when he eats.  Slurps it off the spoon then sighs loudly.  The army guy smells of smoke and BO.  The dude in the cabin next to me can't seem to use the cupboard without slamming the door.  I'm sure I have some habits they don't like.

The carriage itself is a wonderland of smells and sounds that is constantly changing depending on who the passengers are.  It doesn't smell as bad today as it did the first night but we've got far less guys in the carriage now.

The scenery is slowly changing.  We're transitioning from a forested landscape to more grassy plains and rivers.  I am not yet tired of watching the scenery out the window but I will be glad when I can get off the train for a couple of days.  I suppose you get used to it but I'm not sure I'd enjoy doing the 8 day trip in one hit.

The restaurant lady looks at me hopefully every time she walks past after her coup from the first meal I had.  I smile and diligently say "nyet" and eat the 50 Ruble piroshki from the stations or the rest of my own supplies instead.  I do want to try the borscht but I'm sure I can get better for cheaper elsewhere.  I've done pretty well with the amount of food I brought.  I have an apple and a thing of cup noodles plus a bunch of teabags left for tomorrow which will do nicely with a snack from one of the stations at some point.  I've been drinking lots of tea so have barely touched my water at all.  I'll bring a much smaller bottle for the next trip particularly since I know the carriage attendants have fresh water available.

There was an old church visible across the river at one point this afternoon.  I wish I'd been faster and gotten a photo.  It was once a white building but it's now grey and looks like it is falling apart.  It's on its own in the middle of a grassy plain and the river was frozen over this afternoon.  Really stark beautiful site.  Also the first time I think I've ever seen a frozen river!

I can't get a photo of today's sunset because of the reflection from the glass.  There are mountains with a valley in between and a thick layer of cloud cover.  But there are a couple of breaks in the cloud cover in long lines that are allowing brilliant shades of red and orange through.  It's like someone has torn strips in a sheet of paper to let you see through it.  And there are the few lights of a nearby town sitting below it on the horizon.  It's a beautiful sight.

We're supposed to be coming up to the most scenic part of the whole trans-siberian journey but this train passes by most of it at night which is a little disappointing.  But that's OK.  I should get some pretty good scenery tomorrow as we approach then go around part of Lake Baikal.

Day 2 Train - Vladivostok to Irkutsk

29 September 2017
Day 2 Train to Irkutsk

I had a fairly restless night thought I did sleep for a while a few times.  At one point I woke up and one of the guys was getting off the train.

When I got up in the morning there was a different guy sleeping in the same bunk so I'm not sure where he got on.

We arrived at Khabarovsk about 8am this morning where tons of people got off the train and a bunch more came on.  A new guy replaced the other original guy from last night.

I also met my second carriage attendant ... Yuri.  Yuri is also an older guy who looks a lot like Angry Anderson.  One of the first things he said to me was "ACDC" then he called me James Hatfield from Metallica then listed off a bunch of other old school heavy metal bands.  Not that I'm a connoisseur but they were big enough bands that I recognised them.  He's obviously a rocker from way back.

The carriage attendants seem to alternate.  I'm guessing Sergei does the night shift and Yuri the day shift though they overlap first thing in the morning.

It was pretty chaotic this morning!  Because so many people were getting off the train Sergei and Yuri were running around stripping sheets off beds, hustling people out of their cabins, emptying garbage and just generally getting the place shipshape.  Then Yuri stepped outside to let the new passengers on while Sergei continued to clean up.

Combine that with everyone getting up and wanting to use the toilet, clean their teeth, have a quick wash and/or make a cup of tea and you had chaos on your hands.  People standing in the corridor, a queue for the toilet, attendants pushing past and bags everywhere.

We were at Khabarovsk for about 20 minutes so I got out of the train and had a stretch.  There's another old school train station building here though I couldn't see the whole thing because of another train parked in the way.

Back on the way and the bathrooms have died down a bit so I get out my toothbrush and a trust packet of wet wipes for a shower.  Thanks Mongolia for teaching me to think of wetwipes as a sufficient shower substitute.  For a couple of days at least.

The new guys in the cabin don't seem very chatty.  They are young and I find that younger people generally won't talk to a stranger as much because they don't want to look like a dickhead.  I had a quick chat with one of them who I think is a university student who is on his way home to a town near the Georgian border and the Caspian Sea.  Very little English though so once we lost Internet Google translate stopped working and we struggled to make any headway.

2 of them are sleeping now and one is reading the paper.  None seem interested in trying to chat which is fine.

So I'm sitting here writing this blog.

I just had the most expensive lunch in the world.  The restaurant lady came past and I ordered stroganoff, a salad and some rye bread for lunch.  The food was alright but it cost me $50 AUD!  Crazy!  Definitely not worth that.  Glad I didn't go for the soup she was trying to push on me as well.  I won't be dining from the restaurant again without very careful perusal of the menu.



I also am not allowed to drink the beer I bought apparently.  A different carriage attendant came past and said I had to drink it in the dining car.  And the people in the dining car said I'm not allowed  to drink anything in there that I didn't buy from them.  So I had to quickly drink my beer in between carriages before anyone realised.

Turns out I completely misunderstood the student I was chatting to earlier.  He does not live near the Georgian border.  He was born over there maybe (something to do with that area) but he was living in some other small town nearby because he got off the train this afternoon.

I finally had a chat with the other guys in my cabin when one of them had a friend come in for a drink.

The other solo guy works in the mining industry.  The Google translation of his job was "mountain master" so perhaps a supervisor or something?  For all I know he could be climbing around caves or digging for new mine sites but the conversation steered away from me being able to find out anymore about that.  He's going on holiday soon to Vietnam for a couple of weeks and is looking forward to some sun and relaxation.

The other 2 guys are both trainers in the Russian military.  I suppose I think of this as a Drill Sergeant or something similar based on my extensive military experience (reading fiction novels).  Neither really fit my preconceived notion of what one of those guys might look like (again - based on movies and books) but there you have it.  Apparently the Russian military gets 2 months of paid leave every year and they get free transport throughout Russia for that period ... Planes, trains, buses, boats.  Pretty cool perk though I guess with Russia being so big and some settlements being so remote it feels like the least they could do.

Mining guy got off the train tonight.  The military guys are going a couple of days past Irkutsk for work.  One of them is celebrating his 6 month anniversary with his girlfriend tomorrow and his brother is helping to organise a surprise for her.  He wouldn't tell me what it was and promised to let me know tomorrow.  I'll be interested to see what it is.

Again - very little English - so we chatted via Google translate for a couple of hours and shared some beers and snacks.  Like everyone I've met so far they are really nice people once you get to talking and they have the same concerns and wants as the rest of us.  The older guy was very happy to show me pictures of his children and wife and was clearly proud of his family.  His idea of a perfect holiday was just spending time at home with the family.  Makes sense given he probably spends his whole working life away from them.

It was a good night.  I've also got a better idea of what to bring on the next leg of my train journey now in terms of sharing with people which is good.  Simple food seems to be best. Bread, cheese, sausage, nuts and a sneaky beer seems to go down well.

The scenery throughout the trip so far has been beautiful.  In this part of Russia it's mostly small mountains / hills with trees that are in the later stages of changing colours and losing their leaves.  The leaves are mostly shades of pale orange and yellow but there are still some bright red and orange ones scattered around.  Many of the trees have vivid white trunks and most of these seem to have lost their leaves already.  It makes for a very pretty picture with the stark white trunks surrounded by orange leaves.  I can't really get a good photo through the train windows which is frustrating at times but as ever I'm sure there are plenty of photos on the Internet.

When you get into the stations they are invariably rundown with maybe 1 new or well maintained building which is where the ticket office is.  Otherwise they are surrounded by dilapidated brick or wooden buildings that were probably key parts of building or maintaining the railways in decades past.  Some of the buildings are still beautiful in their own way but most are just eyesores.

The towns attached to the stations or alongside the railway follow this pattern as well.  Usually brick or wooden buildings that have definitely seen better days. Not that surprising given the remoteness of some of these places and the harsh climate.

The exception to this is the actual railway itself.  The tracks and supporting infrastructure look to be in excellent condition which isn't at all surprising.  Clearly the priority is maintaining the railway to keep the flow of goods and people going throughout Russia.