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.
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