Just a quick post to appologise for the lack of updates recently. One reason is we have been at Lake Baikal (see posts below), the other on a train for 56 hours! The final reason is the lack of WiFi in Irkutsk. We have found a cafe with free WiFi – but it doesn’t work! Sorry! Photo’s to come ASAP!
Dan & Kaz x
After getting off the train in Irkutsk we then had a two hour drive to Lake Baikal and our home stay in a wooden house in a little Siberian Village. Our host was called Gillena, who welcomed us (Dan, myself and a new friend called Marius from Romania) warmly with a lunch of Borske, some kind of meat balls and potato, lush biscuits (which were very similar to Viennese Whirls!) and “chay” – tea!
The village we were staying at (Bolshoe Goloustnoe) was very remote, so much so it had no running water; I was somewhat alarmed when I found this out – as you can imagine. After being shown around the village by our guide Lena, it was time for a Banya and a wash – yippee! The Banya was basically like a sauna, (in traditional ones you get wiped with branches to help release the toxins), with hot water (warmed by the fire) where you mix hot and cold water and basically wash yourself in a bucket – to be fair I didn’t care it was so nice to have water on my body! With no running water, the toilet situation was also one of interest, it basically involved a toilet seat over a hole in the ground – I have to say this was 100 times cleaner and more pleasant than the toilets on the train!
The following day we trekked 16km around Lake Baikal to a weekend retreat for lunch (I need to quickly quantify that we didn’t actually walk around Lake Baikal as it HUGE – 400 miles long and 40 miles wide – it contains 20% of the worlds fresh water!). I have to say this has been one of the best bits of our travels so far. Thankfully the weather was glorious – clear blue sky and sunshine (quite a contrast to the night before which was lashing it down!), but the views were awesome – check out the pics. The Lake was so clear it was amazing – had it been a little hotter I would have gone paddling for sure.
With it being such a nice day we decided, after our Banya and dinner, Dan, Marius and myself would go to the top of the hill to watch the sunset, with a bottle of vino – classy!! We got an extra bonus however as we also got to see the moon rise on the reflection of the sun going down – fab! Controversial perhaps, however I have to say Lake Baikal is the best Russia has to offer!
Kx
So we arrived in Irkutsk after our 57 hour train journey a little tired and very ready to get off the train. We had met a few people onboard who had come direct from Moscow which is something like four nights on the train, I know they were ready to disembark and probably as desperate as us for a shower!
The train journey was more like what I had expected of the Trans Sib and although Marlis Travel had not rectified their error in our booking for 1st class, we still had an enjoyable train journey. We shared our cabin again with Chris & Carol which meant prompt breakfast tea at an hour well before I had considered rising and although Chris had some comical (how could it be so loud!) snoring in the night, 10 hours of iPod shuffle saw to it that myself & Karen got enough sleep!
The days and evenings were passed by reading (I’ve completed my book already – doh!) and chatting on to Chris & Carol. At about 14:00 on our first day the cabin next to ours arose, to find three English lads doing a quick zip from Moscow to Beijing; this gave me an opportunity to spend the first full night on the train playing cards and drinking games, needless to say I woke prompt the next morning to a cup of tea and a headache! The journey was good as we got to meet and chat to plenty of people and hear about their trips/experiences. We had heard that this stretch of the Trans Sib is supposed to be quite dull in terms of scenery – I can confirm this to be true, we passed trees, more trees and the odd little village / town along the way. There were one or two highlights to be seen as the Trans Sib Lonely Planet book detailed, however we passed these during the night so didn’t get to see them – typical!
Onboard food was one of two options: food we had brought – a selection of rehydrate noodles, salami & crisps/crackers or the restaurant car. The restaurant car over the evenings rapidly lost its stock and choice – so much so the last night was meat soup or a pork-like steak. More worryingly the selection of platform food was all the same 
; I will persevere for some kind of meat on a stick!
We arrived into Irkutsk at 09:00 local time, which was 04:00 Moscow time (the time which those travelling direct from Moscow were keeping to!) again not having the required amount of sleep I have become accustom to (i.e. nothing less than 10 hours). We were met on the platform as efficiently as ever by the local travel agent. But there was one last chance for a hiccup – on the first day, after the provodnista had first charged us for our bedding, issued a receipt etc only to refund it the next morning, she then took all our tickets away. Her having not returned them, we all (Me & Karen, Chris & Carol plus the three lads) thought they were not needed, how wrong. So a ticket-squad was dispatched, only to find our carriage locked! But by some quick thinking, Karen boarded the adjacent carriage to then retrieve the tickets! Phew – St Christopher was looking over us that day!
Bye for now, Dan x