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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

Arrived in Y’burg on Thursday, 8pm local time. We are 2 hours ahead of Moscow, however all train times stick to Moscow time – that will be interesting when we go to get our next train!

Yesterday we had a tour of the city; Yekatrinburg is fairly small in comparison to St P and Moscow and a lot more Russian. After a few hours we had pretty much seen the city centre. We found our third Tinkoff, a microbrewery which we originally found in St P, then in Moscow and now Y’burg! Its great – good beer and tasty snacks! We even had food in the Y’burg Tinkoff to round off the experience.

Second day in Y’ burg was a prearranged trip to a Romanov memorial and then to the Asia-Europe border. In very wet conditions we walked around the memorial, went in the chapels/churches and viewed the entire Romanov family photo album!

After the memorial we were driven, at speed, through stage 666 of the world rally, to the asia-europe border. On the way we saw a memorial to the those who died in the Gulag (18,000 around Y’burg) and a site newly wed’s visit to give their blessing to the border! crazy!

So its time to leave this rather small city (after visiting SP & Moscow) and board the TransSib for a 57 hour train! We may have first class, we may be sharing with Chris & Carol again – either way it will be an awesome experience! Hopefully time to reflect on where we are on the trip and begin to look forward to Asia with regards China & Japan – man those places will be totally different!

Laters!

I’ll write later about Train 1: Saint Petersburg to Moswoc, sorry for being out of sorts – will get into the process soon enough!

Arrived at the Moscow train station to board our 27 hour train to Ekaterinburg. At the hotel we met Carol & Chris who were celebrating Carol’s retirement by taking the Trans-Sib to a) satisfy Chris’s love of trains and b) Carol’s wish to visit China! At the station we stocked up: Water for Karen, Beer for me (no sight of vodka anywhere – gutted) and some super noodles, crisps, bread etc!

We boarded the train to find we didn’t have a 1st class cabin as booked, but thought we would therefore have the 4-berth to ourselves. We were wrong. So a swift phone call to Marlis Travel first) confirmed they had mis-booked our travel, but then secondly) they called back to say the train had been full. With my blood at boiling point we found a solution – Carol & Chris were next door sharing with two Russian blokes so we swapped our Russian travel partners for Carol & Chris and at least we could all speak English!

The train was much more modern than I had anticipated and the provodnitsa not as scary looking than I had feared! It wasn’t long until I hurt myself some more. With a few cans of larger down I wanted to get a GPS fix to thought I would step off the train at the station (where locals were trying to sell us glass chandeliers of all things!) – with only flip flops on, I missed the first step and slipped down on my arse knocking the skin off my elbow – ouch! Back on the train with the provodnitsa suggesting I either stayed off or got back on immediately I hid away and licked my wounds! Worst still – I didn’t find any platform food

The evening train journey was very pleasant, I bought for a small fortune a half litre of vodka off the restaurant car and I was set! Later I had an excellent beef & chicken stew from the restaurant car and a few more beers and was thoroughly looking forward to a long & relaxed sleep knowing Karen felt secure and comfortable, i.e. I could wear my iPod! The sleep was relaxed but not as plentiful as I had hoped, but hey ho – all I had to do all day was sit on a train!

So now to now – sat on the train, drafting a few emails to people, drafting this blog and generally just chilling which is a part of the TransSib I was very much looking forward to! I had a rant with Monkey Business this morning about their Russian partners, Marlis Travel, messing up and then lying to me with excuses which were just not true. They are dealing with that, so hopefully come the 54 hour train we have a 1st class cabin. I should go now and convince everyone that monolopy is an awesome game and that they do want to play!!! $$$$

Bye for now, Dan x

So on our last day in Moscow we had three tourist things to do, and one essential earand to run. Here comes some honesty: I didn’t pack a quite important book and am terribly sorry to John who went to some considerable effort to get it for us. A book I was very much looking forward to reading, and when thinking about boarding the train the next day realised it is by the bed in Cramlington, the book in question is the Long Walk. So, not at first to be beaten – we looked up English bookshops in Moscow and went on the hunt – we found the address, but no bookshop and accepted defeat – sorry John, we truly are and I am gutted.

Outside of the Kremlin we had found a DJ Tank which was covered between all wheels with speakers (photo to come)  -would be an awesome toy for Bear/Benny! I will write a detailed food blog to come over the next day or two, then try an keep you up to date – but I am trying to eat as local as possible wherever possible!

From the bookshop defeat we went to visit Lenin who is still laid in state for people to pay their respect. Karen asked 20 yards from the door after we had queued, past security, etc etc was the body on display real – when I said it was Karen went as pale as Lenin himself! So for the 30 yard walk around the glass cask Karen looked at the wall – the army guards must have been confused. So there he was (not Stalin as I kept calling him!), he was smaller than I imagined.

From exiting the tomb we were at last in Red Square. It had been closed for the previous two days which I think was because of a boxing match staged there the Saturday night. But Red square truly is amazing. Moscow has been fab – definitely a place to come visit again in the winter months. As SP, Moscow had its fair share of brides on display and I was gobsmacked to discover a glass of Lagaluvulin was fourty (yes 40) quid each which makes a bottle worth 600 quid – should have brought one!

With time running out fast, we legged it back to the hotel to catch our transit to the station – trans sib here we come!

Dan x

Done!