Irkutsk

So its been a little while since my last update as I have been having a whirlwind of a time around Lake Baikal. Let's get you caught up!

Train 4: Novosibirsk to Irkutsk (aka never again!)

Well it appears that I am cursed with my travelling companions on the rains on this trip as they seem to be getting progressively worse! From creepy-staring-man to overexcited schoolgirls to the peak of worst bunk mates.... the snorer! Now I'm not just talking your average annoying snorer. I am talking about the Mother of all Snorers! This man, who managed to sleep for a wonderful 28 out of the possible 32 hour journey (oh yes my friends, I had the pleasure of his company for the WHOLE JOURNEY!), sounded like a pig with a deviated septum. And it wasn't just one constant sound, it had levels - a heavy breath, a low murmur, a grunt here and there, to full on snort snoring! And the worst part was that NO ONE ELSE WAS BOTHERED!! SERIOUSLY??!! Needless to say I did not get much sleep on that journey (sadly I couldn't shove my headphones far enough into my eardrums!). Thankfully, all things must come to an end, and we finally arrived in Irkutsk and as it was late and I was in no mood to figure out public transport I broke my rule and took a taxi to my hostel, checked in and went straight to bed! Brush it off Lois, there are no snorers here... (not DEFCON 5 snorers anyway).

Day 1 - Listvyanka

I decided on my first day in Irkutsk to take a bus straight to Lake Baikal as that was the main reason for my stay. I took a local minibus to a little village called Listvyanka, an hour away from Irkutsk where the Angara River flows into Lake Baikal. And boy was I not disappointed! It really is the biggest lake in the world. You can just about see the otherside, and as the lake is surrounded by mountains, most of which are snow covered, it makes for a pretty spectacular sight. Oh and did I mention that the lake was completely frozen! Even more breathtaking a sight. I walked along the the pebbled beach for a while, taking numerous pictures. I even braved walking on the lake itself, after seeing a few other daring people do the same (although fearing that the ice would give way at any minute). After walking around for a bit I decided to treat myself to a ride in one of the many small hovercrafts on the lake. For abour £6 I got a 20 minute trip around a small section (did i mention the lake is the same size as Belgium, or so I've been told) to where the lake meets the river, which by the way never freezes. At the river we had a few mniutes stop where we could take pictures. I asked the driver to take a picture of me, which he kindly does, but he insists i walk to the edge of the ice and that I do a jumping picture, saying its perfectly safe (yeah sure driver man, easy for you to say!) Well of course I did and the pictures were worth it! After my daring ice walk on the lake I headed back to Irkustk to plan the next day's activities.

Day 2 - Irkutsk

I was pleased to find out that Irkutsk also has a tourist walking route painted on the road. So "follow the green brick road" I did. This line wasn't so clear as the one in Yekaterinburg, but it still took me all over the city. I walked along the river, saw yet more churches and happened across what looked to be some sort of cadet graduation ceremony near their eternal flame monument. I also, although surprisingly not park of the "official" tourist route, discovered that Irkutsk is the home to Mini Big Ben (because why not?!). And with it yet more seemingly random statues (*as a side note i have since found out that random baby-in-cabbage-statue is because when children ask their parents where babies come from in Russia they are told that they are picked from a cabbage patch - so cute!*). To break up my green line route I had lunch in a sushi restaurant (seaweed salad = lush). After refueling I completed my route which ended near a statue of a traveller (aka lost man with backpack and camera), very fitting. Tomorrow would be an early start so it was back to the hostel for a shower and an early night.

Day 3 - Olkhon Island (Lake Baikal)

I decided that as I was so close (realtively speaking in Russian terms) to Olkhon Island I couldn't leave Irkutsk without visiting it. So I took the 4 hour bus journey to the crossing point to the island where me and my fellow passengers were told to get in the hovercraft to cross the lake and then join our next bus on the other side. While waiting our turn for the hovercraft I made friends with a very well dressed Korean couple (who spoke very little English) and a Mexican student who was on a semester abroad studying in Moscow (which also meant he spoke Russian - lucky me!). Then it was our turn for the hovercraft. The journey was very quick and passengers were a mixture of locals and tourists. As we were leaving the hovercraft the driver stopped the Korean couple and me and said that we had to pay 350R (about £5 for the trip). I had already paid for my ticket (900R) and showed him and he got angry and said, in broken english, that it was only for the bus and we had to pay him too. I started to get annoyed as I realised that he had only stopped us and not the locals, or my new Mexican friend (who could speak Russian). Even though it isn't a lot of money in the scheme of things it is so infuriating when you know you are being ripped off. I then called the Mexican guy over (Julian) and asked him to explain that we had already paid. He said the guy was adamant. But Julian didn't have to pay! Then i just felt myself losing it at the guy, yelled "this is bullshit!" and gave him the money and stormed off (I know, I turned into that person...). And the poor Korean couple were so confused and just happily paid him anyway. I then had to sit on the next bus trying to calm my rage, which wasn't helped by the fact that Julian sat next to me and then started having a coversation, in Russian, to a local lady who was clearly asking about me. Ugh. Brush it off Lois! Anyway, after another 30 minutes we arrived in Khuzhir, the only town on the island. I had heard that you feel like you are at the end of the worl there, and they weren't lying. It was like being in an old Amercian western movie but with practically no people. The town was nearly deserted. The bus dropped each person at their guesthouse, and as Julian hadn't booked any accomodation as he wanted to camp instead (well actually just sleep outside in a sleeping bag, madness!) he got off the bus with me. Thank goodness he did as my guesthouse appeared just to be a random seeminly deserted house. After walking around for a few minutes saying "hello" a little old lady appeared looking confused. Cue my translater Julian having a coverstaion with her in which we find that yes this is the right place, but the owner isn't here but she will call her to come over straight away. We then wait outside, after 20 minutes though Julian decideds he's going to go explore and we part ways decided to meet up later for dinner. After another 5 minutes the owner appears. She speaks no English. We gesture with each other that I stay one night and then she gives me the tour. The guest accomodation is a number of small buildings, some of which are still in construction, on a fairly big site at the back of the main house. My room is in a building with three other rooms off a small, cold entrance room. She points shows me the room (very basic but fine for one night), plugs in a heater (definitely needed) and then says "toilet?". I say yes and she leads me outside, past another few buildings and then points at a little shack. Thank god I had read reviews and was (slightly) prepared. Said shack contained a whole in the ground. Yes I am serious. And this isn't an I'm a celebrity long drop situation. Oh no, you can very clearly see whats going on down there. Thank god its only for one night! After I, eh hem, used the facilities, I then followed the lady past yet more small buildings to the opposite end of the site to where the shower was located, which luckily was an actual modern shower in a bathroom. I guess they just didn't feel the need to pop a toilet in there too. Oh I should also mention that during this tour a cow casually walked through the gate into the complex, past us and out the other side. The owner lady did not acknowledge this, cearly a regular occurance. She then took me back to the room, pointed to information on the wall about the wifi password (yes people she had wifi but no toilet!) and some tours, asked again "one night", i said yes, she shrugged and then walked off. Clearly unhappy I couldn't take one of her island tours. And that was the last I saw of her. As it was 3pm by this time, and the bus back to Irkustk was at 1pm the next day, I didn't want to waste any time and headed straight out. First stop the supermarket (the only shop on the island). And who should I bump into there but my Mexican friend Julian. We both stocked up on food and then decided to walk to the Shaman rock on the east of the island near the village. The rock is a sacred area for the indiginous people of the island and surrounding area and is surrounded by totem poles covered in different coloured scarfs. As we were taking pictures we look over and just off to the side of us is the Korean couple. We beckoned them over. When they reached us they gave me and Julian each a small card which had a picture of them on with both of their names and all their social media details on it and the word "hello" written in about eight different languages. Oh and it was seethrough. So cool! This is apparently common in Korea. We then decided to walk along the neighbouring beach for a bit, as I had found on a map that there was a "Baikal Viewing Swing" on the other end. Well, after about an hours walk, in the sand, making very basic conversation with each other (lots of hand gestures and smiling), we finally reach the tourist attraction. Which was literally a small log tied to a tree branch. How did this make it onto the map?! Well of course we took some pictures. We had walked all that way. Then we had a mini photo shoot as the Korean couple (Yuri and Jungyu, by the way) had a tripod with them. Cue funny faces and trying to time the perfect jumping picture (my idea of course). After our photoshoot we walked back to the village and tried to find somewhere for dinner. Literally the only place was open was a deserted pub/cafe where the only food they had was a pork steak, a chicken breash, a plate of mashed potato and some plain macaroni. No prize for guessing what I ate. We ate our feast and then decided to call it a night and said our goodbyes, me and the Koreans heading to our 5 star hotels and Julian heading to the wilderness (mental).

Day 4 - leaving the island

As I was leaving my guest house (which was actually fine to sleep in) that morning I find Julian waiting near the gate, looking a bit worst for wear. He told me that he decided to walk to Shaman rock where we met the Koreans but as he was walking to it he saw a light in the distance which started moving. It then shone on him and turned off. After a guy walked straight past him, without even looking in his direction. Freaked out he then decided to walk back to where we found the swing and sleep next to a fallen tree. He tried to light a fire but it didn't last long so he then tried to sleep, which he did. He then said that he woke up at about 5am because something was poking at him. After a few seconds said thing then bit him (luckily not piercing through his sleeping bad). He then got up and found that it was a fox and tried to chase it away. After that he decided to head back to the village and wait for a cafe to open. Needless to say I dont't think he will be wild camping again any time soon. As it was still early we couldn't find any thing open so we sat outisde our trustee pub until it opened (over an hour later). As we were both tired and cold and not overly enthusiastic about the island we decided to just wait there until the bus went to the main island. On the bus back we met an Australian guy and an Italian guy. The Italian I discovered was staying in my guesthouse, though we never saw each other. The Australian had made the wize decision to stay at the most well known (but expensive, relatively speaking) guesthouse where he met a few other travellers and had a much better experience. I guess you do get what you pay for. On the hover ride back I decided that if I don't speak and just walk off at the otherside, ignoring the boat man (who was the same one as yesterday) then he wouldn't make me pay. And i was right! I asked a few other travellers on the other side and it seemed everyone had got scammed at least one way, so I felt a little less annoyed about it. When we got back to Irkutsk me and my three new friends decided to meet up for dinner at a Chinese restaurant later that night (I have yet to eat in a local restaurant...) It was really nice being able to share travel stories and find out where everyone was going next. A nice way to end my stay in Irkutsk.

So there you have my four days on and around the largest freshwater lake in the world.

Apologies for the delay, and the long post.

Next stop Ulan-Ude

Dosvidaniya!Read more