St Petersburg. Made it. Raining. Did not get searched by customs for a change. As friendly as you would expect. You have NO idea how dodge the entrance to the hostel looks and how tricky it was to find. More later.
– Posted from my iPhone
Another long day. Up at 5:30 to catch the tram into Helsinki train station, then onto the SPB train.
This evening we took a stroll around to get our bearings and find some food. The options in the shop across the road are extremely Russian and limited (some look familiar). For sups we found a local cafe/deli/canteen and had a typical meal. Mash with meat and cabbage, V had some sort of quiche. Not good by any means, but compared to Norway, dirt cheap. So cheap that my stomach is vocalizing its discontent and plotting its revenge as I type this post.
The weather for tomorrow looks miserable but the forecasts have not been accurate yet. We intend to spend the whole day at and around the Hermitage. By all accouts it will be awesome.
– Posted from my iPhone
What a day! More than 12 hours on our feet checking out the Hermitage museum (one of the largest in the world). Weather is still no good. 1 hr 45 mins in the rain (getting to the museum and standing in the queue) and no sign of a leak in our snazzy jackets. The Russian behaviour of just pushing into or jumping queues is really annoying but we knew about, it so just need to accept it or do the same (not really our style).
The section of the Musuem we visited (housed partly in the Winter Palace) was immense beyond anything we have seen. The collections go on forever in the most lavishly decorated rooms and halls (Gold leaf was the paint dujour) The first hour in was frustrating. It’s too big and confusing with a really bad free map. There seemed to be little or no structure to the layout – it’s as if everything that the Russians have ever collected has been distributed randomly with no info on the displays (I guess they want you to pay for a tour or audioguide).
If you every want to see my V annoyed, give her a bad map 🙂 she’s my navigator – I have a defective compass gene (tks Mom) After a guided tour of the Gold Treasure Room (not really worth the price tag) we had a better idea of now to navigate. Oddly, the highlight for me was the art ! I think I’m a Monet fan, but there was plenty to see from Da Vinci to Piccasso.
Dodging the vast tour groups wasn’t easy and we did overhear at least one other Safa. Most unusual are the hundreds of soviet era grannies dotted around and watching your every move. I assume they have had trouble in the past or it’s just job creation. I doubt that even deep brain stimulation would illicit a smile. Sitting on a chair all day and barking at the odd tourist must be a terrible job.
By the end of the day our feet were killing us and with a 3km walk home we decided to sit for a bit on a 2hour boat cruise around some of the islands. Unfortunately they have ‘forgotten’ to tell us that the commenary was in Russian only so we just watched the sights go by. I dozed of a couple of times woken only by the blarring Russian guide.
Then just to nail us to the proverbial X we decided to visit St Isaacs Cathederal and pay an overpriced fee to hike to the top of the dome (250 plus steps – the cities highest official viewing platform). The views were panoramic (no kidding) but not the best weather for photos.
A little bad news: Our tour of Star City (Russia’s NASA and one of the highlights for us) has been cancelled because there are not enough people on the tour. This means that all our rushing to get to Moscow has been in vain. Annoying Ruskies! We’ll just have to go to the real NASA one day.
Photos will be in the gallery (soon)
Travel Tip
For the Hermitage
– You need at least a full day in the main section.
– Get to the ticket office early. Beware – they don’t seem to understand English at all.
– Get on a guided tour or you will get lost, if your go yourself maybe a guide book or audioguide.
– We had to pay an extra 200p for a ticket that allows you to take photos. Nobody was checking – don’t bother.
– Flash photography is not allowed, but everyone still uses a flash (we didn’t).
– The cafes inside are a rip-off and you cannot go out and back in on the standard ticket so prepare to starve or pay.
For Channel Cruizes
Check if the commentary is in English before getting on !
– Posted from my iPhone
We got a slightly later start – thankfully. A dorm bed never felt so good.
First stop was a walk to ‘The church of the resurrection’ also known as ‘The church of the saviour on spilled blood’ and a dozen other variations. Our first encounter with whacky Russian churches with domes that look like flavoured soft-serves. Impressive outside, grand inside (typical).
I convinced V to give my feet a break and we got on the city tour (hop-on/hop-off) bus. We passed a few sights while listening to an audio-tour and jumped off at the Peter & Paul Fortress.
The main cathederal houses the remains of all but one the Russian Tsars from Peter the Great (who truly was) to the Romanov’s (the last ones). Morbid, but interesting. We spent hours walking around the fort and it’s museums (unfortunately not much info in English). My best part was the Space History exhibit. Very “Soviet”. Big rocket motors and the re-entry pod from the Soyuz-Apollo mission. Wicked Cool !!
We hopped back on the bus and did 1.5 loops of the tour. Just watching the city go by and trying not to doze off – museums are taking a lot out of us. Too tired to hunt for a good meal we chickened out and opted for a MacDonalds. Think we will need a full ‘off’ day soon.
The dorm had been overrun by a hoard of Russian school kids so we upgraded to the penthouse (well a double room across the hall) and sipped a scotch to celebrate my V’s impending birthday while enjoying another ep. of Dr Who.
– Posted from my iPhone
Gonna be another long post….Guess what?
Not your typical birthday 🙂 we took a stroll down toward the train station and had pancakes (apple/caramel and bannana/chocolate) for breakkie at the bd girl’s request.
It took some doing but I managed to arrange a parade for V. Well actually it was the SPB City Day parade that came pouring down Nevsky prospect (main street) while we were there. The police had closed the road for at least 3km with officers posted every 15m so we were expecting a show. I have to admit it was rather lame compared to soviet era ones, but was still an unexpected treat. The parade consisted of: A few hundred people on harleys and every other kind of motorbike, a flock of rollerbladers, a herd of power striders (google it), a bunch of girls on with a band on a flatbed. The finale – the street sweepers 🙂 Really ! No tanks or ICBM’s.
Our next task was to get tickets to Moscow. The plan was to take a 1st class sleeper. Not so easy when you don’t speak Russian. The German couple in the queue in front of us gave up trying to get their ticket after 5 mins. We stuck it out and ended up with a 2nd class ticket – close enough !
Driven by the desire to walk as little as possible we stored our packs and challanged ourselves with the SPB subway system (was actually really simple in the end – doh! ) The stations are very, very deep and lavishly decorated (apparently Moscow’s are better). Our first stop, just for V on her bd, was the Military History Museum 🙂 what could be cooler than a massive collection of Russian weaponry ? Everything from AK47s to ICBMs.
Hotdogs and Ice creams for lunch followed by a walk to and around the Menshikov palace. Not briliant. He was Peter the gr8’s best buddy. BTW, palaces here are more like mansions rather than the romantic palatial stereotype.
We ended up near the train station in search of dinner. Eventually found a reasonable looking Russian resturant and made good use of our iphone translation app. The food was as expected. Beer was good. Vodka was, well, vodka.
To top off V’s day we boarded the train after an hour sitting on a cold granite floor in the station. The 4 sleeper cabin was cozy to say the least – an arms length between the occupants. And then to sleep.
Not your average 30th my love. But hopefully one to remember 🙂
Travel Tip
Notes on our experience buying train tickets:
– Find the train info you need on the Real Russia / Seat 61 or way to Russia sites and then get someone at your hostel to write down exactly what you need in Russian. Only works if there are no issues at the ticket office
– Look for the youngest, leaset grumpy looking (tricky) ticket office worker. Probably more likely to speak English and be helpful.
– Have pen and paper. Easier to write a time and date than say it in Russian.
– Never give up, Never surrender. Once you get to the front of the queue don’t leave until you have the ticket you need. When they can’t understand, insist. When they say ‘no credit card’, point to the Mastercard logo on the window, etc etc. Eventually they will help you, call the police or just close the counter 🙂
Photos in the gallery soon!
– Posted from my iPhone
I know we have been slacking off on posts the past few days. Been hectic and knackered but working on it now. I’m wired on red bull and coffee while V is having a snooze (must be the old age). We’re in Moscow ! Here’s a little eyecandy from this morning.
– Posted from my iPhone
The overnight train was hot and stuffy but it was a new experience for the both of us. I did not sleep at all but Sim managed ok. We arrived dead on time at 7:10 in Moscow after stopping for a half hour outside the city in order to do so ( guidebook says this is the norm and Russian trains always arrive on time). The toilets at the train station were an experience in themselves. I was not expecting squat toilets at a major train station in the capital.
Negotiated the Moscow metro without too much difficulty and got to the hostel very early. They let us dump our bags and we vamoosed off to go kill some time. Spotted a cool little cafe to go have a second breakfast. Expensive but a very nice little treat for ourselves. The Russians do pretty good breads and excellent tea.
We wandered off to the Kremlin and Red square. Caught the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. Then rounded a corner and spotted the queue for Lenins mausoleum. No photos no bags and you have to go though metal detectors to get in. Its free which was surprising but they charge you a small fee for storing your cameras phones bags etc. Numerous stern looking guards then usher you round a set route into and out of the mausoleum. No dawdling allowed. I still maintain it’s a fake cos he looked pretty good for a dead guy.
Red square ( more of a rectangle though) is everything we imagined it to be. Multicoloured St. Basils at the one end just tops it off perfectly. St Basils is THE picture you see in your head when you think of Moscow. Sim and I both had big grins as we walked around imagining what it must have been like to etch ICBMs and tanks roll through the square during Soviet times.
[sim] Just managed to get V to a bunk before she fell asleep. Got to love red bull. Lots more to do tomorrow. Hope the afternoon rest has regenerated my feet. Dorm seems noisy. Dr Who or House this eve. Cool.
– Posted from my iPhone
Day 2 out on the square (the red one). We were first in line for tickets to the Armoury and Kremlin – even managed to get a friendly response using my extremely limited Russian. The ‘Summer Snow’ (poplar seeds) are falling thick across the city – freaky.
The Armoury and Diamond Exchange were beyod what we expected. We saw the Fabregè egg collection (they only have 10 of the original 57 – the rest are lost or in private/other collections). Also the Russian ‘Crown Jewels’ along with halls of precious jewels, masses of diamonds, platinum, gold and silver. Sorry Mom. No photos allowed at all. It seems that they decorated EVERYTHING with limitless supplies of shiny expensive stuff.
We spent the rest of the morning walking aroud the various cathederals ( x lots) and attrations (the Tsars canon and Bell) in the Kremlin. After the awe of the Armoury it was pretty dull.
Following a quick lunch in the massive shopping mall (located underground next to Red Square) we visited the Russian History Museum. Barely an English info board in sight made it boring and confusing. V and I were both falling asleep on our sore feet (Museum fatigue is setting in).
In the evening we went back out to take some night photos. Walked past the Balshoi (busy being renovated) and got a few shots of St. Basils and Red Square beautifully lit. Outside the Kremlin the locals were ignoring the ‘keep off the grass’ signs in the park – during the day I guess the guards chase them off because it was empty. Another budget cut maybe – the guards who watch over the ‘Unknown Soldier’ all day with an hourly changing ceremony knock off at 5 !
– Posted from my iPhone
The internet connection at this hostel (Munro Hostel, Moscow) is driving me nuts. Keep losing stuff we type for posts, can’t sort photos and forget Skype. Worst of all I’m getting the ‘Tap to Retry’ (ie. Crashed) message from iTunes halfway through the download of the latest Dr Who.
– Posted from my iPhone
The Moscow metro (underground) had us a bit confused this morning as we headed out to the Cosmonautics Museum. The lines are different colours like the London Underground but the light blue, dark blue and general info boards all look the same colour (in addition to being in Cyrillic only). Red and orange lines seem to be random shades of each other. Someone needs to give these guys a Pantone chart for xmas !
The museum has an impressive 30 foot titanium swoosh with a rocket on top of it. Unfortunately it was closed ! (the LP guide is wrong). We’ll try again tomorrow. We then took a long walk in the drizzle around the ‘All Russia Exhibition Centre’. A real Soviet era 2km square exhibition to glorify the Soviet way with huge pavillions dedicated to various aspects of Russian economic strength and development. It has fallen into complete disrepair and shows just what a mistake the system was. The pavillions are now full of dodgy looking stalls selling imported junk from all over the world – Got a spare battery for our new camera (hope it isn’t fake).
At this point I got hit by a train (mentally) and vetoed the rest of the days plans. By 13h I was fast asleep at the hostel (for 3 hours). 4 weeks of daily excursions, endless walking and information overload from museums has finally got the better of me. V is fine. Must be the 5 years she has on me 🙂 V has nursed me back from the brink with tea and chocolates. Hopefully we’ll both be back to full speed tomorrow. We start the Trans-siberean on Thursday. Lots of time to chill out there.
V just showed me these for a bit of fun:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8579277.stm
http://m.boingboing.net/2010/06/01/the-dark-side-of-eng.html
– Posted from my iPhone
The Cosmonautics museum was well worth the trek back out to the outskirts of Moscow. Lots of cool space stuff to see (unfortunately no English info again) but bits like Gagarin’s space suit, rocket motors, full sized space station module and Mark Shuttleworth’s jumpsuit (i’m sure for the price he also has a few) kept us enthralled.
Back on the tube to Gorky Park V was being used as a pillow. It was nothing like we imagined – it should be renamed Gorky Theme Park. It’s Gold Reef City with porta-loos and without maintenance. It does have a full sized mockup of the Russian Space Shuttle (the one that never had a manned flight). At least we can say that we have been there, it was hot and we walked our feet off.
Across the road from Gorky Park is the Tretyakov Art Gallery (which we skipped – even V has has enough art for now) and a sculpture park full of odd bits of Soviet sculptures that have been torn down since the collapse. We skipped that too – made no sense to pay and entry fee for a park full of discarded junk !
Another short hop on the tube and we were near Arbat street – lined with souveneir shops, it’s a tourist hang out. V was after a set of Matrioshka dolls, didn’t take long at all. On the way home we stopped by the Matrioshka Doll museum – what a joke. At least it was free.
Our last night in Moscow. Odd bunch of people in the dorm and the battle for the kitchen contiunes. The loud administrator and her buddies take it over as their own every night making it difficult to get in there. This hostel won’t get a good review from me.
– Posted from my iPhone
The heat has arrived with avengance and with it the mozzies. These Russian mozzies are noisy – could hear them with my earplugs in. To give an idea: there was a jackhammer that started the other night (at 3am – really!) that barely woke me, but the mozzies kept me up most of the night buzzing and feasting. Today we start our Trans-Siberian trek. I am anxious. It could the be lack of sleep or the chatter last night about russian police nonsense and visa registration – ours has technically expired – oops.
– Posted from my iPhone
Nervously (for me) we made our way to the train station to drop our gear for later. With some dollars folded in my passport we did everything to make sure we did not look like foreigners (hard to hide I guess, but to be honest we have been continuously mistaken for Russians). The police did not harrass us so we stepped it up and visited the Lubyanka area (the evil old prison and offices of the KGB and now the FSB). Still no arrest – this spy stuff is easy!
A VERY long walk took us around some of the older areas of Moscow and we looped back to Red Square and an ice-cream stand.
Relief (for me) as we got back to the train station. Then V started to panic that we may be at the wrong station (Moscow has lots). We got confirmation and then proceeded to be thoroughly fleeced – £14 each for a kebab, mash and a Coke!
– Posted from my iPhone
We’re on the Trans-Siberian (Mongolian). First leg around 24hrs to Yekaterinburg ! The cabin and train are good – better than the last hostel just smaller. The rest of the trip will be on lesser trains. Our cabin buddy is a polite Russian guy. No English at all. I have exhausted my translation app (designed to ask things like ‘where is the toilet ?’) finding out that he is from Yekaterinberg and is a factory foreman. Time to catch up on some podcasts!
Already at the first stop. Dozens of people selling odd things (glassware and stuffed birds !?) have decended on the platform.
– Posted from my iPhone
Rough night on the train. Our polite cabin buddy turned out to be a champion sleeper and a world class snorer! I hardly slept. My head being 50cm from what sounded like an Orc with a head cold.
BTW my Russian is getting much better – now that we are on our way out! It’s probably better than my Italian ever was. Will have to try harder in China.
We officially crossed into Asia shortly before arriving in Yekaterinburg and were met by our tour agent, Constantine (what a cool name) at our carriage. Survived 24hrs on a train. Constantine gave us some info about the city and the ‘take and share’ recipe of the USSR as he drove us to our homestay in the ‘South West Residential Zone’. As per it’s geographical namesake it started to look like Soweto. Run down buildings, destroyed roads, blocks of ominous, graffiti ridden soviet flats. Yikes. What did V get us into?!
Actually, V had booked us into a flat in the centre of town but the tour agent switched on us at the last minute. Our host was a very sweet little old granny (Lydia) and her 1 bed apartment. I assume we booted her from her bed, she slept in the lounge, we both felt bad. No hot water meant a 1/2 wash and a bit of laundry with water warmed on the stove. When in Rome ey! Except… In Rome I’m sure you can get more for €80 (+ €30 transfer). I would love to know how much Lydia gets from that.
The train ticket prices from the operator were excellent but they ripped us on the rest. We should have been confident enough to arrange tickets and accomodation ourselves but reading online scared us off. We estimate we could have saved 30-40% on the entire Trans Siberian package had we done it all ourselves – hard to put a price on the stress that we would have had to endure though.
– Posted from my iPhone
A month on the road and 6 countires tagged (incl UK). That went way too fast !
Lydia (our host) made us an edible breakfast. Fried rice and sasuage. On the whole the homestay was a good (although odd) experience. In 30C heat we challanged ourselves to the bus into town. One good thing about the busses and subway in Russia – you pay a fixed price no matter where you are going.
First stop was the Mineralogical Museum. A private collection of the cool (but boring) rocks and fossils found in the Urals from where Yekateringburg gets its cash. We were the only patrons and the curator followed us arround turnig off the display lights as we went along – talk about energy saving 🙂
The old centre of the city is compact and has a pleasant atmosphere compared to Moscow – far more chilled. We strolled around passing the site where the Romanovs where executed. A big (ugly) church now replaces the original house that Yeltsin destroyed.
‘The A Team’ is showing (in Russian) but couldn’t twist V’s arm – instead she took to me to a photographic museum and gallery. Some technically interesting stuff. I miss my big (heavy) camera but am relieved we don’t have it on this trip.
We went shopping in the flea market for some baggy shorts for me to sleep in on the train and some tin mugs – no luck – we’ll manage. My strops were doing a great job wearing my toes in so we sat in a sqaure for a bit and watched some skateboarders and a dog show/competition (lots of of Collies and a Jack Russell that was more interested in the smells than the obstacles). We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around – was a great day out.
In the afternoon we had a long slog with our packs and train food to the station – should have taken a bus! We ate supper on the station steps (were not going to pay to use a waiting room) and waited there for a very, very long time.
Some Russian entertainment passed by. Two drunk guys engaged in a bloody fist fight. As soon as the first punch was thrown a member of the crowd appointed himself referee, making sure that when one guy was down the other did not mash his opponent’s face into the tarmac too much and giving them both a ‘fair’ chance. It didn’t take long for one to go down permanently and the ref ended the brawl pulling the attacker off. Of course the police were nowhere to be seen until it had ended !
So after all that excitement we now have 3 nights on a train. Should be interesting.
– Posted from my iPhone
Okay. I meant snacks. Hehe
Russian trains have numbers. Number 1 (The Red Arrow) is the deluxe top of the line. Even numbers leave Moscow, odd ones go back. I guess 500ish would be a freight train. Most travellers end up on trains in the 10 to 50 range. Our train was number 340! It wasn’t actually too bad, just old and slow, and they stopped a LOT!
We boarded to find a Russian couple sharing our 2m x 1.8m four birth compartment (one step up from the cabinless bunks in 3rd class). Natasha and Yeni were polite and friendly but we all turned in early – a sleepless hot and sweaty night without aircon. The romantic notion of slumbing to the clickity-clack of the lines does not apply to these trains – its more of a jarring clunkity-whack 🙂 By the morning our buddies had been replaced by another polite couple (becomming a trend).
The cabins are clean and basic but unfortunatley no power outlet. With 3 nights onboard I had to ration myself with podcasts and iPhone activity. That was until the powers that be (haha) forgot to turn off the sockets in the corridor after vacuum cleaning, it felt like Eskom had just stopped load shedding! Power to the people, I say.
The toilets are very basic and drop straight to the track – I’ll never walk on a train line again Mom, I promise. The problem with stopping so often at stations is that the drop toilets are locked for obvious reasons so you need to plan ahead. Best to go as soon as the train starts moving… not fun when the train stops for 40mins.
The landscape flashing by was at times almost African but mostly trees and more trees. Into Siberia it changed to trees and marshes. Pulling into a stop at dusk meant jumping to close the window to prevent the plague of mozzies from draining a safa for sups.
Meals on the train were very boring. The dining cars are known for being expensive and bad, but each coach has a samovar so most people (including us) have instant noodles or rice. The rice containers doubled as tea cups creating a hearty brew of rasberry tea with hints of chicken and rice – blaghh! By the second day I was missing my milk and got off the train to find some. Once again I ended up with what I thought was off milk. On further inspection we discovered it was a drinking yogurt, doh ! So no milky tea, but at least some dairy.
The couple in the cabin with us (Boris and Oxanna) kept very much to themselves but it is hard to ignore people that are 50cm from you 24hrs a day. They had purchased some dried fish at one of the stops which made me nervous – if they offered it would be impolite to refuse. Thankfully they offered a pine cone. At least an hour of entertainment figuring out how to eat the seeds! Woolies is easier. Apparently you can get really good food at the stops – but honestly we did not see much that would be pallatable.
It turned out that Boris (a mechanic) and Oxanna (a doctor/student doctor or therapist – hard to understand) were heading for a holiday spot north of our destination which gave us the cabin to ourselves for some of the last night. Good thing too as V was starting to get a little ‘cabin fever’ – she had spent the entire day reading – that would have put me in a ferocious mood 🙂
– Posted from my iPhone
The train has been a great experience so far but more ruski vocab would have helped. It would also have been interesting to stop at more places enroute but I suspect not worth the stress without a guide or the ability to communicate.
Since Moscow we have have travelled more than 4500km on 2 continents and crossing 5 time zones over as many nights, 4 of them on trains. On arrival in Irkutsk we were whisked away to the lakeside resort village of Listvyanka on the shore of lake Baikal. Another dodgy looking road and entrance (too knackered to care) led us to a well appointed pine log lodge and nirvana – our first shower in 5 days. We tried in vane to drain the lake dry through the shower head but since it holds 1/5 of the worlds fresh water that was optimistic.
We slept like Russian bears in winter for the entire afternoon, woke up, consumed an ep or two of Boston Legal on V’s iPhone and went back to sleep. Got to love the little things – hot showers, good sleep and Denny Crane 🙂
– Posted from my iPhone
[UPDATE] Posts added all the way back to Moscow. You may need a coffee to get through them 🙂
In our haste to leave Moscow we did not update. We are on the Trans-Siberian. Beijing on the 18th. Do not expect decent internet until them. Am posting very quickly using an expensive cell connection at a station in the middle of nowhere ! Thanks for all the comments. Will read them all and post all the updates as soon as possible.
Okay – so possibly our posts are getting boring and too diary-like, but its really just so we remember. Also I’m noticing lots of spelling and other errors. I’ll blame the autocorrect on my iPhone and my editor (V). The phone is a great tool but I do miss Word! On with the show….
It appears that there is not much to do here at lake Baikal – no complaint. Yesterday I spotted an observatory marked on the tourist map and after a wander through the market we headed uphill in search of science toys and hopefully a mad scientist or two.
We could sense that we may have been trespassing but there were no locked gates and the rabid looking dogs seemed safely confined – we continued up into the thick forest. Our guide – a crazy looking black dog that had been with us since the market – seemed to know where he was going. It began to feel like an episode of Lost as we rounded a bend to see a towering structure rising from the trees. At the base was a rusted caravan (obviously an old monitoring station) and its relatively new counterpart. We could hear voices inside but from behind a rusted and locked gate could not tell if they were squatters or astronomers. We made our presence known but did not get any response, so no cool Soviet telescope to gawk at.
Back in ‘town’ we watched a brave local take a dip in the lake. Even with all his blubber he only lasted seconds. The entire lake freezes over in winter and the last traces of ice melted a couple of weeks ago. We dipped our hands in to check – yip – freezing cold !
The afternoon was spent turning prawn pink (in my case) and lobster red (for V) on the sundeck at the lodge while listening to a pleasant yet talkative Canadian. He is retired and as a young man spent most of his time as a soldier in Europe keeping an eye on the reds. Now he was travelling first class through Russia, Mongolia and China. Have to admit we were a little jealous of his tales of the number 1 train.
We took an early dinner in the town market. Great, simple and cheap – albeit the staple of fried rice with beef and a pork kebab. The sun, full tums and beer left us sluggish and extremely content. V bought a pile of delicious cherries at a stall and we dawdled back to the lodge.
Today – Day 2 in Baikal
Managed to do almost nothing for the first time in ages. 2 full days in Baikal is too long unless you want to go on the lake looking for the fresh water seals. We had grand plans of a hike up to a viewpoint overlooking Port Baikal but halfway to there we gave in to the strong icy wind. We sat on the pebble beach and watched the world go by. Briefly encountered an English couple who started in South America 7 months ago and travelling in the opposite direction to us are 2 weeks from a flight home.
Travel Tip
– 1 full day at lake Baikal is enough. It may be impressive (7km deep etc) but is just a big pond. At least you won’t feel bad doing nothing.
– Not easy to find Internet but we found an open Wifi point just outside the hotel that is supposed to look like a lighthouse. If you loiter too long you may get a security guard peering at you from the balcony.
– Posted from my iPhone
Our guide during the transfer back to Irkutsk was brilliant. (Damien from Baikal Complex) With 10 hrs to kill we decided to walk around the city but were not expecting much – it turned into a really pleasant day.
From the station across the bridge all the way down the river to the Alexander III obelisk and eventually stopping at the Regional Museum was excellent. The museum, although small and limited, had English info – what a novelty !
Crossing town we passed a tennis court with a tiny little girl (barely taller than the net) being coached – serving ball after ball I guess she is heading toward tennis fame in 10 years or so. Should have gotten an autograph 🙂
The market area was teaming with students and the shop owners were able to answer my pathetic Russian in English – I was relieved. Peering at our map we were offered assistance in English by a passer by. I’m always skeptical of that kind of offer but in retrospect I think that my concern was unwarranted.
Stocked up at the supermarket for the 2 day train ride (and supplies that we won’t be able to get in China easily) we plonked ourselves down in the main park and watched people and pidgeons go about their days. V was very impressed with the price and condition of the parks public loos – Irkutsk gets a gold star in her book. More and more Mogolian/Asian faces appearing – we must be close now.
Our final destination on the very long hot walk back to the train station was a Soviet WWII memorial and eternal flame. The surrounding park was filled (well I counted 5) with wedding processions and their photographers. We’ve seen flocks of wedding parties out in the parks all around Russia on just about every day of the week. Limos and stretched Hummers are the order of the day here – seems like a good business to be in!
– Posted from my iPhone
Back on the Trans Sib. Next stop Mongolia !
The strong damp musky smell in the cabin reminded us that this train had an even higher number than the 3 night one to Irkutsk. Now pros at this we settled in quickly and attempted communication with our cabin buddy Victor – very sweet old Russian guy – we liked him immediately. Seems he is heading to Ulaanbataar (UB) for work but has a mountain of luggage and a fishing pole. The rest carriage was full mostly with Dutch and other tourists with our connection from the lake (Henk) in the cabin next to us.
Not long after the train started rolling Victor hauled out tomatoes and salami and began feeding us with enthusiasm. Fantastic ! Neither of us were looking forward to cup-a-noodles again. We tried to offer him some fruit that we had with us but we interpreted his gestures and reply as ‘That fruit will give you gyppo guts. Don’t eat it – rather have tea and tomatoes”.
By the morning the final berth was filled by a younger Russian guy who kept to himself. Not even Victor had much to say to him. My poor V barely got any sleep and was looking worse for wear. Before we could get our breakfast organized, Victor had swooped down from the top bunk and started feeding us again. More salami, tomatoes, cheese and hard boiled eggs with lots of tea. We felt pretty bad that the ‘single’ portion food we had would have been difficult to share – all we could offer was gratitude.
We arrived at the Russian border at 13h00 and started the procedure of detaching carriages that were returning to Russia and changing engines for the short hop through no-mans-land. 4 hours later and now stewing in our cabin without an openable window the Russian immigration and customs procedure started. They tossed the cabin – like a scene from a prison movie – but were not really looking. A Dutch couple were fined €50 each for overstaying their visa but other than that it was uneventful.
Between borders the spikey Russian guy was replaced at first by a Mongolian Lady who spoke English and was very helpful and friendly. She and her husband were just hitching a free ride across the border so they could buy tickets on the Mongolian side. I have to admit I was getting nervous at the piles of luggage being added to our cabin and the possiblity of customs nonsense.
On the Mongolian side (10 mins down the track) we were subjected to another customs and immigration procedure. The customs officer blatently stole (after a heated debate) 10% of the cash held by our Russian and Mongolian cabin mates for no apparent reason (except possibly because they did not declare exactly how much cash they had on them). She had a go at some of the tourists further down the carriage as well for not declaring but they got off with a warning. It was such an obvious fleecing that left us and our cabin mates stunned.
Finally !! 9 hrs after stopping we were in Mongolia and on our way again. Once more with a new friendly Russian guy (Alexander). Food was now flowing from both Victor and Alexander we could not go hungry.
This morning at 6:30 we rolled into a cold UB. The outskirts sprawl some distance and look decidedly 3rd world. Mongolia has a population around 2mil, half of which live in UB – many of them still in Gers.
– Posted from my iPhone
We were both very nervous about the Russian part of the trip, but in retrospect it was not justified. The vast majority of people we met were friendly, polite and willing to help as long as we made some effort to communicate with the few words we could manage. We were frequently mistaken for dosmetic tourists, a problem I don’t expect in China, and I don’t think we got ripped off too much – probably just the right amount.
Booking the train tickets online was our most expensive error. The guide books and websites made us think that doing it ourselves would be far to difficult. We had time so it would have been far cheaper to get a local agent or even the hostels to assist. Besides that, the thrill of managing to get the right ticket from the ticket office at SPB station was worth more than the comm for an agent.
The biggest disappointment was the cancellation of the Star City tour (one of the reasons we rushed to Moscow). A lesson enforced: sometimes it’s better to just pay the high price and get on with it.
The sights were great as we expected and the museums vast, but not that English friendly (audio guides seem to be a good option). Travel was reasonably easy and we probably didn’t need to walk as much as we did.
We have since met people who have had only negative things to say about the Russians. We can’t agree. We had a great time there and the hospitality and kindness of the strangers on the trans-sib will not be forgotten.
A few odd notes to remind ouselves:
– The Armoury, Red Square, St Basils, Lenin, SPB fort.
– More ice cream
– Choc chip cookies
– Tea and more tea (but black)
– Sitlletoes on cobbles
– Dodgy houses, flash cars, leather jackets & cell phones
– The Soviet stuff seems to be mostly missing
– Cosmonauts Museum
– Milk and Drinking yogurt confusion
– Women dressed to kill and posing as if supermodels at every chance
– Learning and trying to speak a bit of Russian
– Heavy Soviet doors
– Conquering the Metro
– Gold leaf
Will have to keep adding to this post as more memories pop into our heads!
– Posted from my iPhone