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

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

[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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A quick list of things to remind us of our time in Norway.
– Hei hei
– Fjords get borning very quickly
– Flåm – bit of a flop.
– Expensive. Talking £100 pp/day and that’s eating in !
– May is very early – almost everything is still closed. June would have been better.
– You can do Kjeragbolten in early may. The drive there, hike up and the view are all awesome (like a million hotdogs)
– Dorms (online like hostelword) lie. They are not full if they say they are.
– Dorms are not safe for your sunglasses. Never leave anything unattended. I miss my polarized Oakley minutes.
– Japp bars (Bar One) and Marie biscuits, Vimmi (Inca cola-ish)
– Norwegians are polite, helpful, proud (of their country), walk faster than they drive and are English speaking.
– Internet domains are apt. Is it open in May ? .no
– ‘Next time’ rent a car
– if you want to feel like a king: Stand at a pedestrian crossing. Even royalty will stop for you to cross.
– Å i lofoten is a great place to chill out (just remeber to bring cash)
– Nikon sucks 🙂
– I still don’t like fish (sim)
– Narrow roads, crazy tunnels no ‘motorways’ (by my definition).
– Stunning day hikes and fun in the mountains.

We’ll be back ‘one day’ to see Nordkapp and the Aurora Borealis with a quick pop over to Sweden’s ice hotel.

– 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 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