From Russia, With Love – Pt 4 – Irkutsk & Lake Baikal

Note: This blog and the next were ready to be uploaded a week ago but due to the Chinese government's blocking of blogspot they have been delayed.

After two and a half days on the train we were met upon arrival in Irkutsk and driven 60km’s to a town named Listvyanka on the bank of Lake Baikal, to our home stay, which was more like a B&B run by a lady named Natalia.



For those who don’t know, Lake Baikal is the largest fresh water lake in the world holding around 20% of the planets fresh water. (I’ve read elsewhere 30%) In other words add up all the rivers and lakes in the whole world and divide them by three or four – that’s how much water is in this lake. It’s insane, it’s long and skinny, incredibly deep and the water is so pure the locals only filter it once before drinking.









Unfortunately though Listvyanka really didn’t do it for us. The first day we ended up doing nothing but going for a really long walk as we’d booked a boat tour for 6pm so by the time we’d had our showers and gotten ready we only had a couple of hours until the trip. But then when 6pm came we found out that the boat tour was cancelled due to insufficient numbers. We ended up having a drink on the pebbled beach and then went home for an early night.









But then we found that we had ‘train lag’ as we’d crossed a further three time zones since Ekaterinburg and though we slept well on the train our body clocks were still way out. So after not sleeping during the night we slept in until 11am, missing breakfast. When we ventured out we couldn’t find a place that would serve us food. We went to a restaurant that was recommended to us and when we tried to take a seat at a table the waitress came up, said something in a very angry tone and then walked off and wouldn’t go near us again. So we left there, walked along the 4km stretch and tried a number of other eateries only to constantly be told ‘no places’.





We passed the Maritime Museum and decided that we’d go in despite having not eaten yet. It was nice enough, though a bit of a prison for the fish and the two seals in the aquariums. Then we walked up half the mountain to the base of the chair lift that took us up to the very top. There was a snack bar up there so we finally got our hands on some food, though there wasn’t much available. I had a packet of chips and a Mars Bar while Andrew ventured out and had a dried fish that was sitting on the counter unrefrigerated. He said it tasted good but I wouldn’t go near him for the rest of the day.



Given that, there were some pretty beautiful moments. For starters the lake is stunning, so during all that walking we had a picturesque view. We also had incredible weather; sunny, even hot at times and clear blue skies.







The last night we were there we found a restaurant with a stunning view of the lake where we wanted to sit outside and have dinner. As we were waiting for a table to be set up the weather changed dramatically and became cloudy and incredibly cold and windy. So we ended up sitting inside where we were told there was going to be some music that we had to pay a little extra for. We didn’t mind and the music ended up being this older man, standing behind a desk with a laptop and sound system, singing to a backing track. It was classic, he was like a Russian lounge singer.





We also had a gorgeous couple from Switzerland, named Christian and Morella, staying in the same B&B as us. So both nights we spent in the lounge, in front of the fire, chatting away with them. They ended up saving us twice; the first night they had some food that they kindly offered us as we were about to head out for dinner and they said that everything was closed already and then the second night we needed change for the taxi.





And then our time on the lake was over and we were taken back to Irkutsk where we stayed for one night in a fairly unpleasant home stay in a house that was 120yrs old. It was run so professionally, like a hotel, there was even a checking out time. After midday we weren’t welcome back in the place except to take our luggage out of the stairwell when the driver came to pick us up at 8:30pm.



So we spent 8.5hrs walking around in the four-degree cold looking at the capital city of Siberia, which was pretty enough but it only took around 3hrs to see everything. So we found a restaurant and killed some time, walked to the markets but found once we got there that they only sold car parts, went grocery shopping for the train and eventually killed more time over our final Russian vodka at a hotel bar.













At 8:30pm we got our bags from the stairwell, were picked up by our driver and taken to the train station to catch the train to Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. And as one final little negative we found out that we would be travelling through the ‘Golden Buckle on the belt that is the TransSiberian’ during the night. So we wouldn’t be seeing the most beautiful section of the whole train trip. I guess you can’t have everything.

But all in all we loved Russia and it was sad to say goodbye. Most of the people who hosted us were amazing and all the tour companies and guides made everything smooth and easy. If you ever want to go somewhere unique and beautiful visit Russia, it is well worth it.

And now off to Mongolia we go.