From Ulaan Baatar we board another train in the late evening for a 2 night, 1 day journey on the train. In comparison to our last train, this train is a lot less modern and looks at least 20 years older. But fortunately, we are still bunking with our new Aussie travel companions who make the ride enjoyable.
The scenery and climate while going through Siberia in early spring is actually somewhat similar to what you would see in Canada except instead of maple trees, the forests are filled with giant birch trees. When we get into Irkutsk in the early morning, the landscape is hilly with the largest lake in the world looming in the background.
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| Listvanka |
A local guide meets us at the Irkutsk railway station from where we take a one hour journey to a wonderful wooden lodge for our stay in Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal is a wonderfully tranquil place, set amongst steep forested hills and dotted with small Russian villages around the lake. For our first day, we do a little self-exploration of the village we are staying in, Listvanka, before heading out to the local market and picking up the local specialty, smoked omul (a type of fish only found at Lake Baikal), for dinner. We also get our first taste of Russia’s “white night” (or what other countries call midnight sun), with the daylight lasting way past 10 pm. In late june, it is almost daylight in Russia for twenty four hours a day.
On the second day, we go on a guided trek through the Siberian forest with a local guide who points out all the local fauna as well as pick up various leaves and plants to use for our lunch along the way. The views on the trek are absolutely spectacular as we transverse up steep paths to get a bird’s eye view of the lake and surrounding area. We stop for lunch at a small enclosed beached area by the lake where our guide whips up our lunch of mash potato, sausage and vegetables, using a large pot over an open fire. And over lunch, our guide tells us a little about life in Russia, before and after the break-up of the Soviet Union. Apparently, after the break-up of the USSR in the early 1990’s, the Russian economy completely collapsed and remained broken for the next 5 years as the country did not know how to deal with the changing political climate. Food stores were completely empty, people were literally starving and alcoholism started to become a major problem (which is incidentally, still a problem today with a bottle of vodka costing the same as two apples). Our guide, who was a teacher, stopped getting paid (along with all other government workers) and his wife left him because of their financial circumstances.
After our lunch, we take a narrow path (if you could even call it a path) along steep cliffs overlooking the water. The views are amazing but the walk is dangerous as a misstep would send us tumbling at least forty feet down into the water. We enjoy our last night in Lake Baikal before stocking up food supplies the next day for a four night, three day Trans-Siberian train ride.
