[Barts trip of a lifetime!] The Lake & the City

[Bart]

Upon arrival in Irkutsk I met Pasha on the train platform. My driver who was waiting for me with a sign ‘Mr. Luijk’. That’s me baby! He spoke English very well (what is not very usual in Russia) and was able to answer me all kind of questions. We chatted a lot while we were driving to my first destination. My room near Lake Baikal that is. I had no idea what to expect of the lake, and its surroundings, but the trip to the lake was amazing already. It was like I was in Scandinavia. Lots and lots of nature, forest, lakes and mountains. It was beautiful. Pasha told me all kind of wildlife was living in the forest, including grizzly bears, so I’d better not go to deep into the forest he warned me! Well, thanks for the advice Pasha.

At a certain moment of the trip I was quite excited, ‘cause I thought I saw the lake. It was massive and I reached for my camera. “don’t bother’ Pasha told me immediately. “this is just one of the ‘rivers’ streaming to the actual lake”. I looked at him in disbelief? “just a river’ I repeated? It’s freakin’ massive, the size of a small city at least. And you just call it a river! I couldn’t believe it. Pasha was just laughing. But soon after this rather funny thing, I understood what he meant. The actual lake appeared from the corner of a big mountain.

…… I couldn’t say anything. I was stunned. There was water as far as I could see. (it was very sunny and clear that day, so the vision was perfect). Somewhere at the horizon I saw the shapes of mountains. “that’s one of the shores” Pasha continued his story, clearly not impressed anymore. “The closest shore from this point to that point is approximately 40 km away. It gets a little wider over there, around 80 km from shore to shore. But that’s just the wide of the lake. The length of the lake is more than 640 km. It has the shape of a banana and goes around the mountain, so were a not able to see that.” I was flabbergasted. And yet, this lake is still not the biggest lake in the world (there is one bigger, somewhere else in Russia, near Kazakhstan and the dead sea). However, lake Baikal holds it’s record as ‘deepest lake in the world’. The deepest point is over 1600 meters! It contains enough water to supply the entire world population of fresh (drinking) water for the next 7 years! Amazing.

After a while we entered a little village near the lake, called Listvyanka. This would be my stop. It was very idyllic with small markets and stables were people were selling fish, souvenirs and other crap. The coast consisted of small houses, hotels and restaurants. Other than that there was pretty much nothing else. The village was quite isolated as well, at least one hour away from Irkutsk, by car. My hotel was somewhere up in the hills. The minute we stopped I looked around and I was enjoying again because of the peace, silence and fresh mountain air. After a short walk up the hill we arrived at my ‘hotel’. It was some sort of a big wooden chalet, which can be best described as the wooden chalets people stay in during their winter sport holidays in Austria or Switzerland. (in the winter there are some ski-tracks near Lake Baikal as well). When I entered the common area, where breakfast and dinner would be served, I was welcomed by (I think) the owner. A woman who didn’t speak much English. She told me to get a seat for a while, ‘cause the maid was still making up the rooms. Sure no problem. I got coffee and a delicious breakfast (baked eggs, ham, cheese, bread and a fruit yoghurt). After 4 days being in the train with no ‘fresh’ food, I considered this breakfast as “royalty food”. It was damn good!

The Hotel

My heavenly shower

The next few minutes a few other tourists walked in. 3 German guys (of my age) and an older women from England. We chatted for a while until the maid gave us ‘the green light’ to go to our rooms. Oh yeah! Something I was very looking forward to, after spending 4 days in the train, with no hot water, was a decent shower! The minute the owner showed me my room and the bathroom, a smile with a capital S appeared on my face. I was expecting an ordinary shower but what I found in the bathroom (being used to the dirty toilets in the train) surpassed my wildest dreams! A modern shower, with massage water beams, a ‘rain shower head’ in the ceiling and an ‘ordinary’ showerhead! I was so HAPPY! Besides this luxury shower, a fresh toilet was smiling at me, almost screaming to me that it wanted to be used. (and being used it was hahahaha). Needless to say, the next hour I spent in the bathroom. Enjoying this wonderful moment, seeing loudly under the shower, washing my hair!



My view from the deck



After that I inspected my room. It was small, but cosy and very neat. And the view I had from the deck was absolutely wonderful! I got some clean clothes, hugged the toilet one more time and went outside for a walk in the neighbourhood. This was the first time I was on my own after a while. In Moscow I had Alejandro and the girls. In the train I had my group of people. No I was alone. But I was enjoying it. I got some cash from the ATM in a fancy hotel and hit the road again. After checking some of the stables at the market and made some cool pictures of the lake and its surroundings I saw an ‘internet- / tourist info’ kind of a shop. I decided to go in for a map and some tips.

And there she was. A cute Russian girl, clearly bored, sitting behind her desk. And here I came, Bart, looking for some fun! After 30 minutes or so, I walked out of the shop, not only with a map but also with the phone number of a new made friend, this Russian girl, a local from Irkutsk, who was happy to spend some hours with me later that night in the local pub for a beer. Awesome!

 

Viewpoint



Of course she also gave me some tourist information. So I took her advice and I walked to the museum (which was quite boring actually, but at least I can say ‘been there done that’) and the viewpoint of Lake Baikal. The viewpoint was quite fun. During my walk up there I met this 2 Russian dudes, who seemed a little lost (and so was I) and together we managed to find the view point. They spoke a little English so we chatted a bit and took some pictures of each other at the viewpoint. Nice people, those Russians! 


That evening I was meeting up with Daria (pronounced as Dasha) the girl from the tourist info. While I was waiting for her, she showed up with two dudes. Immediately the thought of me being beaten up by 2 guys, getting robbed and being left for dead near the lake, flashed through my mind. However, it were 2 guys who were staying at her hostel and she asked them to join us. The minute we shook hands, I smiled! It were the same guys I met earlier during my walk to the viewpoint! It was fantastic. We had dinner (fish) and a beer. Also a shot of Vodka of course, since we are in Russia. We had a blast.

When I finally walked home that night I almost got lost. It was so damn dark I couldn’t figure out anymore which porch was leading to my hotel. I accidentally opened a wrong one and heard a big dog barking in the dark! Fuck, clearly wrong porch. At that point I really became a little worried since I was not able to find my hotel anymore. (and I really wasn’t looking forward to spend my night in the horrible cold night (almost freezing). Fortunately I had my camera with me, which contained pictures of the neighbourhood which I shot earlier that day during my walk. As a real ‘McGyver vs. Sherlock Holmes’ I browsed through my pics looking for typical landmarks which could show me the right direction! :P And it worked. I managed to find my way home by watching the pictures and ‘matching’ them with the surroundings! Oh yeah, I rock!! I laughed out loud at that moment. My life is awesome! the first moment you are alone in an isolated village with a big lake, the next minute you have a nice dinner and drinks with complete yet extremely fun and friendly strangers, the following moment you almost face a lonely cold night in the darkness, and the next moment I was in my hotel again. I hit my crib around 3.30 am. (a little later than expected due to the d-tour I took. LOL)

The next morning I got picked up again for my transfer to the city Irkutsk. My accommodation there was described as ‘home stay’ in my bookings, which meant I would stay with a local family in their guestroom. The family in my case consisted of 2 Russian sisters. The minute I heard ‘Russian sisters’ I hoped for 2 blonde twin 23-year old sisters, but of course I wasn’t that lucky. After arrival I met 2 old women instead, who looked like 100 years old! But man it was wonderful. They spoke hardly any English, but they were typical ‘grandma’s’ living in a typical ‘grandma apartment’. Like I was 50 years back in time. One of the ‘grandma’s’ - constantly smiling - showed me my room, the bathroom and toilet. After I said several times ‘thank you’ in Russian and flashed her a big smile, she smiled again and made a gesture to the closet and pointed at extra blankets which were stored there. ‘cold cold’ she said, still smiling! Ok granny, I got ya, when I got cold in the night, I was able to get an extra blanket. But the bed was also typical ‘grandma style’, 400 layers of sheets, blankets, pillows and fur. I was not worried, even an Eskimo wouldn’t get cold with a bed like this! I was sure I would sleep like I princess in granny’s apartment.

That afternoon I walked into the town of Irkutsk. I was lucky with the fact that ‘my home’ was in located in the centre of Irkutsk, so It only took a few minutes to the city centre. After I spend some time in an internet café, where I met Wouter and Linda, a nice Dutch couple, doing an amazing trip together which will take around 9 months, I decided to get some food. Along my way looking for a nice place to eat, a random Russian man asked me something in Russian. I gave him the look ‘does not comprendoooo’ and he started a conversation in basic English with me. After I told him I was from Holland, he had all kind of stories about a friend of him who was from Holland as well. He walked with me for a while and showed me the directions to the mall. The world is full of friendly people!

I walked in of one of the food stores and ordered some burger with fries and a coke, in half English (the ordering part) and half Russian (the ‘please and thank you part :P). Smiles guaranteed.

“where you from” someone asked next to me. I looked over my shoulder and this friendly looking Russian dude was looking at me. “Holland” I said, “but as far I’m concerned, I’m not going back again, Russia rocks’. The dude smiled. We chatted a little while we were waiting for our food. After we got our food he said “I’m sitting there with my friend, would you like to join us?”.



Toni and Tim



And so I joined Tim, the next random stranger, and his friend Toni, a girl who was an English teacher and therefore spoke English very well. What started as a lunch, ended in a tour trough Irkutsk, where Tim and Toni showed me around and made lots of pictures (Toni had a big ass camera cause she photographed a lot). After hours of walking, talking, drinking coffee, eating ice-cream and even instant dancing on the street at a random speaker pumping House Music, they made sure I came home safe by walking me all the way home. (which was great ‘cause I think I couldn’t have found it myself anymore despite my map). And there I was again, in a comfortable bed, in grannies apartment, recapturing the last 2 days. How I came alone, but left with a dozen new wonderful memories, stories and contact details of amazing people I encountered.

I fell asleep with a smile… getting my rest for another 1,5 day on the train. The train which would bring me to Mongolia, to new adventures!

click here for pics.

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Geplaatst door Bart op Barts trip of a lifetime! op 9/28/2010 11:44:00 AM