Janin matkassa

I had packed my bag last night and left the suburbs of Irkutsk, took a bus which by the way sucks with all that you’re carrying but quick comparison in prices with a taxi made for a quick decision (bus 12 roubles <-> taxi 300 roubles). Left my stuff at the Baikaler hostel (if you’re ever in Irkutsk, stay there, the most friendliest staff you could ever find), took only a day pack with me and spent like an hour and a half trying to publish one blog entry with photos, sad right? The walk to the “bus station” was like 30min. The central bus station is not exactly a station, nor central, just a lot of different vehicles going to different destinations. No schedules, they just fill up the minibuses and head off. Ride to Listvyanka village takes roughly an hour and costs 120 roubles. It’s a small village some 70km from Irkutsk and the most visited village in all of Siberia, mainly because it sits on the shores of the Lake Baikal. The bus ride itself was interesting (in a sarcastic way) as the driver drove like mad, texted and talked with a phone all the time and ate pistachios. Didn’t feel all that safe hahahahah. Naturally I was also sitting at the front seat. Well at least I had a seat belt on so I wouldn’t necessarily die. Lake Baikal is the world’s biggest freshwater lake and it packs more freshwater in it than all the Great Five lakes in the North America combined. Its flora and fauna is rare and most of it not found anywhere else. The lake is shaped like a banana and its water is amazingly pure. It is said to have revitalizing and magical powers, some believe it, some don’t. Aaaanyway gonna go see if I can find my inner peace from the shores of Baikal (if I survive this bus ride). Listvyanka is a really small village, inhabited by less than 2000 people. There is one “main road” along the shores of Baikal, then a few streets on the side. Some small shops, souvenir shops, a fish market, restaurants and a few cafes and that’ pretty much it. Luckily I survived the minibus ride and upon arriving started making my way towards my hostel. I found the street (at least I hoped it was the correct one as there were no street signs) and started walking…and walking…and walking some more. Oh, did I mention, it was uphill all the way. I must have walked maybe 30min until I finally hit the house number 77. I have to admit, it did look really nice, a lot nicer than all the other buildings along the road. It was a wooden cottage with a separate sauna building.I have to admit, the hostel looked nice. However, a note to self (and everybody else): it is amazingly difficult to find hostels in Russia, at least in my opinion. There are no signs for the hostels anywhere. You have to know the address (naturally) in addition to the specifics on what the door/building looks like and which button is the doorbell for the hostel if there is one. Usually it doesn’t even say the hostel name on the door of the hostel so you just have to know that it’s there.

So I checked in, dropped my stuff at my room, private one I might add. No other “international” travellers, only Russian tourists. Also on my way out I slipped handsomely in the stairs, went all the way down with a bang. Alarmed some Russian people with the ruckus hahahaha. After surviving the crash I went to check out Baikal and it was beautiful upon closer inspection. Vast like an ocean and water clean and pure. Took a bunch of photos from different angles, trying to be a professional photographer. Walked the village from end to end. So many Russian tourists! I’ve heard that Listvyanka is a popular place to visit, especially in the summer. Tried some Omul, finally, it was really delicious. I naturally took some vodka with it as is customary. Later on at the hostel I relaxed with the Russian banya, for my Finnish friends, the Russian version of sauna. It was pretty much the same except the temperatures do not climb as high as in our Finnish ones. Also I believe the humidity in the banya is almost the same as in the outside air whereas in Finnish versions is it drier (correct me if I’m wrong). The next morning I went for some more sightseeing and around noon started to head for the bus stop. It hadn’t occurred to that was the Orthodox christmas eve on the 7th soo I hadn’t seen that many minibuses on the roads. I was hoping that they were driving anyway. I only waited for like 5 minutes at the stop before a brand new BMW SUV pulled up in front of me. There sat three russian ladies who had stayed in the same hostel and had seen me fall down the stairs. They must have thought that “there is that poor foreign guy who hurt himself and can’t even speak Russian”, then they felt bad for me and wanted to give me a lift to Irkutsk. Not even one of them lived in Irkutsk so they only drove there to drop me off. They spoke a little English and were just having a few days’ break at the Baikal. They dropped me off in front of my hostel. What good service hahahahah. The rest of the day I just ate and rested. Also downloaded some more books for my Kindle as they started running out because of all the hours I’ve spent in the trains! On a spontaneous note, I bought a train ticket to Ulan-Ude for the next morning and booked a hostel to go with it. Gonna go meet some new/old friends who I met in Moscow as they are spending holidays with their family and Ulan-Ude is along the way to Ulan-Bator. And did you know, there is a huge bronze head of no other than Vladimir Lenin at the main square of Ulan-Ude. Supposedly it is a huge attraction there so have to go check it out! UU is also the capital of the Buruyat people and they have a mix of Russian and Buryat culture them which I’ve heard is quite refreshing and it gives you a taste of what’s to come in Mongolia.

Train ride to Ulan-Ude takes around 8 hours and it goes around Lake Baikal pretty much all the way so the scenery is amazing and beautiful. My train left really early in the morning and I had a seat in the 3rd class, platskart, which means there are no cabins just walls separating every 5 people. Naturally, as I have grown used to, there were no other foreign travelers besides me.  I shared my small space with a few Russian guys which apparently one of them was a soldier who was going home for the holidays (at least that’s what I think). Other guy lived in Chita and we had some small conversations which were a mixture of Russian, English and German languages as I don’t speak Russian or German fluenty and he doesn’t speak English. When I finally arrived in Ulan-Ude, Altana was there to meet me and we took a bus to my hostel which was located next the main square with the Lenin head. It is the largest head ever built of the Soviet leader. And it was huge.

There were also some amazing ice sculptures at the square and a lot of kids sliding down purpose-built ice hills. Went to my hostel and again, dropped off my stuff. Afterwards we went to try some buuz, which is a steamed pocket filled with meat. So basically a dumpling. It is an authentic of Mongolian and Buryat cuisine and you could find places to eat buuz everywhere in every corner. And it’s dirt cheap. Really delicious. We then went to walk around the city a bit before meeting with Jane and her friend Alek. Luckily they had a car so we didn’t have to freeze our asses off in the cold temperatures. They took me to a really big Buddhist church high up where you could see Ulan-Ude sparkling in front of you in the distance. The sight was really nice but as I suck as a photographer, I wasn’t able to take a good photo of it. It is customary for them to walk around the grounds of the church for good luck. There was also a big bell which you were supposed to ring and make wish in addition to things that you needed to spin so that it sends prayers to people around the world. After that we went to a restaurant (supposedly the best one in Ulan-Ude, according to my friends) called Cafe Kalash, it was right next to the church. Alek also knew the owner of the place. I was in for the feast of my life.

First they ordered some salads and fish at the table. The fish plate was filled with Omul on different versions, the smoked one is so, so good. Then it was time for a soup for me as they wanted me to try the soup there. It was hand-made noodle soup. Then came the meat. A tray filled with different kinds of meat from “regular” sausage to liver and internal organs. There were, for example some pure horse fat, wrapped up in horse liver. Also some blood sausage and other things I cannot explain. Pretty much everything for was a first-time thing. I enjoyed every single dish to the fullest. Oh and I almost forgot: of course we had some buuz. And lots of them. They were by far the best ones I have ever had and probably will never have again. All in all the food feast was one of the greatest things I have enjoyed in my whole life hahahah. As drinks we had some ginseng vodka, freshly squeezed juice and Buryatian tea (which is comprised of tea, milk, butter, salt and grains). Really fatty, I have to say.

 

The whole feast took us like three hours and by the time we were finally finished I was about to explode. We went for a few more drinks to an Irish pub (which played rock ballads) and I was at the hostel around 1am. And I had to leave for the train to Ulan-Bator at around 6am. Man I hate morning trains. I would’ve actually liked to stay a few more days in Ulan-Ude but since I had my ticket already I decided to leave. There is also a bus from UU to Ulan Bator which is actually cheaper and faster than the train soooo the train ride is a bad decision on my part.

 

So in the morning I hopped on board another train and surprisingly this time, I got some international travelers as cabin mates. Two guys from the States (actually the other is from Colombia originally). They both live in LA and they were coming from Vladivostok  to Moscow and are just taking a small detour to visit a friend in UB. We also met a couple out of which the other one is Danish and the other Norwegian. So even though this train took like 24 hours, at least I had some company with whom to hang out with. A small tip, do not take the train from Irkutsk to UB, it’s not worth it. Take a train to Ulan-Ude and then onwards. I think this might be a better option as it only takes like 12 hours and the border crossings go faster. With the train it took forever and somehow the train was really slow in general. Anyway, the first border crossing is in Naushki, Russia. A small village of some 1800 people and nothing to see or do. Endless tundra and mountains around you and two cafes, of which the other is closed indefinitely. Our train also left us and we freaked out a bit but supposedly it would come back. So we went to this one cafe that was open. It was pretty much out of everything and only had beers for drinks (warm as well). But what do I find in the fridge, the Finnish gift to the world: Koff. Picture my amazement, it’s not something you’d expect to find in a place so small and which has only a few beers on offer. I had to take one of course. I also convinced my American friend to try one (he said it tasted weird, not bad but weird).  After spending three hours at Naushki, it was time for the border people to check our train. They pretty much investigated (though they didn’t look in our bags, just asked us to open them). It took maybe like 45min and we could finally move onwards. The enjoyment didn’t last too long though as another check happened almost straight afterwards. They checked everything again on the side of Mongolia, in Suhbaatar. We got off the train as they basically kicked us out since they have to attach some more carriages for our train so we went to have some dinner at the train station. Also got some Mongolian currency with is called tugruk. There was a guy exchanging money in the train and the rates were actually pretty good so I got rid of my roubles. For dinner we had some buuz and I guess tea, which tasted really weird. Two buuzis and a tea cost me like 80 cents, so quite cheap. When we were finished and got out again we saw a huge line of carriages out of which none of them was ours and it seemed like the train was about to leave so we strolled back and forth the platform asking what the hell is happening. It turned out that our carriage was on another tracks and it would be attached to the long line of other carriages headed for UB. So despite our freaking out, everything went alright in the end. Though the whole border crossings and trains disappearing was a bit confusing at times. The train arrived to UB on time at 5.40am and luckily I had a driver waiting for me at the platform to take me to the hostel. I went straight to bed for some napping but was woken up by some Americans talking and laughing in the room around 8am so I decided to get up. I can sleep later then. Got myself acquainted with the hostel, took a shower and ate some breakfast. Then I got out to explore the capital of Mongolia a bit. What struck me first was how lively the city seemed. Then I realized it has so many cars and the traffic is pretty horrible. Everytime you cross the road you need to be careful, even if you have a green light. Here it doesn’t mean anything. Also the quality of the air is pretty bad. I think I read somewhere that UB is like the second polluted city in the world. And on some days you can’t actually see far ahead because of the smog. Didn’t do that much during the day, just exploring and had some lunch. We had agreed to meet around 7pm with the people from the train for some dinner and drinks.  Went to have some Mongolian food (naturally I took buuz again with some fried rice and vegetables). Then we met up with the Juan and Robert’s Mongolian friend Kenny at a bar which had some live music during the weekends. Now there was a Mongolian rock band playing but only for like half an hour or so. We ordered a bottle of Mongolian vodka on the table and had some local beers.

Everything was really cheap (and Kenny even said that that place is rather expensive so if you know where to go you could get everything cheaper. The whole bill for the     six of us was like 35 euros and that included a bottle of vodka, a beer for everybody, a coke, some chips and horse jerky). So not bad at all. Left around twelve as the place   closed and went to sleep. Now I am writing this at an internet cafe and the memory card reader which I bought from Irkutsk is not working….So I still haven’t been able to   get my photos out from my camera. Again, sorry about that hahahaha. I promise to try again another day. I actually have some nice photos from along the way, I just            need to get them out.

When I get the photos uploaded I will edit these posts again with the photos or just publish another entry just with the photos and captions. Stay tuned!

 

Greetings from -27c UB,

 

 

-Jani

 

Ps. I really hate this blogaaja blog, it just disagrees to work with me. It all looks good when I’m writing it but when I see the preview the text is in wrong places and almost everything is in one piece even though it’s not supposed to be. When I make some formatting changes in the writing section it just doesn’t show in the end result. So bear with me, sorry for that!