Lake Baikal

Day 7-9

Siberia

Siberia as a landmass is about 13,100,000 square kilometres in size. Therefore even relatively "very short distances" can take an entire day or longer to traverse. Lake Baikal is considered by the locals to be just around the corner from Ulan-Ude, but it was actually around 6-hours train by train to get to Irkutsk, the unofficial capital of East Siberia, and gateway to the Baikal region.

This is, in fact, the only time during this Trans-Siberia trip where I am not travelling by sleeper train, so today I travelled by seat carriage. A part of me was expecting this regional Siberian train to be an old rusty Soviet derelict like you get in some portrayals of "the wild east" in American cinema. Instead, the carriage was quite clean and comfortable, and though I appeared to be the only foreigner on this one, it was once again a nice experience to lose and immerse oneself.

I felt like getting some shut-eye during the trip however, the window views were simply too interesting for this.

Irkutstk

I arrived in Irkhutsk early evening, with the intention of staying only for the night so to start my journey to Lake Baikal in the morning. My first impression of this city is of a frontier town with a socialist industrial past. The hostel I stayed at, Three Matryoshki was only a 10-minute walk from the train station. I did some backpacker type shopping at the local magazin and called it a night.

Getting to Listvyanka

The public transport system is a bit confusing to the outsider. The buses that arrive every few minutes are of the same route whereas the others that apparently drive this way are nowhere to be seen.

To get to the bus terminal I caught the 4A tram which went across town to where the old market (rynok) is. From there is a 5 min walk downtown to the Central Bus Station. I bought a ticket without much difficulty and within half an hour I was on the minivan to Listvyanka.

The bus was full of mostly older women dressed for a day suntanning at the beach. Unfortunately for them, it was not to be. Upon alighting at Listvyanka, we were greeted by fog and cool weather. I traded the singlet and shorts for a long sleeve and a hoodie and set off for the hostel. It was situated near the end of a street of the main junction right before the forest. It seems Listvyanka on Lake Baikal has really taken off as a local tourist destination due to the number of wooden holiday houses currently being under construction all around town. I was staying at a cosy share house hostel just off the main street and up a hill. Like previously, I also found it on Booking.com.

Lake Baikal

I rented a bike for 500 roubles. Very good price for a bike rental however it had terrible brakes and the gears shifted terribly. Not wanting to spend the next couple hours searching for a bike I went with it and was on my way to find a decent local dried fish for lunch.

Went by the market on the way where I bought a couple of souvenirs, including this Putin Matroshka. Not what i'd usually buy due to the controversy but then again it's has a unique Russian cheesiness to it.

Going around the southern end of town and the foggy lakeside, I ended up at an observation point in the woods. Afterwards, I doubled back and then unintentionally rode around the coldest part of the enormous lake, but it was still worth it. The way back to town was a bit of a trek and fortunately enough I experienced some spectacular sunset views.

It was dark by the time I got back to the hostel which in the meantime had really filled up, including several non-Russian travellers like myself. I was sharing a room with a French couple, and Yuki, the same Japanese dude that I met at the restaurant car on the Trans-Siberian a couple of days ago! He still seemed lost but was managing quite well somehow with no Russian and English.

Baikal day 2

Everybody else from the room set off very early today, so I ate breakfast alone and set off for another ride. This time I went explore this quaint rocky beach just south of town. Spent a bit of time here before heading off to buy some of dried Omur for the long Trans-Siberian trip ahead. In the afternoon I caught a random bus back to the train station Irkutsk which just so happened to be the last one for the day. Considering it's an out of town trip between Listvyanka and Irkutsk, 120r is ridiculously cheap.

Back at Irkutsk I made sure to quickly check out the old market before heading west to the main Train Terminal. It was pretty busy on this main strip of the city, with Russians of different ethnicities wandering around. There were also a few dodgy characters hanging about, the types that you'd definitely want to avoid from afar. A few of them began eye-balling my camera bag and rucksack so I sped up the walk to the train station.

Next: Krasnoyarsk