Monday, August 15, 2005
Siberia
We arrived in Irkutsk around 07.00 on a very bright and very cold morning - noticeably much colder than Ulan Baator. I had been looking forward to our stopover here as we had one night in Irkutsk itself - once dubbed the Paris of the east - and then one night at the 'unique' Lake Baikal, one of the natural wonders of the world. I guess I should really have learnt by this stage not to launch in anywhere with any type of expectations, as you only end up disappointed...................
So firstly Irkutsk. It was a miracle we got out of there before being overtaken with the urge to slash our wrists. The main pastime during the day is drinking in the streets and, for the girls, dressing like ladies of the night. The main pastime during the night is, er, the same. In between this everyone finds time to smoke and be rude to tourists - and probably eachother, for that matter. Things hadn't got off to a great start when I had a disagreement with the local rep over how much money he was getting. Still, we won that contest so it could have been worse. Then the hotel was, quite frankly, pony. And this was all before the sightseeing we had to do.......which last approximately 40 minutes. Not because we cut it short, but because that was how long the sum total of the sights - a crooked house, a closed church and a polluted river. Not all disaster though, as we found somewhere that did very good Borsch, and were then entertained by a brass brand. Still, I was comforting myself with the fact that we still had Lake Baikal and a home stay to look forward to.
Lake Baikal - the largest lake on earth, holding 23,000km cubed of water (that's one fifth of world's freshwater, fact fans) which is more than all of America's great lakes put together. It's 636km long, which is the distance between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The water's so clear you can see 40 yards through it. And 80% of it's flora and fauna isn't found anywhere else in the world. It was just a shame that the village we stayed in doubled up as a municipal tip. As for the home stay, well, the less said about that the better. I see why Siberians drink a lot of Vodka.
So firstly Irkutsk. It was a miracle we got out of there before being overtaken with the urge to slash our wrists. The main pastime during the day is drinking in the streets and, for the girls, dressing like ladies of the night. The main pastime during the night is, er, the same. In between this everyone finds time to smoke and be rude to tourists - and probably eachother, for that matter. Things hadn't got off to a great start when I had a disagreement with the local rep over how much money he was getting. Still, we won that contest so it could have been worse. Then the hotel was, quite frankly, pony. And this was all before the sightseeing we had to do.......which last approximately 40 minutes. Not because we cut it short, but because that was how long the sum total of the sights - a crooked house, a closed church and a polluted river. Not all disaster though, as we found somewhere that did very good Borsch, and were then entertained by a brass brand. Still, I was comforting myself with the fact that we still had Lake Baikal and a home stay to look forward to.
Lake Baikal - the largest lake on earth, holding 23,000km cubed of water (that's one fifth of world's freshwater, fact fans) which is more than all of America's great lakes put together. It's 636km long, which is the distance between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The water's so clear you can see 40 yards through it. And 80% of it's flora and fauna isn't found anywhere else in the world. It was just a shame that the village we stayed in doubled up as a municipal tip. As for the home stay, well, the less said about that the better. I see why Siberians drink a lot of Vodka.
# posted by William and Lucinda @ 7:24 pm 
