2 & 3 July - Trans Siberian / Trans Mongolian - Stop 4 : Irkutsk, Listvyanka & Lake Baikal

2 July, Saturday

The train pulled into the station at precisely the time it is meant to arrive.   Standing on the platform was our young guide, Ivan.  He speaks perfect English.  Irkutsk is where many of the Russians and Mongolians go to university.  The university here has a language departments which train a lot of Russians.  One needs to bear in mind that Siberia was where the exiled intellectuals were sent during the Soviet era.  This area is culturally diverse and that richness can be easily observed.  To us, this is by far the most interesting area yet on the Trans Siberian.

The road crossing cow

Our transport was a Toyota Hiace.  Ivan was both our guide and our driver.  The plan was that we would head straight to Lake Baikal and spent the rest of the day there until early morning the day after.   Along the way, we traveled at times along the Angara River.  It was rather pretty.  At one point along the way, we encountered a cow that was crossing the road.  He was followed by another.  We were surprised by it but Ivan was totally nonchalant about it.  He was used to this and anticipated it.

First sight of Lake Baikal as we entered Lisvyanka

We would be staying at the village of Listvyanka on the shore of Lake Baikal.  The road there was two lane with speed limit at 110km/hr.  The journey took around 1.5 hr.  At 11 am, we arrived at Nikolai’s Guesthouse which would be our home for the night.  Nikolai speaks no English as we had been warned.  However, he has such an ability for animation in his expressions that we understood him completely.  The house is really ornate with polished wooden floors and walls decorated with many wood carvings.  The carvings were faces of shamanism – the main religion of the indigenous people there.  There is an observable lack of Russian Orthodox Church there.  Travelling along almost the length of the shoreline of the lake, we did not remember seeing a single Orthodox Church.  We took our shoes off at the door.  Our rooms were all upstairs except for Wendy’s.  Martin secured us the last room at the end of the corridor.  Great work, Martin.

Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake in the world, containing around 20% of all the unfrozen freshwater on earth, more than the combined value of all the Great Lakes of North America.  It is also the deepest lake in the world and the 7th largest by surface area. Considered one of the clearest and one of the oldest lakes in the world (25 million years old), it shares the same origin as Lake Tanganyika in Africa - both were formed as ancient rift valleys. Fed by a huge number of rivers from many countries, it drains only via a single river, the Angara.  There are many unique species of wildlife there - some are not found elsewhere ... eg. omul (fish), nyerpas (seals) and some other birds. 

Nikolai’s guesthouse is 800m up a slight slope with village inhabitants, guesthouses, community wells and drinking places along the path leading to it.  It is at the crest of that hill before it slopes down and then back up again where no one lives.  The view from our balcony is great in spite of two new houses being built further down the slope that are beginning to obstruct our lake view.  We can see all the way to the lake.  Although it had been raining on and off all morning including when we disembarked from the train, the sun was beginning to peek through the clouds.  We decided that the best thing was to have a shower first before we start our activities for the day.  My travelling companion bathed first and then started a chat with Roy while Martin shaved and bathed.  Martin came out looking for help with the shower tap while she was in mid conversation as he could not get the tap to work.  The tap was interesting, as my travelling companion had earlier scalded herself when trying to turn the shower on. 

After showers and all, Toni, Rob, Martin and we headed into the village.   We were chatting as we walked downhill, admiring the traditional architecture of the village houses as we descended the hill.  We discussed the painted window frame.  In no time, we found ourselves at the edge of the Lake.  It was unbelievably, almost surrealistic.  We all decided to have brunch.  On the way there, we found a Tourist Information.  The young lady who was in charge spoke perfect English.  She gave us the option of either an hour long or a 3 hr boat tours.  We were considering the 3 hr tour although it sounded like it would not be one for bird watching.  It would include a tour of the Lake Baikal railway.  Oh well, we had to compromise.  Nor did it appear to guarantee the sighting of Nyerpas, the seal endemic to Lake Baikal and related to the ring seals of the Arctic.  Martin said that he could be interested in the lake tour and would decide at brunch.  The next tour with an English guide was departing at 2.20pm.  We headed to brunch but before we were even 100m away, Martin decided that he would be interested so we went back to book the tour.

We decided to eat the first lakeside eating stall.  The choices were limited.  We ended up with Greek Salad and Fries which we split with Martin. Toni and Rob had the same.  As we ate, we watched boats coming and going.   Presumably, these were tour boats.  There was a group of rocks in the middle of the lake.  We wondered about its function and origin.  When we finished with the brunch, Martin decided that with the heat, he should go back to our accommodation to get his hat and change into shorts.  We decided that we would go for a wonder towards Sunny Telescope and he could walk in that direction afterwards so we would meet in the middle or at the Tourist Information should we missed each other.  Toni and Rob went to browse in the market place.

The locals beach scene

Alone for the first time since St Petersburg, we headed towards the Sunny Telescope.  The shore of the lake appeared to be the beach for the locals.  We see lots of families picnicking along the shore.  There were many boat and swim jetties.  Families were clowning around having a good old time.  Drinking appeared to be permitted but more folks appeared to be chill drinking than crazy drinking.  Saturday was a good day to people watch the locals.  The entrepreneurial locals had erected sheds alongside the road as the road is reasonably higher than the side of the lake, making their roofs the pedestrian walkway.  Below these were numbered sheds that presumably could be hired out.

Top of beach sheds as viewed from the street

We walked past these towards the market and encountered a black smith who made objects like the blacksmith on Lofoten Islands in Norway.  He hasd wrought iron decorations including ormu, the famed fish found only at Lake Baikal.  We were really tempted to make a purchase were it not for the weight.  The omuls were priced at only 50 roubles (1AUD).  The most popular products sold at the market were smoked fishes.  There was a range of varieties.  Ivan had advised that the market was not a safe place for tourists to pick up smoked fish as no one can be sure of whether the fish was fresh when it was prepared for smoking.  In any event, we had all agreed to have a sumptuous dinner that evening with omul as a main dish so there was no reason to buy more smoked fishes.  Also on sale at the market were those purple gem stones with nice colours and pattern.  A nice thick bangle looked rather tempting but the going price was 23,000 roubles (460 AUD).  That was not an amount we would spend for a bauble.  So we bought instead a nice pendant for 1000 roubles (20AUD). 

The Chinese owned hotel

We also passed a group of Chinese on expensively looking Harleys complete with leather jackets and "bad boy"look.  They were speaking in Mandarin.  The back of their leather jackets indicated that they were from south west China.  It appeared that they may have ridden all the way from there.  That was a surprise find for us.  Then we found some garishly decorated hotels owned by Chinese.  Irkutsk seemed to have quite a few Chinese nationals settled there, which was another surprise discovery.

Leaving the market, we turned left.  At some point the road by the lake ended but there was a branch climbing up the hill.  We decided to follow that branch,  As we started to walk up that hill, we encountered lots of local.  Most were setting for family picnics on the side nearer lake shore.  On the other side of the road, there were local residence and each and every one of them appear to be smoking fish for sale.  There were many fish smokers. 

Locals smoking fish

The process appeared to be : flay the fish and then dry it in air for a while after it had been cleaned and salted.  Then fold them them and line them in a box resembling a drawer.   Cover that and place it on top of the smoking vessel.  In the smoking vessel, a wood fire smothers with some selected herbs or grass to increase smoke production and provide the aroma.  We could not tell how long the fishes had to be smoked.

Me near the end of the path
overlooking Lake Baikal &
some beach accommodation

Leading to the Sunny Telescope which looks like a white sun dial set atop the hill were green slopes where locals were having fun on a Saturday.  One was practicing his aiming skill with a rifle so we avoided that one.  We hiked up that hill as far as we could until 1.30pm as the views were beautiful.  We turned around as we had agreed to meet Martin at the tourist office at 2.15pm if we did not bump into each other before then. 

We did not encounter Martin as we headed towards the Tourist Information and wondered what he had decided to do.  We were almost to where we had brunch when we heard our name being called.  It appeared that he could not find Nikolai’s house even though he had walked a long way so he had come back to the Tourist Information.  We had all been chatting so much when we left earlier that he had not taken notice of all the landmarks.

On the way to the tourist information, we stopped for a while on the beach.  Martin took his shoes and socks off and stood in the water.  He persuaded my travelling companion to do likewise, remarking that the waters were not cold.  She took her shoes off and stepped into the water.  Her feet said that the water was as cold as Antarctica.  While she was drying her feet sitting on a rock on the beach, a speed boat came by and its wake caused fast waves that rode all the way to the rock we were sitting on.  Good thing her shoes and her camera bag was on the rock rather than the rocky beach.

We wandered back to the tourist place where the young lady had changed from a black to white t-shirt and we did not recognise her.  She introduced us to our potential guides who also spoke perfect English  – Victor and Sergei from the town of Iklim further north.  They are all graduates of the Language Institute of Irkutsk.  They were having a little misunderstanding with the Chinese tourists who were coming with us but thought it was a train trip rather than a boat trip.  There were also 4 other Russian tourists.  In the end, the Chinese did not come.  Victor took care of the Russian speaking tourists and Sergei took care of Martin and me.

We piled into the speed boats.  We were requested to wear our safety jackets as long as we were on board.  The speed boat unfortunately had plastic covers from the shade awning which got into the way of taking photos.  We did not like that much.  Victor started telling us about the Lake and Sergei translated them into English for us.  We told him he need not do it verbatim.  

Shaman Rocl

First stop was Shaman Rock.  In the olden days, it was the site to test whether a shaman is genuine or otherwise.  They were taken to the rock where they had to stay all night.  Many died probably because they thought that they could swim to the banks of the Angara River as this rock is at the mouth of the river.  Though the distance to the bank did not appear to be much, the current is swift and the temperature of the water is only 4 deg C.  There was a Chinese man with his wife and another lady in a wooden rowboat attempting to take pictures of themselves against Shaman Rock.  It was comical to watch as the strong current was preventing them from getting too close.  Victor and Sergei said that some tour groups have rights to climb that rock but they don’t do it because no one should as the indigenous people consider the rock a sacred place.

Me on the lake show where we
beached

We then cruised along the side of the lake where we can see how steep the slopes are.  We noted the railway that run along it.  It used to be called the Golden Buckle of the Iron Loop.  This was the Baikal loop of the Trans-Siberian railway that was built at great expense.  The steep slope and hard rock meant that only 0.5m track could be laid each day.  The task was complicated by the lack of skilled labour as only criminals would volunteer to work there to commute their sentence.  Later when pneumatic drills were available, the progress improved … to 1m a day.  Still, that was 100% improvement.  We were told the difference between a gallery and a tunnel.  The former is a length of man-made built tunnel added to the tunnel blasted through the rocks.  These often help to strengthen and stabilise the tunnels.  The valleys between the hills were interesting too, with the trees decreasing in height proportionate to elevation.

There was this interesting rock that was pivoting on another rock that was of concern to the railway engineers when construction was underway. They tried to take it out via an explosion, but the rock remained pivoted on the other rock. So the engineer concluded that if an planned explosion could not move it, then it was probably not going anywhere.

The giant biting horsefly

At the bank not far from the rail tunnel, we got off the boat  after the captain beached it against the rocky beach.  We walked along the gunwale from the stern to the bow, climbed down the ladder that hung there and jumped off from the last rung.  We then had a steep scramble up to the railway tracks.  It was strange to be walking down the middle of the train tracks.  Sergei reassured us that the trains were not coming at that hour.  There are trains only 3-4 times a day.  We walked along the tracks towards a tunnel.  We were swamped by cowflies (as they called them there) which are giant horse flies.  They managed to bite through our long sleeve T-shirt and our hiking pant when we sat.  In the end, to deter them, my travelling companion had to put on her windproof which was a few mm thick.

One of the singing birds

The rare butterflies

Along the way, we saw these beautiful butterflies.  Martin is a butterfly person and he pointed out that is grey with black and pink dots.  Sergei said these were rather rare.  There was another which was just grey and black and some orange ones with black dots.  There were two tweeting birds who sat on the wire and sang to us.  Sergei was amazed that my travelling companions had to change lens twice, switching to the longer lens and then back again. 

The tunnel

The tunnel was huge as it had to be.  In its hey days, it was capable of accommodating two trains passing each other.  Sergei showed us the refuge where the train workers would have to go were they in the tunnel when the train came by.  Nowadays, there is only a single track so there is lots of space on each side but in the past, there were two tracks so space was tight.  The tunnel is curved so although one could sense the light at the end of the tunnel, there was a spot in the middle where there was absolutely no light.  By then, we had dropped away from the Russian speaking group.  Sergei acknowledged that we were a separate tour so there was no need to hurry to join them.

At the other end of the tunnel, we climbed upwards so that we are halfway to the top of the tunnel.  Victor said it is possible to go to the top of the tunnel, so Martin climbed.  After that climb, we all just sat down on the beach nearby for some 30 minutes.  It was great to be just sitting and absorbing the atmosphere that came with being by the shore of Lake Baikal.  We found some fools gold rocks and took a rock from the shore for souvenir.  Sergei showed us how to clean the surface of the water and drink from the lake.  We drank with him.  The water was fresh and perfectly safe to drink.  The green at the bottom of the lake was due to pollution arising from the paper mill that had since been stopped when the polluting effect was realised. 

We had passed the port of Baikal earlier before landing.  Sergei told us that two ships were used to ship rails for the construction.  Baikal which now sits at the bottom of the lake somewhere and Angarra which has been now turned into a research facility of the Baikal Museum.  

Victor left the left flap surrounding the cabin open for us to photograph on our way back.  They said that they had the flaps because it helps to keep the diesel fumes out of the cabin and helps with the noise control.  The cool breeze was nicely refreshing.  We took the opportunity to make pictures as we sailed back to Listvyanka.  

Steep slope near the Baikal Railway

Sergei and my travelling companion had a long and deep conversation on the way back.  She asked him if he were ever going back to live in his hometown after military service.  He said no.   He said there were only 10,000 in his hometown but 600,000 people in Irkutsk.  She asked him why he would limit himself to Irkutsk when there is a whole wide world out there.  She said if he was not going to be home, it did not matter where he go.  The world is your oyster is not a proverb that was easily understood by them.  It does not translate. 

The unusual sight

Back at the jetty, we bid the young gentlemen good bye.  Then we headed to a café called Dream of Baikal.  It appeared to be part of a Bavarian log building built in A- shape hotel that appeared to be owned by Chinese.  There was a button to press to call for service.  We ordered cold drinks and sat there watching the traffic and people passing by.  People were getting ready to go home after a day at the beach.  A young lady on a pony was observed riding in traffic with a cellphone to her ear.  Another followed shortly without the cellphone but with a reindeer completely saddled at her port side.  A really unusual sight.  

Sculptures outside the restaurant

We had a 7pm meeting with the rest of the group at Nikolai’s so around 6.30pm, we started to make our way back.  Martin was sure that we would be lost.  There were some landmarks that we did not recognise but we remembered things we had photographed in the morning.  We were almost all the way there when we spied Rob, Toni, Paul and Wendy coming down.  We headed back downhill with them.  Rob had double checked with Nikolai who informed that the restaurant that Martin had chosen was #1 but it was 2km away.  Nikolai recommended another around the corner which was was #3 – Listvyanka Club.  We opted to walk to #3.  On the way, we saw a steel statue of a scuba diver along the footpath of the lake shore.  

When we arrived at the restaurant, we found that it was one of several that Ivan had pointed out to us earlier.  There were three restaurants there, the third being the BBQ place with wooden sculptures outside.  The sculptures remind us of our earlier trip to South Korea at Easter.

For our dinner, we started with trout and omul soup followed by grilled omul with pesto sauce.  Martin ordered bosch, and the same main as us but added wedge potatoes and roasted vegetables.  The food was delicious.  We were taking a group photo when a lady travelling by herself seated at the next table came to offer her help.  Emma is from Canberra but works in HK at the International School.  She is travelling alone from Vladivostok to Moscow.  Wendy shouted all of us a bottle of Russian champagne which was delicious.  For desert we had ice cream with berries.  This meal was comparable to the one we had in Moscow.

The very agile goats

Sunset over Baikal

Shortly after we finished dinner, but before we had our dessert, a beautiful sunset started.  Emma had gone ahead to take pictures.  We interrupted dessert several times to try to capture the spectacular sunset.  The walk back to Nikolai was filled with lots of photo taking.  Just before it got too dark, we also saw some nyerpas hunting and playing far from the lake shore.  We saw goats on the hill negotiating the steep slope as well as a local having cool down lie in the lake!  We had not realised then that most of the village only had well water.

The dark dots in the lake are nyerpas

It was almost 10pm before we arrived back at Nikolai’s only to find that we have all been locked out.  None of us brought along our room key and we had not expect the big door which looked like it came from a bank safe to be locked too.  We proceeded to find Nikolai who initially thought that we had lost our room key.  He shook his head in disbelief and appeared upset. Nevertheless, he took our hand into the crock of his elbow and walked uphill with us.  Then he realised what had happened.  The other guests had inevitably locked us out.  So he went back to his place to get the keys to open the door to let us in. 

We had planned to do a sky shot of the stars that evening but the sky never got dark enough even though there was little non-natural light pollution.  Still it was enough light to make it not worth the effort, so we decided to sleep and wake up early at 7 am in the morning for a morning walk along the shore of the lake.  We were expecting that the lake would have a layer of mist over it. 

The usual photo transfer done, it was time to sleep.  It was really great to sleep on a still bed in a quiet room after three nights of rocking around on a train.  There were many couplings and de-couplings of coaches at many of the stops during the three nights we were on the train earlier which resulted in many sleep interrupting jolts.

3 July, Sunday

We had forgotten that the music for the weekend alarm was different so we were a little surprised to hear it at 7am.  We dressed and headed straight for the door, hoping to get coffee at the lake shore.  We passed an orange water truck.  As we descended, we took notice of the may wells along the way that we had not paid much attention to the day before. The area did not appear to have piped water.  Water had to be fetched by trucks for establishments like Nikolai, presumably from the lake.

It was a quiet Sunday morning.  No many people were moving.  There was not the usual church going activity as there was no church.  When we were getting back the night before, we had passed youngsters from the street who were leaving for their weekend entertainment, presumably at a friend’s place as they were all armed with bags of goodies to share.

Mysterious Baikal at early morning

At the lake shore, there was a lady with a camera sitting on a swim platform.  We incorporated her into a picture.  The lake has an ethereal quality about it.  A thin mist hovered over the water.  Some boats were already cruising on that misted lake.  We walked all the way to the colourful but garish Chinese owned hotel.  No coffee places were open for business yet.  On the way, we saw a couple camping in a tent on the lake shore.  Some kebab stores open.  But otherwise, there was few people astir.  

  

As we walked back towards Nikolai for breakfast, we passed an older female villager coming down with what looked like a marketing bag.  Arriving at Nikolai around 8.30 am, we noted that some of our fellow guests were already at breakfast.  Nikolai met us at the door and asked through animation if we had gone swimming.  We indicated to him that it was too cold. He made the frozen gesture but indicated that if we had wet suits, swimming would be quite comfortable.  We nodded in agreement.

View of Lake Baikal from our balcony at Nickolai's

We decided to shower before heading down for breakfast around 9.15.  Rob and Toni were already there so we joined them.  Nikolai brought out a starter of weiss wurst and buckwheat for us which were delicious.  Juice, bread and marmalade with coffee as well as cold cuts and cheese complete the spread.  Breakfast done in half an hour, we went back upstairs to pack as well as soak in as much of the Lake environment before we had to leave.  When the appointed time to leave arrive, both Martin and we were tempted to remain behind.  With great reluctance, we tore ourselves from soaking in the atmosphere at the balcony outside our room, and headed downstairs to Ivan and the waiting van.

Nikolai and his wife came to bid us goodbye.  He made gestures of tears and sadness and crying.  He is such a cute character.  Paul decided to challenge me for the front seat, so we let him.  We squeezed in with Martin behind Ivan.  We passed again the Shaman Rock in the Angara River.  And down the road where we encountered the cow the day before, we spotted three cows, taking shelter in a bus stop shelter.  

Our next stop was on the way to Irkutsk was the Open Air Museum – set in the forest along the Angara River.  Here, the exhibits were samples of all the different types houses salvaged from villages that were flooded in the Angara when the dam across it was built for hydro-electricity.  The villages had to be burnt so that the logs do not float to the surface of the river.  All the buildings were built from timber, with minimum use of nails.  Even the roofs of the buildings, the tools (except the cutting edges) and the vehicles were all made beautifully out of wood.

Example of log technique used

We learnt so much about wood log cabins that morning.  Hard wood that are dense like the Siberian larch are good for foundation and load bearing trusses but not good for walls of log cabins.  Birch is preferred because the air pockets in the trunk is good insulation against the cold.  The logs are always stripped as the bark would cause the timber to rot over time were it not removed.  Then the bottom of each log is loped so that it can fit snugly onto the log below.  The correct way to build a log cabin is to build the wall without cutting out doors and windows and leave it for a year or two for the not salways straight tree trunks to settle.  When all is settled, then windows and doors could be cut.  This is the best way to ensure that doors and windows do not end up askew later.

A farm house

The houses varied in size depending on profession of the owners.  Cossacks would have small families as they do not need the labour.  Farmers have bigger families.  In the beginning when Siberia was lacking people, tax breaks were provided to families that would migrate there.  Every house had a stove that would serve a double purpose of cooking and keeping the abode warm.  To ensure that maximum heat is derived from the wood burning, the path of the smoke and heat from the fire to the chimney is made as long as possible.  Lined with bricks to retain the heat, these long flue include a flat surface on which the bed is placed.  To the side of that, on the back of the house is a space where newborn cattles were brought in to help them cope with the cold.  Windows were cut low and beds are placed high off the ground to ensure that the rising heat is utilised fully.  Windows could be sheets of mica or animal gut or even a piece of ice. 

Me in front of a house of a new settler

Long before Soviet times, to encourage settlers in Siberia, lower taxes and availability of better accommodation were used to induced migration.  Here is me outside one of such houses.

The fort and its tower

The church outside with
beautiful wood roof tiles

As the society became more agrarian, several silos were built in each compound to ensure that an entire harvest was not destroyed should there be a fire.  There were also spaces between these to prevent infestation should that occur.  All the houses and their windows faced south to harness the warmth in winter.  In this museum, there was a wall tower and an Orthodox church outside that in which one would pray before entering the fortress.  In that wall tower, three men sing a-capella for us.  Russians have beautiful voices from singing during Orthodox services.  

The woodpecker

The museum was sited along the Angara River.  When we were standing there looking at the fast flowing Angara, we heard a baby bird call so we tried to find its source.  Paul spotted the hole in the tree where the baby birds might be and Martin spotted a parent woodpecker cautiously peering to check us out.  We stayed a while and was rewarded by the parent bird coming to the hole to feed its young inside.

The restaurant

We had our scheduled lunch at the museum's restaurant.  Solyanka followed by fried chicken and washed down with a special desert.  We had half an hour after lunch to do as we like at the museum ground, so we headed back to photograph more of the woodpeckers.  Martin came later to check on our progress.  Together we saw more members of the woodpecker family feeding these chicks.

The journey from there to Irkutsk took almost an hour.  We could not help nodding off.  We teased Paul that he should not fall asleep as he was in the photographer’s seat.  Unlike the day before, there it was beginning to be really hot.  Ivan joked that he met some Germans on this one tour and they were all in black thermal stuff in the middle of summer because they had thought that it was always freezing in Siberia.   

On the bank of the Angara

In town, we first visited an Orthodox Church where we had to cover our heads.  The Orthodox cross apparently resemble the piece that includes INRI and the piece on which Christ’s feet were nailed.  We then headed to the Angara River embankment.  It was amazing that in the blistering heat, were one to hold one hand closer to the face of the river, one could feel the cool it emitted.

Orthodox Church that resembled a Buddhist temple

There was a second Orthodox Church that was painted in non traditional colours apparently to attempt to convert folks from paganism such as Buddhism.  There was also a Lutheran church which was used as a storehouse during Soviet time.  Because the influence of Soviet was not felt so strongly there, we asked how Irkutsk fared during the Soviet era.  Apparently, Soviet influence was only felt in 1927 when the revolution took place in 1917.

The small chapel

A small chapel stands where the Grand Orthodox Church was bombed to smithereens.  We would then proceed to the monument that commemorates among other things Vladivostok being ceded to Russia by the Chinese.  This was the second bank of the Angara River that we visited.  We found KBAC there.  After another rest where Martin and I headed straight for the bank of the river, we were brought to the Angara Hotel where our luggage were stored for 200 roubles (AUD 4) each.

Good train across the Angara

Martin and I were hot and tired so we ended up just sitting on the bench in the garden outside.  We thought about seeing more of Irkutsk but we were really tired.  The heat had sapped our energy.   We found Paul and Wendy sitting on a bench in the park under a tree and joined them.  Near them was the model of Irkutsk which included the destroyed church. What was most interesting was the information panel next to it.  What was different?  It was the first time in Russia when we had seen an information panel other than inside a museum that had English in addition to Russian, a real rarity.  

Model of Irkutsk

The rare information panel

We sat  and people watch till it was time to get groceries for the two nights on the train towards Ulaanbaatar.  We got some bread, cheese, fruits, a bag of chips, oranges, apricots and two cans of pate.  We also got some pastries and croissant for breakfast as well as some more pack coffee.  Groceries cost us 700 roubles (AUD 14).

It was time to go have a drink as a group.  We headed back to the London Pub in the hotel.  Folks there spoke excellent English too.  We ordered chicken wings with a non alcoholic beer.  Rob and Toni ordered fries.  They then went to get their groceries while we waited for the food to arrive.  Paul was missing his fridge magnet from Irkutsk, but no one was open to sell him one. 

A different guide appeared at 8.20pm to take us to the train station.  Again there were stairs to negotiate which Martin, the ever gentleman helped us with our luggage.  All of us were in the same carriage.  There was only a single physical ticket for all of us.  Martin and I would share a cabin again this last leg of the train trip for us.  Now that we were seasoned train travelers, we immediately put the upper bunks away and put all our gear neatly into place.  It appears that for the entire train, we are the only Mongolian carriage.  Interesting.  We went outside to take pictures of the carriage as well as our train engine after that.  When we came back, we found two Norwegian in our carriage and a tall Polish guy  chatting with them.  We asked the boys what they were doing in our cabin.  They said the Mongolian conductor had asked them to wait in our cabin.  We told them we were sorry about their problem but requested them to wait outside in the corridor.  They apologised and went outside whereupon we shut the door to the cabin.

Apparently, the Mongolian attendant who spoke good English and Russian asked them to temporarily park themselves in our cabin as their Mongolian cabin mates adjusted her belongings which include many domestic goods.  It was as if she was doing a provisioning run.  Wendy said that there are boxes of bananas under the bed in her cabin.  Wow, we did not realise that folks could take up so much space in a train.  Now we were feeling sorry for the two gentlemen they were sharing the cabin with.

We waited until we heard the noise outside settled and the train was pulling out of the station before we opened the door.  As soon as we were underway, we noticed that the views have changed dramatically.  They were incredibly beautiful.