We woke up at 05:30 local time and arrived in Irkutsk at 06:45 with many other local Russians. It was pitch black outside and I was relieved that I didn’t freeze as soon as I stepped off the train – must have been around 0 degrees. We tried to figure out how to pay for tram tickets, to get us to the bus station on the other side of town, some 5km away. After being ignored by locals and misunderstanding Russian instructions from tram and rail station workers, we ran out of ideas and gave in to one of the taxi touts we’d previously declined. Got to the bus station at about 07.30 and bought two tickets to Listvyanka, the closest village on the shore of Lake Baikal some 70km away. I was delighted that the tickets were £1 each. I was not so delighted to be standing outside in the freezing weather for one and a half hours waiting for a bus that didn’t show. Again, we gave in and got a taxi for the journey, bargaining what seemed a good price of 20 roubles per km. We bumped into 2 other Brit guys in the process who were trying to persuade us to go to the Okhlon Island. It was good to hear familiar voices in grey, freezing cold Irkutsk. We told them we had already made a reservation in Listvyanka, got in the taxi and off we went. It was great to be out of the cold.
It was snowing for our journey between Irkutsk and Listvyanka and the drive was slow. We had trouble finding the village we were staying in let alone the hotel, but got there in the end. The taxi deal that seemed so good suddenly didn’t when Pat handed over the money and the driver then pointed at me wanting my share, that he’d forgotten to mention. We should have seen that one coming and ended up giving him more money to resolve things.
The hotel turned out to be a real find. When we arrived one of the odd job guys came out to give us a hand with our luggage, which was handy as I’d sprained something in my right shoulder/neck removing my rucksack and getting into the taxi. I could barely turn my head right on the taxi journey. This guy said nothing to us for the duration of our stay and was nicknamed Igor by me and Monkey Boy by Pat. He spent his time repairing the snow mobiles ready for the winter and doing random jobs about the place, all with no speaking and the same dreary facial expression.
We were taken up a slippery snow covered track and lead into the grounds of numerous little log cabins which overlooked the lake. Our cabin was lovely. There was a little porch, entrance lobby leading into our room and an ensuite WC. It was just the right size for all our stuff and had a wood burner and numerous electric heaters to keep us toasty. One of the windows overlooked Lake Baikal and snow capped mountains in the distance – lovely.
We dropped our bags off and went for a wander around Krestovka, the village. This was stretched along the coastline of the lake for a mile or so and comprised small wooden houses, many bars and a monstrosity of a hotel in the hub, opposite the bus station and small port. The sky was grey although the sun was trying to break out and the place looked miserable. It was quiet and we were the only tourists around, or so it seemed. We weren’t thinking too highly about this ramshackle looking place which rich Russians supposedly flock to during the summer.
Looking for a cash machine and a drink we decided the best place to try was the big, ugly hotel. On our way inside, a wedding car had pulled up and the bride was on her way inside. We had seen loads of wedding parties zooming around Moscow having pictures taken at all the tourist attractions, so it didn’t seen strange to see the same here. We were in luck; there were 2 cash machines in the lobby. We walked into the bar to find it was empty with 3 staff behind the counter. One of them was doing his best Little Britain impression and looked like Matt Lucas: bit of a belly, blue and white stripy t-shirt and appropriate hat. We had a drink and decided to leave when we realised they had no wifi and bad Russian house music started to play.
Taking it easy because of my shoulder, we walked back to the cabin to settle in and have a snooze. The early start and change to Irkutsk time were taking their toll. Later on Pat found the shower in use which, fortunately, was not an external kind we had previously thought. There were no locks on the doors, so not wanting to be caught in the buff we decided to go together and stand guard for each other. I was nice and let Pat go first, only to discover that it broke as soon as Pat had finished. We thought that he’d used up the water in their reserve, but found out the following day that it was just that the shower head had blocked. Anyhow, the crux of it was that after the 4 days of the train journey from Moscow I still hadn’t had a shower. My hair was so greasy, you could have fried an egg on it. I spent the rest of the evening asking Pat how it felt to be clean.
The next morning we both woke up at 10:00. I was still sleepy and feeling lazy so eventually got out of bed at 13.30. My shoulder was feeling better. We went for a walk in the other direction, to see what delights Listvyanka had to offer. The day was much better than its predecessor. The sun was shining and there was a clear blue sky over the lake. We walked along the shoreline heading east, past wooden huts and a few cafes and hotels. We saw a few more people out for a stroll, mostly Russians with their families. On our way back to Krestovka, to check out bus times back to Irkutsk the following day, we saw Andrei, the hotel owner, on his boat on the lake with 2 other guys. He was looking very pleased and we exchanged waves. It later turned out that it had taken him 30 days to build the wooden boat and this was the maiden voyage. No wonder he looked so pleased. There were also some 6 divers in the lake outside the Diving Club. Pat was intrigued watching them, but wasn’t envious as it was so cold. One of them was having problems flailing around trying to get his fins off.
That evening we had our banya experience. It was basically a sauna with the added benefit (?!) of being thrashed with birch branches. Hardcore banya enthusiasts sit in the sauna for a while and when they get too hot run to the lake and plunge themselves into the icy waters to cool off. You can understand that we were not up for that part, but it did get exceedingly hot. I was surprised how long Pat endured the sauna for. I thought he’d last just minutes! Thank goodness the shower head got replaced so I could finally be clean.
The next day we were up and packed and Andrei gave us a lift to the bus station at 10:00. My shoulder was much better by now. This time the bus did arrive and we took it back to Irkutsk with lots of locals who turned out to all be going to market. We found the hotel we were looking for and checked in. We then headed out to see what Irkutsk had to offer, not hoping for much, going from what we’d seen already and the limited information Lonely Planet had to offer. It was an industrial town with many old and dilapidated-looking buildings. The centre was on one street, running north to south and housed all the shops and restaurants. We had lunch in a plush looking café, surrounded by rich looking Russians and then went back to the hotel to get on the internet. It had been a week since we’d last checked emails and we were getting withdrawal symptoms.
We were up early the next morning at 04:00, ready to get the train at 06:30. The taxi we had booked was early and waiting for us outside and when we checked out they gave us breakfast-to-go in a plastic bag each, which I’d previously asked about. What service – we were impressed! I hadn’t slept very well and was thinking about Mand and Sam after chatting on Facebook. Then Mand sent us a text at 01:00 telling us she was in Gourmet Burger Kitchen. Both of us were woken up and started salivating – not good. To top it off the hotel walls were made of paper and I could hear the people upstairs having sex.
In the train station we bumped into Mark and Siobhain who were sitting in the main concourse. They had spent one day in Irkutsk and took a drive out to Listvyanka. They both looked ready to leave, just like us.
We got on the train and got settled in our compartment, which had space for 2 other passengers this time. I recognised some tourists who’d been in the same café as us in Krestovka who were in the next compartment and we had a chat and introduced ourselves. Laurens and Eline were from the Netherlands and were taking the Tran-Siberian to Beijing, planning to travel for 6 months. We slept for a few hours and then spent the rest of the journey to Ulaan Bataar chatting to our new neighbours and reading stuff about Mongolia. Pat was very pleased to be leaving Russia……..
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