Ice Driving

By some magical stroke of luck we had the cabin to ourselves for the full four days on the train. Even though Russia is such a hassle I adore the trains. This one was extremely nice and exceedingly comfortable. This time I was far more adventurous about getting off the train at various stops, perusing the goods and foods for sale. On one stop we saw a woman lugging three or four gigantic stuffed animals in plastics bags up to the train doors. I can only imagine the horror on the faces of the roommates when a passenger returned to their cabin with the massive creature and plopped on the bunk to share the view.

As soon as we were settled into the Downtown Hostel in Irkutsk we started planning our escape to Lake Baikal. On the last Trans-Siberian adventure Kip and I made it as far as Listvyanka, which was a cool little fishing village good for a day trip. This time I was determined to get out further. Rob, an Australian chef we had met at the hostel, was heading for Olkhon Island which we had also been considering so we agreed to travel together to keep down costs. Unfortunately, to get things even cheaper he also invited the three other people staying at the hostel; Astrid, a disinterested French woman and two Swedes, Winnie, a 21 year old martial arts student and her "friend" David, a psychopath. David ranted to us about how much he hated Russia. Russians had abused him pretty consistently mostly due to the fact that he dressed like a forty year old transvestite. He called them racist and a primitive culture. We all disagreed and he merely laughed at the suggestion that he could be mistaken. It was going to be a long journey to the lake.


We took a minibus to a town called MRS, which is right on the lake. David made comments about how uncivilized the Russian passengers on the minibus were for drinking beer in the middle of the day. From MRS we waited for our ride to Olkhon Island. Soon he was in view, racing across the lake which was frozen solid. It was such a rush speeding across the icy pass. People were ice fishing and driving around on the designated "roads". We were surrounded on all sides by towering cliffs and snow capped mountains. Once on land again it was a bumpy 45 minutes to the town. We stayed at a place called Nikita's homestead and it was so charming! The room looked onto the lake and it opened onto a large common area with a wood furnace. There were no showers, but there was a banya which is the Russian equivalent to a sauna. You hop in to the room to roast and then douse yourself with cold buckets of water or beat your skin with wet balsam branches to cool off. Amazing. The lack of showers greatly disturbed David, who complained that he had nowhere to wash his long, stringy hair. He asked to join Rob in the banya and when asked if he had appropriate attire for the experience (ie. bathing suit) David replied that he had some "special underwear" that he could use. Needless to say, the Australian bloke in Rob was insistent that they not banya together. Later we found out that he had jumped into a communal tub of water to wash himself.

It was devastating to leave after spending many tranquil moments by the silent, frozen lake. We ended our last night with a bonfire and left heavy hearted.

After returning to Irkutsk this afternoon we decided to delay our departure to Ulan Baatar for one day to give us some distance from David, who was leaving immediately. Ah, it's so quiet now...