We have arrived in Irkutsk following our long train trip and a 2 hour bus trip for a 2 day stay at Lake Baikal. A really beautiful spot. We were staying with a family whose comes from this area. We were shown to our rooms and the taken on an orientation walk up into the hills.
It was a constant upward walk heading towards a forest. The meadows were full of different wild flowers including edelweiss and the smell of thyme was a very pleasant change from the train! We had an amazing view over the lake. Unfortunately the wind blew, thunder rolled and a short sharp shower descended.
The majority of houses are made from wood and are small but with large gardens which are lovingly tended. The growing season is very short and the villagers grow as much as they can and then preserve what they have grown for the winter.
On returning from our walk we wee given a huge lunch. The milk is straight from the cow and the cream is delicious (I will be having cream withdrawal!). A local lady comes to the house to help with the cooking and lunch consists of 3 courses – soup followed by a meat dish and then tea and biscuits. There was always lots of bread and the butter, cottage cheese and jam were also homemade!
The loo is at the bottom of the garden and sometimes you needed a ticket to get in the queue! To ‘shower’ you used the banya!
Luckily we left the lake when we did as a few days after we caught our train a dam burst and the town was under 14m of water!
Train took 24hrs – lovely scenery, good dining car. Unfortunately the border crossings between Russia and Mongolia took 4 hours and it was fairly officious but we were glad when we could get into our beds!
The scenery when we woke was of open grassland and lots of horses. There were occasional Gers we made you feel that you have moved to a different country.
Thoughts so far on Mongolia: food terrible, traffic a nightmare, pavements in need of major repair. Ulaanbaatar is full of skyscrapers with so many more in the process of being built! We spent a day heading to a Ger where we were spending the night. Beautiful countryside. Stopped at a group of nomadic families. Learnt about the way they lived and how they worked with their horses (there are 13 horses per member of the population here!). We had a sip of fermented mares milk.
Headed on to the Genghis Khan ‘monument’, went to the top of the horses mane and had a Joanna Lumley moment! We then headed off to the Ger camp and found ourselves in a rocky wooded area. A walk followed the settling in and once again the wild flowers are beautiful. It’s so peaceful although the cuckoo did remind me of England.
After a good sleep even with the rolling thunders we had a quick go at archery and then it was back on the bus to Ulaanbaatar. On the way we all became very excited as we spotted our first yaks! We also passed a group of men in traditional costume participating in an archery competition.
Early start tomorrow for the 30 hour train trip to Beijing. We have to cross the border and the bogies are changed because China has a narrower gauge track.
