Ulan Bator to Listvjanka (Lake Baikal) Russia Tuesday/Wed 17/18 June

I am having rewrite this all again as I lost my internet connection and did not have draft saved.

Well I have finally arrived in Russia. I am at Listvjanka on the shores of Lake Baikal, the worlds largest lake and source of one fifth of the worlds fresh water. It has been a long trip getting here, nearly 36 hours, but finally made it.

I was beginning to enjoy UB and I had for the first time on this trip started to meet and make friend with people, rather than the cursory politeness of passing people in hostels throughout China. I met a polish girls with a welsh accent (Johanna), My flatmate Gaia (from Florida) who believed man never went to the  moon (I did let her know that actually 12 people have stepped on the moon in six separate missions), A danish guy called "Frote", a Swiss girl called Issa and a Mongolian Guide/Helper from the Hostel in UB called Boggii. Maybe we shall meet again one day. excuse name spelling.

I have enclosed a few pics of around UB , including the State Dept Store (which had everything except in my size), the Building I thought was the Mongolian Museum of Natural History ( except it  wasn't, it just had a huge  banner saying that on the front of it with the words "coming soon" in fine print. The French bakery where I went to have a sandwich and coffee instead of visiting museum.

 russian train hot water service

Russian tea/coffee glasses

Lake Baikal

The train left at about 3.30 yesterday afternoon and took ages, including the (this time expected long wait at the borders). I took a few snaps of station names on the way so you can google map locate them. As we neared the border, there were more trees and less Gers in the fields. We got into Ulan Ude in Russia about 6 hours after crossing the border. It is bigger than I expected and theta where the Bear statues are.

On the train I had a 2 berth sleeper which I had to share with a UK passported Indian woman who works for IBM and was recovering from cancer. Her father was apparently a world famous Indian photojournalist, who's pictures covered the Dalai Lama's defection to India, The Indira Ghandi assassination , the Bopal disaster and other stuff. Did not get his name.

There was only me and her in the first compartment, 2 USA woman next door and no one else in the carriage except for the Train mechanic in the last compartment. I got talking to him late over a few Vodka's, Bread, Sausage, Tomato and salt. Although he could hardly speak any english and my Russian is hopeless, I worked out he is 51, has two young kids 3 & 4, Putin is Good, Obama is Bad and Ukraine is Russian. I enthusiastically agreed with all whilst having more sausage, capsicum relish, bread, a boiled egg and more vodka.

There is some pics of the lake as we went past it on the train. It is very picturesque. even more so now that I have seen it from Listvjanka.

I finally made to the hostel after a long time of false starts and re runs. The Indian woman had offered me a lift in the private car she had booked but the driver took one look at me (a free loader) and said only small car, no room. About 4 hours later I got here. Its only about 80k, but the bus I eventually got took about 90 min. The Hostel when I finally got here offered me home made Vodka and some food. It is tradition to always have 3 shots, so who was I to break tradition. It is off to bed now, It was light here till 11pm although it is only 3 days from the longest day in these parts.