One of Russian stops we were most excited to make was at
Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia. Lake
Baikal is the world’s deepest and oldest lake.
It contains about 20% of the world’s freshwater supply; more water than
all of America’s Great Lakes combined. In all our research, we kept reading that
Olkhon Island (about a 6-7 hours’ trek north from Irkutsk) was really a
highlight of the lake area. So that's where we headed!
(The arrow on this map points to Lake Baikal.)
To get to Olkhon, we took our third overnight train leg, from
Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk. As we were
waiting to get on the train, we watched a large group of men hauling bag after
massive, heavy bag towards the train.
I’m pretty sure they were North Korean because they were all wearing
identical red pins, with a face, right above their heart. They were also carrying boxes and boxes of food,
cartons of eggs, bags of rice…..and there was one guy, wearing dark sunglasses,
who was clearly in charge of all the passports.
It was an interesting sight.
The train was definitely the oldest we’d been on so far, so
we were glad that it was only for 17 hours.
We arrived in Irkutsk mid-morning and had a few hours to kill before our
mini-bus shuttle to Olkhon. We walked a
bit, had something to eat, and Facetimed with my parents before we made our way
to the bus station to start the trip to Olkhon.
The mini-bus to Olkhon was an adventure in and of
itself. We drove through beautiful
fields, which passed by quickly…I’m not sure if our driver was trying to draft
off other cars or if tailgating them that closely just allowed him to make
tighter swerves as he passed them by moving into the oncoming traffic
lane. I decided to stop watching the
road ahead and focus on the fields. J
At one point we stopped to pick up another passenger and Bob took this quick shot…
Some of the route was paved, but there was a long stretch of
unpaved road during which we bounced and jostled around quite a bit. I took this video from my cozy seat amongst
luggage in the far back of the van…..
We got to the ferry point and had to wait about an hour
until it was our turn to get on a boat.
While waiting, we had an ice cream and climbed the nearby rocks for our
first views of the lake and Olkhon Island.
During the short ferry ride, Colin also contemplated one of
life’s great mysteries…..his belly button.
We’re doing some deep thinking this year, for sure.
Olkhon Island is significant not only for its picturesque
views but also because of its importance in the shaman religion. Several of the most holy sites are located on
Olkhon Island, which is sparsely populated by native Buryats and Russians. We could see the signs that tourism is
growing, but Olkhon Island is still quite rustic—there are no paved roads, cows
freely roam the main village, and the island only got electricity in 2005.
After the ferry, we resumed our speedy drive along bumpy
dirt roads until we got to the main village of Khuzir. The bus dropped us off at our hotel, which, while rustic, was comfortable and very well located. We were only about 150 meters from a beach and
also one of the most important holy spots of the whole island.
We told the boys they could spend a lot of time on Olkhon
Island playing on the beach, which Colin in particular was very excited to hear. We even got in a couple of hours of beach
time on our first night…
Then we had a simple dinner in a Buryat café, where the boys
eagerly ate a Buryat sheep’s meat soup and the local version of meat dumplings.
The next day, we had breakfast and immediately made our way
to the beach. With wildfires burning
west of us, there was unfortunately a lot of smoke in the air which made it
hard to see much. The boys were OK
breathing-wise (I was keeping a close eye on Emmett, who has mild asthma), and
they were thrilled to play in the water and sand. The lake is about 9 degrees Celsius (about 48
degrees Fahrenheit), so it was a cold and quick swim.
About 1 PM, a light breeze turned into a fairly stiff
wind……while it was a bit cold, it started blowing the smoke away, which was
fantastic! We were also able to easily
fly Emmett’s pocket kite.
As we walked up to the top of the cape nearby, we chatted
with a German couple who had been on the island for 3 days already. They said this was the first clear moments
they’d had yet. While the skies still
weren’t crystal clear, the views from the cape were pretty impressive…
The posts with ribbons are a tradition in this area. The colored ribbon (any color, except black
since that’s the color of death) are tied to the posts as prayers.
From the cape, we walked back to our hotel, cleaned up, and
then walked into “town” to explore Khuzir and have an ice cream just off the main "square". That's the square behind Bob and the boys (as well as the side of the island's only grocery store).
Then we headed to Baikal View Café for dinner overlooking
the cape and Lake Baikal.
The next day, we got up early with the boys so that we could
get in a few hours at the beach before taking a tour to the north part of
Olkhon Island. Both our guidebook and
the hotel staff said it was the most picturesque place to visit, and they were
both definitely right.
We spent the day driving along bumpy dirt roads in an old
Russian van….our guide kept referring to our van as the “foreigners’ van”. Out of the approximately 80 people on the
tour everyone was Russian except for 2 Germans, 4 Chinese, and us. This was our van for the day....outside, and in (cozy). The picture of the road really does not do justice to how deep the ruts were!
We took in the beauty of Lake Baikal and different capes and
cliffs of the island.
We hiked out to Cape Khoboy, the northernmost point on
Olkhon Island. While we hiked, the drivers made the group a soup with omul, a relative of the salmon that is native to Lake Baikal.
We also stopped at this point, which was called the Rock of Love. Apparently childless Buryat couples would come to this point, and if they wanted to ask the gods for a girl they would go sit on the right rock....if they wanted to ask for a boy, they'd go the top of the left rock.
We found this fun fact out after our whole family had already climbed to the top of the "girl rock". Another child is definitely not a souvenir we intend to have from this trip, though.
At our last stop, a guy in his mid-20’s bounded over to us
with a huge smile on his face and asked, ‘Where are you from?!?”. When we said “America”, his smile got even
bigger and he said we were the first Americans he had ever met. I hope we made a good impression....I had just sort of yelled at Colin to take his shoes off before putting his feet in the lake, so the jury's out on that. J
We returned to our hotel, and the boys went back to the
beach to finish off an exciting soccer tournament…of two teams, with one player
each. Emmett was particularly happy to
switch out players on his team, calling out, “And now #27, Emmett, is switching
out with number #13, Emmett”….the options are limited when you’re traveling in
a small group.
We ate dinner in the village, where we all had more omul in
different forms (omul meatballs, omul and chickpea soup, and omul medallions
stewed in milk).
We also tried, unsuccessfully, to pay for our hotel,
something we’d been trying to figure out since we first arrived and realized
that there had been a slight miscommunication/mistranslation with our
hotel. We did not fully understand that
1. They did not accept credit cards at
the hotel; 2. There were no banks or
ATMs on the island; and 3. Their PayPal
account, linked to their office 6 hours’ away, could only accept Russian
cards. We have some emergency funds in
alternative currencies, but that still was not enough to cover our total bill. Oops…….fortunately we were able to stop by
their Irkutsk office after returning from the island to take care of our bill.
In order to get back to Irkutsk, we took another shuttle
van. Everything was moving along just
fine until……..
It's definitely an adventure when your beater Russian
shuttle van breaks down in the middle of nowhere, Siberia……25 km from the
nearest tiny village.
We spent about an hour on the side of the road while the
driver worked hard to get our van up and running again. While he did that, the boys and the Chinese
girls played together. We played “Simon
Says” in Chinese, English, and Flemish….
And the kids all played Parcheesi in the back of the van. It was so cute to hear the giggles and cheers
as they played together….it’s always heartwarming to see how children can play
together, despite language and cultural differences. Wouldn’t it be a great world if we adults
could all do the same?
With the van up and running again, we continued on our way
back to Irkutsk. We passed a lot of cows
roaming freely along the highway and through the fields. The “cow crossing” signs were amusing…..
The cows who would not move out of the road, however, were
not so amusing. Playing chicken with a
Russian cow as you barrel towards it in a barely hanging on Russian van is not
an experience I’d suggest for the faint of heart. But it does make for a great travel memory!
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