Trekking- Baikal Lake

So we arrived in Irkutsk, had our Russian breakfast and we headed to Listvjanka- a village where we wanted to start our 3 -day trekking along a western shore of Baikal Lake. From Irkutsk there are lots of cars (called Marszrutnoje taksi) that go to Listvjanka, so you won’t have any problem to catch one. When we arrived in Listvjanka we found a local tourist office and asked about the trekking that we can do. As well we bought a map in order not to get lost as we were doing it on our own 😀 And of course we bought tones of food for 3 days and … some local vodka in order not to get cold during the night 😉

Normally, all local agencies propose this trekking from Irkutsk to Goloustnoe and then Listvjanka, however we did it opposite way 🙂 We started in Listvjanka and ended up in Goloustnoe.

Listvjanka

beginning of trekking- Momo & Nico

In total we did about 60 km during three days. The first day we have been walking from Listvjaka to Bolshie Koty-about 22km. Bolshie Koty is a very small village, alongside the Baikal Lake with a unique Russian atmosphere. As soon as we arrived there, we found a small shop where we could as well eat something hot. The shop was owned by two Russian women who were quarreling all the time with each other while  trying to help us find some accommodation for the night. Thus, finally those two Russian women called a guy who had a room for us and he was already preparing… BANIA (means Russian sauna) for us! So we had a perfect view on the Baikal Lake from our room, we had BANIA for two hours before going to sleep and all these was just for about 6 euros per person 😉

It is nice to know some Russian, as I am Polish I didn’t have any problem with communication in villages, however people do not speak any English there, so it’s nice to know some basic Russian.

view from our room in Bolshie Koty

arriving in Bolshie Koty

hot meal at the shop owned by two crazy Russian women 😉

Nico was ‘swimming’ in Baikal. By swimming I mean he got in and got off 😀

The second day we have been walking about 18 km, during this day we decided to sleep in our tent as the accommodation proposed by Vladimir was too expensive for us. Vladimir was a ranger and he was taking care of a ranger station. His ranger station is beautiful (as you can see from the photos below) however the prices where above our expectations. He also had BANIA but we decided not to use it this time 😉 As it comes to sleeping in the tent…I couldn’t sleep that well as all the time I had the impression that the Siberian bears are coming …

The top of the Devil’s Rock…

Vladimir’s ranger station

having a rest before Vladimir comes…

The third day we have been walking as well about 20 km, we reached Goloustnoe village were we slept in very cozy rooms, we had our BANIA as well and our owner made us a delicious, vegetarian soup. As it comes to the level of difficulty of this trekking I have to say that it is a modern one. Mostly all the time is flat, however you have to be careful cause the way is a bit steep and very narrow, also sometimes the path is damaged while it’s quite steep so you have to pay attention.

I have to say that we were very lucky! The weather was just awesome during all three days and we had a perfect view on the mountains on the opposite side of the Baikal Lake.

Goloustnoe village

Transsiberian Dream

Because it all started like this (Beijing):

and ended up like this (Riga):

So it had to be A M A Z I N G!

One month of being on the road, 10958 km done, 12 cities visited, 7 countries crossed, 3 days trekking on the Baikal Lake done as well as two days of horse riding in Mongolia. And it is only a little part of what I experienced 😉

We started our transsiberian travel with a bus full of Chinese and Mongolian people travelling from Beijing to Erlian (border with Mongolia). It was the cheapest way to get to Mongolia thus we decided to take this night sleeping bus which was very comfortable especially for little Momo who is as thin as my finger (as it is visible on the picture below lol). Our first place we wanted to visit was of course Mongolia! So, we were heading to Ulan Batar where we planned to spend one week with our host that we found on couchsurfing.

What about Mongolia?

Apart from the fact that it is an extremely wild with full of nature country, I was quite surprised when I got off the train in Ulan Batar and right away I saw a huge billboard advertising Polish chocolate (Wawel)! But, not only this. In every shop in Mongolia there are plenty of Polish products like sour cucumbers, mushrooms, tea and sweets. I told it to our host and he explained me that there was one Mongolian guy who was studying in Poland and he loved Polish things (pikle,korniszony etc.), so he started importing this to Mongolia and that’s how it began and how Mongolian people love Polish food 🙂 I have to say that it is one of the factors why I felt like home in Mongolia ❤

But, Mongolia is not only Polish products …. It is especially about wilderness and uniqueness that you experience even in Ulan Batar. Why this capital is so unique? Have a look!

Ulan Batar is the capital which has a very significant amplitudes. In winter it can be -40 while in summer +35. Even when we were there in may, during the day the temperature was not that high (about 15), but during the night it went down to about 2 degrees. What’s more, it is a very small capital with only about one million inhabitants, even there you can see jurtas (traditional Mongolian houses) where people live normally.

Ulan Bator actually does not have a good night life. We got to know that all bars close at midnight and in the evening we did not see a lot of people on the main streets but … the atmosphere and natural beauty of this city compensate everything 😉

In the train from Zamyn-Uud to Ulan Batar we met a few foreigners and afterwards we all met up in Ulan Batar.

Mongolian people are very very patriotic and they all love Chinggis Khan (of course!). Mostly all of them eat meat in every dish that they eat. I met a few vegetarians travelling to Mongolia and frankly speaking I don’t know how they survived there, but indeed they survived. One day we made breakfast for our host, unfortunately he didn’t like it too much because there was no meat 😦 At least he was honest with us 😉

Woogie (our host) has a summer house about 30km from Ulan Batar so one day he took us to his place where me met as well his friend, uncle and aunt. While being there we tried Mongolian soup, we hiked  a bit but the most, we were just chilling after a great previous night in Ulan Batar 😀 Woogie’s aunt was preparing soup for us while her husband was showing us photos of their whole family. It is nice to know some Russian while you are in Mongolia, even a few simple words (that’s how I could communicate with Woogie’s family).

Woogie’s jurta

sheeps everywhere!

Woogie’s aunt preparing soup for us

Finally, as we previously planned, we decided to do some horse riding in Mongolia. In order to do that, we took a 3 hour bus ride to Terelj National Park where we could easily find some horses and sleep in jurtas. However, at the end of the day we decided to sleep in our own jurta that you can see on the picture below 😉 As it comes to horse riding, we found a beautiful Mongolian ‘horsewoman’ who, in her traditional clothes, was a guide for us. I was a bit surprised with the size of Mongolian horses. As this country is so famous for these animals I thought they would be quite big but nope, the horses appeared to be small.

our own jurta from Decathlon hihi

Our guide

Nico on his pony

view from the most natural toilet of my life 😉

Mongolian people mostly believe in shamanism

On the streets of Ulan Bataar

Lastly, during my stay in Mongolia I made the fastest decision in my life… we got tattooosssss done by best tattoo maker in Ulan Bator who was a friend of Woogie. Crazy chicas 😉

The end of the first part of my Transsiberian travel 🙂