July 9-16, 2003

After spending 4 wonderful days on the Trans-Siberian railway steaming through Russia, we disembarked at Irkutsk, once called 'the Paris of Siberia,' which is so ridiculous because there is nothing that remotely resembles Paris anywhere in Siberia. Needless to say, the city of Irkutsk was not one of our favorites. Dusty, polluted, and totally uncharming but we were there because it's the largest port city to access Lake Baikal.

We left Irkutsk as soon as we could for the fishing village of Listvayanka, some 45 minutes away, perched on the shores of Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal is the real reason we got off the train, as we would have been fine with continuing on with the train for another 4 days, it was that fun. But, there are things to be seen, and Lake Baikal is certainly one of them.

Baikal is the largest freshwater lake in the world, holding 20 percent of the world's liquid fresh water (roughly equivalent to all of the Great Lakes put together), Baikal is renowned for its (relative) pristine condition and incredibly clear water, with visibility sometimes up to 40 meters deep, which gives some people vertigo. The fishing village of Listvayanka was, well, small. We had a nice cabin in the “Village” on a little bluff overlooking both the real village and the lake, and our days were mostly spent wandering around the surrounding areas, looking for an ATM to correct the mistake that we made by coming to this village of 2,500 people with about $8 between us. Oops. It was a pleasant couple of fish-filled days before heading back to Irkutsk, in order to make our way up to Olkhon Island, the largest one in the lake, a 10 hour bus ride north.

The first hour or two of the ride was extremely funny to us, but as the hours unfolded and the roads steadily deteriorated, our humor was replaced with a certain level of concern. I wouldn't say we were properly scared, but let's just say we talked about what we would grab onto if the bus rolled.

After 10, dusty, bumpy and incredibly uncomfortable hours later, we arrived in the town of Ugheer, the main town on the island. On a whim, we decided to follow some Russian backpackers to see where they were going, and ended up finding what was called 'a homestead' for travelers run by a former ping-pong champion. Known simply as Nikita throughout the island, he was the first person to greet us as we entered the walls of his complex of wood carved, open-air dinner tables, jungle gyms, and of course, guest house rooms.

Nikita has set up this homestead more as a program to bring city kids from Irkutsk back to nature for the summer, with the tourist aspect of it all simply a way to fund all of the programs and projects. It was truly an oasis in the middle of Siberia. So, using Nikita's as our base, we spend the next 4 days exploring the absolutely beautiful island of Olkhon, seeing the famous Baikal Nerpa, the world's only freshwater seal, along the way. However, the serious forest fires in the area (due to uncontrolled logging, we were told), caused a perpetual state of smoky mist that hovered over us wherever we went on the island, taking a little bit out of the photogenic beauty of it all. But we could still see how beautiful the lake and the surrounding areas were. We would have liked to stay on the island longer and done some trekking, but those silly things called visas were limiting our stay.

To return to Irkutsk, we managed to skip the 10-hour bus ride back, by catching a minibus from Nikita's back to Irkutsk for our last night in Russia, before heading into Mongolia. But our adventures in Russia were not yet over, as we had overstayed our visa, though technically only for 12 hours. At the Russian border, after sitting there in the blazing Siberian heat for 5 hours, we were pulled off the train by three uniformed police officers and told that we needed to pay $35 each as a penalty for overstaying our visa. Now, having been in Russia for 1 month, we understood how these things worked- one person would quote you an astronomically high price, so you would ask the next person, who would just about halve the price, making it somewhat better but still unreasonable; next you would ask one more person, who would then tell you the proper price, and you would pay it and go on your merry way. So, being the savvy travelers that we are (ha!), we asked the second police officer how much the penalty is for overstaying a visa by one day. He told us, much to our surprise, that the fine was $35 each. So, somewhat confused by his consistent answer, we asked the third officer what the price was, and we were totally bowled over when he said that it was, in fact, $35 per person. We couldn't believe the coherence and consistency of their work unit and had little choice but to pay it, so we could get back on the train and be reunited with our backpacks. Then, after a total of 8 hours sitting at the Russian-Mongolia border on both sides, we finally passed through Mongolian customs, officially entering the land of Ghengis Khan for the first time.