Chita to Baikal
Hi-ski (AKA “zadrastvuyte” or hi) Ellie here again.
Adding”-ski” to the end of every word began as a joke on the first day here in Russia but it seems to have stuck and while a can hardly pronounce “hello” in Russian I’ve been kidding myself into thinking I sound Russian when I simply use a Russian accent (which sometimes borders on Swedish or even Scottish) it’s a really bad habit… But fun! In fact we’ve been getting on really well here with the language. Mostly because a lot of people speak English but also I can understand some words because of their similarity to English, German or even (surprisingly) Italian. Written Russian is another story though! They have 34 or so characters and even the ones they have in common with English are not always pronounced the same so in shops and resturants it means trying to spark conversation with who ever is serving you and hoping they have some patience.
I guess one of the main reasons we have had such a good run here in Russia is because of the great people that have taken us under their wing. I met Jennia in my carriage (Nathan and I were split up for the night as we got some of the last tickets) on the train from zabaikalsk to chita. She asked me something in Russian, I told her I don’t speak Russian and so we had a stilted but welcome conversation about what the heck I was doing in Russia if I don’t speak Russian and how dangerous and horrible Russia is. Jennia was coming home (chita) after having her Chinese work visa revoked (she had worked as a translator for a Chinese manufacturer) she said she moved away from Russia primary because of the dangers here and the lack of protection from police who are underpaid and we are told, often supplement their income by abusing their position. Completely negating the picture she had just painted of her country Jennia was on the phone to her mother within about 10 minutes checking that it was ok to invite us back to their house for breakfast, a shower and a snooze. Having not showered since Harbin this was an offer I couldn’t refuse! when the food trolley came along she bought beer and we spent the evening chatting.
After a great relaxing day in Chita with Jennia and her family we jumped back on the train for our third consecutive night. I can’t tell you how much I was looking forward to getting out on the frozen lake Baikal and just being in one place for a few days. But on arrival in Irkutsk we had a few errands to run before we could relax.
1st encounter with Russian militsa (police)
When we realized my (brand new) camera had been stolen I was not looking forward to going to the police for the required police report. We’ve heard not a few stories of dodgy police and long waits for the simplest requests. So before going to the police I called my travel insurance company to ask if it was absolutely necessary for me to have a police report. She told me it was and she highly doubled that the police would put me in jail if I didn’t cough up a bribe so with trepidation I left Nathan with our luggage and headed to Irkutsk police headquarters. Thankfully a woman who had lost her passport spoke English and was able to explain my predicament to the humorless officer who clearly wasn’t appreciating the game of schirades I was playing with him. Barely moving his lips he told my translator that I’d have to go to the railway police. So back to Nathan empty handed I went and we gathered our gear and went back out to the railway station.
This time the officer didn’t seem to mind our schirades and were pretty sure they got most of the story the first time. They ushered us into a room and they just about every officer (on duty and off) came in and chatted to us. Our favorite was max. He spoke no English but we practiced every phrase in the language chapter of our lonely planet and he heard all about our travels from Singapore over land to Russia. Apparently when he’s not a militsa he studies physiology (or so we understood). Then came a guy who kinda spoke englishski. He interrogated us a little more and then we bribed the lot of them with chocolate which seemed to do the trick and 2 hrs after arriving we left the station with three lines of writing in Russian, a signature and a stamp. We were assured it would do the trick but time will tell.
Off to Baikal
Finally we headed to the bus station! We wanted to go to olkhon Island one of the biggest fresh water islands in the world with a great reputation for natural beauty and an awesome homestay sty hostel. We were worried that we’d be too late for the 6 hour journey out there but when we got to the bus station we found out the time was the least of our worries. Call it an usually warm winter if you will but I’m calling it Climate change. Olkohn, usually accessible to cars and even busses over the ice from November to early April, was inaccessible due to the ice thawing, there was no way to get out there at least this week. So we settled for our second option (we’ve learned to have back up plans) and waited for a bus to listvyanka just an our from irkutsk. I don’t know how long we waited in the snow for that bus but when the first one finally arrived I could tell there were far too many people waiting than could fit on the miniscule thing. By that time I was worrying that pain in my toes might have been frostbite and fought tooth and nail with ladies in furs for a seat…. Unfortunately I couldn’t secure one for Nathan but another bus rolled up on cue and we jumped in that one instead.
We arrived in Listvyanka after dark and the concept of finding a nice homstay cabin down one of the dark streets proved too much so we headed for the 7 story lighthouse style building that dominated the otherwise nonexistent skyline with it’s strobe light lighting up the icy lake baikal. We figured even if it wasn’t a hotel we could probably find some help there. It was indeed hotel marka… Totally swish but surprisingly affordable if there is such a thing in this country. Their motto seemed to be “ofcourse!” it seemed the receptionists could achieve anything (except the super human feat of booking train tickets which you’ll hear about later from nath).
All in all we had a very pleasant stay on lake baikal. Though there’s not much to do we managed to fill the days with eating, reading, and walking on the lake. Highlights were a ride on a hovercraft, being interviewed for a tourism documentary and sliding countless times down the ice slide.
I love baikal. Wanna come back in summer sometime, anyone care to join me?
Much love,
Ellie.
Posted on February 10th, 2007 :: Filed under Travel
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