22.02.2018
Again I arrived at a train station too early…. It was very cold outside today, but the Tynda train station is big and warm. I could not be bothered dragging my luggage to the upstairs café, though, therefore I hung around in the main hall. There was a security check at the entrance and as usual around here, they did not pay much attention to me or anybody for that matter. However, I was not in the hall for more than 15 min looking at the displays of the kiosks when a police man came for a check. I must have looked like a hippie or so. I told him, I did not understand and of course he only spoke Russian. Passport! he could say however. I bet it was the first time he saw a German passport, because he studied not only the ID page, but also the visa and the departure card very intensely. As if somebody with a German passport would be an illegal immigrant in the middle of Siberia in winter …. I had to keep myself from laughing out loud, but he probably only did his job.
I was booked on train 075Э at 05:55+6. The train arrived from Neryungri already 2 hours before, but it was being rearranged and coaches were added, so as usual it was only opened about 30 min before departure. Upper bunk 26 in coach 8 would be my home for the next 29 hrs over one time zone and 1285 km. This train even had a restaurant coach! Well, it was going all the way to Moscow, so it really needed one. The good thing was, my coach was just one coach over from the restaurant coach, too. While everybody waited on the platform for the train to open, I was once again the attraction. Everybody found it funny to have a crazy tourist in the coach and she even could tell her story in funny Russian – Ja iis Germania, ja idu Severobaikalsk, ja byla v Vladivostok i Komsomolsk, ja putishestvenika! – And you come in winter? – Da, ja chatshu looky looky moros osero Baikal – yes, I want to looky looky the ice on Lake Baikal …. Crazy German! We sure had fun waiting for that train!
There even was a fancy babushka in her valuable fur coat who said she saw me with the French speaking tourists this morning in the café at the hotel. It is probably very Russian that the ladies still have their good and very real fur coats and chapkas and wear them with pride. The young generation wears the same winter clothes you see all over Europe, that dress code is global, I guess. But the old generation is proud of their fur coats.
The train left on time and I was lucky to have the cabin all to myself for a start. I made up my bed and watched the departure from Tynda. From the train the view over the river and the city was actually very nice. The town center is of course all concrete blocks and around it are many small houses and datshas.
I also had a chat with the Providniza – some Russian, some English and a lot of sign language – about the train and the РЖД railway souvenirs she was selling. It seemed to be a slightly younger train, but the heating was still by coal.
The Provodnizas seemed to be very much attached to their coaches, they even decorated the corridors.
I went to check out the restaurant coach and find the Swiss ladies from this morning who travelled on the same train in coach 10. It was the first time I moved between coaches while the train was moving and, gosh, it needed getting used to. The sluice between the coaches is also the old style. It is fairly open and it is cold and snow and ice covered and it moves with the train movement. The doors on each coach are very heavy and the wind pulls on them. I had to stand on the middle part staring down through the open sides on the moving tracks below while trying to pull one door shut before opening the next door. Jeez, and that between each coach!
I found the Swiss ladies Ruth and Jacqueline who also had their cabin to themselves and had already settled in. We chatted for a while – first time I was talking German in weeks! They were also travelling from Vladivostok, but had only done overnight trains and day stops, no hotel overnights on the way. From Severobaikalsk they would go on an overland over the ice weeklong car tour to Ulan Ude. Sounded like they would go together or parallel to the French couple I met yesterday in the BAM Museum.
The rest of the afternoon I sat in my cabin watching the taiga fly by. This section of the BAM is considered the most interesting one and a true engineering achievement. There is still taiga with lots and lots of trees and snow, but there were more hills and the train track followed different rivers which were of course frozen. The weather was beautiful again, blue sky and sunny.
In the next cabin over there were 3 men and a women – who were obviously on the way home from work, because the vodka seemed to be flowing heavily. Smoking is prohibited on the trains, but here in the wilds of Siberia the rules got bent a bit. So those guys would every now and then troop out to the sluice between the coaches and have their smoke there. Every time they did so they would stop in my cabin and tell me stories. Their Russian was very rapid and only one spoke some works of English, another one 3 words of German, but we had good fun. They were impressed of me travelling all alone and in winter alls this way. There were working for some security firm or the fire department and had been in Tynda to do their annual shooting examination. They all passed it and were now celebrating on the way home. It was a constant coming and going in my cabin for a while.
For 18:00 the Swiss ladies and me had arranged to meet in the restaurant coach. I went a little early and when they came we ordered dinner. The centrally made menu card was impressive, but unfortunately most of the dishes were not available. The restaurant coaches seem to get stocked in Moscow and obviously the train had already done the trip eastbound and was now on the return journey. But you never know. We took a vodka to celebrate the journey and a Sibirskaya Corona Beer. I had the herring in oil with potatoes which was actually very good and was surprisingly beautifully arranged.
My friends from my coach had also found their way into the restaurant coach and of course came over to toast with us and vodka because the next day it was the Day of the Defender of the Fatherland, something like a holiday for men. Na starovije! Cheers to that! There was longer stop coming up just after 19:00 in Yuktali. I went to get my jacket and got off for some fresh air. 2 of the guys were leaving here. The woman Aliona got picked up by her husband and daughter and they wanted me to come to their house quickly, because it was a 40 min stop and they lived close by. But, hey, no way was I leaving that station platform in the middle of Siberia in pitch black dark and – 25°C and chance missing that train! Haha, no way! So we had our photo session, more fun and the grand Do svidania! and wave of before they left and I went back to the restaurant coach.
My Swiss friends were still there and tried to talk to one of the Russian guys who was pouring us more and more vodka. Jacqueline spoke a few words of Russian as well and that Igor spoke some English. But he already had so much vodka inside, his English was almost not understandable. He wanted to talk politics and why he did not get a Schengen visa, but that was so hard without proper language skills on both sides, that we very soon gave up and kind of sneaked away when we had a chance. That was very naughty of us, but he got really agitated with that politic topic.
I slept early that night and for the first time used the duvet. For once the train was not overheated, but actually had a comfortable temperature to sleep.
23.02.2018
In the night 3 men had moved into my cabin and we had passed a time zone. I wanted to go sit in the restaurant coach to write, but it was still closed. My watch said 09:00, but with the time zone change it was only 08:00. Oh well…. So I went to visit the Swiss ladies. They were watching and waiting for the longest train tunnel in Russia which came just then. The Severomuysky Tunnel is 15.35 km long and was completed in 2001 after 24 years of construction time. The tunnel was opened for train traffic in 2003 and cuts the passing time of this section considerably from some 2.5 hrs to just 15 min. However, the 54 km long bypass is still sometimes used for freight trains to allow other trains to pass through the single-track tunnel. Unfortunately, we could not open the train windows to see the entrance of the tunnel ….
Later we went for breakfast to the restaurant coach. They did have eggs. I ordered scrambled eggs with beef. Funnily enough I was sure the waitress ask me if I wanted 1 or 2 eggs and of course I said 2! Then she brings the food which is actually fried eggs with beef …. and she brings me 2 plates! Hahaha, that happens when you do not understand properly and order 2 x 2 eggs instead of 2 eggs! We had a good laugh about that and I ate it all! Now I have enough eggs for a while, I tell you!
The cabin next to mine was all empty and I went there to sit and look out the window and write. In my cabin all were still sleeping.
The weather was beautiful again and there was big white mountain tops and lots of snow all along the tracks.
We had a short stop along the way and I went out for fresh air and the scenery was beautiful. It was sunny but – 27°C and there was some people on the station selling dried fish to the passengers.
It was truly a very beautiful section of the trip. I talked with one of the guys from yesterday again – Vadim spoke no English or German, but he spoke Russian slowly and simple for me so we got a long just fine chatting and watching the mountains and taiga.
Soon enough the tracks started to skirt the northern banks of Lake Baikal. In summer this is probably even more stunning, but now the lake was frozen and snowed over. Nevertheless, it was beautiful.
The train reached Severobaikals perfectly on time at 09:30+5 and I was picked up by my local guide Nastja. I had to wave my Swiss friends Good Bye and had another photo session with Vadim and Do svidania with all the others from my coach. That has been truly a fun train ride, this one!
Here in Severobaikalsk I was on a Monkeyshrine arrangement again. Nastja brought me by taxi to the Hotel Olymp. It is a small but comfortable and new hotel close to the center of town. My room is large and the shared bathroom is just outside my door. I straight away went for a walk around town.
Severobaikalsk has about 25 000 inhabitants. The history of Severobaikalsk is closely related to the history of the Baikal-Amur-Magistrale (BAM). It was founded in 1974 as a work settlement for workers constructing the BAM, serving as a logistics center and a central starting point for the railway project. Like most Soviet-planned cities, the town center is dominated by five to six floor hight rise buildings made of prefabricated concrete panels. The suburbs are dominated by shacks that trace back to the early foundation period when Severobaikalsk was a work camp. The main street of Severobaikalsk is Leningradsky Avenue, which starts at the railway station and runs through the central area of the town. The railway station is shaped similar to a sail and was designed by architects from Leningrad. In front of the railway station is a monument to volunteers and workers from Leningrad who built the town.
North of the railway station, along Leningradsky Avenue is the main square with another monument for the BAM – the track of friendship.
I also found the local market next to a shopping building. The market was more or less open air. The first fish market I saw which did not stink! Seriously! Everything was frozen solid! They did have all kinds of fresh, smoked and dried fish, but everything is frozen – without being in a freezer, that is! I did by myself a smoked omul fish for just RUB 100. Baikal omul is a whitefish species of the salmon family endemic to Lake Baikal. It is considered a delicacy and is the object of one of the largest commercial fisheries on Lake Baikal. In 2004, it was listed in Russia as an endangered species and fishing was limited to strict quotas.
But they did not only have fish in the market, but also fresh – frozen – berries of all kinds and meat as well.
In an inside section I bought some tomatoes from a farmer and in the supermarket some bread … and Crab Vodka from Kamchatka – I really have to try this one! But this vodka is too good to mix – what Russians anyway never do. So I bought a souvenir vodka shot glass to try it in style.
The hotel is in the center in a residential area of concrete block buildings. And once again I am amazed that there is no need for freezers around here! They just have baskets outside their windows and in those temperatures this is their freezer! Even in the afternoon it was still -18°C here. I suppose in the summer they hang the clothes to dry out there as well.
I was back early in the hotel and had a proper Russian picnic for dinner!
24.02.2018
Early mornings are my thing, I was up and about looking for breakfast around 08:30. They had not said anything about it yesterday, but my papers said I get it. At reception I started with my funny Russian again and asked for Saftrak? – Da da! – Take this voucher and go to the basement! – A sign pointing to a café – it was very dark, nobody there, but wait, a shimmer of light in the far corner! Ah, a little window to a pantry! – Saftrak? – Da da! Jaizo? Kolbasa? – Ok, eggs and sausage I will have! And they had – instant – coffee.
Today I had pre-booked a tour to the Chakusi Hot Springs and Nastja was going to pick me up at 11:00. Before that I wanted to go and see the local BAM Museum, because it was going to be closed on Sunday tomorrow and I was not sure what time we will be back this afternoon. They opened at 10:00 and I had time to take a quick walk up to the church and the WW II Memorial. They did not have a Lenin statue here ….
The Museum was small but cost only RUB 50 entrance fee. It covered only the Severobaikalsk section of the BAM and the local flora and fauna, nevertheless it was very interesting. Once more I was amazed how much I understood of what the babushka there told me about the exhibits. There was a photo gallery in the next room and for another RUB 50 I visited this one as well. The photos of Lake Baikal were stunning there!
Right on time I was back in the hotel and grabbed my bag with swimsuit and towel and off we went to the hot springs. Nikolai was our driver in a Japanese 4×4 – me sitting on the wrong side of the car again. The drive to the hot springs was about 1 hr across the ice of Lake Baikal. In summer you take a ferry or hike around, to the National Park. But in winter the parks fees are waived and there is an ice road across or you can take a hover craft. Nikolai had learnt German in school way back when and tried all his German words on me – no problem – I can do the same in Russian! I also remember some funny words like dostoprimetshatjelnosti, which makes always everybody laugh! Nastja’s English was slow but good and she had to jump in every now and then to translate. We also talked about tomorrow’s Olympic ice hockey final between Germany and Russia. Everybody was exited. I had not even realized that was happening, had not followed the Olympics at all! But I can talk hockey or soccer, no problem!
We reached the ice road just by the little boat harbour. The lake ice is covered thickly in snow, but there is a marked track across the lake. They said the ice is between 80 cm to 1 m thick. I was very excited to drive on the ice across the lake! That was one of the reasons I came to Siberia! The ice road of Lake Baikal!
Some points of the track were marked with poles, especially were there were ice blocks or sheets. There were no sign posts, but Nikolai found the right track all the time. There were junctions along the way, though. While we were still close to shore the sun was shining and it was beautiful. As we drove further onto the lake the wind picked up and lifted the powdery snow and created the illusion as if it was snowing. There was quite a lot of traffic on the lake as well. They said because it was Saturday people were out and about. Some cars had just stopped on the ice and pulled out the vodka to celebrate the day, others went ice fishing closer to shore or they went to the hot springs. It was about 40 km across the ice. It was cool!
Unfortunately I was too late in the season to see the lake with clear ice. They say when the lake starts freezing before the snow comes, then there is the chance to see the very clear ice. But also it is more likely to see it around the center of the lake close to Olkhon Island. Never mind, I was just happy to be on the ice in the middle of the lake!
From the parking lot at the shoreline of the lake on the other side it was about a 15 min walk along a well cleared path through the forest to the Chakusi Hot Springs. There was a picnic house as entrance where there was a small kiosk and the ticket counter. I had to pay RUB 200 for 1 hr. Nastja did not come in, she said she is Siberian and does not like hot water! She stayed in the warm house waiting for me.
There was a boardwalk to a very iced up wooden hut which contained the changing rooms and pools with 46°C hot water. The changing rooms were not heated other than from the steam of the pool next door. The center floor was icy. The ladies’ room was relatively small with benches along the 2 long sides and many hooks along the walls. When I got there, there were only 4 other women in there. I changed quickly and tried to put all my staff together. Of course I took a plastic bag with my sarong and my small camera with me! If I was doing this I needed photos! I had taken my flip flops as well, but I was walking like on raw eggs with this icy pathways. Because I am a chicken and it was -18°C outside I started with the +46°C pool inside. The pool itself was natural, but the frame is wood. Nice! I like hot springs! But I did not come here to sit in a wooden hut! I took all my courage and strolled outside shimmying along the frozen boardwalk and into the closest pool. There were 3 different natural pools with wooden frames and steps. One was +35°C, the next +37°C and the 3rd +43°C. It was nice! The water being so hot and it surprisingly did not feel very cold walking between the pools. The pools were all only like 1 m deep or so. Just deep enough to sit in them to your neck. The bottom was natural sand. I tried all pools several times.
The plastic bag with my camera was frozen and so were my flip flops. And my hair! Oh my, it was like a frozen crown!
The steam from the pools rose and settled on the hair and on the trees around and on the hut with the changing rooms and froze! It did look beautiful – well, not my hair! – but the frozen surroundings and ice patterns. The hut was just looking like a gingerbreadhouse.
I could just sit in those pools forever! So nice and hot, a proper hot tub! I did understand now how they could jump into cold snow or water after the banya sauna. Not that I would every do it, though. But it felt not so terrible walking in my wet swimsuit between the pools and to the hut in -18°C. Surprising for me. Most of the people there would even walk all over posing for photos in front of all this ice around. Well, that would be too much for me – not only would I not pose in my swimsuit – but I also did not want to spend more time than necessary in the cold.
I have no idea how long I actually spend in the hot springs but eventually it got too busy for me. When I arrived there were only a couple more people around but by now all pools were nearly overcrowded and more people were coming and even waiting in front of the changing rooms. I decided to call it a day and went to the change. Sheesh, it was crowded in the changing room and where the heck was all my stuff? There was no light in the room and I could not even see my bright yellow jacked – people had put their jackets and clothes put on top of mine. Oh my, it was a task to locate everything and dress in that cold and slippery environment. People even kept opening the entrance door just to get some light in to find their stuff. There was no sitting on the bench anymore, it was balancing on the frozen floor boards! It took a considerable while, but I managed and I finished dressing actually outside on the porch. Then I checked 3 times everything – 3 layers on the bottom, 6 on the top, gloves, hat, backpack, plastic bag with towel, swimsuit, sarong – check! Checked again if it was all my stuff as well, not that I put on the clothes of somebody else …. Done!
Nastja was waiting for me in the warm house and had brought hot tea and a picnic. The hut was overflowing with people having their picnics. On a Saturday it seemed a family outing to the hot springs is a favourite thing to do around here. Everybody had brought so much food and they were basically sitting with their swim wear in the hut taking a break in between the bath time. We however had to make our way back to the lake. Nikolai was already waiting for us with the car and we drove back to Severobaikalsk over the ice. The wind on the lake seemed to have picked up, it kind of felt like a whiteout there. Once we had left the shoreline it was just white around us.
There was other traffic, though. Nikolai gripped the steering wheel but kept saying – Njet problem! Solnze sleva! Vsjo charasho! – Everything is fine as long as the sun is on our left! Fortunately we could see the sun still in the sky behind the snowy haze. As we approached the shoreline again the wind calmed and the vision cleared.
We did stop a couple times for photos on the ice and of the ice blocks before returning ashore and to the hotel where they dropped me off by 15:30.
After a little siesta I went for a walk around town once more. It was busy in the shopping district. But I did not hang out long. The hot springs experience tired me out and I went back to the hotel early. I had another picnic in my room watching some Winter Olympics and then an early night. I definitely sleep too much on this trip!
25.02.2018
Today I had a lie in and caught up on my travel journal writing. Breakfast was in the dark café downstairs again, but today they had blinis with sour cream and jam, which was very good.
At 11:00 Nastja picked me up again. I had asked her yesterday if she could organize another tour for me because I wanted to visit the village of Baikalskoe. It is located about 45 km south of Severobaikalsk and there are only 2 public busses (marshrutky) going there. One at 08:00 in the morning and the other one at 17:00 in the afternoon. Since I did not want to spend 8 hrs in a remote village with only one little shop and no café in winter, I decided to shell out for a tour or a taxi. Nikolai, our driver from yesterday, had to work his day job on Sunday, so Nastja asked another friend of her if he could drive us. Andre was very proud of his Volkswagen – Das Auto! When they arrived by the hotel she also brought her boss along who was accompanying a group of Russian tourists on the same tour in another car. Off we went along the lake road towards Baikalskoe. There was very little traffic on the road. We made a photo stop at the view point with a Buddhist stupa and a sacred site of the Buratiya shamans.
When we reached the small village of Baikalskoe it seemed rather deserted. There are about 300 wooden houses and approx. 700 live in the village. Supposedly in summer there are more people about here, but now in winter with -15°C today and a stiff wind blowing, not much was happening. We drove to the little wooden Church of St. Inokent. It sits just above the lakeshore and is very pretty. From there we went on a little hike up to Cap Ludar. The snow had mostly blown off of the trail up the edge of the cliff, so walking was easy. The weather was rather hazy today, cloudy with the wind blowing snow over the frozen lake. Nevertheless, the view from the top of the cliff over the lake and the village was fantastic.
The guides had brought a picnic again and because all of us wanted to drive over the ice again, we went on an ice road close to the shoreline. There was a lot of broken ice along the shore and the sun had come out, so we had plenty photo opportunities! And I had Lake Baikal in my hand!
We drove to the bottom of a cliff where we were a little sheltered from the cold wind and they put up the picnic table with hot tea, cookies, cheese and chocolate. It was fun! A picnic on the ice of Lake Baikal in -15°C! The guides and drivers and even the Russian tourists did not even wear gloves in this weather, they said it is very warm like springtime today! No no, it is not cold! I guess they live in a different world around here! Unbelievable!
The second car drove back over the ice to Severobaikalsk then, but I wanted to walk around the village a little. So Andre drove us back to the center of the village. It seemed deserted. Just some cows were walking the snowy street and we met some guys who were obviously on the way to go fishing on the lake. It seemed, everybody was rather watching the Olympic ice hockey final which was on this afternoon. Andre checked the live stream regularly as well. It was very exciting for everybody and I had to hear it all!
The wooden houses are really pretty with their colorful shutters. Some seemed to be actually inhabited with the chimney smoking and the snow cleared. There even is a school in the village center, but of course it was closed on Sunday.
We drove the road back to the city and they dropped me off at the hotel around 15:00. I had all afternoon free, my train to Irkutsk was leaving at 17:23+5. My room was booked till 22:00, so I was happy. I went for a walk again and in search of the USSR Café in the former dom kultura. Unfortunately it was close …. But there was a small Stolovaja, a cantina café as well. I went there and had my favourite Borshtsh and also beef goulash with bread and a berry kompot. It was well filling and cost only RUB 190.
Back in the hotel I prepare for the next train journey, showered, packed and checked out. Nastja picked me up at 21:30 and we took a taxi to the large train station. All of a maximum of 8 trains passed here daily! Imagine that! I waved Nastja good bye and waited for the train to open.
Off I am to Irkutsk!
