At the northern tip of Lake Baikal

After our 36-hour train trip making a big loop from Irkutsk to the northern end of Lake Baikal, here we are in Severobaikalsk. A small, quite uninteresting place, apart from it's nice lakeshore with a small beach (although we saw nicer beaches on the Eastern shore).

When we arrived at the train station 3 days ago, a lady with a single golden tooth started talking to us in French. It was Dora, originally from Moldavia but has been living here for 25 years, struggling to make ends meet (as a lot of people here) and renting out a room in her apartment. As she's the only French-speaking person in town (probably in the whole region), she also tries to take care of all the French and Swiss tourists that get lost in this little part of the world. She had just been hosting 2 young students from Fribourg and offered her room to us. Well, it's no luxury... the beds could be more comfortable, the bathroom is simple (but there is hot water), and her son smokes in the toilet, but we accepted anyway. Yesterday she bought the first washing machine in her life (for our standards, a really bad quality one, not much better than handwashing, we had to wash our underwear twice...) and she was so scared to use it. After we had assured that we had used about 30 different washing machines in our lifes and always managed to make them work, she accepted that we use it and show her how it works.

Two days ago we visited a small hot springs village, 45 minutes from here on a bumpy, non asphalted road (but the driver was driving almost normally). The so-called "spa" was actually just a small wooden house (as you can see on the picture) with 2 changing rooms and a terrace with two small hot-water pools, and a lot of mosquitoes. One of the pools was so hot I only managed to go in until my knees, although Miguel managed to go in all the way. The other one must have been around 40 degrees. Russians love this kind of thing, believing strongly in the healing power of such places.

This reminds me of one of the village schools in Buryatia, where one of the teachers proudly told me that they now had a "health education programme" in the school. Oh, how interesting, I thought, what's that all about? Well, actually it was just about taking the kids to the hot springs nearby....

Anyway, after soaking in hot water for an hour or so, being eaten by mosquitoes and having some surprisingly nice food in a cafe nearby, we came back to Severobaikalsk in the same minibus, which was over-full this time. Miguel had about 3 cm on a bench next to a fattish lady, I was sitting on the floor. But it was the last bus for the day, so no choice.

Yesterday has been rather lazy, sitting by the beach, swimming a bit (Lake Baikal is pretty cold), taking care of our suntan, and later on sitting on a terrace eating grilled meat next to a group of middle-aged ladies, celebrating something and all being completely drunk on vodka. Unfortunately this is a very common picture in Russia, with usually a couple of kids completing the picture (they are the only ones that are not drunk...). I'm getting tired of it, really.

Tomorrow we will continue our trip on the so-called BAM, the Baikal-Amur-Mainline, a train line further north than the "classic" Trans-Siberian, built mainly by Stalin (and a lot of Gulag workers). The nature is supposed to be beautiful, lots of mountains.

36-hour train to Severobaikalsk

Thirty-six hours, the longest so far. It was two-nights on a train with only two or three stops worthing to strech the legs outside. Buying same day ticket meant to go on kupe, 2nd class, which means closed compartiments of 4 berths. Beds are larger, softer and long enought for being stretched. In 3rd class, when doing it, people passing in the corridor would hit my feet.

We embark at 22:45, leaving at 23:00. From the beginning a young women, probably on the 30's, shares the compartiment. Her quite open t-shirt shows permanently her bra and soon after she puts on half transparent tights, with which she walks around in the train and its stops, showing all the drawings of the underware (not tanga, tough). The high-heeled shoes complete the description.

One hour later a mid-age women joins. I was already half asleep. This women talks more and next morning she tried some conversation to which I replied in my minimalist russian - where we are from, our strip so far and short terms plans. 

This trains takes us into the BAM line, paraller to the Trans-siberian, but North of the lake Baikal. This line was mostly built by Soviet prisioners working in concentration camps (gulags). The line was open only in 1991, same year as the Soviet dream come down.

Otheradvantages of kupe is that there are less people competing for the two toilets of the wagon and the provodnitsa are nicer, they even offered me a coffee in the morning, while I was in the corridor waiting my compartiment companions to wake up. 

About one hour away from the next big stop (+15min) the provodnitsa warns the toilet will be closed for 1h30. It's from 30 minutes before to 30 minutes after the stop, the so called hygienic zone. Eva was sleeping but our companions tell me that I should tell her. At same time one the mid-aged women starts to repaint her lips and eyes. For some Russian women seems important to be beautiful (in their way) for the duration of the stop, when everyone goes out of the train, who knows you will meet the person of your dreams (hopefully not buying beer or vodka).

As there is no restaurant wagon I bought a small dinner of smashed potatoes in the shop inside the station and bread from a women in the platform. The next long stop would be only in 12h, at 21:00.

During the dinner our companions also bought some dry noodles package and the middle aged person seems not to know how they work. Also next morning, 10minutes after the carriage attendant comes to announce the soon arrival - at 6:40am for arriving at 8:20 - and which I tryed to ignore, our companion (the other had left during the night) wakes me up saying that the toilets will close soon. But I knew they would not close before 7:50. We have been doing many more train rides in the past weeks than any average Russian person. But well, I got up and so I decided to have the brakfast still in the train.