20 Sep 2014

Heading off on our last train ride from Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk and Lake Baikal – another 18 hours and we should arrive at our destination….

We watched the view from the window change as we headed east, the forests giving way to less trees & large fields growing livestock feed & the harvested chaff dumped in small haystacks.

Headed off to dinner and were joined by some people from the carriage in front. Interestingly, there were Mongolians (who cooked their own meals in the carriage) plus English, Suisse/Deutsch and French/Deutsch.

We were in the Russian carriage (according to them) and they were not allowed through to our carriage but went and used our toilet to see what they were like whilst they had the chance at dinner. They obviously had a newer carriage with vacuum toilets but then we were mixing with Russians. We have an older carriage, the beds are bigger and we are probably less open to theft with not being a target nationality. Russians seem to be rather trusting and respect other people.

21 Sep 2014

For the 1st time we had to strip our bed in the morning & the conductresses came and collected the sheets and towel some 10 minutes later. I feel we had a good deal because Ian ordered the train in Russian directly from the Russian railway site.

Pea souper this morning as we arrived into Irkutsk probably brought about by the proximity of Lake Baikal, will see what the day brings…

Although the temperature was 0 at the station whilst waiting for the cab by early afternoon it had reached 22. The shops are open between 10 and 8 pm when it starts to get  theand then everyone goes to bed late because they then don’t start work again until late.

Back to the hotel where we grabbed a little nanna nap – the sleep on the train is practically non-existent, one does drop off bit still stays conscious of the rocking of the train.

Headed out for a walk along the “green walk” which took us through the statues of Irkutsk, loe and behold, Vladimir Ilyich is still on site to great is yet again!!!!.