Irkutsk and Olkon Island, the last of Russia

Hell Yeazz! Mystery pastries bought off a Babushka on a train platform somewhere in Siberia

Arriving in on the train to our final Russian destinations was quite exciting. In one respect it was sad that we were going to be leaving Russia soon, but knowing what was beyond outweighed this. As with travelling, it is all about the now and the excitement of what is to come. It is basically the ultimate form of consumerism, are you satisfied now, and will you be satisfied in the future, all without any social responsibility.

Welcome to Irkutsk, we love the industry

A shrine over looks the beautiful Lake Baikal

The ferry across the straight onto the island

The island is only over that little bit of water, which takes only about 20 minutes by ferry

We used Irkutsk as a gateway to Lake Baikal, as it is still 70 odd kilometres from the largest lake by volume in the world. So a day was spent wondering around before going up to Olkon Island which is on the edge of the lake. Our first task was to get a Mongolian visa, after having trouble trying to get one in Moscow we were slightly worried that it would be the same here. Moscow is a little bit crazy though, and the consulate in Irkutsk was very straight forward, an application form and some money was all we needed for a visa, and it took all of half an hour to complete everything.

Would have liked to go bear hunting, but you can't do everything

Another long train into Irkutsk is broken up with a snooze

After the visa business it actually got cold so sight seeing was postponed till later in the afternoon. Unfortunately that afternoon we failed to see what we set out to see due to not having a map on us. But on the other hand, seeing Irkutsk is one of the major tourist destinations of Russia for people on the Trans-Mongolian line it means it is full of travellers. So being in a real hostel, with real travellers was really exciting. It was the first time since Moscow where we’d actually stayed with foreigners in Russia, so the lack of sightseeing was made up for by socialising with all the cool people.

Wondering the forests of Olkon Island, a magical moment

Another beautiful shot, we scored it awesomely with the weather here

If you ever want to feel awesome, have a moment like this, me standing over Lake Baikal

Leaving the next day to Olkon Island was great, being able to actually truly get away from the post soviet cities that had dominated our trip was a pleasure. The ride to Olkon Island took a solid 7 hours, which was not that great being in a minivan, but we got there in the end and got to have a sweet ferry ride across the straight to the island which gave us a great view of the width of the lake.

The town on Olkon Island was pretty futuristic

Olkon Island is about 70 odd km long and probably makes up about 1/10 of the length of the lake. When you are on here you are really isolated away from everything. It was surprising that the town we were staying in actually had any thing going on, but because of the natural beauty of the place and a couple of really well run guest houses set up for tourists and plenty of things to do that it was pretty good. But the best thing and one of the major factors of actually coming here was the food. The guest house we stayed in (Nakitas guest house), and I think all of them do it, served three meals a day, each with probably more in a meal than we’d been eating in a day prior. So apart from spending a lot of time eating, we did get out and go for some walks around the forest and shore, took a life lengthening dip in the freezing cold lake (see below video), and met lots of other travellers who had been doing the Trans-Siberian, but just not stopping off as we’d done through Siberia. The two nights here were fantastic and were capped off by going to the local night club, which was just someone's house who served beer and had a laser light.

Twenty five years added to my life right here

Getting loco in the club on Olkon Island

After another really packed minivan ride back to Irkutsk we got bought our final train ticket out of Russia and spent another night at the same hostel here went to some of the local markets for a bit of fun. In the morning it was a short dash off to the train station and then we caught the train on out of the mother land.

Rocking it on the main street, nicely paved with compacted dirt

Travel team stands by the greatest volume of fresh water in the world

Although I'll do another post about the train in the future, this is sort of the end of the Russian section of this blog. So in post analysis I'd say that Russia was totally awesome, period! Some things weren't all that great such as all paid service people being horribly rude, there being little set up for the backpacker crowd out of the Europe side of Russia, and it being quite expensive to stay anywhere. Discounting these things as being part of the adventure, it was a great place to visit. There is so much recent history everywhere which makes just about any destination fascinating. If you aren't into historical events, then riding the train might satisfy you instead. Meeting real Russians in there natural environment was really fun, especially being plied with unnatural amounts of vodka. The adventure of going across Siberia was really fulfilling in terms of feeling like you've achieved one of those things that people put on a list of things to do before they die, and kind of makes you feel as though you're a pioneering explorer.

Goodbye Lenin, will love you forever

If you were ever thinking of doing the Trans-Siberian, then totally do it. Don't be put off by the difficult visa regulations, or the language barrier, or the price of it. These things can all be worked out somehow. I'd also really recommend doing something like we did and going to smaller cities through Siberia. They give you another view on Russia you wouldn't get by just visiting St Petersburg and Moscow. And finally you should definitely ride third class (platzkart). It doesn't get any more real than the class of the people, we met others who'd travelled second class and got stuck in a carriage with two old Russian dead beats for five days (boring!).

Costs:
This is the final costing section of a month in Russia,
Average nights accommodation: 700 rbls
Average days spending on food: 250 rbls
Train tickets about 6000 rbls
Total spent in Russia: ~32000 rbls = NZ$2200
Running Total: $6873