Two weeks in Russia

My "year in Mongolia" is presently on holiday, as is most of Mongolia - think christmas time, summer holidays. With a whole week of public holidays and some mighty fine weather it seemed like heading north to lake baikal in siberia was the sensible thing to do.

Everyone has heard of siberia - where freedom-fighting contentious russians, poles and other europeans are sent as punishment by governments enforcing peace. Being a punishment, the experience should be unpleasant - freezing weather, no infrastructure, isolation etc etc.

We arrived in a heat wave, with high 30s and stunning days. The cities we have seen are massive by mongolian standards, small by russian standards, but big enough in reality. Beautiful parks and many fountains, intresting statues, lots of friendly people. We were blown away.

We are mostly around lake baikal, the deepest lake in the world, holding 20% of the worlds fresh water. The lake is stunning, and freezing at around 15 degrees. In winter it freezes over, making transport easier as you just drive across it. For us, we had to resort to trains and ferries.

Russia in general is entirely developed. This makes sense if you think about it, but was not what i was expecting. Coming from Mongolia, where things are literally just as they were when the soviet union collapsed (no dusting, no painting etc has occurred since, it seems) i was expecting something similar, especially in out of the way sibera.

Instead we have a wonderfully beautiful place, civilised the point of this gorgeous coffee spot on the seventh floor looking over the lake - the perfect place to read a weekend paper.





The lake is huge, and frequently covered in thick fog. The water is very clear, and is the most beautiful colours at different depths - blues and greens, with the steep rising mountains behind it.


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Location:Siberia