Category Archives: Russia

We have had a great time in Mongolia and today was our last day before we jumped back on the train to go to Russia. A boring morning of washing clothes and getting last bits and pieces together before we had a last walk around Ulaanbaatar centre. We have had an amazingly unique experience inContinue reading “Arrival in Russia”

Our hotel although pretty dated is clean, in a great location and is quiet. Until about 10pm when it turned into a brothel. Well maybe not a brothel but there certainly where a lot of comings and goings! But we managed to sleep and the next morning everyone was gone.  We had our free breakfastContinue reading “Ulan Ude”

Lake Baikal is the world’s deepest lake at 1637m deep, its 636km long and 60km wide. It’s formed by the shifting tectonic plates and will eventually become an ocean. Today our train ride took us from the eastern side in Ulan Ude to the west in Irkutsk. This time the train was an old SovietContinue reading “Train around Lake Baikal”

We had a morning of sightseeing before we headed to the lake so started off reasonably early. Our first stop was the tourist information centre to find out some information on tourist registration in Russia. We had read that you are supposed to be registerd by your accommodation and receive a ticket to show policeContinue reading “Irkutsk “

The plan this morning was to get up early and go for a hike around a part of the lake. We set the alarm early enough and woke up but it was so cold outside that there was no way we were going to start hiking before it warmed up a little. The sun cameContinue reading “Hiking around Lake Baikal”

We had until 4pm when our train left Irkutsk so after grabbing a quick brekkie at the store which just so happened to be a lot more appetizing than Tim’s cold bacon fat yesterday, we caught the mini bus into Irkutsk. We dropped our bags off at the tourist information center and wondered around theContinue reading “Train to Krasnoyarsk”

We woke up this morning and the snow had stopped and the weather was clearing a little. Even though it was still bitterly cold we wanted to go for a hike in the near by Stolby Nature Reserve. Now we have used Lonely Planet pretty successfully in quite a few places now but I amContinue reading “Stolby Nature Reserve”

Our luck ran out with the trains. Our longest trip from Krasnoyarsk to Omsk was from noon until 8 am and unfortunately we were sharing our cabin with two Russian men. But it was okay and we soon found ourselves in Omsk. In hind site we wouldn’t have bothered with the stop off here asContinue reading “Krasnoyarsk to Omsk to Yekaterinburg “

Well the mystery about where the European continent ends and the Asian begins is over, it’s here in the Ural mountains near Yekaterinburg.  After our little stroll around yesterday afternoon we were keen to explore the city today and even the snow and the cold couldn’t deter us. We donned just about every item ofContinue reading “Yekaterinburg “

It was a cracking day we awoke to, not a cloud in the sky. So we had places to be and were out the door well before 9 to get some breakfast but found out that cafes don’t open that early here so had to wait around until 9 so walked around the little parkContinue reading “Kazan”