Lake Baikal: world's deepest fresh water lake

Irkutsk/Lake Baikal to Ulan Bator

Arrived, very skankily, after 60+ hours on the train to our small hostel in Irkutsk. A hot shower never felt so good! Explored the town a bit, known as Paris of Siberia, ate omul, the fish from nearby Lake Baikal, in a friendly, funky restaurant. Met lots of peeps from the hostel, including Richard, from our first train ride. Touristally (this can't possibly be a word, my first bush-ism), drank beers at a German beer haus, odd to see Russian girls dressed in dirndls in the middle of Siberia. After a nearly sleepless night coughing up my lungs and likely keeping up half the hostel where I earned the nickname of coughing vampire due to my inability to sleep before say 2 am or so, about the time my coughing fits commenced, a hike to the deepest fresh water lake was in order.  

Lake Baikal is said to be able to supply the world with it's water for 40 years if there were no other source. Michael, a very well traveled Canadian, joined us, well more like I was joining them, the banter was quite, how should I put this, boy-ey. I slept through most of the apparently windy and icy drive to the trail head, which was nothing more than some railroad tracks and we were told to meet her in the second village, her white car would be waiting, it would only take us 2 hours. 4 1/2 hours later, 12 km walked, we arrived but I digress.

The first part of the hike to the lake was though forest and some shoddily made bridges, reminiscent of the Blair Witch project. (Pictures will explain this correlation). An hour or so we approach a "town" of 6 buildings and were unsure which way to follow the train tracks, our only directions from our driver. This was our first glimpse of Lake Baikal and she is a beaut! Luckily, Jake, from Baikaler hostel, where we were staying, spoke enough English to point us in the right direction but not before he offered us the use of his canoe, as long as we could name the colors of the Jamaican flag, very cool dude. He was also running a hostel here for only 200 rubles per night ($7 US dollars/per night!, even more amazing as Russia is not cheap) so close to the lake and what a chillaxed feel it had. If it weren't so damn cold, I would've wanted to stay here for longer but we were lucky enough in having a clear day so alas, another time I'll be back to kick it with a bottle of vodka and hear some random stories from fishermen. 

After our cold canoe ride, we were off for the portion of the trail on the railroad tracks and through some tunnels, the old railroad. Stopped for a picnic lunch and more bantering with our new Canadian friend then off again to walk the never ending trek back to the white car. Normally this would have been easy but my knee had different ideas, just 3+ months post ACL surgery, I was limping towards the end but was so glad I survived! 

Back at the hostel front, we joined a group who was leaving that night on the same train as us to Ulan Ude, the last stop in Russia. We ate at an I restaurant having grown tired of the Russian fare, meanwhile exchanging traveling stories and suggestions.

On the train again, this compartment was older than the last, it seems the further we were from Moscow, the older they were. We shared it with 2 Russian girls who giggled for most of the trip, making me sorely miss my girlfriends. :( 6 am (or was it 1am Moscow time? Still so confused.) we arrive and we must gather all our belongings and change carriages, on the same train although. And the carriage was the oldest/worst yet although we had 2 very cool Dutch guys who we entertained and vice versa. One guy worked for the government as a lawyer in The Hague, the other a more melancholy freelance writer. This company was most welcome as this was by far the most frustrating portion of the trip, crossing into the Mongolian border. 4 1/2 hours still for just one carriage!!! And then more waiting once in Mongolia proper. Have you any idea how difficult this is for two 7 personalities on the enneagram scale? It's quite one thing when you're moving to be on a train for 24 hours, another to be stopped for half of that during daylight hours when the Siberian scenery was just getting interesting. Even more frustrating was learning the bus just took 12 hours and was cheaper. But I rant. This is when we started drinking vodka and warm beer and turning our train into a disco!