Trans-Siberian Railway
let the journey begin
We departed Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in the evening, excited to embark on the Trans-Siberian rail! Our plans to meet up in Mongolia and travel to Russia were very last minute. We urgently applied for our Russian visas and embraced the journey that would come.
You hear so many stories about taking the train through Russia. I think in total, if you travel straight through it would take about 6 days/5 nights. We had both agreed that we wanted to stop in several towns along the way to Moscow. The longest train segment we did was for two days and two nights.
In Russia, we're only allowed to stay 4 weeks on the tourist visa, which seems overwhelming when knowing how big of a country it is! Especially considering my previous traveling pace. I like to move slow. But all in all, it was perfect for us!
We boarded the train, anxious to see who our cabin mates were going to be for this 2 day journey. Low and behold, we bunked with two guys from San Francisco. Small world? It was really nice talking with them. Being on the road for so long, I hardly meet other Americans so let alone people from San Francisco. It was fun to have conversations and know exactly what each other was talking about.
The trip into Russia was a long one. When we boarded the train, we were ushered into one of the cars which seemed to house other travelers. When we left Ulaanbaatar, there were at least 7-10 train cars joined together. When I woke up, and once we were able to step off the train, I was so surprised to see only our train car alone on the tracks. “Where did everyone go?!”
The process was confusing, but that was expected. Nobody spoke English except for our cabin hostess who knew only a little. I had a slight moment of worry when I began to be integrated about my previous travels. Since I was in Turkey for 3 months prior, I was getting A LOT of questions regarding my time spent there. What was I doing in Turkey? Was I by myself? Why was I by myself? Do I have any family or friends there? Do I know anyone involved in the military? Where exactly did I go? Why did I go to those places? What did I do in those places? Why so long in Turkey? Have I ever stayed in another country for 3 months? etc. It really helped that I also spent 3 months in Italy and 3 months in Vietnam, otherwise I don’t know what would’ve happened. The questions went on, and each question was asked to me a couple of times. My cabin mates were waiting silently and patiently as the questioning continued. I was expecting there to be some hold-up because of the recent political conflicts between the two countries, but I wasn’t sure what that would entail. All in all, they were nice about it and let me enter the country.
They searched our cabin a total of 5 times. Each time, a different person came in, had us stand up or leave the room while they looked around and then let us sit back down. This repeated another 4 times after. All meanwhile we weren’t allowed to leave the little room. Nothing had changed from the first inspection to the 5th. It was incredible.
Sean and Katie while we wait at customs
Enjoying nothing but the finest of meals
Made some friends on our way from Kazan to Moscow. We had interesting conversations regarding Russian and U.S. politics, all communicated through Google Translate.
Listvyanka, Lake Baikal
Our first stop was Irkutsk, where we immediately traveled to Listvyanka to spend some time on Lake Baikal. Who would've known I would come to Lake Baikal in Siberia to experience the first warm weather of the year for me! I guess it's all relative.
Lake Baikal is absolutely incredible. It is the largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, containing 5,700 cu mi of water, this is more than all of the Great Lakes combined. It reaches a depth of 5,387 feet, also making it the deepest lake in the world. It’s also known as one of the oldest lakes, home to 60 some native species of fish, nearly half of these are endemic.
Our first full-day in Listvyanka, Katie and I were a bit ambitious. We set out on a hike through the mountains, starting at our chalet with a destination of the frozen lake. No big deal, right? Wrong. It actually took me a couple of days before sharing this story with my family. We ended up experiencing an intense, high-stress situation that took some time to recover from. To make a long story short by sparing the dramatic details, we got lost. If you want the full story, read below. Otherwise you can skip to the pictures of the fish.
Lost in Siberia
At this time of the year, the lake is still frozen. The days were starting to warm up and some slush and cracked ice could be found around the perimeter of Baikal (this is problem #1 on Katie and Jeanne’s adventure). At the beginning, we had a wonderful time hiking through the forest, up and down the steep ridges. The sun was out and it was a beautiful day! When we set out on the hike, we passed one group of three people coming back. Those were the only people that we saw for the rest of the day.
The snow was really deep. Some spots we were falling through snow pact that would go up to our waist. This makes for a tiresome hike, constantly pulling yourself out of the deep snow all while on a steep incline. It was really beautiful though. We finally saw the lake and made a steep descend to the frozen waters. Not a soul could be seen, just Katie and I. We were planning on walking back to Listvyanka on the lake, but failed to ask anyone about the conditions of the lake (problem #2).
We started walking back on the frozen lake, but it was quickly getting questionable the further that we went. You could hear the ice cracking below the surface and there were a couple of instances where our foot fell through. We were rather close to the edge, so we weren’t too panicked at this point. I don’t have any experience with frozen lakes, this was never a part of my childhood. I didn’t live anywhere that got this cold. Neither did Katie. If only we asked someone before we left. We debated about going further out but that idea made me nervous, I didn’t want to put ourselves away from “safety” (or in turn it could be a lot safer).
This was the first moment of, “Katie, I’m sorry but I don’t want to continue on this path. We really should turn around and go back the way we came.” We discussed continued on to a little beach further up that maybe we could climb up and find another ridge to go back on. We were both keeping daylight in mind and didn’t want to be in a position that it would get too late, neither of us had a our headlamps (problem #3, not prepared at all). I felt like a square, not as adventurous but I really had a bad feeling so finally insisted that I was turning around and going back the way we came. I’d rather go with the “known”, especially now that we are losing time. We “know” it will take us two hours to get back.
We agreed and both started heading back to where we were. Once we started to ascend up the very, very steep ridge, Katie made it known that she was worried about bears. That was why she wanted to go back on the lake. She’s had some experience hiking through Alaska and understanding the warning signs of bears and times of day that they would come out. Okay, this is problem #4. I had zero experience with bears, and to be honest, they frighten me. She said it would be okay, but let's hustle.
This is pretty extreme terrain. We were climbing up the steep ridges, holding on to whatever we could. Finally reaching the snowy part where we could see our tracks. At this point, we were already being pretty loud. As silly as it sounds, we needed to for our own sanity. To make noise and be heard so hopefully we could avoid any wild animals. We were singing mantras that she learned at the Ashram in India. It was actually quite nice.
As we were walking, I was keeping an eye on our tracks. We then reached a point where there were paw prints that were crossing over the path. I noticed these immediately because we were the only ones to make these tracks on the way there. Now, there were paw prints heading in the same direction as us (problem #5, there ARE bears out here).
We started to move a lot faster. Somewhere along the way, we lost our trail. We back tracked a little and thought we found it, but it turned out we found the other hikers marks and it looks like they got turned around in the same area. We were unable to find our path and cut down to where we thought it was, but no luck (problem # 5). The snow was so deep, we were slipping right through the pact to our waist. Under the surface there were so many branches that were just beating us up. Shins completely bruised, but adrenaline high so we weren’t really feeling the cold or pain. Just really trying to focus and stay calm.
Briefly, thoughts of isolation and fear swept through my mind. We are in SIBERIA. This isn’t some hike in Oregon where we have a chance to be rescued, call somebody, or even come across another hiker. This is SIBERIA. I quickly told myself to get rid of that thought, because in reality (in my reality), it doesn’t matter where you are. These are the conditions and this is what we are facing. 1. Snow, 2. Bears, 3. We lost our tracks and everything looks the same, 4. The day nearing end, 5. One bottle of water left, 6. Oh yea, my legs and feet are soaking wet and I can’t feel my toes, 7. Physical exhaustion and mental strength. Okay, when you put it that way… we’re okay.
This continued on for awhile, but later found a valley that looked hopeful. We found our trail, and our way out of the forest. That was such an amazing feeling. I instantly felt the weight of my entire body and felt extremely exhausted, bruised, cold, everything. We laughed so hard, just thankful that we made it out of there. It took us 5 hours to get back in comparison to the 2 hours it took to get there and the sun was just about to go down over the lake.
We got back to the chalet, took off all of our wet clothes and laid on our beds in silence. That was enough for the day.
Sweet Recovery
Recovering from the day before, we spent the time walking around Listvyanka eating fish. Something manageable and stress-free.
Irkutsk
We spent the day in Irkutsk walking around and enjoying the market. It's so fun to see all of the different types of food. We walked away with a lot of pickled goods and cheese.
Novosibirsk
Katie and I spent a couple of days in this town. We stayed with a Couchsurfing host, who was actually from the Silicon Valley. It was nice to meet a fellow American and learn of his perspective of living in Russia for the last 4-5 years. Novosibirsk became a town that we just hung out. We found our favorite local coffee shop, became well acquainted with the people that worked there, had our supermarket, met many locals, went to the opera, and confused the heck out of the people working at the train station. We had a great time in Novosibirsk. It's always great to spend a couple extra days in a place and not doing anything "special". I find that to be some of the most rewarding travel.
Spontaneous Russian house party, fully equipped with good conversations, live music, and wine of course.
