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I left Irkoutsk on the evening of Friday, the 1st of July, for once making it at the train station in ample time. I very much liked Irkoutsk for its charm, old wooden houses and grand stone buildings.
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The only reservation I would have about it is that the mosquitoes are the size of Mig 29's and do just about as much damage.<br/><br/>
Trans Mongolian
Degrubenc2005-12-09 14:08:59
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but left it at that.
We soon got under way. After a couple of hours, we arrived at lake Baikal. By that time, I had gotten to know the tour leader of the other group and the British couple (John and Helen). They agreed to look after my bags and luggage. I did not trust them with either Short and Fat or Long and Slim, nor did I have any space left to put it in my carriage. I also feared that they would take advantage of the time I was not looking at my bags to stuff them full of cigarettes.
Lake Baikal is one of the most incredible sights
one can be ever given to see: a huge lake of pure clear blue water, surrounded by majestic cliffs and gentle slopes. There are islands sticking out of the lake simillar in a way to Halong Bay in Vietnam.
I was lucky enough that the train followed the shore line of the lake for over 2 hours, which gave me a chance to see the sun set in it, followed by a clear blue night and a reflective moon which bathed the lake and the surrounding countryside in a smoothing light. There is a long history of man against nature with the lake: it is one of the largest in the world (600km) and the deepest in the world. The Russians wanted the train to cross the lake, as it was deemed to be financially impossible to drill through the cliffs surrounding the lake.
They first thought that they could put the train on board of ships and transport it across. They duly bought two ships from Britain, to be built on the lake. The two ships were delivered and assembled, the first train was placed on the first ship, it started to cross but then stopped and promptly sank with the
train and all on board. The second ship is, since then, a museum.
The second attempt was to transport the russian troops to Manchuria to fight the war against the Japanese. In winter, they placed rails across the frozen lake, launched a train full of soldiers, which also made
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See photographs from:
Mongolia Gallery
