Days 18-19, train to Irkutsk & Irkutsk, part 1

We boarded the train in Krasnoyarsk and discovered we were in a compartment this time: 4 bunks to a compartment. Our bunkmates didn’t speak English and we didn’t bother to communicate with Google translate.

This scenery is more varried, as we begin to see more hills and cute villages along the tracks.

Funny story, there’s only one toilet for the whole wagon. When the train had stopped for a while in another station, we wanted to go to the toilet before enjoying this break on the platform. But the person inside was taking for ever. Eventually the train leaves the station and we are still waiting. The commandant comes with a key and unlocks the bathroom door, but it’s not clear to us what she has done. A small kid then passed us by, opens the door. Looking at each other, we realise that it was empty the whole time. You see, flushing the toilet opens a trap and drops your business onto the tracks, so naturally the commandant locks it every time the train pulls into a station and unlocks it when it leaves.

Learning from last trip, I had bought noodles in Krasnoyarsk and that is my dinner before going to bed. Being in a compartment means we control our own lights, so no light stays on during the night ☺.

We arrive in Irkutsk towards 11:00 and immediately buy train tickets to ulaanbaatar for the 17th of August before making our way to our hostel which is nearby.

The hostel is hard to find, and we communicate by WhatsApp with the landlady who is not at the hostel but calls the administrator who is. The administrator finds us and shows us into a poorly kept building and into a flat converted into a guesthouse.

We make our way into town and end up at the tourist office, where we buy bus tickets for the next day to go to Olkhon island, in the Bailkal lake (biggest lake in the world counting by volume).

Not far from the tourist office is the “Kazan Church”. It’s colourful and has a cute courtyard/garden and a black swan.

The cathedral is as usual, painted and decorated inside.

Back in town, we walk around, browse market stalls and … sit in a park where I finish last post. Just then, we realise that our bus leaves the next day, but we have booked 2 nights at our hostel, oh dear.

After a cheap dinner, we head to our hostel and try to negotiate to pay just for the one night saying that we’ll be back for more nights in a few days. Long story short, we payed for 2 nights and decided we would stay elsewhere when we get back from the island.

So many flowers.