A five hour flight and a five hour time change is a shock to the system, but the very comfortable Sun Hotel was a surprising light at the end of the tunnel. Irkutsk is a huge city now, but the centre has some interesting churches and old quarters of 19th century wooden houses. The Volkonsky Museum is a must, but the Trubetskoy museum is just an attempt to capitalise on Decembrist popularity.


The drive to Baikal took us an hour plus a stop en-route at the Ethnographic museum, which, we discovered, is pretty much a repetition of what you find in Ulan Ude and not quite as good. If time is tight give it a miss. On the coast, Listvyanka is a tiny village with little to do, but the Baikal museum is an encyclopaedia of lake superlatives. We stayed at the Terema Hotel, privately run and reminiscent of a Swiss chalet, but much more atmospheric is Derevinka. Wonderful views, home cooking, comfortable, simple but clean.






A five hour drive via Irkutsk and a ferry crossing took us to Olkhon Island. There is only one place to stay, run by the ex Soviet Union table tennis champion, but he does not tell you that until after you have played him. Its pretty basic but fairly clean by Russian standards. The island itself is the party capital of Siberia in July and August, but for our visit in October there were few people there. The only interesting time to go is for the Buryat festival in June, but otherwise it is not really worth the journey except to say you have been there.




The day train from Irkutsk to Ulan Ude was visually wonderful and took 7 hours, stopping at every station round the southern end of the lake where crowds of women tried to sell us the ubiquitous Omul, the trout like fish of Baikal. Hot smoked, cold smoked, fresh, cold, hot - you name it they had it - delicious.





Ulan Ude has an equally impressive hotel, boasts the largest head of Lenin (complete with Mongolian eyes), a huge outdoor ethnographic museum (ignore the zoo which is criminal) a good Buryat restaurant nearby and a recently renovated and excellent historical museum.
Following the Angara River out of town we came to Tarbagatai, an Old Believer's village, and UNESCO Heritage centre. An interesting day and delicious home cooked lunch. Also visited the Ivolginsk Datsan, the Buddhist monastery, rebuilt, on Stalin's instructions, after the last War.

For those with time - go on to Chita where the best Decembrist museum is housed, but that is another story.

For more information on Mongolia, please click through here.