Aidan & Karen’s Travels

The train to Ulan Ude was delayed by a few hours so we spent most of the time people watching in the station and hoping that our train would turn up. We finally got on the train at 3.30am and found ourselves in a cabin alone. However, most of the other people on the train were drunk Russians so we pretty much kept ourselves to ourselves, especially when some of them kept calling me American.

We were picked up by our driver In Irkrutsk and taken to another homestay which was about two minutes from the city centre. We were given some time to relax before being picked up again and taken to a Budhist Temple, or Datsan. The drive out was again not the most comfortable - what is it with Russian roads? However, the Datsan (which was in the middle of nowhere) was well worth it and was serene. When we entered the temple we were greeted by a lama that was smiling and waving at us. I looked again and thought blimey that looks like the Dalai Lama, we’ve really lucked out here. However, on closer inspection it turned out to be a wax work model - c’est la vie.

As we drove back to Ulan Ude we stopped off at a Buryat village and had lunch in a Buryat home. The host was very friendly and gave us mounds and mounds of food. We also were given a traditional Buryat drink of green tea and milk. I thought it was OK, but Karen wasn’t impressed. The smell of the tea was still around two days later. Aftr lunch we played a Buryat game called knuckle bones which was a bit like subbuteo but played with sheep’s neck bones.

On return to Ulan Ude we were pretty much left to explore the city. There wasn’t much to see in Ulan Ude except a massive statue of Lenin’s head which totally dominates the square. Surreal is the only way to describe it.

Our next day in Ulan Ude again began with a visit to a Datsan - this time a much bigger monastery. There was more tourists at this one, albeit Russians and most of them were on their mobiles whilst spinning prayer wheels. I then had one of the most bizarre experiences of my life in the afternoon. We were given tickets to a puppet show which was a traditional Buryat show which depicted a folk tale from the Buryats. It was wierd. From what I could make out a tyrant terrorised a village and an old man told a younger man to go and kill the tyrant, but the young man kept turning into an owl. Admittedly I fell asleep (as did the little boy sat next to me) so I may have missed the most importnat part but it was still very strange.

Again we pottered round the city - although it was a bit bleak - and waited for our next train which would take us over the border into Mongolia.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 19th, 2007 at 2:10 pm and is filed under Places we visit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.