September 2016
Our friends, a writer/painter couple living in Seoul, kept telling us we had to join them in Siberia and drink vodka made from the water of Lake Baikal with them. We were intrigued, but Siberia sounded so remote.
In the summer of 2016, they brought it up again, and, this time, they had specific dates. I started looking into flight possibilities, and, surprisingly, it was not too far or too expensive to go to Irkutsk(population: 600,000), the biggest city in the Baikal Lake region. There were direct flights from Seoul or Beijing, and the flight time was only 4 or 3 hours.
We found a $600 LAX-PEK-LAX flight on Air China. From Beijing to Irkutsk, we found a $200 R/T ticket on a Russian airline with a transfer in Khabarovsk. Our friends could not get seats on the Korean Air direct flight out of Seoul on the day they wanted to travel, and they ended up flying into Khabarovsk to be on the same flight with us to Irkutsk.
Khabarovsk was another adventure, mainly due to the language barrier and other misunderstandings, but we managed to hook up with our friends, have a meal, walk around town a little, then we got on the right plane. Our friends knew a local Korean family who had been living in Russia for over 20 years, and they were hosting us in Irkutsk. An easy sail from there on.
Siberia was full of surprises. Big, remote, cold, desolate were some of the not very friendly adjectives I had in mind for describing Siberia before being there. Big, yes! But it was not all that remote, cold, or desolate at least in the part of Siberia we visited around Lake Baikal.
Wait. Exiles. Wasn’t Siberia where all the intellectuals and anti-government types were sent for hard labor? Turned out, Irkutsk thrived culturally because of the exiles: artists, intellectuals, officers, and nobles brought culture and education with them starting from the early 19th century and stayed. They were far away from the central government, and many of them chose to remain in the area after they served their sentences. Apparently, many of the nobles and high officers were not treated badly when they arrived.
Alaska was part of Irkutsk province till 1867 when it was sold to the U.S. The Trans-Siberian Railway was built in early 1900’s, and Irkutsk has been a major stopping point on this railway.
Under communists, Irkutsk was developed as an industrial center in aviation & aluminum smelting, and a major science research center.
Our host told us there were two words we had to know in Siberia: vodka and sauna. He provided plenty of both right at his home. They had a five-bedroom townhouse in a very nice residential area, and we all stayed there. It had all the modern amenities and the view shown in the picture above. He converted the garage into a sauna and a cold pool so that you could go back and forth between the two.
Birch trees were everywhere around Irkutsk.
Our Lady of Kazan Church was simply beautiful outside and inside.
We had 7 nights/8 days in Irkutsk, but we spent 2 days going to/from Olkhon Island and another 2 days going to/from the Tunkinsky National Park. This left us with only 3 full days to explore Irkutsk.
The central area could be easily walked on foot. There are other churches such as Epiphany Cathedral that deserve to be visited. We learned a bit more about the exiles at Irkutsk Museum of Decembrists (House-Museum Volkonskiis despite the fact that the displays were mostly labeled in Russian only, which was the case in other museums in the area.
We liked the pedestrian-only shopping and eating zone called 130 Kvartal where some of the old timber buildings were brought in to create a unique Irkutsk experience. They were trying a bit too hard, maybe, but we liked it anyway. Two pictures above show some of these buildings.
The Central Market gives a glimpse into local life. It is actually fairly big with many different buildings and outdoor stalls. It is where but right in the center of town.
There were some nice places to eat and drink in 130 Kvartal area. Two places we liked: Rassolnik for Russian food, Mamai for dumplings and Asian influenced food. You could eat well by paying $5 – $10 per person. Our splurge was at Vkus Neba, which sat on a hill near our lodging. Great view, decent food, not overly expensive in U.S. standard. There were many outlets of Harat’s Irish Pub throughout the city, and they were dependable for quick bites and decent beer.
The weather during our stay from the last week of September to the first week of October was crisp and a bit chilly but never cold. The first snow fell on the day we left.
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We returned to Irkutsk in June of 2018. This time our intention was to play locals for 10 days without running around too much as tourists. We wanted to taste what it’s like to live in a place like Irkutsk. We figured out the bus route, and we tried to use the bus as much as we could. Our friends wanted us to go with their driver, but we preferred to manage on our own.
Surprisingly, it was hot in June in Irkutsk. Apparently, this part of Siberia gets lots of direct sunlight during the summertime, and, without any pollutants in the air, people feel the heat. The temperature went up as high as 30 degrees Celsius(86 F) while we were there.
People seemed to enjoy beach days by Angara River, which was so clear that you could see the bottom of the river. We rented some beach recliners and idled away while the 7-year-old daughter of our hosts preferred to stay in the water. When we got hungry, this man grilled lamb and beef skewers for us.
We went back to 130 Kvartal area many times. At the top end of the street, there is a high-end shopping center with a nice supermarket where we stocked up on gifts to take back, bottles of vodka and Siberian chocolates.
One day our host took us to a mineralogical museum, a state museum located in Irkutsk. It had a nice collection of minerals found in this part of the world. It looked like they were not expecting many visitors, and, when we arrived, they had to turn all the lights on in the display rooms. An older lady with a name tag showing Dr. somebody came out from her office and was happy to answer our questions apologizing for not speaking enough English. She even brought out a case of jewerly made by local artists using the minerals, and they were quite beautiful and reasonably priced. We bought some as gifts to take back home.
Catch your own fish & grill. That was the idea behind this restaurant on one of the islands in the middle of the Angara River. You scoop up a fish or two with a fish net, pay for the fish, go find an empty hut to sit, bring your fish to the grill man, and he will grill for you. They have other food and beer, too.
We got to know the Central Market well, too. Here’s the butcher section in the market.
One of our friends in L.A. was interested in joining us in Irkutsk, but her partner discouraged her saying, ” why go to a hinterland when you can go to Europe?” Well, modern-day Irkutsk is an urban center with highrise apartments by the river. It certainly doesn’t feel like hinterland.
We were surprised to see this bus that seemed to belong to a youth center in Korea. Did they drive that bus all the way here? Then we noticed on the rear window of the bus a piece of yellow paper with the number 427 written in big block letters. Our host explained that Russians import used vehicles from Japan and Korea, and they don’t bother repainting or reconfiguring the cars. Thus, the cars from Japan have the driver seat on the right-hand side while running on the left side of the road. This bus from Korea was put into use as a city bus.
Another nice surprise was a visit to a clock museum in Anragsk, a town 50 km northwest of Irkutsk. It had an eclectic collection of clocks from all around the world, and people working there were very eager to help. Our hosts’ driver took us there. We had lunch at a cafe across the street from the museum, and the bakery items and sandwiches were quite good.
Bring your own bottle and fill it with beer of your choice! Pat was in heaven, but it was our last night in Irkutsk after dinner and had no bottle on hand, and we did not have time to come back here to try it. I know this will be one of the first stops we will make next time we are in this town!
Our last night was at an outdoor disco. Boogie!
Small Wide World 