Ulan Ude, Russia

Two nights in the one spot – sheer bloody luxury! But sadly without internet access…

Anyway, we were back on the road on Friday, continuing westward. We picked a pinpoint on the map and decided to stay there on Friday night. It was a little Russian village called Chernishevsk. Once again, we encountered the most helpful people – it was unbelievable!

We did the usual thing – stopped at the first shop in town (like a little corner store), walked in with the standard question typed and ready in Google Translate, “Is there a guesthouse or hotel in town?”. Well, the lady at this particular shop, when she realised that we didn’t speak any Russian, she looked through the “newspaper” and rang the guesthouse that was listed in the ads. No luck there, but they gave her two other numbers to ring. After the third phone call, she had an address for us and some general instructions – actually the instructions were pretty rotten! Anyway, we headed through town, and after stopping at the Police Station, and getting some more directions, we finally managed to find the Guesthouse. It was in a timber/transport yard! I don’t know why we didn’t look there first!

Anyway, by this time, the wind had picked up and it was, in a word – FREEZING! So we had a bed for the night in a warm guesthouse at a very reasonable price. We were happy!

The funny thing though was, that the gentleman who showed us our room spoke no English (surprised?) and we misunderstood each other, anyway, he ended up bringing someone back after work who was the local English/German teacher at the high school. Marina spoke to me in German and we proceeded to have a lengthy conversation. It turned out that the gentleman had thought that we had a problem with our travel plans, and so he found someone who could talk to us! As we’ve said previously, we have encountered some truly generous Russians!

The next morning, when we were ready to leave, we discovered that our car was blocked in the shed by Hiace-type van and the driver wasn’t anywhere to be found! So 4 workers at the yard, including Alexander (the boss), manhandled the Hiace van out of the way so we could get our car out and continue on our way! Luckily we had parked in the shed because it got down to -19°C overnight!

So, on the road again, heading for Chita. As the day before had been a long day of driving, we were pleased to have a relatively short day with only 300km to drive. We arrived in Chita, found a hotel with internet and hot water! And a café next door that made REAL Coffee!! I was in heaven!!

With reaching Chita, we had passed another landmark – we were now out of Far-Eastern Russia and into Eastern Siberia, having driven about 2900kms. We had a bit of a walk around the town, had a glorious coffee at Cinnabon and walked up & down the main drag, but as it was still very windy, we decided to head back to the warmth of our hotel room. Nick also had his second encounter with Russian police and with his marvellous linguistic skills, said “Gidday! I’m an Australian tourist and I don’t speak Russian”! They just shook their heads and drove off!

So on Sunday evening we reached Ulan Ude – another long day on the road (600+kms) and crossed another time-zone, our third one in Russia. Sunday’s drive was long and tiring for Nick because the road surface was heavily corregated (can bitumen be corregated?), narrow, windy, steep (crossed two mountain ranges) and it snowed, again! On Monday, we headed off to the Mongolian Consulate to get our visas for Mongolia. We were rather unsure whether we would get our Visas because we were told that we would require Letters of Invitation (again?) – which we didn’t have! So it was with some trepidation, we headed to the Mongolian Consulate and began the saga of getting our Visas. The Consular official had no English and me no Russian, so we compromised with French! Will wonders never cease – for a mere $US160, we were told to come back on Wednesday at 5pm to collect our visas.

Now we have to fill a couple of days in Ulan Ude, so we decided to drive up to Lake Baikal for the day. In 2011, we visited the western shore (Listvyanka) so on Tuesday, we visited the eastern shore and found a Natural Hot Spring. As it was a weekday, it was deserted and we had to place to ourselves, so for the cost of 200 Roubles ($A6.70), we had a lovely long soak in a gloriously hot bath. As Nick said, it was the warmest we had been since arriving in Russia!

Reaching Ulan Ude means that we have now crossed from the East Coast all the way to the western border between Russia & Finland. Admittedly, this was done in two trips (2011 & 2013) – when we travelled from Beijing to St Petersburg by train, our train went through Ulan Ude on the way from Mongolia to Irkutsk.

So it is now Wednesday afternoon, we have our Passports back with Mongolian Visas and tomorrow we will hit the road again. Ulan Ude has really shown the contrast in available accommodation in Russia – we’ve stayed in 3 hotels over 4 nights from Hotel Ulan with soft beds, small room, strange breakfast but great internet and super-helpful staff, to Hotel Barguzin, with rockhard, squeaky, uncomfortable beds, even weirder breakfast, lousy internet and a bathroom with no visible drainage (throw-back to Soviet InTourist Hotels maybe?). However, after a minor dummy-spit from moi, we are now in the Galas Hotel, where we were upgraded to a Suite, with 2 queen bed (first we’ve seen), great internet and less than 1km to main square. Much happier here!

Now before we leave here, what tidbit of Russian culture can I educate you on in today’s blog? Russian toilets! Sounds appetising doesn’t it! Well, believe me, it isn’t! If you have ever travelled in outback Australia, you will have encountered Composting Toilets, Long-Drops, Pans, Septic Tanks, as well as the traditional town sewerage. Well Russian toilets have to be seen to be believed. Imagine, if you will, a roadside rest-stop with a couple of toilets (on a bit of a lean). These will be a longdrop with a couple of boards across the hole and no seat. Yes, Russians are very into squat-toilets. Now if you’re young and have good knees, then these are probably not going to be a problem for you, but if you have **** knees (like me), then…

To continue – Russians don’t flush toilet paper down the toilets. No, they use it and then place in the bin next to the toilet! Also, when you stop at a road-side petrol station/café, you won’t find a toilet inside the café. Nope! It’s going to be a squat over a hole and if you’re lucky, the cubicle will be relatively clean, ie no-one has missed the hole! You’re lucky that I’m writing this blog because Nick’s explanation of Russian toilet habits is, to put it plainly, blunt!

Recommendations – have a “Toilet satchel” that you can throw over your shoulder. Ours has “real” toilet paper, not crepe paper, which is the popular cheap Russian toilet paper. We also have Antiseptic Hand-wash and Hand wipes. I’m thinking that we might need to include a peg (for your nose). Another thing that we have is a “She-Wee”, which is an amazing little invention that allows females to pee standing up! Well worth the few dollars that it cost me!!