Having settled the tickets, the next plan was to seek help from people who can speak English! The only place that came to my mind was the hostel that I had booked for us about 5 days later! A pre-check in visit would not do much harm I suppose. So, following the map on Berns’ lonely planet, we dragged our baggage and reached the hostel. To my surprise, the manager of the hostel, Oolgar, welcomed us so warmly! Learning of our plight, she offered to hold us up till we leave for the train at night. We must have asked her a million questions at that time; visa registration, places to exchange for rubles, cheaper taxis to get to the train station, where to have lunch, what to do with the remaining time, etc. Despite so, she offered her help relentlessly, providing us with all sorts of options for us to choose.
In the end, after settling the visa registration, we went opposite the hostel to get money exchanged and also some lunch. We then walked down some streets to have a sneak preview of Irkutsk, and got a simple daisy to thank Oolgar, which she loved so dearly! Haha. Back at the hostel, we rested and showered, while waiting for 8.45pm to arrive. When it finally did, after thanking Oolgar for her generosity, we got into a taxi which Oolgar called that could fit 5 people so nicely, and for a price of only 300 rubles! So cheap! Lol. Arriving at the train station once again, we got some snacks before boarding the train to Ulan Ude.
Being the first to board, and having told that my bed (seat) was 26, the first thing that struck me was the extreme heat in the train! Ventilation was almost zero, and so despite the cold Siberian weather outside the train, it was as hot as a Russian Banya inside it. I got to my bed, and learnt that with 4 beds in one section, there was a girl that looked like Korean and also 2 other kids, in the same section with me. With no idea what to do next, the Korean girl offered her help by suggesting to me to store my baggage. It was all in Russian, and so all the speaking became simple gesturing. Lol. My baggage was too huge, it could neither fit in the storage compartment that’s beneath her bed, nor could it fit beneath the table. In the end, she just told me to leave it beside her bed, which made me feel bad as it took up quite an amount of her leg room. Yet she reassured that it was alright. Oh wells, so nice of her!
I felt a great sense of relieve as the train departed for Ulan Ude. However, the next worry about the bus for Ust’-Barguzin haunted me for probably almost the entire night. I was hoping that luck would be on our side this time; that we can get to the bus station on time and that there will be seats available for the 5 of us!
So, arriving at Ulan Ude at 6.15am the next morning, we quickly rushed out of the train station for a taxi to the bus station. Language barrier once again struck upon us, and we soon realized that many of the taxis there were being taken up and disappearing!!!!! And then, like an angel sent from the heavens, the Korean girl must have seen our inability to communicate with the taxi drivers and once again, came up to us and offered her help. This part was funny! Using the lonely planet, we showed her the Bus Station and told her we would like to head to Ust’-Barguzin. She then said ‘You here not Ulan Ude’ and that gave me a shock of my life coz I thought she meant we had alighted at the wrong train station. What she actually meant was to ask us if we would be staying in Ulan Ude. Lol. Using Bern’s phone, she tried to call a taxi for us. Then just nice one taxi that looked like a mini-van, drove into the train station. Seeing that it could fit 5 of us so nicely, we tried to get the Korean girl to help us give instructions to the driver. Thankfully, the driver was willing to fetch all 5 of us at one go, though he also mentioned that it’s illegal and hence one of us have to do some hiding. Korean girl translated all this for us with the basic few English words that she know, and then she had to rush off as her family was waiting for her in another taxi. Thanking her profusely, we got onto our taxi and head off for the train station, for only 200 rubles! Time was 6.30am!
Arriving at the bus station, armed with Russian phrasebook and dictionary, Huiwen and Ying went to asked around for directions on getting the bus to Ust’-Barguzin. Being told by a group of people to wait at the same spot for the bus to come, when one bus just came in, seeing all of them rushing to board, we simply did the same, hoping that we can get seats for ourselves! Haha. It was only after boarding, then the bus driver said that the bus wasn’t going to Ust’-Barguzin, that got me real worried! Where then is that bus that is so vital for us to continue with the planned itinerary!!!!! Thankfully, the bus driver led us to the right one, which was more like a van rather All loaded up, the bus began its journey. It sure was an extremely bumpy ride, as we drove over dirt road filled with so many potholes. The bus driver sure was very skilled as well, swerving around these potholes at crazy speeds which I was certain were more than 100km/h! It’s like, one worry have to come after another, and this time, I was just hoping that we would all make it to Ust’-Barguzin, safe and sound!
Of course we did! After some 5 hours of a bumpy ride, the driver brought us straight to our home stay! Greeted by Galila, wife of Alexander Bekotov, she brought us to Natasha’s home, where I currently am right now. It sure feels so warm and homely over here, and relieved that we are finally back on track as planned on our itinerary.
My feelings are very mixed up. One thing for sure is that I am not feeling happy over all that’s happening now. Maybe a bit pissed off, tired and upset. But I guess that’s just nothing more than just my fault for choosing to feel this way. It’s a holiday after all! And I should just clear up all these negative emotions and truly go and enjoy the trip! Looking at the mountains around, knowing that I will be climbing one of them tomorrow, I sure am looking forward to the breath-taking views which I will be witnessing tomorrow when I reached the top! Hopefully, it will be easier than the Great Wall too! Haha. Alright. Till then.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
A crazy and really lucky journey! (Part 1)
Seriously, I cannot believe that I am in Russia right now. The experience I must say has not been a pleasant one so far. Nonetheless, I am glad that we finally made it to the home stay in Ust’-Barguzin. That is after some countless hours of consistent travelling.
Let’s just start from the beginning. My worst nightmare came true when our flight from Beijing to Irkutsk got delayed. The ETD was originally 2.35am and ETA at 6.05am local time. The delay was due to bad fog which greatly reduced visibility in Irkutsk and therefore make for unsafe flying. It was very important for us to reach Irkutsk as soon as we can, for we had a train to catch at 10.21am to Ulan Ude. Furthermore, those tickets were already purchased! So, what was originally announced as a 1 hour delay turned out to be a whopping 2.5 hours in the end! Landing in Irkutsk at 9am, I thought there was still hope for us to catch our train. Little did I expect the custom procedures in the Irkutsk airport to be so horrible! To begin with, this little airport of Irkutsk is extremely rundown. Furthermore, the airport facilities seem designed to cater to only one plane load of passengers at any one time; only 4 counters for immigration and one single conveyer belt!!!!! Clearing customs at the immigration counter was also another bad experience. With only 4 counters, the locals actually have no dedicated lanes for them, and so have to be in the same queue with the foreigners. And apparently, foreigners take extremely long to clear the customs, and so guess what?! The locals simply just do not give a damn about queuing and forcibly cut into our queue! Arghz!
Then, the final thing that hit me real hard and made me lose much of my morale was the language barrier. I honestly did not expect the English literacy of the locals to be so bad! Probably like only 1 in every 100000 of the locals can speak English! Having to waste even more time so as to get some information from the locals with Russian which I barely know much, I got real irritated with the people, and also with myself.
Finally, after knowing that in Russia, you only need to declare if you have baggage weight greater than 50kg, or carry more than US$1500, Nic and I walked out of the airport first. Coz Berns and Huiwen were still inside waiting for their baggage and the plan was for both Nic and I to find out how to get the train tickets. It was only then did I realize that Berns, Huiwen and Ying didn’t have rubles with them! Haha. So in the end, we had to wait for them outside the airport, while agreeing with some taxi guy who will provide us with 2 taxis to get to the train station at 500 rubles each. That’s 1000 rubles altogether, 200 each, about 10 sgd, for a distance of only 4km! Come to think of it now, it sure does feel like a rip off. Oh wells.
When we reached the train station, it was already 10.50am. At that point in time, I was very sure that the train had most definitely left without us. Going to a random counter, I passed the e-tickets which I had bought online, in exchange for the genuine Russian train tickets; hoping that something good will come out of it. Seeing that the lady in the counter chuckled slightly when she saw the e-tickets, it confirmed my fears knowing that we had missed the train. Funny thing was that she continued to print the tickets for us, only to tell us in the end that the train was gone! With the Russian phrasebook, we then tried to ask tickets for the next train available. Thankfully, there was one at 9.50pm, with 5 3rd class beds available for us!!! I was so grateful for that, as Russian trains get fully booked real quickly and therefore quite impossible to get tickets for trains that depart on the same day as they were purchased! Furthermore, the lady was extremely patient with us, trying to tell us that she had helped us cancelled our pre-booked tickets, giving a refund of 300 rubles each. So come to think about it, the losses were not that great! Lol. However, getting an overnight train also meant that we couldn’t have much views while along the trans-siberian railway. The accommodation which I had booked in Ulan Ude had to be given up as well. Furthermore, arriving only at 6.15am, and then having to rush to the bus station to catch a bus to Ust’-Barguzin at 7.30am, meant no time for us to visit Ulan Ude at all! It was quite a waste indeed! :(
Let’s just start from the beginning. My worst nightmare came true when our flight from Beijing to Irkutsk got delayed. The ETD was originally 2.35am and ETA at 6.05am local time. The delay was due to bad fog which greatly reduced visibility in Irkutsk and therefore make for unsafe flying. It was very important for us to reach Irkutsk as soon as we can, for we had a train to catch at 10.21am to Ulan Ude. Furthermore, those tickets were already purchased! So, what was originally announced as a 1 hour delay turned out to be a whopping 2.5 hours in the end! Landing in Irkutsk at 9am, I thought there was still hope for us to catch our train. Little did I expect the custom procedures in the Irkutsk airport to be so horrible! To begin with, this little airport of Irkutsk is extremely rundown. Furthermore, the airport facilities seem designed to cater to only one plane load of passengers at any one time; only 4 counters for immigration and one single conveyer belt!!!!! Clearing customs at the immigration counter was also another bad experience. With only 4 counters, the locals actually have no dedicated lanes for them, and so have to be in the same queue with the foreigners. And apparently, foreigners take extremely long to clear the customs, and so guess what?! The locals simply just do not give a damn about queuing and forcibly cut into our queue! Arghz!
Then, the final thing that hit me real hard and made me lose much of my morale was the language barrier. I honestly did not expect the English literacy of the locals to be so bad! Probably like only 1 in every 100000 of the locals can speak English! Having to waste even more time so as to get some information from the locals with Russian which I barely know much, I got real irritated with the people, and also with myself.
Finally, after knowing that in Russia, you only need to declare if you have baggage weight greater than 50kg, or carry more than US$1500, Nic and I walked out of the airport first. Coz Berns and Huiwen were still inside waiting for their baggage and the plan was for both Nic and I to find out how to get the train tickets. It was only then did I realize that Berns, Huiwen and Ying didn’t have rubles with them! Haha. So in the end, we had to wait for them outside the airport, while agreeing with some taxi guy who will provide us with 2 taxis to get to the train station at 500 rubles each. That’s 1000 rubles altogether, 200 each, about 10 sgd, for a distance of only 4km! Come to think of it now, it sure does feel like a rip off. Oh wells.
When we reached the train station, it was already 10.50am. At that point in time, I was very sure that the train had most definitely left without us. Going to a random counter, I passed the e-tickets which I had bought online, in exchange for the genuine Russian train tickets; hoping that something good will come out of it. Seeing that the lady in the counter chuckled slightly when she saw the e-tickets, it confirmed my fears knowing that we had missed the train. Funny thing was that she continued to print the tickets for us, only to tell us in the end that the train was gone! With the Russian phrasebook, we then tried to ask tickets for the next train available. Thankfully, there was one at 9.50pm, with 5 3rd class beds available for us!!! I was so grateful for that, as Russian trains get fully booked real quickly and therefore quite impossible to get tickets for trains that depart on the same day as they were purchased! Furthermore, the lady was extremely patient with us, trying to tell us that she had helped us cancelled our pre-booked tickets, giving a refund of 300 rubles each. So come to think about it, the losses were not that great! Lol. However, getting an overnight train also meant that we couldn’t have much views while along the trans-siberian railway. The accommodation which I had booked in Ulan Ude had to be given up as well. Furthermore, arriving only at 6.15am, and then having to rush to the bus station to catch a bus to Ust’-Barguzin at 7.30am, meant no time for us to visit Ulan Ude at all! It was quite a waste indeed! :(
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