Ulan Ude (July 25th 2006)

Last week was spent on Olkhon Island, on lake Baikal. The island is something like 70km long and 20km wide. It a great place for hiking and camping. Beaches and taiga mountains. It's quite remote, with not too many tourist. There is a ferry service running all the time to bring cars and autobus to the island. Roads to get there from Irkutsk are really really bad, but it's worth going there. The lanscapes are rewarding! I spent the week in a WOOF farm, thanks to Simona who provided my the address! I have been sick the whole week and I didn't do as much hiking/cycling on the island as I would have liked, but the location of the farm alone was enough to make me content!

I arrived to Ulan Ude this morning. Yesterday I got my visa for Mongolia by 4pm in Irkutsk, and I managed to get a train to Ulan Ude at 9pm! I got in trouble with the Police in the train, they said that I should have registered my passport more recently. Last registration was from the 8th of July. The policeman said that I would have to go to the police station the next day to pay a 1500 ruble fine. So they kept my passport during the night and dragged me to the to the Police station of Ulan Ude this morning. The cell behind me, and the cuffs on the desk! They finally let me go after 1h... without paying...!

I am spending the day in Ulan Ude, and going to start the last bit of road to the mongolian border tomorrow. 250km. I have 4 days left on my russian visa. I should be fine! I still haven't heard from the others. All I know is that they should still be on Olkhon island, but we didn't manage to find each others there, it's too big. They have a train ticket to Ulan Baatar for thursday 27th. We should finally meet there.