Greetings from Lake Baikal, the (icy) pearl of Siberia!

By train I traveled during 3 days from Vladivostok in the Far East of Russia to Ulan Ude in the south of Lake Baikal, mostly along the Russian-Chinese border. In Ulan Ude, the capital of the Republic of Buriatia, I was first time in my life hit by temperatures around 40 degrees. Wind blew sand from the step through the streets. Kolja, a local Buriat boy I met on the train who just finished his first year at the Russian marine in Vladivostok, invited me to stay in his mothers place. The Buriats are relatives of the Mongols and also Buddhist. So I visited the next day the Buddhist Center of Russia in Ulan Ude whit its tempels and many souvenir stands.

Than I already left for Ust Barguzin at the east cost of Lake Baikal, where I still am. Here I got the address of Natasha, who owns a local tour agency. She explained me what to see and organized some nice trips for me. So I could join young tourist students from Ulan Ude for 4 days to the Holy Nose, a mountainous peninsula near Ust Barguzin with beautiful forest and hot springs. Than I did helped the local National Park to collect rubbish what for I could join them to the lonely Ushkanin islands, home to the biggest Nerpa (seal) population of Lake Baikal, 5-7 hours by ship from Ust Barguzin.

It is still quite calm here in means of tourism, the season only starts in the end of July, when water temperatures reach up to 20 degrees. Now the water has around 12 degrees. The Baikal is the deepest lake in the world (down to 1600 m) and keeps the worlds biggest fresh water amount. He is 600 km long (two times Switzerland!) and up to 70 km large. He is surrounded by taiga forest (pine, larch, birch) and untouched mountain ranges. Only in the southern part there are well developed touristic villages.

Next I am leaving for Barguzin and its beautiful valley with mountainous surrounding similar to the alps and many Buriat holy places.

It is still quite calm here in means of tourism, the season only starts in the end of July, when water temperatures reach up to 20 degrees. Now the water has around 12 degrees. The Baikal is the deepest lake in the world (down to 1600 m) and keeps the worlds biggest fresh water amount. He is 600 km long (two times Switzerland!) and up to 70 km large. He is surrounded by taiga forest (pine, larch, birch) and untouched mountain ranges. Only in the southern part there are well developed touristic villages.

Next post will be from Mongolia, what I want to explore for the next month.