A summer behind the Iron Curtain: documenting the fall of the Soviet Union

The best word to describe Tree Gore is “adventurer.”

Stories from his latest adventure sound like scenes from a Russian version of James Bond, and he ultimately hopes that his new project will inspire other young people to travel and explore the world beyond the classroom.

Gore, a UVU aviation student, and Christine Armbruster, a BYU student and photographer, set out to explore and document the tiny forgotten or unnoticed towns of Russia left destitute after the collapse of the Soviet Union. These towns, called monogorods, are settlements that were built around a single industry, much like mining towns once popular in America. After the collapse of the USSR, the nearly 2 thousand monogorods shifted from being government controlled to private ownership. Because of tough competition with the free market, many towns prospered while others were left impoverished or even barren.

While much has changed in Russia since the Cold War, its effects are still felt by the millions of people living there, yet no one is really paying them any attention. Fueled by curiosity and the desire to share the immensely important but untold stories of Russian life post-Soviet Union, Gore and Armbruster spent their summer roaming through Russia with just the clothes on their backs and two backpacks full of equipment to make their upcoming documentary “Half Day Around.”

The filmmakers prove that you don’t have to be a Columbus or a Werner Herzog to explore completely foreign territory. “My hope is that the film will help inspire other students to travel and learn about a different culture than their own. With traveling comes a type of learning that you can’t get anywhere else,” Gore said.

As he works on sorting out the footage, photos, and memories of all the experiences he had on the other side of the globe, Gore noted that the most important lesson he
learned is that “despite the fact there are bad people and horrific things in this world, the majority of people are great and eager to lend a hand.”

His entire journey was made possible through the kindness and generosity of friends, family and even people he had never met before. While in Russia, it was the strangers he met on the street that offered the young filmmakers a place to stay or volunteered to act as tour guides and translators. “Some people might say we were lucky,” Gore stated, “but the more optimistic view is that there are people out there willing to help others.”

Although the filming for “Half Day Around” is mostly completed, the project still has a long road ahead of it. Gore and Armbruster are hoping to raise the last of their needed funds by September 13, 2011. The filmmakers plan on presenting a teaser for the movie by December and are arranging gallery showings to display photos and profiles of people from the trip. The film will make its debut sometime next year.

For more information about the project visit the blog or help donate to the cause through www.kickstarter.com.

This article is from UVU Review website.

Irkutsk Map

Don't forget to check updates on our recommended map of Irkutsk. Finally we start to add places to visit, and things to do. Tell us what would you like to be added there.
Thanks.

Transfer to Olkhon Island is POSSIBLE!

Since the ferry to Olkhon is not functioning any more because of ice, many people ask if it is still possible to go to the Island.
It is possible to go to Olkhon Island, but not everyday.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
Leaving every morning from Irkutsk.
There is a boat and hoover craft that takes people across
the half-frozen waters.
It costs extra 150 RUB one way for the water transfer.
Please contact us for booking: +7 904 118 10 75

Irkutsk Circus

Welcome to Irkutsk Circus!

18 and 19 of December Grande Opening!
Tickets 300-700 electronic rubles. :)

Book now!

Continuing performances: 25-26 of December.
After New Year Everyday Circus Madness: 2-10 January!!!

Sacred Sea: A Journey to Lake Baikal

Click "Watch Full Program" if you want to see full 1 hour presentation of the book, where Peter Thomson tells a lot of interesting stuff about traveling to the lake.

Thanks to Baikal

But Irkutsk is an exception. On first sight, it seems like just another flat Siberian city, undistinguished in orientation or architecture, having the usual Lenin and Marx streets, the Musical and Drama Theatres, the Philharmonic Hall, Orthodox Churches and the Eternal Flame dedicated to those who died fighting the Second World War. But if you dive a little deeper, the city is littered with backpacker- hostels serviced by friendly English speaking staff - a concept alien to the rest of Russia! This little ecosystem of hostels is no accident because even at 70 km away, Irkutsk is the closest city to the worldґs deepest lake, Baikal that sustains this ecosystem by attracting travellers from all over the world.

Thanks to Baikal, Irkutsk became an exception for yet another reason. I was no longer alone on the Trans-Siberian; I had made 5 new friends. It was Ryan and Tom in the compartment next to mine, who were speaking in English. They along with their friends Katy, Lizzie and Gary were going to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia for 6 weeks as volunteers from the University of Edinburgh to work with children on protection and development. But before heading to Ulaanbaatar, they too were going to spend a couple of days exploring Irkutsk and Baikal...

The easiest way to get to Baikal from Irkutsk is through mini-buses that run on the hour. So off we went; the 6 of us cramped together in one of these to Listvyanka, a tiny village on the shore of Baikal. Baikal - the "Pearl of Siberia"; the deepest lake in the world; an ocean in the making that with the rift in the tectonic plates over millions of years will split the Asian continent into two! The phrase "crystal clear" must have been coined by someone standing at Baikalґs shoreline. Even from a distance, we could see the plants and rocks below. Baikal seemed like a thin sheet of silvery mirror placed delicately between the tree-covered rocky cliffs around and their undisturbed upside-down reflections!

A quotation from here.

Lake Baikal

We arrived in Irkutsk at 5am to be greeted by local Russian lads keen to ply us with vodka and practice their English in the local cafe. They’d been up all night drinking but we’d just woken up and all we wanted was a shower after 4 nights on the train. We managed to persuade them that 1 shot each was enough and headed off to find a bus to Olkhon Island.
Olkhon Island is the biggest island on Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest fresh-water lake. It’s an exciting six hour minibus ride away from Irkutsk. The tarmac stops half way making for a bumpy ride and the bus slowly filled up with drunken villagers who managed to smell worse than us. Lake Baikal was well worth the trip though, the scenery is outstanding and it is so hard to believe that it is a lake and not the sea.
We spent four days here walking around, appreciating the views over the lake to the mountainous mainland and visiting the important spiritual sights, which seem to include every rock on the island.



From: Mr & Mrs Gilfeather

Sightseeing on Lake Baikal

Although Russia ranks as one of the planet’s most-visited countries, it may not jump to the forefront of the mind when thinking about some of the planet’s most natural scenic locations. Take for example major cities such as St. Petersburg. This famous city is packed with incredible sightseeing opportunities such as the Bolshoi and Red Theatres, the Tretkayov Gallery and its staggeringly beautiful churches, but all of which are manmade. Of course, Russia is a country of staggering landmass and one part of the country that undeniably belies the facts above is the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Lake Baikal.

A popular stop for the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Lake is located near the Buryat Republic and the Irkutsk Oblast in Siberia. Those that have been fortunate enough to have visited can vouch for the incredible natural beauty the world’s oldest lake possesses. The lake boasts innumerable natural wonders in the form of virginal forests, spectacular mountain ranges and the bluest waters you are ever likely to encounter. In fact, 20% of the Earth’s fresh water can be found here amongst the 336 rivers and streams which serve the lake.

As well as its evident natural beauty, there is also much to see and do for visitors at Lake Baikal. The southern part of the Baikal region has the most developed tourist industry and structure than any part and is in possession of many hostels and camps and also has good motorways for those who are using car hire to take in the sights independently.

Many begin in Irkutisk and work their way to the island of Olkhon. There are many interesting sacred spots en-route and places to eat before you board a ferry to the island. The unblemished wilderness here will amaze in the form of pretty creeks and tiny villages as well as the picturesque bays and inlets dotted around.

After a night’s rest, consider a tour of the Burkhan Cape. This ranks as one of the most sacred parts of Asia where you will find ‘Youth Bay’, where locals believe the waters offer rejuvenation to the body, mind and soul. Also go and see the Shaman-cliff, where shamans once used to perform their rites in the cliff’s cave.

Litsvykana is also a popular sightseeing spot. Known as the ‘Baikal Gate’ on the Angara River, go to visit the Baikal Environment Museum which gives visitors a better understanding of this unique part of the world and the various rare species which can be found in its waters as well as its fauna and flora.

One of people’s favourite parts of a visit to Lake Baikal is by taking the ferry across the Angara to the Circum Baikal railway station in Baikal harbour for a unique sightseeing journey. A similarly wonderful sightseeing tour can be had by boarding another boat up the Sliudyanka River, which sits majestically below towering mountain scenery.

This will prepare you for the sensory overload offered by Tunkinsky National Park. The dominant peaks of the Tunkinksy and Khamar Daban Ranges flank the simply majestic valley of the Irkut River. Be certain to stop at the numerous sacred Buddhist and shaman places of worship along the way before making a stop at the pretty village of Arshan that sits on the banks of the ferocious force of the mountain river. Here you will find some beautiful waterfalls and walking trails, however if you’re feeling tired after so much travelling, Arshan boasts a number of beautiful spa resorts to rest those aching limbs at the end of this wondrous outdoor adventure.

Give the cat some fish

Even though we had crossed onto Olkhon Island, we still had a long and bumpy hour or two until we got to Khuzhir. When we had finally reached the main village/town we needed the toilet quite urgently but had to follow the direction that the driver pointed us in until we could use one. It was a fairly peculiar sight, seeing Nikita's in the distance; a maroon coloured tower peering out over the huts and sheds of it's surroundings.

As we entered there was a hive of activity for a bunch of tourists had arrived just before us. The receptionist then looked at us strangely as we had planned on staying for such a long time, far longer than any other sane traveller would do. We were shown our room and our precious toilet and shower pump, it would only take an hour and a half to heat up he said, which meant at least 5 hours in reality. But how does one use the shower? You just stand on one pump with one foot and alternate with the other pump and the other foot - although this does get slightly hard when you are washing your hair with your eyes closed and you keep losing your balance.

Peter was most excited by the logs in our room, he would get to be a man and make a fire to keep us warm at night, every man's dream.

But even better, almost immediately we had made good friends. We had overheard Iain and Sarah speaking English on the ferry and they had heard us as well, so considering that we had spent 3 and a half days on the train without anyone else to speak too, we were pretty excited. They live in Brighton and they've taken 6 months off to go on a honeymoon. They were very hardcore and had come straight to Nikita's all the way from Moscow so we let them use our shower (they were the ones who let us know that one and a half hours is not enough).

During Iain and Sarah's stay Iain beat Peter 7-3 at table tennis and he beat me twice in chess (although he was damping my senses by giving me some beer). Nevertheless we were still good friends. We went to the very North tip of the island, Khoboi Cape, together. It which was stunningly beautiful even though there were a few clouds which occasionally decided to spit at us. We stopped off in many places on the way including a beach where we saw some locals get naked and jump into the lake together. I also had much fun freaking Peter out by walking right up to the cliff edges. Iain gave him some advice as Sarah would always do the same; just don't look. We thought it might be a man's lack of oestrogen. The driver prepared for us a lovely picnic in the forest with some warm fish soup he had heated on a fire for us, some cheese sandwiches, salad, and then biscuits and tea. The pictures will hopefully explain themselves for how amazing the scenery was.

Randomly, everyone was invited to a concert in the village one day. There was quite a group of us: Norwegians, Finnish, Belgian, English, Scottish, Mongolian... I think there were more of us than the locals. Well, it was a very interesting concert; there was poetry and singing, accordion playing and lots of speaking in Russian inbetween. I'd say it was kind of like a school play but with adults instead of children. As an added extra, there were gifts occasionally given out to the locals in the audience; a certificate and what looked to be a duvet. A nice idea for the oncoming Siberian Winter.

That evening everyone gathered and celebrated the Finnish guys birthday with beer, champagne and vodka. It was a great party and everyone got to know everyone and it was just so merry. We spent a lot of time talking with Dmitri who has become a great friend over the past few days. He currently works here, and he speaks fantastic English, and wears the coolest glasses. And he lets us use his internet for only 50 rubles! He grew up in the North of Russia somewhere but has also spent some time studying in Texas. Soon he plans to visit Mongolia so hopefully we will meet him there.

But the next day, most of the people from the night before had moved on, so things were much quieter. Everyone who was left joined together to play table tennis and I successfully lost every game, and on the other hand Peter beat nearly everyone! We then tried out the banya i.e. Russian sauna, but we didn't really get it. The room wasn't that hot and then when we thought we had found the cold water to throw at each other it turned out to be really hot. This nearly gave Peter a heart attack.

One day we woke up and all we could see was clear blue sky. It had been decided. We would go into the lake that day. We waited until around three o' clock, set up the camera and made a run for it. It was freezing! All the air escapes from your lungs and you feel like you're suffocating, we had to quickly dash back out again. But it was definitely worth it; some say it's 10 years of extra life and others say 25, who knows...

Basically all of the days have merged into a blur of walks to the beach and around the village; playing table tennis; watching people come and go; and eating fish (always omul which is only found in the lake) twice a day without fail. The food is really delicious, we both feel so healthy living on fish and rice and potatoes and soup and salad and cabbage and sometimes chicken or beef... For breakfast we have pancakes and homemade jam and fried eggs and a really interesting porridge. We could live here forever and ever and ever.

We swear that there's a great heroic Russian ex-table tennis champion living here who plays with Nikita faster than lightning and teaches the kids to move. He invited me to play with him once, when I was waiting on Peter, and I shyly accepted. He made me hold the bat completely differently and showed me how to swing the bat, so that now I am improving dramatically and I don't feel so hopeless. Then when we were having lunch he presented us with some cake and said "birthday!" We were so appreciative of being given some of his birthday cake!

People have never ceased to come and go, but one guy, Gael from France came and fell in love with the place and begged to stay and volunteer for a couple of weeks. He has been great fun, almost like a jester and one day I look forward to going to France to see him so that he can feed me the chocolat chaud that I crave! He took us on a bike ride the other day (which was quite a feat considering that everyone here tries to hire bikes and fails miserably) using bikes borrowed from people here and giving chocolate in return. Peter managed to fall off in less than two minutes as his back brakes was disconnected so the front brake sent him tumbling. The dogs that live here that bark throughout the night and tend to follow us into the village for walks, also joined us on our bike ride. As Gael is much fitter than us he soon sped off ahead of us and we got separated. The path got so sandy so we couldn't cycle any longer, we walked until we found another paths we could ride on. On the way back I managed to fall off my bike as well, falling into a ditch in the road and breaking in fear. I came out of it with only grazes on my palms and bruises on my knees.

Yesterday we put up our tent to spray it with some anti-mosquito stuff so that I would no longer have to carry it around with me. As the tent was up we decided we would try and camp for the night. We had to cuddle up very close but we managed! The tent was covered in frost when we woke up and then the dog tried to get in... it was a long night and we look forward to sleeping back in our cosy room tonight.

And tomorrow morning we leave this wonderful fairy tale and make our way to Mongolia!

P.S. If anyone would like to send us a free text message would would love to hear from you! You can do this by going to http://www.gosim.com/index.php?page=send_sms&ref=320 and our number is (372) 59991656.

Source: travel pod. Peter and Hannah.

Three Go Sideways

News from three persons travelling on a car everywhere...
Interesting article on clrossing Mongolian-Russian border and reaching lake Baikal.

Waking up to the sound of waves crashing on the beach was really nice, and we had a great morning doing nothing chilling on the beach. If we got thirsty at all during the day all you had to do was dip your cup in the lake and have a drink. It is strange to be able to drink straight from a body of water that looks like an ocean. Somewhat reluctantly we paked up and left early afternoon to make camp to the east of Ulan-Ude. Since then we have spent two days driving and have made 700 miles east. This is our first serious driving session for a long time and it feels quite good. The only slight problem is the continued loss of turbo pressure, but it comes and goes and so we can easily live with it.

Find out more...

Who said Russians don't smile?

Ulan Ude's claim to fame is having the largest Lenin head in the world. It is very big. The square is dominated by Lenin and people roller blading, skateboarding and BMX biking. I wonder what Lenin would have made of it. ...

Asiatified

Round the world way. See ther is Baikal!





Another nice mentioning about lake Baikal on this blog. Very stylish stuff.
The Transcontinental Oldbones Project

Back in the USSR........

It's Tuesday afternoon and I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Irkutsk, Siberia.

Another story by another wanderer...
Actually, a good example of a good travel experience! :)))

Dad and Dave

Here is a blog by father and son about traveling through Russia from Vladivostok to Moscow. Pretty interesting with nice photos.

Holiday in Siberia Part 1 - Baikal

An article by Edward on Slow Travel

Historically an invitation to Siberia came from Josef Stalin. Unlike Butlin’s it was to a rather different sort of camp, a gulag, or labour camp. Trips also tended to be one-way affairs, with many prisoners literally worked to death. The size and remoteness of Siberia allowed this barbaric activity to go on out of sight if not out of mind of most Russians. If Siberia was an independent nation it would still be one of the biggest countries in the world, and anywhere this size has got to have something special offer. And indeed it does!

We’ve just spent the last few days around Lake Baikal, the biggest single repository of freshwater on the planet. It’s awesome in scale. You could lose Scotland in it. If it wasn’t so far away some people might be tempted to try. It’s also currently frozen, covered with an incredible icy surface that creates a tempting white plain (up to 80km across) between the rugged black mountains that flank the water on either side. The ice is deceptive however, especially at this time of the year. During the numb winter months people happily drive 20 ton trucks across the surface on established ice roads. Come the spring melt it’s a different story. The ice softens unevenly and whilst it is safe in some areas, in others it becomes treacherously thin and downright dangerous. This year 11 vehicles have been lost and 9 people drowned in the deep dark icy waters when the apparently reliable ice has suddenly given way beneath them.

It was with this grisly fate in mind that we were somewhat thankful that the timing of our arrival on Olkhon Island (the biggest in the Lake) coincided with the deployment of a natty little ‘Padoushka’ or hovercraft. This enabled us to skim thrillingly over the ice safe in the knowledge that if it cracked we weren’t going through and into the depths below. And what depths. Baikal is 1637m deep at it’s most abyssal point, and as a result the water remains startlingly, scrotum-shrinkingly cold even in midsummer. It’s also terrifyingly clear with visibility up to 40m down resulting in some swimmers suffering from vertigo – not something you expect whilst taking a dip (but at least it might take your mind off your freezing testicles).

We are almost the first tourists of the season on the island too, only being beaten to this honour by a (very nice) German couple who arrived the day before. Typical. We later met them naked in the banya, so made friends perhaps more quickly and intimately than we might have anticipated. Yesterday however we were literally the only guests at the homestead and as such have been treated like slightly weird, if welcome, oddities. Last night we even had a personal concert on accordion and guitar (not simultaneously I hasten to add) by Nikola the care-taker (‘Because I take care of things’). It’s like being part of a small family and a world away from the summer hordes when the dining room has fed up to 350 people in a day in high season.

Far from the madding crowd. On an island. In the middle of a frozen lake. In Siberia. Bliss.

Ohio State Catches Baikal Fever

Ohio State University is now starting an environmental study abroad program dealing with environmental issues in Siberia, as well as language and culture. The program is based in Tomsk, but will include trips to other important sites, including Baikal - the most important of them all. The program looks like a good introduction to environmental issues, as well as Russian language and culture. The deadline for applications this year has passed, but hopefully the program will be a success and continue in the future, introducing more people to the beauty of Baikal.

Here's the program's website which contains all the basic information, hopefully they'll update it with pictures of their travels this summer:

http://cfaes.osu.edu/current-students/get-involved/folder.2007-11-06.3186332430/russia/

Baikal and taiga video with music and comments.

Online tourism

There are many online tour agencies that offer sevices and try to sell them on Internet. Recently I found an intresting company based in China which offers interesting tour packages to anywhere from Vladivostok and Beijin to London. Can you imagine what a big market they are covering?! They really work hard, and they have a good website. Monkey Business is the brand .

And it really seems that they can attract people to Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk.