Siberia and Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal, Sunrise

29^th May it is, I had made a new friend in Constantine the previous day as we started out from Bangkok, he is from Ulan – use, we exchanged numbers, maybe I will look him up while in Ulan ude if all goes well in a few days time, he would be in Ulan-Ude for a month, he is in Travel industry in Phuket and for a Russian he was speaking good English.

I reach Siberia, I am at Irkutsk, we had a 7 hour flight, folks around me they are very serious mostly, and almost no one speaks English, it is hard to be one who is not understood and I could make out people around me, no one really understand what I was asking? Off the plane all run to the immigrations, like we do in India, Life in cold part of the world is very different, I was also very different looking compared to them, I caught many a kid looking at me curiously, but kids being kids would soon either lose interest in me, or would be interacting and engaging with me as we joked together or smiled and played games with our eyes and smiles alone and making faces towards the other, mothers were quiet involved with there kids, n fathers seemed to be not around, or just sitting back, let the mother deal with the kids, very Indian thing to so, Russians are quiet like us

Right from the Immigration offices, who just saw my passport and gave me the immigration form which I just had to sign and I did not have to fill no form, as it was all in Russian, Immigration was real quick, and I was on my way out of there in 10 minutes, baggage control was equally quick, n the airport has only one baggage carousel, bags were in there in another 10 minutes time, and I was on my way out of there, in no time, soon I was in city of Irkutsk, D, my dear D was there to receive me, a quick round of introduction & we were on our way out of the place n into her car, temperature was 5 degree we headed out to her house & 5 km later I was at her house, We wanted to go to Lake Baikal as soon as I could, so she let me put my luggage in her house of now, I  had to pick up my suitcase 23 kg in all, n climb 3 flights of steps to third floor house, no lift,  Yes it was tough , welcome to touch Siberia I thought to myself, I nearly died as I climbed up, we sat around the kitchen had coffee and spoke to the other, time was approx. 0100 hours,

 We packed a bunch of food that she had cooked fish and vegetables, (what an amazing Tour guide is she) and coffee n we were on our way by 0230 hours to lake Baikal, as we drove, I realized the temperature was -1degrees, Burrr, it was going to be cold, & thanks to an extra pair of jacket from D, I was warm as we stepped out of the car, we took a short trek to sunrise point, that only a local could have been aware of, and we were in time to watch an amazing sunrise at lake Baikal, my First sunrise at the lake, 4 hours into the country and I was already at a amazing Photo opportunity location, Love the enthusiasm of D and her passion for Photography, I too use to be this mad for images and am glad she is around to infuse n enthuse me for the shoot too.

Sunrise at lake Baikal

I was not sure why we were headed out so early, but as we reached Baikal, the sunrise happened, it must be like 0330 hours, never had I seen sunrise so early in the morning, it was a amazing site to see the red sky by the deepest lake in the world, and was a mesmerizing sight to see the sunrise, because of the clouds it was a more of a dramatic sunrise and my first casualty of the trip, I realized one of my camera had already conked off, the 70 – 300 mm lens is just moving but not functioning so I am down to just a single lens an 16- 40mm lens is all that I have with me, unless I can find a place to fix the 70- 300 

Mobile Phone Photography

It is to be noticed there  is something about Photographing certain scenes with a mobile phone camera and it does some times give it a very different charm and beauty, to the scene, D has A HUWAI P20 PRO, AND OFTEN GETS SOME AMAZING ANGLES AND PHOTOS FROM HER CAMERA ON the Phone,

Breakfast done we started back for home, and was back at the hotel/service apartment I had rented by 1100 hours, I was so sleepy, I just jumped into bed, and slept for a good 5 hours, woke up at 1430 hours after a good sleep and already am so fresh, am getting used to the cold life of Siberia. Evening plan is to visit River Angara, and the city of Irkutsk, to see the Trans Siberian Railway, all within 24 hours of being here.

River Angara

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#riverangara #angara #riverangaraSiberia #transsiberianRailways