sybarites

There is little romance in the Trans-Siberian train—an eleven hour border crossing, eating half-melted cheese, warm vodka, surly train attendants, and days without showers. Was five extra nights on a train worthwhile just to stop at a big lake? We could have flown to Moscow, but we would have missed so many pleasant things.

We only stopped at a city and a village near Lake Baikal, the world’s largest. The water can be drunk straight out of the lake. Most would say it’s too cold for swimming, but a couple of crazy Brits were in for a good fifteen minutes. Skipping stones across the calm waters entertained us for hours. Also, we made some new friends here that made our stay near the lake even more enjoyable: Sophie and Fabrice Page from France. We had a great time sharing a bottle of vodka that we bought from a bus parked on the hiking path to the camp.

The highlight of the entire trip was the banya, which is half sauna, half bath house. The first room is for washing and the second is a just hot. Hot and cold water is provided for cleaning or cooling down after the sauna. Usually several trips are made between the sauna and the cooler washing room. At a camp beside Lake Baikal we enjoyed a sheltered banya and a little skinny dipping in the lake. The first plunge was shocking and the third was rather pleasant. After three days without a shower, banya-clean is quite a contrast.

The worst article ingested on the train will henceforth be referred to as “The Worst Cappuccino Ever.” I had high hopes for the instant coffee, having forgone the Nescafe for MacCoffee from Mongolia. Our first mixture was poor, so our brilliant thought was, “Perhaps it needs to be stronger.” More of a bad thing is simply bad. Next we thought to dilute it with room-temperature UHT milk. This was not effective.

Upon arriving at the lake-side village, the memory of our nasty cappuccinos faded as our host refreshed our palates with a wonderful breakfast of crepes with home-made mountain berry jam, toast with butter, oatmeal-like kasha with milk, cheese and salami. We chose tea over the instant coffee.

Things I Never Expected To Do or Say; Volume I:

• wear shoes in the shower every day
• make flashcards to study Russian while sitting in a Korean coffee shop
• wonder if those are yaks that we are passing by on our horses

• check for bedbugs
• repair a deadbolt lock with a pair of nail clippers
• try not to be too obvious when watching other diners at a restaurant to see how they eat their food; chopsticks or spoon?  with or without rice?  soup or beverage?
• drink a big bowl of homemade fermented horse milk in a neighbouring herdsman’s ger; smile as I finish the whole thing as it would be rude to refuse or display distaste

• ask Marc,”What animal’s bones are these in this stew?” and get a post-tasting response of “I don’t know”.
• have a picnic on a mountain in Mongolia on a Wednesday
• be surprised and pleased that the shower has hot water
• tell someone we met 2 days earlier that “We’ll meet you in Seoul”.
• “I’m starting to like these little, dried and candied fish.”
• be enormously pleased that not only does our room have a TV, it has one English channel and the show on that channel is ‘Banned in America: The World’s Sexiest Commercials’, hosted by Carmen Electra
• wear my long underwear in July
• be recognized as Canadian just by the lululemon logo on my sweater.  Twice
• discover a new definition for ‘The Middle of Nowhere’

• watch music videos for the four hours between 3:00am and 7:00am at the Chinggis Khan airport in Ulaanbaatar, the best of which was Tom Jones’ “What’s New, Pussycat?”
• enjoy tea and cakes with jam in a tent on the Mongolian steppe
• wear an orange belt

• milk a horse
• ride a bus with an attendant
• be grateful for instant coffee
• think that $3 is a lot to spend on lunch
• not bat an eye at spending twice as much on Happy Hour
• come this close to buying a wee camouflage outfit for Scarlett
• visit North Korea, if only 2 ft. across the border while inside a building
• meet a fellow WestJetter while on a tour of the DMZ (really, what are the odds?)
• wake up to the sound of galloping horses
• download Mongolian rap music from a Ukranian-American named Buby who teaches acupuncture in China
• be in possession of Roubles, Won, Yuen, Tugruk, and USD at the same time
• see such a view