• 1 Oct 2024
• ⌘
• 3 min read

Table Contents

• 1. the Route
• 2. the Sea
• 3. the Spots
• 4. the Limbo
• 5. the Roots

[ Blog Under Construction … ]

1. the Route

On my transiberian trip which started on Saint Petersburg, I made a stop in Irkutsk after a 50-hour-long train ride, this stop was special, because the main aim was to visit natural place instead of the city, although at the end I also enjoy the city as well. The train arrived at night and I took bus to the hostel, the buses in Irkutsk were quite different compared to the other big cities in Russia like Saint Petersburg and Moscow, You cannot pay with a card, you pay by cash to the driver or transfer to him using the phone number that is located inside the front of the van.

The Russian minibus was driving in a Siberian taiga forest, and through it sometimes you can observe Angara River on the right side. You may think that the river will end up in the Baikal, but is the opposite, the Baikal Lake is flowing to the Angara river.

After one hour of ride from the Irkutsk the van arrived to the Baikal Lake, I stop by shouting stop in Russian as that how is done in this part of Russia as they don’t have STOP buttons.

2. the Sea

Baikal compared to the North American Great Lakes

Located in the heart of Siberia, I was in front of the most mytical and imporessive lakes in the world and World Heritage Site of the UNESCO. It is not only the deepest lake (1642m) in the world and the largest freshwater lake by volume with more than 20% of the freshwater on Earth, but also the oldest with around 25-30 million years. Being on of the 20 mystic lakes of the Earth with lake Tahoe, lake Titicaca and Caspian Sea.

Baikal from the Space. Source: NASA

The lake has a Chili shape has a 636 km long and in its widest point is 80km wide. And opposite of many ancient lakes it is expanding by 2 cm per year in size rather than shirkring. More than 300 of rivers flows into the Baikal Lake and only one flows out, the Angara River which passes through Irkutsk, Angarsk, Bratskand Krasnoyarsk. The Angara river will upstream to the Yenisey river, the fifth largest in the world and the and the largest that drains into the Arctic Ocean.

For the Han in ancient China, the Baikal Lake, was called the North Sea (Běihǎi) and was one of The Four Seas that metaphorically served as the borders of China.

siberian musk deer and baikal Seal

It host more than 3600 endemics species of plants and animals, including their iconic Baikal Seal, which you can watch it in the Baikal Museum aquarium and the vampire like Siberian Musk Deer. The baikal region is also home to the local Buryat tribes.

siberian musk deer and baikal Seal

3. the Spots

There are some interests in the Baikal Lake area. You can do a day trip or a trip with a couple of days. For a day trip besides walking on the lakeshore or doing some trails, you should visit Listvyanka town and the Baikal Museum. There are several trails along the lakeshore, which have insane views of the lake. As far as I know, you will need to register to do them due to safety reasons. The longest being 22 kilometers long.

If you have more than one day, then you may on top go to the biggest and most known island, the Olkhon Island, in which you can stay in dozens of rural wooden traditional houses available.

Depending on the season, you can join some unique activities, like bathing in a hot spring, walking on the frozen lake, which may be crystal clear and you can see inside it. A local told me that in February, the lake will be full of tourists from Thailand doing activities on the frozen lake.

Finally if you are already in the area, you should definetely take a couple of days for Irkustsk, visit its red-blue colored Kazan Church, which looks like a magical cake from an Andersen story, the icing on the cake, its charming garden sorrouninh it that is as careful decorated as the this orthodox church itself. On the winter you may foind some ice sculpture welcoming you.

Kazan Church

You should definitely walk around the city center to see the colorful wooden Siberian houses. They might remind you of Nordic houses, but these are even more colorful and have lots of carved decorations, especially around the windows. While Nordic houses usually use one main color like red or yellow, these houses often have two or three colors. The windows have unique carved designs painted in different colors. Sadly, many of these houses have burned down or aren’t well taken care of, and some look like they’re sinking into the ground. Lastly, there’s a huge local market where you can find products from farmers and bakeries.

4. the Limbo

Me at the Baikal Lake

Being such a vast and ancient body of water, it will naturally be covered in conspiracies and strange phenomena, such as shamanisms. The Baikal Lake is sometimes refered as the Siberian Bermuda Triangle. For context, the Baikal Lake is 3,000 times the water volume of Loch Ness, where the mythical Loch Ness Monster may live. Some people believe tat Genghis Khan’s gold in hidden in the Baikal Lake, others that the Pandora’s Box.

Shaman totem poles in Olkhon Island, the biggest Island in Lake Baikal

Locals in the area and fisherman man working on the lake have seen castles, Islands where it shouldn’t be. This may have a scientifical explaination

photo published by NASA

Athought on the winter it freezes and it seems to be able to cross it to the other side. It is really dangerous to cross because of its nature, strong winds that can lead to hypothermia, which can lead to death.

When you are sitting watching those waves in the immense lake, the wideness between the mountains surrounding it, the lake of civilisation, and any urban area, you’re enveloped in a Siberian isolation that you might not have experienced before, and you certainly wouldn’t expect from a lake.

Here you can feel a silence, find a mental calm, then you feel that outer peace filtering inside you and growing your inner peace. What that silence is hiding, and is that really a peace or something normal that we miss? It may feel awkward and refreshing to be lost and move in those sensations. Perhaps that’s what heaven or the limbo feels like.

5. the Roots

Paper factory on the edge of Lake Baikal. AFP/Getty Images

This Siberian lake has one of the most crystal-clear waters of the world, but this doesn’t mean it isn’t polluted; there is an awareness of pollution at least since the 1990s. And scientists have been warning about it being caused by tourism, industrial emissions, shipping, etc. In which even was covered both by local media like The Moscow Times and by international media like The Guardian and Independent. Although some sources of the pollution have disappeared, like the paper mill in recent years, there it seems to be a transition to cleaner and new businesses to replace these old factories from Chinese and South Korean initiatives; it will take decades for the water of Baikal to become cleaner.