Baikal #14

ok, one last shot.. for those who haven't seen it yet, this is one of my favourites..

Baikal #13

i just can't get enough..
i just can't get enough..


... and i just can't seem to get enough!

Baikal #12

..exploring the wilderness of the island...

Baikal #11

Inland Olkhon..

Baikal #10

Baikal #9

The town of Khuzir

Baikal #8

Baikal #7

Baikal #6

Housing on Olkhon island is pretty basic. Although 2005 was a leap forward as it brought electricity to the island for the first time!... But honestly, for the time i was there i didn't make too much use of it; life is around the stove!

It's funny to think that this dream like island was once for convicts sent to siberia as punishment.. although, while it appears as a dream island for a tourist like me coming in summer, the long siberian winters, cut from all form of civilisation would have been quite a punishment!..

Baikal #5

One morning as i went for a walk and a few photos, i came across this dead dog - or was it a wolf ?
The birds had already started to eat its insides and its heavy fur was falling, spread by the wind.

Baikal #4

Much bolder than it may seem, a young russian takes a quick foot bath in the freezing waters

Baikal #3

I wasn't really expecting these buddhist prayer flags before a while, but soon i came to realise that the Buryats, the Mongols, and the Tibetans have more in common than i had imagined.
Change of scenery, change of culture.. 4 days in a train had sent me to a complete new world.. a world of ancient traditions and mystic beliefs... Moscow seemed so far already!

Baikal #2

Young Buryats have an evening chat before the sun sets, admiring the reflection on the lake... i approach them and try to communicate.. between my russian and their english, it makes an awkward discussion!
When i take out my camera to take a shot, they carefully hide their drinks!

Olkhon, on the Baikal

Me, by my better half..

transsiberian #5

transsiberian #4

transsiberian #3

transsiberian #2

Out the window...

..of the transsiberian...

Thank you Vladimir!

It's about time we leave Moscow once again... but not without a thought for my friend Vladimir who hosted me and helped me a lot during the second part of my stay in this concrete jungle! (the last one on the road before Beijing!)

amongst many other things, Vladimir came to help me buy my tickets for the Transsiberian..
without him, i'd still be begin the evil clerk at the train station!

7 sisters

Those who've never set foot in Moscow may not have heard these 7 major landmarks of the city scape, built during Stalin's presidency...



Having grown up during the cold war, i had always opposed Russia to the United States, Moscow to New York.. So it came quite as a surprise to me to discover how much similar they actually were; the long and wide avenues, the pointy skyscrapers reminding me of the Empire State building... everything, even the old cars suddenly appeared to me as a copy of the America of the 50's, like passed through a black and white /communist filter!

Very cliché, i know.. but clichés are often what shape your perception of the world!

Paranoia

It was a weird sensation to finally step out after my 5 days of black out.
5 days of nonstop sleeping and drinking water to try and get rid of the drugs.
5 days in a strange haze of paranoia.

On my first day out, i went back to the Red Square and came across these sailors playing with a water pistol... very strange memories, really...

Well...

... now let's put things in perspective.. Moscow was not fully unpleasant!