Russia: Nizhneangarsk + Lake Baikal

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Tuesday 22nd August

Took the local bus to Nizhneangarsk this morning, a 30km trip up the coast, to the port town where our hydrofoil leaves from. We need to spend the night here as the hydrofoil departs very early on Wed morning. The accommodation has been arranged by Rashit and will include a typical Russian banya! We were to meet a chap, a guide in the area, who was to then take us to Galiema and Alec's homestay. When we arrived on the bus, this bubbly overactive man rushed into the street to meet us! What a welcome. We weren't too sure if this was the man that Rashit has arranged or not because there was another man who actually organised our ride to Galiemas home. The first chap [the bubbly one], ushered us into his house spouting lengthy Russian conversations at us! We of course understood nothing at all! He really was so friendly. Once we'd halted him, we explained that we needed to get to our homestay but he continued with something concerning his boat! Turned out, we think, that he was trying to persuade us to go with him on his own boat down the lake, to some place on the opposite side to where we needed to be! If indeed this was his aim, we had to politely refuse indicating that we'd come here to do the hydrofoil! He understood but still wanted to show us his 2 boats moored outside his home. We followed this hyperactive fellow to the quayside and thought that it could have been quite some experience to go with him when we saw his very large fishing-type vessels. After a phone call we were asked to wait outside, where we waited for about 30 minutes. We assumed the phone call had been to Galiema and we had to wait for her. Our assumptions were correct when along came a tiny little car with her and Alex inside. We all piled in and were taken to their homestay not even 5 minutes away. A humble wooden house in the village of Nizhneangarsk. Straight away we were told that the banya would be ready at 4pm. It has to be prepared and "fired up". At 4pm we were in for a wonderful Russian experience for about 1 and a half hours. A banya is basically a steam room or sauna but for the Russians this is an essential part of their day to day living. Not having hot water readily on tap, the banya is used as the bathing and cleaning place on top of being the healthy sauna experience that westerners are accustomed to. We walked into the wooden chalet behind the house and nearly died from the heat in there!This wasn't even inside the sauna itself, just the changing area. We stripped down to the bare essentials and entered the sauna proper. The heat hits you like a ton of bricks and breathing in that steam - whew!! Inside are 4 or so plastic baths filled with cold water and a range of shampoos, soaps and brushes. The idea is to bathe, wash hair etc... and then just sit and steam yourself silly until you can't stand it anymore. You then go into the changing area to cool off, drink some water and return to repeat the sauna cycle as many times as you can handle. We noticed on the sauna temperature gauge that we reached a temperature of 65degrees celsius. For us that was too hot but apparently the Russians go in excess of 120degrees!! The other real Russian tradition is to hit each other with birch branches!! The action of slapping these on the skin in the intense heat causes them to disperse their oils which is obviously good for you. We had great fun trying out this strange custom but boy did we feel good afterwards. This banya experience provided us with the answer to a question we'd had for a while. How do the Siberian Russians deal with minus 40degrees or more in the winter, when they don't have hot water. Now we know, it's the banya!! It's awesome! After this experience we felt renewed and cleaner than we'd been in at least 10 days. We walked to the lake and then spent some time chatting to our homestay hosts Galiema and Alec. Wonderful friendly people. Unfortunately our stay here is one of convenience as we need to be at the hydrofoil station tomorrow morning very early. A pity as I'd love to do the banya thing again - maybe in Irkutsk.

A Wonderful Russian Homestay and The Banya