No cockroaches – how could I forget! The absence of them must be high on the list of fun things about travelling in the cold. I’m not missing mosquitoes, lizards or flies either, the latter especially in roadside toilets. In Siberia these toilets still come with their own hazards though.
I’m sure all of us have come across the ‘two planks and a hole in the ground’ type toilet too many times on our travels. Well, Siberian roadside stops make no exception. What’s more unusual here is the way everything in the hole is frozen – I’ll leave it to your imagination but somehow it still manages to smell. The planks I find myself standing on are glazed with a yellowy ice making this operation a balancing exercise even for someone more graceful than me. Then come the layers, the thermals and jeans, long sleeves, money belt, bag, scarf, gloves, a long fluffy jacket – everything seems to be in the way, there’s nowhere to put things down and this really, really, isn’t a place to drop a glove. These toilets have no locks; sometimes they have no doors. And the experience is made a little more intense by the bear size dogs kept outside, growling angrily behind a fence at the back of the loos. Maybe they are bears. Or wolves, I never stopped to look.
I never stopped to take any pictures either, you’ll be happy to know. But instead here are a few shots from the magical Olkhon Island to which Mairead and Barry kindly invited me to join them. The six hour bus ride there took us across the frozen Lake Baikal that handily transforms itself to a road for four months every year. It’s a trippy experience in glaring sunshine and an overheated, overcrowded bus. Olkhon itself is special, I'll let the pictures tell you (I wish the wifi connections here would allow me to upload more of them.) Olkhon only got electricity in 2005 and it is remote with only a few tourists, no souvenirs and one food shop. Even if my blog’s readership decides to go to this unharmed, extraordinary place en masse I don’t think the village will get spoilt but whatever you do please don’t tell Ryanair.
P.S. Thank you to everyone who has commented, texted or messaged, it’s so lovely to hear news from home and if I haven’t replied yet I’ll do so soon. xx
I’m sure all of us have come across the ‘two planks and a hole in the ground’ type toilet too many times on our travels. Well, Siberian roadside stops make no exception. What’s more unusual here is the way everything in the hole is frozen – I’ll leave it to your imagination but somehow it still manages to smell. The planks I find myself standing on are glazed with a yellowy ice making this operation a balancing exercise even for someone more graceful than me. Then come the layers, the thermals and jeans, long sleeves, money belt, bag, scarf, gloves, a long fluffy jacket – everything seems to be in the way, there’s nowhere to put things down and this really, really, isn’t a place to drop a glove. These toilets have no locks; sometimes they have no doors. And the experience is made a little more intense by the bear size dogs kept outside, growling angrily behind a fence at the back of the loos. Maybe they are bears. Or wolves, I never stopped to look.
I never stopped to take any pictures either, you’ll be happy to know. But instead here are a few shots from the magical Olkhon Island to which Mairead and Barry kindly invited me to join them. The six hour bus ride there took us across the frozen Lake Baikal that handily transforms itself to a road for four months every year. It’s a trippy experience in glaring sunshine and an overheated, overcrowded bus. Olkhon itself is special, I'll let the pictures tell you (I wish the wifi connections here would allow me to upload more of them.) Olkhon only got electricity in 2005 and it is remote with only a few tourists, no souvenirs and one food shop. Even if my blog’s readership decides to go to this unharmed, extraordinary place en masse I don’t think the village will get spoilt but whatever you do please don’t tell Ryanair.
P.S. Thank you to everyone who has commented, texted or messaged, it’s so lovely to hear news from home and if I haven’t replied yet I’ll do so soon. xx
