Onwards to Mongolia

After our surprise dinner experience in Itkutsk, we decided to make like salmon and head to the water. 100km of some very tough hills (12% grade in parts) and hatsu held up like a champion, no clutch slippage a steady 60km/hr. Lake baikal turns out to be simply gorgeous, a 1200 km lake with the banks flanked by impressive mountain ranges still thankfully unlogged. Our attempts to camp along the river were less than successful, involving our finding the Russian equivalent of a resort catering to whistlin' dixie types and eminem's trashy relatives. Turns out our instincts to leave are spot on, as a woman who speaks excellent English tries to make us a "second offering", letting us know that we could have a room with hot water, if we liked. When we waver, she lets us know that the "accident" that happened with the German tourists was a one time thing, and won't happen again. Besides they have a good fence. Goodbye, is all we can say in return.

Find ourselves a nice litle gastinitsu and have ourselves a dinner of pot noodles and wine that can only kindly be compared with manischevitz. Next day it's off to the mongolian border. Just about 120km off of lake baikal the scenery changes, with valleys opening up, and trees thinning out. As we've noticed it's the rainy season so everything is a tropical green, and the scenery rivals that of the best of wyoming. Definitely cowboy country, a la Russe. We decide to camp out just short of the border, and manage to find a great spot about 2 clicks away from a Russian military base. Is the campsite a training ground, guess we'll find out. No suck luck. Instead we have great night out and a good nights rest. But not Anthony, who spends the night counting sheep, chasing mosquitos, and praying for some shut eye. Good thing we've gotten up at 6:30 to get to the border early.

Novosibirsk to Nowheresiberia

Had ourselves a couple of long days heading into the wild of Siberia. On the good news we have yet to be eaten by bear, savaged by mosquito's but have had the longest stretch of bumpy unpaved roads yet. On the down side Anthony had to don the blue hat (UN) to mediate between one of the inevitable buss brother melding. Basic plot of the battle: You're wrong, I'm right, way, way way. In the end Anthony showed excellent Kofi Annan skills, and has brokered the peace. We have taken to calling him Our little pigeon as a thank you.

First night out of novosibirsk we managed to have a tourista experience, which involves paying western prices for a room furnished and finished by colorblind carpenters with no arms. We did happen to be brought to a floor with velvet curtains, a stunning coat check girl, and a bar right off the elevator. Hmmmm....hotel room...velvet....liquor...beautiful women....russia..... Only one thought passed through my mind and it wasn't that we were on the religious themed floor. Not to worry, only the hotel casino. two hours later, we were able to walk away from the blackjack tables up a couple of hundred roubles thank to Tom's ability to walk away when we smelled money. Might have been an ugly night otherwise.

Managed to pound back miles till we hit the junction of the BAM, the northern trans-siberian line, finished in 1991 at a cost of 25 bln USD, done entirely because the original line was considered too close to china. Bad timing, i'd say. Tawauash (name lost in a blur of cyrillic) distinugished itslef solely by its absolutely miserable feel, an apocalyptic rain, and a stern warning from our babushka at the hotel not to go out to the bar by making faces and pretending she was being punched in the face. Turns out she wasn't so far off, as Tom saw a clearly drunken man walking into a shop holding nothing but a giant kitchen knife. Perhaps he was only looking for cheese. More from Anthony to follow