Irkutsk, Russia

I arrived in Irkutsk, Russia Tuesday (22 August) afternoon and made my way to the hostel. It was really tough to come back to civilization after such a great 4 days on Olkhon Island. The hostel (Irkutsk Downtown Hostel) was a welcome relief to this otherwise easily passed over city. Irkutsk is nothing much to brag about; big, dirty, noisy, and seedy. After 6 days without a hot shower I was looking forward to one at the hostel, unfortunately the hot water is broken right now. So that hot shower will have to wait. It may not seem like a big deal (and I've had plenty of non-heated showers in SE Asia), but when the tap water is around 50 degrees F and its not warm outside, you need hot water to shower.

Tuesday evening I got sick and spent the night throwing up. Not fun, but at least I was in a nice hostel. I felt slightly better the next morning (Wednesday, 23 August), but still only managed to go down to the train station and back before spending the rest of the day hanging around the hostel. Had my first food in 24 hours on Wednesday night.

Thursday (24 August) morning I felt much better, but this town doesn’t inspire much sightseeing. So after a trip to the store for some train food, I spent the day at the hostel.

I leave in a few hours for Mongolia. It’s another 35-hour, 2-night hop. I’m ready to be down with Russia as everything is just so difficult here. I’m really looking forward to Mongolia as I’ve heard nothing but fantastic things about it from other travelers. I’m planning to hook up with some other travelers there from some trips to the Gobi, etc so internet access will be limited.