Ulan Ude
After hiking to our hostel, which was just a lady’s apartment, we were greeted by a voice over the phone “One double bed?” “No. Two singles. It says it on our paper.” “Oh...” Sister knocks on our room door, dude walks in, “Hello!” “Good morning!” He picks up the phone. “Yes, okay.” Hangs up the phone. “My girlfriend and I have food poisoning. We will be out of the room later if that is okay.” “Oh. That sucks. Yeah. No problem. We’re going to have a walk around anyway.”
The apartment smelled like Nana’s house. Old. It had a massive jail-like door, unlocked with a massive jail-type key. There are many locks like this in old Russian hostels, I would find. We ventured out into the midday Ulan Ude streets, stopped at a cafe for beer and some blintzi. We then cruised around a bit. Ulan Ude, has lots of old wooden buildings like we had seen along the way but way fancier. Some of them are falling apart, some aren’t. It also is home to the Buryat. They are the main indigenous group of Siberia. As Valeria, our Buryat home stay host, said, “basically Mongolian.” Ulan Ude is the capital of Buryat culture in Siberia!
It also has the largest Lenin head in the world. It is at this Lenin head where we met our fellow home stay guests. Giles and Linda from Amsterdam. We chatted a bit, arranged an activity for the next day and then Ed and I went back to eat and clean up. First shower in 3 days in a bathtub that was elevated 1 foot off the ground and a showerhead that trickled more water down the wall than anywhere else. Ahhhh home for the next three days.
The next morning we had our first Valeria breakfast and it was delightful. Giles and Linda had recovered and were eating with us. We ate oatmeal with walnuts, raisins and one dried apricot, bread, cheese, tomato and cucumber. We, the Valeria family, headed out to the Buryat Buddhist temple and the Ethnographic Museum on 2 separate trips. It was a whirlwind tour of ancient Siberian culture and a beautiful group of temples on...well an Indian reservation. Just some flat barren land outside of Ulan Ude a ways. The museum was quite nice but I wouldn’t be scrambling to go back (there wasn’t a motorcycle with mounted machine gun).
That evening, the last evening for Giles and Linda in Russia, we went out for dinner. It was at Modern Nomads, the local place for Buryat cuisine that Valeria recommended. It was alright. Kind of plain food in a very nice and trendy atmosphere. There must be a lot of rich Russians in Ulan Ude as the place wasn’t cheap. After Modern Nomads, I convinced everyone to go to a place where there was WiFi so I could send my emails. The place, Marco Polo, was dead but I sent my emails for only 4 dollars. 20 minutes of internet for 4 dollars...people in Ulan Ude must be rich. Dad took off to the hostel, the rest went in search of some nightlife.
We passed what seemed to be a restaurant but with really loud music. In we went. It was a restaurant/night club. It was filled with drunk guys and cute girls dancing. Occasionally a portly, drunk dude would kind of get up and smile while standing in the middle of the girls. As the evening progressed, more dudes started dancing and the drunkenness increased. Some great folk dancing went down but still my goal of seeing a guy do that one Russian dance move where they kick from really low has yet to be achieved.
One totally drunk chick sitting behind Giles, asked him to dance. He politely declined and pointed her in my direction. I thought, “forgive me, Leslie,” and walked out onto the dance floor. What proceeded to happen was much like an awkward high school dance scene. The lady, was not only drunk but very smelly. It was a slow song. We awkwardly shuffled from side to side a bit and at the end of it, I looked at the lady and said “thank you. That was lovely.” She kind of swayed and we walked back to our respective tables. She was later joined by her boyfriend. They left together and she bailed hard on the metal grate. Hilarious.
The rest of the days were spent wandering the city, eating things from Sputnik (very trendy, very expensive supermarket. Even more so than Market on Yates), riding trams and enjoying not being at any museums.
The apartment smelled like Nana’s house. Old. It had a massive jail-like door, unlocked with a massive jail-type key. There are many locks like this in old Russian hostels, I would find. We ventured out into the midday Ulan Ude streets, stopped at a cafe for beer and some blintzi. We then cruised around a bit. Ulan Ude, has lots of old wooden buildings like we had seen along the way but way fancier. Some of them are falling apart, some aren’t. It also is home to the Buryat. They are the main indigenous group of Siberia. As Valeria, our Buryat home stay host, said, “basically Mongolian.” Ulan Ude is the capital of Buryat culture in Siberia!
It also has the largest Lenin head in the world. It is at this Lenin head where we met our fellow home stay guests. Giles and Linda from Amsterdam. We chatted a bit, arranged an activity for the next day and then Ed and I went back to eat and clean up. First shower in 3 days in a bathtub that was elevated 1 foot off the ground and a showerhead that trickled more water down the wall than anywhere else. Ahhhh home for the next three days.
The next morning we had our first Valeria breakfast and it was delightful. Giles and Linda had recovered and were eating with us. We ate oatmeal with walnuts, raisins and one dried apricot, bread, cheese, tomato and cucumber. We, the Valeria family, headed out to the Buryat Buddhist temple and the Ethnographic Museum on 2 separate trips. It was a whirlwind tour of ancient Siberian culture and a beautiful group of temples on...well an Indian reservation. Just some flat barren land outside of Ulan Ude a ways. The museum was quite nice but I wouldn’t be scrambling to go back (there wasn’t a motorcycle with mounted machine gun).
That evening, the last evening for Giles and Linda in Russia, we went out for dinner. It was at Modern Nomads, the local place for Buryat cuisine that Valeria recommended. It was alright. Kind of plain food in a very nice and trendy atmosphere. There must be a lot of rich Russians in Ulan Ude as the place wasn’t cheap. After Modern Nomads, I convinced everyone to go to a place where there was WiFi so I could send my emails. The place, Marco Polo, was dead but I sent my emails for only 4 dollars. 20 minutes of internet for 4 dollars...people in Ulan Ude must be rich. Dad took off to the hostel, the rest went in search of some nightlife.
We passed what seemed to be a restaurant but with really loud music. In we went. It was a restaurant/night club. It was filled with drunk guys and cute girls dancing. Occasionally a portly, drunk dude would kind of get up and smile while standing in the middle of the girls. As the evening progressed, more dudes started dancing and the drunkenness increased. Some great folk dancing went down but still my goal of seeing a guy do that one Russian dance move where they kick from really low has yet to be achieved.
One totally drunk chick sitting behind Giles, asked him to dance. He politely declined and pointed her in my direction. I thought, “forgive me, Leslie,” and walked out onto the dance floor. What proceeded to happen was much like an awkward high school dance scene. The lady, was not only drunk but very smelly. It was a slow song. We awkwardly shuffled from side to side a bit and at the end of it, I looked at the lady and said “thank you. That was lovely.” She kind of swayed and we walked back to our respective tables. She was later joined by her boyfriend. They left together and she bailed hard on the metal grate. Hilarious.
The rest of the days were spent wandering the city, eating things from Sputnik (very trendy, very expensive supermarket. Even more so than Market on Yates), riding trams and enjoying not being at any museums.