Irkutsk:
We were nearing Irkutsk after long drive in mountains. We came across some amazing view of the forest. The clouds were so low that they were hanging in valley underneath us. First time I have seen clouds from top except from plane. The trees and some taller buildings sticking out of the clouds and made the whole scene out of some mythological movie set. Our first view of the largest lake in the world was somehow confusing. We thought the blue sky was too low. The sky was hanging on lake. We couldn't figure out the size of the lake as visibility was low. But it look full of void. In size enormous and color blue. We circled the lake for an hour to arrive the city. It was scenic drive.
we arrive in Irkutsk, a city of about 650,000 population some distance north of Lake Baikal, and the main road is soon lost in a maze of streets, with no road signs that we can read. Using the GPS compass we head in the general direction of the road leading south-east of the city toward the Lake. It's a beautiful city and we found our hotel with Ami's brilliant navigation skill. Unfortunately we got "Nyet" as an answer. No rooms. Now we start looking for another hotel. Finally we arrived at large hotel named hotel Irkutsk. Very modern with café and restaurant. We got Nyet again but this time I was determined to get a room. It was so large about 15 stories with at least 500 plus rooms. There is no way it can be full. I latterly pleaded to this woman who happens to be some kind of manager. She kept giving us different hotel address. Finally she gave in and asked us for the passports. We got the room -expensive. We took a walk in town square, found a book store and bought Russian Atlas as we don't have Russian map. We ended up in beautiful Italian restaurant and had our first Pizza. Pizza here were different thin and made out of puff pastry , tested pretty good and not filling so we ate two of those. As usual no internet in hotel.
Next day we drive to Novosibirsk-the largest town in Siberia. We found our way out of town and hit our nightmare roads to hell. So I put Chris Rhea Road to Hell CD. Here is small description of the road: Imagine someone dropped the bomb, created crater with original tarmac -already bad - inverted inside and all the dirt and rocks re-incarneted itself and created mounds on road. I mean hard and soft mounds at least 3-4 feet high -yes, no kidding here. Ami navigated brilliantly. We put one side of the car wheel on mound and second on ground. Thus avoiding huge ditches which may hit the bottom of the car. Car was angled at 30 degree. Even on big trucks we couldn't see the rear wheels as they dipped so deep in ditches. We thought we have seen it all. No Russia has few surprises for us. This is first time we were scared that we may not make it. It was getting dark and raining and that did not help. We drove for about n hour on this road and then finally road improved and we pulled in café. There was old brick building behind it and I inquired ans surely that was a hotel. This hotel is old soviet era building. 1500 rubles. Smelly, no hot water, no seat on toilet with black water. Dirty, but had a two small beds. We slept and got bitten all over with bed bugs.
Early morning we were back on road and it was better after few patches of broken asphalt. We were closing on Kazakhstan border, only 5KM away. As we are not going to cross in Kazakhstan, we stopped at café for dinner and look for a hotel. In parking there was a car full of three beautiful ladies and one mussel guy drinking beer from big bottles. As they saw us , one girls said hello and I immediately jumped on opportunity to speak English. They all came out little tipsy but good behavior. We clicked immediately and bigger lady kept saying America .. America with her thumb up. OK this is a good start. They all came out , extremely friendly as we knew them for long time. We chatted, laughed and asked them if the food was good in café and direct us to the hotel. They all joined with us, took our pictures, car pictures. They were Marinar, Natalie, Julia and Alexi. Alexi is a cop, married but none of these ladies were his wife. They were all born in this small hamlet and having fun. We went to café in gang with beer bottles and they started asking us what we like to eat. We asked for chicken, and somehow they decided there chicken may not be good or something so Natalie took us back to the car and jumped in our car and we followed them to other café. In woods, wooden log structure. Here they talked to the owner and gave us separate room with large table. The café was full with young people, eating, drinking and dancing. We had a ball here. They will not let me drink as they knew I was driving even though Alexi was having his 12th beer and he drove. They offered Ami a small glass of beer which Ami took some sips. First time she drank the beer and she kinda liked the local beer. We ate dinner and talked about Russia, America. Alexi would jump in and scream " we are Russian" with big laugh. I liked the guy. He has 3 month old son.Marinar kept saying she was a queen of Omsk, which is next town where they all worked. We were all like school buddies. Everybody in café joined in our fun. Then Julia's husband - Alexandrie came with his 7 year old and joined. He is Russian police equitant of our FBI. Finally we requested that we go to hotel and sleep. They escorted us to their small town and helped us to check in only hotel in town. Again Babushka was there. I am sure if we had come on our own we may have gotten "Nyet" but with the gang no problem there. The room was Spartan. No hot water or shower, but two small beds.
Alexi made sure that we park our car in local police station under guard. We dropped the car there and said our goodbyes and hugged. Alexi took some pictures. It was amusing to watch Alexi with big bottle of beer and asking police officer to let us park our car next to police Ladas.
Next morning I walked to police station and got the car and on road again.
Again, one more of great example of nice people in the world. Political differences aside, normal people are just people. We have been lucky to encounter so many nice people out here.