Day 498 June 2103

Russian border- Irkutsk- ZimaWhere am I, what time is it?

In Beijing I swapped my China Lonely planet for a Trans Siberian handbook by Trailblazer. I am glad I did, otherwise I would have had no idea where I was or even what time it was. This morning we made a stop in Ulan Ude where (If you would come from the direction of Europe-Moscow) The Trans Mongolian Express branches off the Trans Siberian Express which goes to the end of the world at Vladivostok.So what time is it? My watch is still on Chinese /Mongolian time and we have been heading north so there would be no time change. My book confirms that as it list this zone as GMT + 8. The strange thing is that the local time just changed from Moscow plus 6 to Moscow plus 5. But what time is it in Moscow? That depends if they have summer time or not. The time schedule for the train is set at Moscow time. So the time on the clock in the train my say 02.30 AM but in fact it is 07.00 or 08.00 am.So what time is it? My watch says 09.45. My book tells me that we will be in Irkutsk at 11.03 local time or 16.03 Moscow time. But really I have no idea.

We have been running along Lake Baikal or the last hour and that is all it counts. The lake is 1600 meters deep and holds 20000 cubic km of water or 20% of the worlds water supply. One of the world’s largest lakes, 600 km long and between 30 and 60 km wide. In winter the ice freezes to 3 meters thick and traffic run over to take short cuts from one side to the other.We stopped at Irkutsk where big Mack got off to continue his adventure around near Lake Bailkal. For the first time since my departure from Australia I experience a cold temperature again combined with rain. The digital sign read 11 degrees. Irkutsk was known as the “Paris of Siberia” for reasons best known to the Russians themselves. This city is still one of the few making a large income from the fur trade. I have seen fur in many shops and shop windows ranging from large coats to fur hats including the tails at the back. Many Russians wear them all year round including high boots; man and woman. Back in the 70’s when I worked and later owned a motorcycle shop in Dandenong (Vic) I remember that at times women from the nearby Russian community would come in shop, with their sons or grandsons to translate for them, and buy a pair of fur lined motorcycle boots for the mother/grandmother.

Practicality is more important than style in these parts of the world except, I have noticed, for the younger generation. Tha is, the young women dress fairly stylish, the man not at all.The name Irkutsk is well known to me. When I was a child my father, who loved geography, made up games by way of sitting around the table with a sheet of paper ready to play.
We would always start the easy way. “right, ready? Three minutes two write down all place names ending with “dam” Well that was easy: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Edam, Volendam and 20 other names ending with dam. When or time was up we would read them out and cross them of the list. Of course dad’s list was twice as long as ours and often we doubted if the names he had come up with were for real. He would then get the atlas and we would look them up. Sometime he would throw in a red herring like Woltersum. We just laughed but there is was on the map, the town which he said had something to do with our surname. (later in life I went there to check the stories and indeed they were almost as dad had told us.

Anyway one day he said “3 minutes for places ending with sk! Dad started to write while we just looks at each other with blank stares. And yes then it came Omsk , Tomsk, Irkutsk, Yakutsk. That atlas was opened on the table and there it was. Omsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk and Yakutsk. So Here I am having just stopped and glimpsed at Irkutsk. In the next few days I will be passing Omsk and Tomsk.
Later Dad added many more towns and cities ending with “sk” and so taught us a lot of geography.