Nyle Walton - Nov 10, 2005 11:29 am - Hasn't voted
UnusualWhile I have had to settle for such mundane mountains as the Matterhorn, Mont Blanc, Popocatepetl and Huascaran, I must congratulate you for seeking out mountains in remote parts of Asia I thought didn't have any peaks worth climbing. I had to settle for seeing Irkutsk from the train station before you were born.
SiberianSayan - Nov 10, 2005 11:35 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: UnusualHeh -- ah, the days when one could do nothing but barely step off the train in Irkutsk. As you can read from my many wavers, the bureaucrats are trying to keep it that way. But, for someone living in Russia who can pass as a Russian, it is considerably easier.
As for your "mundane" mountains -- I might like to climb them, but the costs are prohibitive. I just did the local mountains. (Of course, my loaclity was one of those so-called remote parts of Asia.)
Thanks for your note. I would have loved to have seen the USSR -- even Russia has changed considerably in the nine years I've known her.
Nyle Walton - Nov 14, 2005 9:51 am - Hasn't voted
Re: UnusualWhat's a nice girl from Denver doing on the shores of Lake Baikal? I only saw this lake early in the morning from the train on a nonstop week-long trip from Nahodka to Moscow in 1974. It was too complicated and inconvenient to break up the trip to stopover at Irkutsk. Intourist was in charge and I couldn't rearrange the itinerary.
SiberianSayan - Nov 14, 2005 9:46 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: UnusualI lived in Irkutsk for a couple years -- part of my several year residence abroad. When I first went to Russia, everything was controlled by Intourist -- I remember having to buy all train tickets and book hotels via the not-so-friendly agency. Things have changed considerably, and if you know your way around, you can get almost anywhere (of course, that's the problems -- I know several that have wound up on secret military bases and arrested).
If you want to know more -- e-mail me!
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