OLKHON ISLAND @ Lake Baikal

This was the most amazing place on the world that I have ever been to... difficult to describe the beauty of the nature and even with the pictures it doesn't get just let's say half of the impression what it could be in reality... This was the point of our trip when I was proud that I made it there. Definitely it was a once in a lifetime experience... something really really special!

This was our cottage where we lived for 3 nights:

the water possibilities... the truck with "drinking" water and next to it, the 3 "boxes" for washing hands and teeth... and there was also a traditional Russian banja: something similar to sauna. That was the place where we took a bath every night :) there were 2 huge pots: one with hot water (fire below) and one with cold... with the help of little pots we mixed the water and poured it on ourselves.

and the 4th night we spent in tents just in the nature:)

some picures trying to show the view from the place where we stayed:

the "beach" (with freezing water)

Anna and Marjeta with me

Anna and David with me

Anna and Panu with me

Pekko and his long tongue :D

We, the Hungarians...

Marjeta built a magic dolmen so the guys played shaman around it...

little car comes for water... it really looks similar to the one at our place where the locals pointed when we asked where is the drinking water...

here it is... traditional way of getting water :)

A bit of Baikal's fauna and flora:

a grasshopper... there are sooooo many of these. Wherever one steps there is a hundred of this jumping up from the footstep!!!

this really looks like Leontopodium alpinum (Edelweiss, Havasi gyopár) although it is hard to believe that this is really it...

One day with David and Pekko I went for a wonderful walking tour nearby...

we went inside the forest...

then we headed towards the lake...

We went to the top of this until we could, then we went down and Pekko climbed up in the front, with David we just stayed down and went out to the very edge.

One sunset...

Second day we went for an excursion by marshutka (minibus)... inside:

outside:
I have the feeling that these cars were especially built for Russia where there are no roads at all just bumps and ups and downs all the time...

I tried to make a picture of the road conditions but as I was literally jumping inside the car (while I tried to keep seated) this task seemed to be impossible... but this is one part of the road...

I was wondering how would I be as a marshutka driver?! Well, probably I would be the worst driver ever :D

The excursion was AMAZING!!!!

yes, that's me down there feeling like flying :D

There were many religious places where you have to build a stone column or throw money in the lake and then make a wish. I made so many wishes that at the end I had problems what to wish...

With Anna and Francesca

The third day some of us went for a boat excursion... it started amazing as usual here...

We went to an island where there was a Buddhist Stupa

Then as usual we had the fish soup from OMUL with bread, cookies and tea on the boat...
This is the local fish that lives in Lake Baikal. According to guide books the only danger with this fish is that if it is not fresh enough then it is poisonous... therefore it is almost impossible to serve this any other place than Baikal... but here this is let's say "one and only" food that visitor can find :D so we had no choice... we ate it every day... for lunch... and for dinner :)
by the way, it tastes really good ;) just it has a lot of little fishbones...

Every time I asked that I don't want the head 'cos I don't like when a food looks at me wile I'm eating it...

the problem with the boat trip came right after lunch... the water started to be angry... weather became windy... so lot of waves appeared... and our boat became very unstable and unconfortable for many of us!!!

also it started to be really cold...

although it looks big it is not big at all on a huge lake!!! It is better to imagine Lake Baikal as a sea or an ocean because it is soooo large!

Geting on and off...

second island during the excursion...

we went to a healthy spring...

our guide from the boat... this is how local people look like (for me this looks a bit like Mongolian)

Greek and Serbian guys made fun of ladies wear...

Finally, after the long and wavy day we got back to the original port: our boat had better condition than these :)

This was the village of the port... I think the biggest village on Olkhon Island.

View from a hill...

with lot of old (but beautiful) wooden houses...

The last sunset...

Every night we had fire and fun around... we really needed it 'cos it was really really cold during the nights... I had a T-shirt, 2 pullovers and a jacket on me... and normally I was still cold without the fire!