Ulan Ude, the Old Believers, and the Most Voluminous Fresh Water Lake in the World

April 18, 2012

                                                                                       

It seems to be true that Russians don’t smile. Our guide explained that Russians justify their stoic demeanor by saying when they smile, they really mean it. But I could say the same of myself. Maybe I should just be happy that I have so many things to sincerely smile about. It does feel a little strange making eye-contact and smiling at people when walking on the street only to be met with impassive stares. 

Our first stop in Russia was in the town of Ulan Ude, home to a giant Lenin head. This seven meter, 42 ton, slightly Asian-featured Lenin head is found in Soviet Square on the corner of Communist and Lenin Streets. The town is 60% Buryats (Asian-decent) and 40% Russian (European-decent), which explains the slightly Asian slant of the statue.  Our guide encouraged having fun with our photographs of the giant head, something for which we would have disappeared into the basement of the KGB building across the street had we done 40 years ago. 

Couldn't have done this 50 years ago.
(It was the local tour guide's recommendation for the picture.)

It's a big head.

Our real reason for coming to Ulan Ude was not the giant Lenin head, however. Rather, Ulan Ude is just 100 miles from Lake Baikal, the world’s oldest, deepest, and most voluminous fresh water lake. Lake Baikal holds 20% of the earth’s fresh water—enough to supply all the world with fresh water for three years.  So after visiting the Lenin, we boarded a van for the lake. But our first stop was to visit The Old Believer’s Museum.

Orthodoxy became the state religion of Russia in the 10^th Century. During the mid-17^th Century, however, there was a reformation and about 40% of the Church rituals were changed. Some in the Church rebelled against these changes and kept practicing according to the old tradition. These “Old Believers” (or “Traitors” depending on whom you asked) were eventually exiled to Siberia by Catherine II, aka Catherine the Great. It is not clear how many Old Believers are still practicing today, but there is a large community of them living outside Ulan Ude.

Our Old Believer guide

I didn't realize how colorful and attractive traditional
Russian style was.

 After touring the museum and the church, we had a traditional Russian lunch (It’s no wonder rural Russian women are so large--as they want to be!) at an old home. Our lunchtime performance was a folk singers group that thoroughly entertained us with both their music and an education about traditional Old Believer weddings. They dressed up 18-year-old Katherine as a bride and selected 67-year-old Ken (the only single man in our group) to be her husband. And they played the parts well.

Our lunch host

And this wasn't even the main course!

Kathrine and I love it!

Old Believer folk singers

Ken's a little nervous and a big ham!

Can you tell which of us are travelers?

There was this giant swing out back (right next to the drop toilet).
How could we not resist?

We drove with the “newlyweds” to our guesthouse on Lake Baikal, and met our very Russian hosts, Serge and Galina, which was absolutely beautiful. The evening consisted of more eating and then bringing down the house with some very raucous karaoke.  (Fortunately, it was early enough in the season that we were the only guests at the guesthouse, and Serge just seemed amused by the spectacle playing out in the dining room.)

Doesn't Serge look like he belongs in Siberia?
What a great host couple!

We decided to visit a healing thermal pool the following morning eight kilometers from the guesthouse.

The afternoon consisted of a walk on the shore of the lake and then a turn in a Russian sauna. Russian saunas are similar to Finnish ones, so it brought back some fond memories. As we were sauna-ing  coed, the ten in our group met in our swimsuits at the designated time. We then took turns sitting in the sauna throwing water on the stove to create steam and cooling off in the room next door, or outside at the lake. (We did get a few odd looks from the fishermen on the lake as we headed down to the frozen lake in our swimsuits, but boy did the ice feel good on our steaming bodies.) Our tour leader and leaders-in-training also took turns beating us in the sauna with a broom of birch tree leafs—they claimed it was good for us, but I wonder if they were just letting out some of their aggression after having to look after us and answer our daft questions for the previous ten days. To be fair “beatings” actually felt pretty good as long as it was the leafs and not the branches that hit our skin. A few leafs would come off with each smack and each person exited the beating with what looked like a few new birthmarks.  

Healing pool

Inside view

View outside
(Looking at this might be the real cause of any healing.)

There we are!

I decided to run back from the pool. It kind of looked like I had been left.

Lake Baikal. Totally spoiled by the weather!

Why were told to be careful while walking on the lake.
(We were actually told not to walk on the lake, but it wasn't too deep at this point.)

The girls put their swimsuits out to dry--stiff as boards.

 It snowed the final morning of our stay at Lake Baikal! It’s the first time I’ve been in a snowfall in quite a while, and it was the first time I think I’ve ever been on a beach which it was snowing, and the sisters and I enjoyed a walk through the transformed environment.

It's snowing!

Not sure what the sisters are doing here. :)

Snow!

Total white-out!

We said goodbye to our hosts after lunch that third day and made our way back to Ulan Ude to catch the train for our three-night journey to Kungur. Three nights is a long time to spend in a train compartment. Fortunately, we have managed to open the window in ours to let in some fresh air and prevent the sweatbox that was our train car the previous leg of the journey. (Our guide says people travel the Trans-Siberian Railroad in their underwear in the winter and coats in the summer because the trains traditionally overheat or air-condition.) The cool air will hopefully reduce the no-shower-for-three-nights effect in our compartment as well.