'ole siberia ain't what it used to be...
siberia is beautiful. i can say that easily because i'm on a cushy holiday, and not in a gulag, in case it wasn't obvious.
i don't have much time to make a long post, but i've just spent two days up at lake baikal - this is the biggest fresh water lake in the world and holds about one fifth of the world's entire fresh water reserves. i have eaten a lot of great food - chinese food was fantastic too, but it has been good to have some stodgy bread and a bit of cheese!
i have burned my hand in a banya (sauna) because i was clumsy. this was even after i burned my foot with water from the samovar on the train here from bejing. i'm hoping my face won't be next...
i've had some pretty interesting political discussions so far - while up at the lake village, i was staying at the home of a woman who used to teach in the local village primary school (about 150 students at its peak) during soviet times. she pulled out a copy of the little book they used to have to use during their lessons with the children before perestroyka - it was called "lenin is with you always". if that's not a horrifically eerie title i don't know what is. anyway, it was filled with all sorts of glorification poems and songs - it was essentially a songbook with a few prose bits here and there.
anyway, both she and the guide that took myself and the other traveller (a woman from hong kong) on a 10km hike along the shore of the lake, have both said that they either knew people (or in the case of the 25 year old guide) who cried and cried and cried when ole joe stalin died.
eventually in the conversation i came out as a trotskyist, and it went remarkably well, although the overwhelming response is that it's stupid to think we can have anything like communism without the same thing happening. but no real answers are proposed in place of it, even though it's clear that they believe bush is the worst thing that ever happened, and there are clear problems with liberal democracy.
but right now my time's up.
suffice to say the above conversation happened over vodka.
tomorrow i get on the train again for moscow, which will be a five day slog. the landscape in these parts though is absolutely breathtaking, as was the gobi desert in mongolia.
til moscow,
kd.
i don't have much time to make a long post, but i've just spent two days up at lake baikal - this is the biggest fresh water lake in the world and holds about one fifth of the world's entire fresh water reserves. i have eaten a lot of great food - chinese food was fantastic too, but it has been good to have some stodgy bread and a bit of cheese!
i have burned my hand in a banya (sauna) because i was clumsy. this was even after i burned my foot with water from the samovar on the train here from bejing. i'm hoping my face won't be next...
i've had some pretty interesting political discussions so far - while up at the lake village, i was staying at the home of a woman who used to teach in the local village primary school (about 150 students at its peak) during soviet times. she pulled out a copy of the little book they used to have to use during their lessons with the children before perestroyka - it was called "lenin is with you always". if that's not a horrifically eerie title i don't know what is. anyway, it was filled with all sorts of glorification poems and songs - it was essentially a songbook with a few prose bits here and there.
anyway, both she and the guide that took myself and the other traveller (a woman from hong kong) on a 10km hike along the shore of the lake, have both said that they either knew people (or in the case of the 25 year old guide) who cried and cried and cried when ole joe stalin died.
eventually in the conversation i came out as a trotskyist, and it went remarkably well, although the overwhelming response is that it's stupid to think we can have anything like communism without the same thing happening. but no real answers are proposed in place of it, even though it's clear that they believe bush is the worst thing that ever happened, and there are clear problems with liberal democracy.
but right now my time's up.
suffice to say the above conversation happened over vodka.
tomorrow i get on the train again for moscow, which will be a five day slog. the landscape in these parts though is absolutely breathtaking, as was the gobi desert in mongolia.
til moscow,
kd.
posted by kd | 6:41 pm
1 Comments:
oooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh it sounds like everything i want to see with my own two eyes. i look forward to the photos.
hope the burns are healing.
love shannon xx
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