Lake Baikal and Ulan Ude - Cradle of Civilization, 9 days and 8 nights

Arrival in Irkutsk You will be met at the airport or station by our representative and taken to your hotel for check in and lunch.

City Tour including a visit to the Cathedral of the Holy Sign. Apart from ornate and rich iconostasis, the cathedral is famous for its graveyard where you will see the graves of the Decembrists Mukhanov, Beschasnov, Trubetskaya and the Russian Columbus Shelekhov. We will then proceed to the Museum of the Decembrists. The museum is housed in a mansion belonging to one of the leaders of Decembrist revolutionaries - these were Russian aristocracy who were banished to Siberia after their ill-fated attempt in December 1825 to overthrow the Russian Tsar in favor of a Constitutional regime. The museum is truly evocative of 18th century Russia.

Dinner and Free Time
Irkutsk began as a small settlement in the mid 17th century for gold-trading and for the collection of the fur tax from the Buryats. The settlement officially became a town in 1686 and the first road between Moscow and the new city was built in 1760. With the road construction, many new products, often imported from China, were widely available in Irkutsk for the first time including gold, diamonds, furs, wood, silk and tea. In 1821, Irkutsk became the seat of the Governor-General of East Siberia. In the early 19th century, many Russian officers and nobles were sent into exile in Irkutsk for their part in the Decembrist revolt against Tsar Nicholas I. Due to this influx of individuals from St. Petersburg, Irkutsk became the Siberian center of intellectual and cultural life. By 1900, the city had earned the nickname “The Paris of Siberia.” Today Irkutsk has become a college town with many young people studying at the university and other institutes of higher education in the city.

Breakfast at the hotel
Departure for Listvyanka, a small settlement located on the shore of Lake Baikal. We will stop by the obo - a sacred place for the local Buryat population. We will also stop for a guided tour of Taltsy - an open air Museum of Russian/Siberian Wooden Architecture. The museum’s oldest building is the Spass Tower of the Ilimsk Fortress (1667) and the still active Kazan Chapel (1679). We will then proceed to the headwaters of the Angara River to see the famous Shaman Rock (another sacred site). You will visit a market where the local people sell smoked fish from the lake as well as local crafts.

We then check in at the hotel and proceed to lunch in a wooden, waterfront restaurant "Proshli Vek" (fish and vegetarian menus available). After that, we will visit the Church of Saint Nicolas the Wonderworker - the guardian angel of travelers. We will then visit the Baikal Ecology Museum with exhibits of the unique fauna and flora that surround the lake. There is also an aquarium where you can see different species of local fish and the Baikal nerpa – the earth’s only fresh water seal.
Return to your hotel. Dinner and Free Time

Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake in the world with an average depth of 744.4 m (2,442 ft) and contains roughly 20 percent of the world´s surface fresh water. The body of water is also known as the “Baikal Sea” and the "Pearl of Siberia". At 1,642 meters (5,390 ft) Lake Baikal is the deepest, and among the clearest lakes in the world. At more than 25 million years old, Baikal is also the world´s oldest lake. Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. It is also home to the Buryat people who follow the Tibetan Buddhist religion and reside on the eastern side of the lake rearing goat, camel, cattle and sheep.

Breakfast at the hotel
Check out from the hotel
Departure for the boat station to start the aquatic part of our journey towards Sand Bay (6 hrs sail). Sand Bay is a natural landmark often called the Siberian Riviera. It is the only place in all of eastern Siberia where the average annual temperature is above zero Celsius (+ 0.4C). Upon arrival we will visit the bay and the neighboring Babushka Bay and take a light hike to the Big Belfry Cliff located nearby.

We will now sail towards Olkhon Island. En route, we will stop for sightseeing at the white endomorphic Sagan-Zaba cliff to see ancient rock paintings dating back to the 3rd century BC. The rock drawings are the most complex among drawings found across the huge expanse from the Ural mountains to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
Return onboard, Dinner and Overnight

After breakfast we will continue on our journey. Arrival at the Khuzhir Settlement situated on Olkhon Island. Olkhon, the largest island on Lake Baikal, stretches more than one hundred kilometers and divides the lake into 2 parts. The island’s comparatively small territory is a combination of taiga, steppe and even a small desert. Its flora and fauna are unusual. Olkhon has been home to many tribes and peoples of Siberia and Central Asia: the bellicose Huns, Turkis, Kurykans and more. One of the legends connected with the island states that the "Conqueror of the Universe" is buried on the island ( Genghis Khan, the great Mongol conqueror of the early 13th century).

Transfer to the yurt camp (yurts are felt tepees used throughout Siberia and Central Asia by the local nomadic peoples). Hike along the Khuzhir Settlement and the shore of the Saray Bay (4 km). See the Shamanka Crag - a sacred astral center for the local Buddhists and Shamanists. This is the Holy of Holies for Buryats, generally regarded as one of the 9 sanctuaries of Asia, once called the Altar of Rock, which is believed to be a residence of the major deity of shamanism worshippers - Khan Khute-baabay who is said to have descended from heaven to the earth to rule human destinies. We will then make a visit to the local Ethnographic Museum.
Return to the yurt camp. Dinner. Overnight

Experience a Russian Banya, the best place to relieve the tension of a busy day (optional)

After breakfast, we will visit Khoboy Cape located on the Northern part of the island. The cape is located near the widest part of the lake (79.8 km). On the cape there is a special site (a small platform) that was used for carrying out the tailagan - gatherings of shamans. From the cape, visitors can often see Baikal nerpas - fresh-water seals, the lake’s only aquatic mammals.

On the way to the cape, we will drive through the Sand Tract (20 km north of the Khuzhir Settlement) famous for its sand dunes that stretch 3 km. After visiting the cape, we will have a picnic on the shore and then return to camp.
Overnight

Early breakfast. Departure from the yurt camp. Transfer to the ferry station for the crossing to the mainland and the further trip to the Ust-Orda National District of the Buryats (250 km). Ust-Orda Buryatia is an autonomous district inside the Irkutsk Oblast. It has an area of 22,138 sq. km and a population of around 130,000. Ust-Ordynsky (pop. c. 10,000) is the largest town and administrative center of the district. Here you will have the opportunity to meet a real Buryat Shaman, participate in his sacred rite of speaking with deceased ancestors, visit the local ethnographic museum, have lunch consisting of authentic Buryat specialties and see an original Buryat folk dancing and singing show. We will also visit the local Folklore Museum. After the program, we will drive to Irkutsk, where in the evening we transfer you to the railroad station to depart for Ulan Ude - the capital of Buryat Republic.
Overnight on the train

Arrival in Ulan Ude. You will be met by our representative at the train station and be taken to your hotel for check in and breakfast.

We will start the day with a visit to Ivolginsky Datsan Gandan Dashi Choikhorling - the center of Buddhism in Russia. Ivolginsky Datsan was the only Buddhist monastery tolerated by the Communists. It has more around 1,000 Buddha statues, from tiny ones to others as high as 2 meters. The temple is a gleaming three-story building crowned with yellow eaves and guarded by stone tigers, the caretaker of the heart of Buddhism in Russia. There is a Buddhist school Dashy Choihorlin, a library, hotel, a philosophical faculty - Choyra, the Buriat Art museum, sacred tombs-suburgans, and houses for lamas.

After our visit we will return to Ulan Ude and drop by an open air Ethnographical Museum. We will then lunch at a downtown restaurant specializing in Buryat food. We will tour the Datsan (temple) Hambyyn Khure on Berezovka and a briefly drop by the Datsan Rimpoche Bagsha of Zagorsk.
Return to the hotel, dinner and overnight

Ulan-Ude is the capital city of the Buryat Republic of Russia and is located about 100 km (66 miles) south-east of Lake Baikal on the Uda River at its confluence with the Selenga. The first occupants of the area where Ulan-Ude now stands were the Evenks and later the Buryat Mongols. The city was initially founded in 1666 by Russian Cossacks as a fortress. Due to its favorable geographical position, the city grew rapidly and became a large trade center which connected Russia with China and Mongolia. The Trans-Siberian Railway reached the city in 1900 causing an explosion in growth. The population which was 3,500 in 1880 reached 126,000 in 1939. On 27 July 1934, the city was renamed Ulan-Ude. Today the city has a population of about 360,000. You will definitely get a taste of the East when in Ulan Ude. The major religion of the area is Buddhism and you will see Buddhist monuments and temples during your time here.

After breakfast we will go on a City tour and visit the Folk Medicine Center of Ulan Ude. During this tour you will see the historical center of Ulan Ude - located along the river bank with 1 and 2-storey houses formerly belonging to merchants of the 18th and 19th centuries. The city’s main square has Russia’s most extravagant monument to Lenin! We will see the Holy Trinity and the Hodigitria Cathedrals, the Buryat Opera and Ballet Theater and other historical monuments.
Lunch at downtown restaurant

We will then take a trip to the Atsagatsky Datsan which is located in a picturesque valley, about 60 km from Ulan Ude. Built in 1991, the temple has been visited and consecrated by Dalai Lama XIV. 13 km from the Atsagatsky Datsan is the village of Khara-Shibir - the birthplace of Agvan Dorzhiev. This man is known as a researcher of Buddhism and Tibetan culture and the teacher of Dalai Lama XIII. His log house has been rebuilt in a beautiful pine and larch forest near a mineral spring 4 km from the Datsan. It was here that Agvan Dorzhiev established the only school of Tibetan Medicine in Russia.
Return to the city. Overnight

Early breakfast.
Departure to the railroad station or airport.

Say goodbye to Lake Baikal and Buryatia. We are sure you will leave with unforgettable memories of one of the world’s most special places. We hope to welcome you back sometime in the future to the Pearl of Siberia.