In Listvyanka at the shore of Lake Baikal we stayed with Nikolai and experienced an authentic Russian banya treatment. It is hard to describe Nikolai's banya treatment to someone that does not share the experience. A little attempt though...
Step 1: You sit in a room of 100 degrees (celsius, not Fahrenheit) with a felt hat (too make you feel even warmer) for an awful long time burning your nostrils when breathing through your nose and sweating more then your own bodyweight...
Step 2: You "cool down" in a room of around 50 degrees celsius (I guess what you would consider a regular sauna) for about 10 minutes.
Step 3: Nikolai forces you back in, puts on gloves, grabs a bunch of wet birch leaves, puts them in the fire and starts whipping your back with them....pretty hard!
Step 4: You get the gloves on, handed over the bunch of birches that were set on fire and are expected to whip yourself while Nikolai tortures your fellow victims. Cheating by doing sissi-whips is not recommended as Nikolai will punish you by slapping you with the birches....
Step 5: Jump into the icecold pool outside. This sounds harsher then it is. After being in a room of 100 degrees celsius for a long time, cold water is a treat. Still surprised no one got a heart attack though....
Step 6: Repeat step 4.
Step 7: Repeat step 5.
Step 8: Nikolai scrubs you with a spunge made of - a material that cannot be made of something else than - steelwool until your skin burns like hell, comes off and your babyskin re appears...
Step 8: When you just think it cannot be worse, Nikolai (unexpectedly) throws a bucket of icecold water over your head...
Step 9: You sort of feel reborn and very relaxed!
Btw...you have to pay for this experience...
Nikolai makes up to you by cooking a delicious meal: warm Omul (smoked fish from Lake Baikal) with mashed potatoes, cabbage and beans...yum!
Everyone slept like a baby...babyskin, no train sounds and/or movements, a real hot shower, a big bed and lots of fresh air!
Before getting on the train, wandered around the Paris of Siberia, Irkutsk for a day famous for its wooden houses decorated with nice carvings.
The trade in Irkutsk flourished after it got connected to the Trans-Siberian and you can tell from the buikdings, shops and people that it is a rich town. Great to relax their for a day and charge yourself for the next train ride: Irkutsk to Ulan Bataar, Mongolia...highlight: the border crossing of (at least) 6 hours - where they close the toilets...
Btw, we're back on Moscow time...back from 11pm to 5pm, pfff
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Listvyanka, Russia
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