Train Travel

To Siberia by rail on a literary quest

Travel on the Trans-Siberian Railway and stop in Russia on a trip inspired by the literary greats

A journey to Siberia by train in search of Shamans.

The way of life on the Trans-Siberian Railway is inviting: To quote Ian Flemming, “You wake up in the morning and check your watch. It says eight o'clock; but you are travelling east, and you know that it is really nine... Your berth is comfortable. There is no need to get up, and no incentive either. You have nothing to look forward to, nothing to avoid. No assets, no liabilities ... But on the Trans-Siberian Railway there are neither up nor downs. You are a prisoner, narrowly confined”

We alighted at Irkutsk where we stayed at the Academical Hotel generally used by visiting academics. We visited Maria Volkonsky's house, now a museum. It s a large two-story house of well-seasoned timber, with attractive hand-painted decorations around the windows and front door. The rooms were large and well proportioned, with high ceilings and tall porcelain stoves built into the walls.

There was a concert at the nearby Trubetskoy House which consisted of music that would have been listened to by the Decembrists. It rooted us firmly in the early nineteenth century.

We visited the Ministry of Extreme Situations on the shores of Lake Baikal, which brought us back into the 21st century. This organisation teaches men and women to deal with disasters such as earthquakes, fires, mountaineering and diving accidents. They all have to reach a level of proficiency in every kind of rescue before specialising. They welcome people from all over the world as trainees.

On the way to the ferry for Olkhon Island, at the border with Buryatiya, we performed a Buryat ceremony that requires you to scatter milk north, south, east and west. The Buryat were possessors of a written language, firearms, metals, and tribute-paying Ket and Nenets vassals. They owned vast livestock herds and had powerful clan leaders They were the first formidable nationality, after the Tatars, and were encountered by the Russians on their march across Siberia.

Olkhon Island, in the middle of Lake Baikal, is 72kms long and at its widest point 15kms. We stayed at Solnechnaya (Sunny) (www.web-olkon.com) in three-bedded wooden cabins with beautiful views over the lake, sand dunes and pine trees. I knew I wanted to swim. Everyone had heard me extolling the joys of swimming in Lake Baikal and drinking the water as you swam. It was freezing!

We met the local shaman, Valentino, and sat with him in the sun on a mountain overlooking Shaman's Rock. He was born with two thumbs on his right hand. Valentino had worked on the BAM Railway before becoming a shaman at the age of 30. He was dressed in yellowy-green satin robes and covered with talismans. He told us about his life and his belief that Genghis Khan was the greatest healer who ever lived. He sports a Black Bull on one shoulder, a Blue Wolf on the other and has a White Eagle behind his head; he heals by making people aware of their own potential.

In his book Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination Ronald Hutton tells of another Buryat shaman whose method of healing was to move his hands over a person's body from head to foot, cleansing it of evil spirits. We picnicked on fresh fish soup amongst the wild flowers at this beautiful northern tip. Here most of the rocks have legends attached to them.

Ulan-Ude, founded in 1666 on the eastern side of the lake, is the capital of present-day Buryatiya. There is a statue of Lenin’s head in the main square, which defies the towns Buddhist connections. The Buddhist monasteries, temples and museums are full of artefacts – the most astonishing being a model of the Dalai Lama.

On the Mongolian border, south of Ulan-Ude is Khyakta. The trade in this town was mainly in luxury goods. “Furs and ginseng from Siberia, carpets and precious gems from central Asia and Persia, wines from France, German china, English wool, and goods from Japan and America were exchanged for Chinese silks, velvets, silver, porcelain, ivory and, above all, tons and tons of tea" (Stephanie Williams, Olga's Story). Today the place is tired and dilapidated, and has an interesting old-fashioned museum. But it is not as run-down as Petrovsky-Zabaikalsky. This was the last place where the Decembrists were imprisoned. The Hotel Siberia stood on a hill above the town The guides called this place 'criminal town'.

We received a wonderful welcome in Bolshoy Kunaley from The Semeisky Old Believers ( ) "Religious rituals were at the heart of the Russian faith and national consciousness. They were also the main cause of a schism in the Orthodox community that split the Russian nation into two … (the most contentious reform altered the manner of making the sign of the cross from two to three fingers)" (Orlando Figes, Natasha's Dance).

Lunch with them was the most outstanding meal of the entire trip: cucumber, salted tomatoes, potatoes with sour cream, beetroot in sugar, spinach pie, carrots, waffles, and everything home-grown in their short growing season. We had the experience of learning archery, listening to a Russian throat singer and dinner in a yurt. Our wonderful Russian guides made all of this possible.

Guides by Alyona Vorobeva and Pavel Lebedev from the International Centre of Culture, Economics and Tourism Baikal in Irkutsk (www.baikal-icc.ru) and Yelena Polyanskaya and Natasha Borisova from Baikal Piligrim in Ulan Ude (www.baikal-p.com; email: ), who will do their utmost to cater to individual and specialist needs.

The trip was organized from England by Russian Journeys; Frances Howard-Gordon, Russian Journeys, PO Box 2568, Glastonbury BA6 8XR, Somerset; email: