Ulan Ude (in October, not November)

Upon arrival into Ulan Ude on Tuesday, we quickly orientated ourselves and headed for the hostel. We found the address, but there was no obvious entrance, and no sign outside. A local tried to help us, but he couldn’t figure it out, either. After two unanswered phone calls, we headed to a nearby hostel Fionnuala had spotted, called Husky Hostel. It was warm inside, and they had a twin room available. Having checked in, I reviewed my original booking, and realised it was for November, not October. Although I still have no idea where the original hostel’s entrance is, our stay in Ulan Ude was excellent, and I’ll take greater care with dates in future!

Once unpacked, we went out to explore, and couldn’t resist going to see the world’s largest Lenin head, located in the main city square. The head is 7.7m tall and weighs 42 tons (http://wikitravel.org/en/Ulan_Ude). It’s an impressive sight, and was a welcome change from the many formal statues we’ve seen during our trip. After a walk around the nearby streets, the -9c temperature, and the icy pavements, told us it was time for dinner, followed soon after by our first cups of tea in a while.

This morning, after more tea, we went to the Khangalov Museum of Buryat History. The ground floor was dedicated to the Shamanist history of the Buryats, including traditional tools, weapons and costume. After seeing several sacred Shamanist sites on our trip to Olkhon Island, it was great gain some background information. The first floor showed a little of the history of Ulan Ude, but our inability to understand Russian made it difficult to learn much from the text and videos displayed. We entertained ourselves for twenty minutes with a children’s jigsaw instead, much to the amusement of a museum employee! The top floor of the museum explained the Buddhist history of the Buryat people, including several impressive papier-mâché sculptures of deities.

This afternoon, in order to enjoy the unexpected sunshine, we walked to Rinpoche Bagsha Datsun, the modern Buddhist in the north of the city. The views of the city from the top are certainly worth the walk. The grounds of the temple are filled with coloured ribbons, a large bell and human-size figurines representing the Chinese signs of the zodiac. The large Buddha inside the temple itself is impressive, and the walk down the hill back into the city was far easier than the walk up!