Train from Tanhoy to Slutyanka

Tuesday, August 14th, On the train from Tanhoy to Slutyanka

We packed up and left our camp yesterday. After a grueling 1 1/2 hour hike out with a pack weighted down with two tents and two loppers plus all my crap, we got to the national park center near the lake. The afternoon was lazy but disappeared quickly--unpacking, walking to town and a little store, the banya, lunch and then dinner prep.

The banya, or traditional Russian sauna and beating, was fabulous! Partly because it was my first time and in part because I was doing it with Russians in Russia near Lake Baikal! The general idea is much like a sauna or steam bath: wood, fire, water, rocks and a wooden house. There are two large buckets of cold water that have to be filled by hand. And there is a large tub of water connected to the fire stove that gets heated to boiling. There are pails and buckets that can be filled with either hot or cold water or a combo for bathing. You can bring soap and shampoo inside and do all your washing in the HOT HOT room. But the really unique feature of the banya is the ritualistic beating! It is supposed to stimulate your blood.

To be beaten you need branches from a pine or birch tree or some other tree gathered fresh! I was the only one of the three of us bathing together that wanted a beating. The Russian girls said they didn't like it. So down I went. I laid down (fully nude) on the upper bench to be beaten by pine branches. The branches were dipped in water first, and then Zheniya started the beating. She bet me first on my backside for 3-5 minutes covering every last inch. She didn't hit hard, just a light tap or touch, enough to feel the scratch of the pine needles on my skin. Then I flipped over and she did the same on my front side. It felt great and smelled wonderful--like x-mas trees! After the beating I was covered in pine needles! I ditched my warm water intended for bathing and filled up on cold. By this point I was about to suffocate in sauna. And I did run out to escape a few times, putting my head out the front door for fresh air. Much at M's amuzement!

It did feel amazing to sweat out the dirt and get a deep cleaning after two weeks. My nails are almost clean again. But it will be awhile before all my mosquito bites heal and the general conditions of my skin is back to normal. And who knows if my clothes or socks will ever fully recover.

At the moment, sitting on the train, we are stopped at some po-dunk town next to the lake. We seem to be on a commuter train, lots of people getting on and off at all these really little stops that don't look like much more than a few houses and a train platform. Tanhoy, where we got on, was just that--a few roads, a few houses, many of them abandon and a few cows. The houses looked like they mostly rely on fire for heat and the people were collecting water from a common water pump, so no indoor plumbing either. Many houses have metal or corrugated metal roofs with seemingly little or no insulation--remarkable given the winter temps and the amount of snow they must get. But each houe has beautiful window framed in bright blue designs. And there are almost always flowers in the window--quaint beauty amidst a harsh landscape.