Three Nights at Nikita’s

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  Olkhon, Siberia, Russia
Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Nikita's Guesthouse is in the main town of Khuzhir on Olkhon Island. The island stretches around 72 kilometres long and 11 wide and there are around 2,000 residents in Khuzhir. They are kept busy by tourism, a school, a hospital, a bakery, fishing, some farming, a dieing fish canning factory, a few shops, café’s and bars, town administration and some retirees as well as unemployed people. There are a few smaller towns on the island but they are neither successful nor as large so rely on Khuzhir for everything.

Given this information, and having learnt that there has only been electricity for the last three years, it is not surprising that things are still somewhat less than modern. Many of the rooms share a communal outhouse shower and toilet block and that water is carried in rather than piped in. We were very lucky, our two room chalet has an indoor toilet, basin and shower room, pure luxury! Even though the water has to be manually poured from one barrel to another and the shower is a pump by foot as you hold it above your head shower, it is soooo much better than having to dash to an out house in the middle of he night!

From our experience, one should never visit for less than three nights; arrive on the first day and find your way around, go to the north on the second day, and, as we did today, spend a day in total relaxation.

We had a late start, a lazy breakfast, a walk down to the lake and a wander along its edge admiring some more spectacular views, paddled in the icy water while watching mad people actually going for a swim, sat on the sandy beach enjoying the sunshine, enjoyed another delicious fish lunch, took another Banya sauna, relaxed some more, had a beer with Eugene, had AMAZING fish soup for supper, listened to some Russian Folk Music performers, relaxed some more, went to bed.

What a fantastic experience!

Tomorrow we are heading for Irkutsk where we will end our Siberian adventure and head back to Moscow for our last couple of days of holiday; we would happily spend a lot more time on this Russian holiday.

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Three Nights at Nikita's

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