Lake Baikal, Siberia on Qantas and Siberian Airlines (S7)

[JohnM]

I somehow suspect that S7 has a contract with Canti for their wines...

 

[RooFlyer]

It was cloudy as we left Irkutsk





I was hoping for a change in weather before we reached Lake Baikal ( hat tip to JohnM for pointing out to me the map.me phone application)



Yes!







The seatbelt sign went off just in time for me to scoot over to the other side to see the mountain range on the SE corner of the lake, that we saw from the ground the other day ( not the one posted lots of pics of - this one was in the distance and ground pics didn't show much).



All the browny looking stuff is actually yellow leaved autumnal foliage.

 

[RooFlyer]

Warm towel provided and PDB of juice or water.
Nut mix and drinks order soon after seat belt sign went off.



Lunch of Algerian beef



Ulan Bator down there


A glitch in the map.me speed indication!



A wind farm following ridges somewhere over China

 

[RooFlyer]

Landed in HKG 30 mins late due to an ATC hold. Then bags took 35 mins after I had effortlessly cleared immigration, to arrive

Etihad plane:



I was booked into the Intercon on Salisbury Rd, courtesy of a good Virtuoso deal my TA got for me.

Got upgraded 2 room classes to a harbour view suite. Fantastic! All the better as I have a late flight tomorrow and was granted a 3 pm check out. All virtuoso. I think I'm only gold with IHG, but treated royally!







Sat in the lounge and watched the light show at 8 pm



Had a beer, water and some scallops as part of US$100 Food and bev credit through Virtuoso. The rest went on lunch the next day.

 

[RooFlyer]

A nice view to wake up to





I've run out of things to do in HKG. The only reason I stopped over was due to caution on an unrelated ticket connection.

Mooched about and did the Star Ferry and back as a relaxing stay to the day. The Intercon is the lower building on the left.



Another favourite of mine, Kowloon Park.



Back to the Intercon for a free lunch ( or included, I should say )



A bit after 3, check in at Kowloon was deserted!



But a downer when the check in agent told me that the A330 had been changed from new to old config, and my 4A 'suite', carefully curated for months, was now the inner one of a pair. I switched to one of the middle pairs at the same time that I realised that the seats were the very old fashioned angle flat seats.

Back to more pleasant subjects. Breezed through exit immigration and security and had a small champers in The Wing to sooth jangled nerves.



Then off to The Pier to settle in for a few hours till my 11:35pm departing on QF118.

 

[RooFlyer]

Time to hot foot it back to gate 23 where the Qantas flight would be leavung from. It's a long way!



As was the case with the flight up, the crew arrived about 10 mins after boarding was scheduled to commence



Seat and legroom



We left a bit late and then something that's also a pet peeve of mine. Why the hell would they have a dinner service at about 1am departure port time, 3am arrival port time? Even with early arrival at airport etc, noone should need to have a full mean then! Yet about 1/3 of the cabin did, including my seat mate. So the cabin didn't go dark and quiet for sleep until about 2:30 an local.

Not that it mattered much. Bloody angle flat played havoc with the pinched nerve in my lower back.

Nearly everyone in the J cabin that I could see had IFE issues. Multiple system reboots. Only thing I wanted to watch was the last 2 episodes of 'Genius' about Einstein that I didn't see on the flight up. No, not showing on the flight down.

 

[kermatu]

Last time I flew on one of these was 2013 and I ain't rushing back.
We have been spoilt with so much better these days, even in J.
While 1.5 hours is a bit long for a meal service for 1/3 pax, I'd personally welcome it over a snack and instantly dark cabin. No airline will ever make everyone happy in a J cabin like this.

 

[RooFlyer]

Oh, forgot to mention. I put my seat into flat mode straight away the seat belt sign went off, on back, shut eyes trying to relax as a prelude to sleep.

About 10 mins later someone spoke my name to me. I opened eyes. It was was one of the FAs ( all male crew this time) asking me, lying and shut eye, if I was going to have dinner.

I bit my tongue and just replied ' no, thankyou'.

 

[RooFlyer]

Flight arrived on time ; an entirely unmemorable experience. Zero WP recognition BTW and CSM didn't do any chat etc. The last 3 hours of the flight was in lit cabin in Australian morning, so the opportunity was there.

I ducked into downtown Sydney to visit the Mitchell library for some research, as my VA flights to MEL then onto HBA weren't scheduled until a bit after 5. Got wet in a downpour from station to library.

Went back to airport to kill the remaining hour or so. Flight into SYD delayed, then VA ground crew faffed about incredibly before we boarded. No 'get ready' calls like they usually do, just suddenly announced 'extra assistance' and the folks weren't ready. 15 mins to corral the family with kids and to disassemble their stroller. Then they had to find wheelchair pax who were all over the shop. All the while I was sweating on my connection in MEL. Inbound plane was 20 mins late, we left almost an hour late.

And just missed the connection in MEL. New BP waiting for me at exit from the air bridge. Then of course my original flight was delayed 30 mins and I would have made it.

Now my substitute flight is also delayed. I'll get into HBA abt 11:30 am and expect to arrive home about 1am. Oh joy. I guess it's Friday night but Virgin are usually a lot better than this.

I'll do a summary and tips post when I recover

 

[Happy Dude]

Great report!! Great travels!!

 

[Antoallison]

Forecast for today was early showers so I was really pleased to wake up to a fully sunny morning. Today is just an easy day to see Irkutsk before heading to Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal tomorrow.

One of the things immediately obvious is that the city boasts lots of old 'siberian' wooden buildings. Unfortunately, not easy to photograph due to low sun, trees and maniac drivers ( can't stop back onto the street).

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Forecast for today was early showers so I was really pleased to wake up to a fully sunny morning. Today is just an easy day to see Irkutsk before heading to Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal tomorrow.

One of the things immediately obvious is that the city boasts lots of old 'siberian' wooden buildings. Unfortunately, not easy to photograph due to low sun, trees and maniac drivers ( can't stop back onto the street).

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Thank you....Your photos of those wonderful buildings are a delight. I am enjoying travelling with you. I had a closed mind about ever wanting to visit Russia (except for The Hermitage) but these photos and your descriptions have changed my point of view.

 

[Antoallison]

Well done on the Trip Report! I don't think I will ever go to Lake Baikal and Irkutsk in my life so I appreciate all your photos and reports!

I got enthusiastic after the first photos but after the steppe scenery, the ferry crossing, that town, the accomodation and that meal...you lost me !
Too adventurous for me, but I am enjoying Rooflyer doing the hard yards !

 

[Dudditz]

I tuned into Turkmenistan TV in preparation for my visit there next year.

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Good to see your honest and open experience of Baikal I have always wanted to stop past there at some point.

I look also forward to seeing the smoke and mirrors of Turmmenbashi's legacy when I visit there in a couple of weeks

 

[RooFlyer]

I look also forward to seeing the smoke and mirrors of Turmmenbashi's legacy when I visit there in a couple of weeks

Can you do a bit of a Trip Report on that visit? Love to know some more about the place before I visit.

 

[RooFlyer]

Thank you....Your photos of those wonderful buildings are a delight. I am enjoying travelling with you. I had a closed mind about ever wanting to visit Russia (except for The Hermitage) but these photos and your descriptions have changed my point of view.

Don't miss St Petersburg! My favourite 'foreign' city, anywhere in the world! Beautiful, interesting, varied and easy to visit. I have 2 trip rports on the city here and here. Unfortunately the pictures in the second one have been lost, but the text may be of interest. There is so much to see and do there, I'd recommend a week.

The application process for getting a Russian visa can be long, but there is plenty of help here on AFF. St P is visitor 'friendly', with signs in English all over the place. I didn't feel the need to take a tour on either visit, but that option is always there, maybe for the first day or 2 as 'orientation'.

 

[Denali]

St Petersburg is on my wish list, maybe in a couple of years.

 

[RooFlyer]

This trip ended on a sour note. After two delayed Virgin flights and being bumped to a later flight to get into Hobart, I finally arrived at about 11:15pm. Waited for my bag in vain until the carousel stopped. Looked around - no baggage desk. Someone pointed up the terminal so, with no other option, I went looking for a Virgin person. Eventually found some-one and asked about non-arrived bags. Told her my name and her face brightened. "We have your bag here - it arrived on an earlier flight." Yes, that was the one they didn't allow me to board, bumping me to a later one.

So she disappeared into some offices and brought out my bag.

Fair dinkum, I nearly lost it. It apparently didn't occur to anyone in Virgin to either a) let me know at MEL or while on my flight that my bag had gone on the earlier flight and to go straight to xx_ to get my bag in HBA, or to put my bag on or next to the carousel in HBA when my flight arrived and pax appeared. Or even just to page me over the PA!! No, they just let me stand by the carousel until it stopped and made me go off and find someone who might know something. Talk about treating your customers with contempt. By this time all the Ubers had left and so I was stuck with an expensive taxi ride to get my car and thence drive an hour home.

 

[tgh]

Characteristically enjoyable read, thanks.
I will give the riding holiday a miss, not my kind of country….

 

[drron]

Just as well you aren't a first time poster with that rant.I might have told you off!
Seriously though just pathetic.Unfortunately something I have learnt to expect in Australia.

 

[RooFlyer]

On a cheerier note, to summarise the trip:

Irkutsk / Lake Baikal is a great place to visit with lots of things to see and do, with the emphasis being on the natural world. I chose a week because the direct flight to/from HKG only runs weekly and it turned out to be a good length of time, but you could do longer. If you go all that way you should do more than Lake Baikal.

Weather is critical to a good experience. The best weather is July and August. That of course coincides with peak numbers but given that most of the attractions are natural and its a 'big' scenery place, that isn't the issue that it would be in, say a city of museums and churches. We were so lucky with the weather on this trip - it could have been cold and windy the whole time which would have greatly detracted from the trip. But the autumn colours were a major part of the experience on this trip.

Winter is another 'high season' period, where driving on the frozen Lake Baikal, ice fishing, ice cave visits are the go. I want to return to do this next time.

There is more to do in the region than I did. The 'circum Baikal railway' is a complete misnomer but people like it very much. Its a day trip from and return to Irkutsk where you take an electric then steam train on part of the original TSR rail tracks around the SE corner of the lake. I would have loved to do the Trans Siberian Railway from Beijing to Irkutsk - its 2 full days and nights.

S7 is an airline I'd be happy to use again. Both my 5 hour flights in J were serviceable without being spectacular. I'd be happy to do them from Irkutsk to the west of Russia, I think, depending on the plane config.

Tourist facilities outside of Irkutsk are below the standard you'd like BUT you could definitely do better than I experienced with a bit of forewarning (here) and planning. As I mentioned up-thread, there is a hotel in Khuzhir on Olkhon Island and certainly better hotels in Arshan than we got there. I don't know why I didn't quiz the tour company as to the quality of accommodation provided - I just assumed too much, I think. But if you plan to go in peak season, you'd have to book well ahead to get the good places. With a bit or warning, we could have substantially self-catered out of Irkusk on the Tunka Valley tour.

I used 'Baikal Secrets' tour company but I'm not sure there would be much difference between the various tour companies you' find on trip Advisor, as they all seem to use freelancers to actually run the tours EXCEPT I know Ivan of Baikal Secrets runs the winter ice tour himself and maybe others as time permits.

The Courtyard Marriott in Irkutsk was a very good choice. They were very helpful in supplying me with the 'invitation' needed for my Visa and in that process, and at the hotel, their English was good. There are several other hotels that looked good as well - CM rated about #5 on Trip Advisor.

There are some really good restaurants in Irkutsk, with an emphasis on fresh fish from Lake Baikal.

Getting a Russian Visa is a laborious process, but there is plenty of help here on AFF if you need it. Apply as early as possible - I think the earliest you can apply is 3 months prior to your arrival date. Certainly the experience you get makes the application process worthwhile.

The couple who joined me on the Tunka Valley tour have convinced me to go back, and see the area around Novosibirsk/Tomsk in central Siberia, so going to Europe next time may be on S7 via Irkutsk, Novosibirsk and St Petersburg!