Day 9

After breakfast we took the #16 bus to the ferry terminal.  Bo had purchased tickets online from Irkutsk to Listvyanka (which is on lake Baikal). It turned out to be an excursion. There were 12 of us in the group, and we were the only non-Russians.  First stop was Taltsi, an open-air museum that contains collection of historical wooden buildings. At least 50 buildings all of wood from 18th and 19th century. Not surprisingly, like everywhere else, there were lots of Chinese tourists there.  From there we took a bus to a chair lift that went to a peak called the Czerski Rock, above Listvyanka. It has the best view of the river Angara flowing into Lake Baikal. The chair lift moved very slowly and had lovely views of the taiga with colorful leaves, but next to it was a zip line with people zooming through very fast. Then on by bus to Listvyanka.  What a madhouse.  A beach resort jammed with people and cars. And many vendors selling warm Omul, a local white fish from the lake.  We ate 2 and they were delicious.  We bought one at the fish market and liked it so when we saw a whole street where in front of each house people were smoking omul, we wanted to buy one more. They were selling out very fast because people were stopping their cars to buy they and take them to Irkutsk. We did get one fresh from the smoker, but when we asked for bread, people just laughed and said that even all the stores were out of bread because all Irkutsk came to Listvanka over the weekend due to gorgeous weather. From Listvyanka, we took the ferry back to Irkutsk (1 hour), and Bus # 16 back to the hotel.