From the wild to the metropolis

Downwind from the home of 360 thousand people, the smell of burning plastic and emissions was our first indication that a city was just around the corner.  From a distance the industrial smoke stacks of Ulan-Ude dominated the sky line. After 40 days with no shower, this was the first city we had encountered en route. 

We parked our canoes between the prison and the town’s decrepit port, and while Ulysse and Sarah stood guard, Elsa and I headed into town in town to find a reasonably cheap hotel that could also store our canoes. Within a few minutes we stumbled onto the town’s major street, hosting a variety of shops, grocery stores, and restaurants.  

Ulan-Ude is the capital of the Buryat region of Siberia, however it only boasts a 20 percent population of Buryat people. While walking down main street, the contrast of fair skinned bleached blondes and raven haired mongoloids became quite apparent. The city itself gravitates around the confluence of the Selenga and the Uda Rivers, only 130 km for Lake Baikal. Overwhelmingly the town is Russian; the large grey apartment complexes, the blue shuttered wood houses, the Trans Siberian running through the center of town, and the world’s largest statue of Lenin’s head all profess this truth.

After an hour of wandering through town we found a hotel who agreed to store our 17 feet canoes in their hotel lobby, not too far from their stuffed bear.  Once settled in we headed out for our first decent meal and beer.

By Eric McNair-Landry

Location:

Latitude:51.82893
Longitude:107.58047
GPS location Date/Time:08/21/2010 13:06:36 ULAT

 Click the link below to see where we are located.
http://fms.ws/3JABE/51.82893/107.58047