Slyudyanka

Understand

thumb|250px|Slyudyanka railway station

Whenever you ride Trans-Siberian railway and the train moves slightly south to curve the Baikal, it stops and the passengers pitched by the fish-sellers always get out to buy some smoked Omul then you have arrived in Slyudyanka station. When fish is bought and carriage is oozing with the smell, give a look to the station building. White plates are the same as the gravel under the rails. It's marble. The name Slyudyanka stands for another mineral found here - the mica (slyuda in Russian).

In 1647, at the heyday of the Russian conquest of Siberia, a prison was built at the site of present day Slyudyanka. Shortly after it was moved northwest to where Kultuk is now. The next building to appear, about a century and a half later, was a winter hut built in 1802 to provide shelter for voyagers along the Irkutsk-Kyakhta postal route. Going south up the mountains, the route was part of the Great Tea Road, also known as the Siberian route, along which tea arrived from China to Russia overland. In the middle of the 19th century a road to Ulan Ude (Verkhneudinsk back then) was built. However the arrival of the Trans-Siberian railway in 1905 was what turned the outpost into a settlement and eventually a town. It got the status as a regional center in 1930 and city status six years later.

The railway, and marble mining are the main sources of income; mica mining has stopped and the large fishing and fish processing industries didn't survive the coll…

Get in

There's boat traffic on the lake, but not to Slyudyanka. The nearest passenger airport is in Irkutsk. As such the ways in are by train, bus or car.

Get around

There are local marshrutka minibuses, but since the town is small there is little use for them. Marshrutka 101 goes from the south of town across Slyudyanka and all the way to Kultuk and runs every 20 minutes. The walk from Rudo district in the SW of the town to the centre takes about 20 min. Anyway you can see the bus stops on map on this website.

Do

Hike: Slyudyanka may serve as a base and starting point for walks into nearby mountains.

Beach life: The waters of Lake Baikal are too cold to swim in even on the hottest summer days (still many tourists try it), but locals do tan on the beach northeast of the city.

Buy

thumb|Roadside market at the Kultuk switchbacks A shop in Russian is "магазин", so look for this sign.

Sleep

thumb|Ulitsa Lenina, Lenin Street, part of the P258 highway In addition to the ones listed below, there are also "country hotels" along the road outside Slyudyanka though these are unpractical unless you have a car.

Connect

Megafon has 4G coverage in town, 3G and 2G further out. MTS sistema and Tele2 have 4G coverage also outside town. Beeline VEON has GSM coverage.

Go next

The Circum-Baikal Railway starts (or ends) in Slyudyanka. Train 6201 Matanya departs Slyudyanka 4 times a week (M Th F Su) at around 13:20, arriving in Port Baikal 5-6 hours later. Arshan: There is one marshrutka mini-bus daily going to this foothill spa town, leaving at 09:30; price is around . In high season, try to book early. Baikalsk is the next town east on the Transsib. The next city west is a major one, Irkutsk, and the next major one to the east is Ulan Ude. Hikers can hit the trail to Chersky Peak, at 2090 m ASL one of the highest mountains in the Khamar-Daban range. It's a two day hike.