Ulan Ude continued...

11Oct: At the lift, coming down from our room, G was dadling, because of some misguided chivalry. I ushered him in, as the others in the lift were waiting to go. This russian gentleman commented on my ushering, in Russian. He re-iterated in English, realising I had no clue what he said. On the next floor this rather large lady tried to get in, but our Russian pointed out to the lady that the warning light had come on to say we were too heavy and encouraged her to leave. He then turned to me and said “big breakfast”. I had to laugh.
We went in search of the Marshrutky to take us to the Ethnological museum, 6km out of town. It looked overcast but the thermometer said 2C. I had written in Cyrillic, on my trusty post-its, please take us to the museum. It worked quite well, as we got delivered right to the entrance of the museum. In fact a few Buryat people helped us out on the bus as they spoke a little English, including the driver. We had just started going, when the snow just came down, heavily. Within an hour over an inch had fallen. G commented, that it would be today, viewing an outdoor museum that it snows. However, the views from the Marshrutky were all the better, as the suburbs were full of lovely old wooden houses. On arrival at the museum, we realised we were the only tourists and many of the buildings were closed. It was freezing and feeling our fingers and toes proved a task. The museum is made up of sections, each with actual homesteads, houses, outbuildings, etc of various eras and peoples over the last 400 years. Many of the houses have been taken from other areas and rebuilt and furnished with items of their time.
Walking the 3km museum grounds, the snow added a certain authenticity to the place, and showed the collection of reconstructed houses, churches etc. at their best.
Finding a café, we knocked back a couple of teas, pronounced chey here. G said tea never felt so good. I agreed. Fingers now work.

I spent the afternoon walking around Ulan Ude. It really is a lovely town and there are many streets that are dominated by wooden houses or mansions. Many are ramshackle but are beautiful in their shabbiness. The temperature went up so it was such a pleasure to walk around.

Since arriving at Ulan Ude, the population distribution has so changed. Here the population is probably 60/40 in favour of the Buryat. The Buryat people, decendants of Mongolians, migrated here a few centuries ago, but are Russian as such. The Buryat seem more friendly and are more likely to speak English. We have had more interaction with Buryats in the last few days, then for the last few weeks with Russians in general except guides. Today it was obvious on the bus and again when I was in a computer shop, the guy behind the counter spoke excellent English and he and his Buryat colleagues were so helpful and smiling. Very different from other Russian cities. Russians tend not to speak English and a smile is often hard to come by. But saying that I like the Russians. There’s no BSing.