The Director and his Wife

7th of June:

 

After a really rainy night we started to the hot springs. We got the rough description yesterday from the policeman. We really just had to go straight. Just not sure how long. After ca. 40 km we came to the village Alla. Before it looked everything like the way after Khabarovsk, birches, birches, birches ..... But in Alla you had wide meadows encircled by forest and behind the mountains. They suddenly are standing there like a wall. At some point you can see a steep valley, which looks like a cut in the mountains. And through the valley you can see snow caped mountains behind that wall. From Alla you just go 7 km to the left (coming from Kurumkan) and then you are exactly at the base of the mountains and the start of this valley. At this place in the middle of the forest you see some wooden nice houses (N 54.70184°, E 110.70703°), which are a База Отдыха. It is something like a Spa resort but more cozy. The place is operated by a Buriat couple Зырема and Алек. They are really funny. She was maybe double size of him, but still sporty. Wearing work clothing and a headscarf, she was painting a room inside one of these houses. He was small compared to her and telling me prices if we want to stay here. But we just wanted to go to the hot springs. Anyway we did not have enough money anymore. When he realized this, he started to ask for Euro, then for USD, and finally for Vodka. In this moment she got angry on him. But he said he is director, so he can drink and she can work. That made us all laughing. They prepare for the coming season, which is quite short, but they had visitors from all over the world. And at the rocks of the valley already an American girl died because she just fell down. It is a really amazing place. Sun and rain were alternating. Meantime he agreed to the 100 Rubel we wanted to pay just for the hot spring, although he always started again with 600 Rubel if we stay here with our car (:). While going down into the valley to the hot springs he showed us a lot of this shaman points. He explained we should put the coins there. I saw him how he collected some of them. I think that is not the intention of such holy points. Anyway he was a nice person, just funny and a little bit addicted to the Vodka. The hot springs were really refreshing, alternating hot spring and the cold river let me feel really good. After that it started heavy rain and we decided to drive back to Bargusin valley as it seemed that there the weather is always better than here. Around the mountains all the clouds are stopped and it is raining quite often. This makes the area greener than the Bargusiin valley but we preferred a dry place for the night.