Arshan, Russia – Home to Buryats & Mineral Water

With about five days spent in Irkutsk, Russia so far, it was time to head out of the city and the next destination was a place called Arshan which is located within about 50 miles north of the Mongolian border. I had been told about Arshan before, even when I had traveled out to Siberia nearly a year earlier. However, with it being nearly 3 hours by car in such a remote location, I was glad to have a ‘local’ be my tour guide. And truth be told, a year ago I figured I’d need to have my own car to reach this area but I later found out that you can catch a local bus from Irkutsk to get to Arshan. You can catch a bus in the morning and expect the drive to take about 4 hours. And to get back, just catch the bus from the main square in town.

For a bit about the area, Arshan is a small village that is known for its hot springs and mineral water. It sits right on the edge of the Sayan Mountains and is home to the Buryats, the natives of this land. If you’re looking to visit, the weekend may be the best time to come but also the most crowded. However, the local Buryatians will be selling most of their goods at the local market during this time.

As soon as we arrived the of town Arshan, it was off to find a place to stay. Little did I know though ‘how’ you are supposed to find a place around here. There are no hotels and there really aren’t any ‘advertised’ guesthouses either.

Let’s hope it doesn’t look up suddenly!

No sir… you are instead just supposed to knock on the door of someone’s house and ask if you can rent it for the night or a few days! And this is exactly what we did. Well, not so much ‘we’ as I just kind of kicked back and watched this whole process. Apparently, since the people of this town are so poor, they make the majority of their money on the tourists that come through here which typically occurs on weekends.

Some of the local food in Russia near Lake Baikal

And when one or a few of these out-of-town tourists need a place, these locals will simply rent out their house for the weekend and pack themselves up for somewhere else to stay for the weekend. Its pretty crazy actually because you feel like you’re kicking them out of their house. Prices in Arshan are affordable though, usually between 300-400 Rubles per person per night however, rarely will any of the homes have any indoor plumbing though many will have a banya (sauna) where you can also wash yourself.

The Sayan Mountains sitting at the edge of Arshan

After about an hour and half of knocking on doors, we eventually found a place though we didn’t force out these owners as they had built a couple separate

Our Cabin in Arshan

cabins on their property for tourists. The place was nice enough though we quickly found out the first night that the heater was barely enough to warm half the room. That plus the fact that the bed felt like a slab of concrete with nothing but gift wrapping paper disguised as a blanket. So yes, it was damn cold in there in those early morning hours!

Inside our Cabin at Arshan

Snow atop the Sayan Mountians – A View from our Cabin in the morning

Either way, we made the best of the 3 days we spent there. We hit up the local market area as mentioned above where you can buy locally made goods as well as those made just across the border of Mongolia. We also hiked up one of the trails in the area which led us to a waterfall spot. The bridge crossing this area was a bit sketch but held. I think I got that feeling once I read the sign (written in Russian of course) that there was a max weight limit. Good to know….

The ‘Weight Limit Sign’

The Waterfall Area

We also visited an area known to be sacred for its life-giving mineral water. About a half kilometer walk from the local goods market, you’ll find this little guy below sitting in the middle of a stream handing out free refills of the mineral water in Arshan. Many will travel from afar just to fill up their huge water bottles that they brought from home. From what I was told, you should take a shot sized glass of this mineral water every day. That’s plenty too, at least for me… I wasn’t too fond of its taste (or the cloudiness of the water).

Local Stack Rocks Tradition in Arshan Village

Mineral Water in Arshan village – not quite as fancy as the statue above…

We were also going to hike the mountains which you can see from the picture below but it had snowed on half of the mountain the night before and the weather had gotten extremely cold that day.

Local Buryat selling a type of pine nut at the Arshan market

With the hike up and back down taking about 8 total hours should you want to reach the peak, we decided to save this for another day. Instead, we rode just outside of town and spent the afternoon at the local hot springs pool. With misty cold weather, it was definitely worth the drive to come here even though this geo-thermal pool hardly compared to that I’d traveled to in Iceland. We did have a great time though and if you have at least a week to spend in either Irkutsk or Lake Baikal, I’d recommend a visit to Arshan…

Sun Setting over the Sayan Mountains in Arshan