Siberian Life at the ‘Countryside House’ – Irkutsk, Russia

As promised on my last post, I am going to introduce you to Siberian life after spending it with locals for nearly a month. We’re going to go bit by bit though as my experiences here were so varied and different from one day to the next. To start things on this Siberian adventure, I was headed with my friend out to her ‘Countryside House’ as she calls it. Basically, the small villages of homes date back to the original settlers here in Siberia. In fact, many locals in the city of Irkutsk have a residence in the center city and also one of these ‘countryside’ homes not far from city limits. Her’s was about 7 kilometers (about 4 miles) from downtown Irkutsk so it wasn’t too far of a drive.

We went to spend the night and unfortunately we didn’t get out there till after 12pm. And since there is no heat other than a fireplace, it was about 2am by the time we got some heat pumping into the room we’d be sleeping in.

The oven that kept the coals burning and the heat pumping…

And amazingly, not only was that room nice and warm all night but it lasted well into the next day from the coals, iron and bricks that were heated up. When the rest of the family arrived later that afternoon, it was time for the festivities to begin. The day started off by doing some proper shoveling of soil from one end of the garden to the other. Had I known I’d be gardening on this trip, I’d have brought some work gloves!

While I was doing this, everyone else had their own work cut out for them. Some of it involved picking peppers, some soil tilling and even a nifty bonfire for dead debris. Afterwards, we ate dinner which was an interesting event for me to say the least. It was me, as the lone foreigner, amongst 5 Russians at the dinner table. Luckily, I loved all the food and even the 3 shots of Vodka that went along with dinner. The only strange part was that the Vodka was followed by a large glass of milk. I think my stomach would have been better off with 3 more shots of Vodka!

Doing some hard labor while on the travel road in Siberia

Afterwards, it was sauna time… which is called a ‘banya’ in Russia. Another big part of Siberian life. Of course I had been in a sauna back at home a few times however the experience here was like no other I’d ever had. Part of the reason most of these countryside homes have one is the fact it provides the opportunity to shower in addition to the benefits received by the sauna itself since most of these homes have no indoor plumbing.

So anyway, back to my story here… the way its done in Russia is the guys head in together and later, the women go in  separately. So far so good in terms of normalcy. What is NOT normal, at least in my own country is what I call the ‘beating’. Now it’s not really meant to be a beating in the rough sense of the word but since I’m coming up dry on how to describe this experience, the ‘beating’ is what I’m sticking with! It starts after about 15 to 20 minutes of being in the banya. The process first starts by sitting inside, then coming out for air, going back in for bit, coming back out for more air and then its time for the beating. (You can see I’m wasting no time in getting to the gist of this experience)

It begins with menthol leaves being put into a pot of hot steaming water. This is then thrown onto the coals which not only puts a scent into the air to clear your entire windpipe but also puts piping hot steam into the upper portion of the banya where you then lie face down on a high bench.

Some cabbage in their garden that I get acquainted with a bit later in this trip…

Meanwhile, the other person in there grabs a set of branches tied together and, well, starts beating you with it from head to toe. Needless to say, this experience for me was probably the strangest I’d had since having my face subjected to a 7 inch flaming torch for what was meant to be a haircut while in Turkey. Now, don’t get me wrong, the beating really isn’t meant to be painful. There are leaves on the branches however, in my case (and possibly for others), there really isn’t a good way to regulate the scorching steam that rests on the leaves of the branches that are then whipped no less than 100 times to your helpless skin. I’m sure it’s normally a fantastic feeling however I’m also pretty damn sure the branches that were slapped onto my back could have stopped a polar bear in its tracks!

My friend and her grandfather…

And if this experience wasn’t harrowing enough, I later found the ‘outhouse’ out back to use the bathroom. This was meant to be a simple 20 sec pit stop (number 1 folks:) but soon turned into a 10 minute event after having the outside ‘turn’ lock fall down on itself. Now I know what you’re thinking… just push it up through the crack in the door. Well… not so simple! This was not the outhouse you’re picturing from the Clint Eastwood films out west that are made of wood and have 1 inch gaps between the boards. Oh no folks, this was a certified steel box with a door that overlapped the outer perimeter of the door opening. If you’re having trouble visualizing this, just know that there was no light showing through and no way to simply unlock myself out. All I could do was shake the door! And of course, this was the last place you’d want to get locked in if you know what I mean!! The only light showing through was a horizontal slit at the top of the door and was just enough for me to see who was outside. And who was it? None other than my friends parents and grandparents. Now put yourself in my shoes… do you yell at them 40 yards away at the back of the house to come to your attention? Lets see… they don’t even speak English. Nope, bad plan. However, with my friend no where in sight for the past five minutes, I had to revert to my MACGUYVER skills (of which I have many).

Yep that’s Macguyver folks, in case anyone needed reminding

And for those of you young and possibly foreign folks out there reading this, here’ s a link on Wikipedia to get up to speed on this legend of a man. So what did I find? My Shenzhen, China library card! Random but yes, I’m a dork:) But give me a break… when you’re in China for months on end, all you’ll want is something to read in a language you can understand! OK…so back to my situation… after about 2 minutes worth of trying to pick this lock, it broke free and I nearly fell flat on my face into the garden. And had I actually done that, I wouldn’t have minded… I was breathing some seriously fresh air at this point and was happy. I also broke out without any one noticing, so far so good. Next up was simply managing the drive back into the city. Hopefully, the next hour would go a bit smoother for me! Stay tuned for another slice of Siberian life!