We arrived in Ulan Ude very early (I had less than 4 hours of sleep) and had breakfast at the Lotus Hostel at 7am. Denis, the owner was very friendly and the service was nicely personalised. He gave us lots of ideas about things to do, and infomred us that we were lucky to arrive in the middle of the festival celebrating 350 years of Ulan Ude (meaning "Red Door").
This city has a very strong majority asian influence (mostly Buryat), and this can be seen in the culture, language and types of goods being sold at markets. The gradual transition into Asia on the trip was evidenced right infront of my eyes! and I found it most interesting that it's sumsumption into Russia was celebrated at all! There are to strong buddhist communities (almost in competition?) - Buyrat and Tibetan.
We went to vist the Buryat Dhatsan Monastery out of town - the first tangible example of buddhist following in a Russian city. I saw some strong hindu influences in some of the icons on display - the exact connections to be explored at a later date (I'll see if my dad has any comments to make when I show him some pictures)! Be warned, if you use the toilet there, for the 10 roubles entry, the lady there will give you an exact measure of toilet roll!
After this, we explored the festival and tickled some fluffy animals, and ended witha fireworks display. The Mongolian orchestra we went to see was incredibly astounding - the music had traces of chinese, but the rythms were something else, and the singing was almost like Welsh opera in some cases. I have bought an album.
Later on, we got talking to Vladimir and his wife Vera. Though communication was hard, our group got on well with them, and he was kind enough to tell us tourists as friendly as us only come by once in ten years - perhaps because we were going to places that tourists wouldn't go to! As a permanent souvenir, they asked that I write my name in Russian and in English on a cigarette for them. Strange but true!
