At one time known as the "Paris of the East", Irkutsk is the Siberian City where most people get off the TSR so that they can visit Lake Baikel - 65km out of town.

Still retaining charming pockets of its intriguing history, it is worth a day or two stopover.

Next morning we headed out to Lake Baikal - "the pearl of Siberia" is 630km in length and 60km wide. It is the world's deepest lake at over 1600M and as such it contains nearly one-fifth of the world's fresh water.

As we drove into Listvyanka, a charming village on the shores of the Lake, I couldn't work out what everyone was raving about as it just seemed a pretty ordinary lake. It wasn't until the skies cleared the next day that I really appreciated the magnificent setting.

The eastern shores of the Lake are wildest and least explored in the region .... so for the outdoor enthusiast there is lots to see and do.

After wandering around the tiny village, shopping for souvenirs, eating the local seafood and cruising around the Lake, we decided to it was time head off to the highest point and celebrate Jenny's birthday with a few voddies at sunset.

On the way back from Lake Baikal we stopped off at a Wooden Architecture Museum - sounds really boring but it was worth the stopover. The stunning wooden buildings are original 17th Century homes and farm houses that had been relocated from various villages in the region that had been affected by hydro electric schemes over the last 20 years or so.