Russia Experience Director Neil McGowan doesn’t just promote Siberia & Mongolia professionally – whenever he gets the chance he heads off for his own vacation there. We bring you the second part of his recent holiday in Altai – with more photos to share …
We stayed at a nice hotel called Salyut on the banks of the Katun River. It has its own small park with birch and cedar trees, leading down to a small sandy beach. Sveta – who is more used to staying in European hotels when on tour with her opera career – was initially apprehensive and convinced we’d be staying in a prefab hut with mosquitoes for company. However, the first sight of a sandy beach to ourselves convinced her that a holiday in Altai – along with her son Ivan, who’s in the Sixth Form at school – wasn’t a complete mistake. Contrary to the usual expectations for a Wagnerian soprano (no, she really is… at Glyndebourne, Brussels, and Amsterdam in Jan 2012), Sveta works-out every day, so a hotel with swimming, a great sauna, bikes for free hire and sunbathing proved something of a hit.
In fact, we split our trip between two hotels – a riverside hotel with access to horse-riding and rafting, and then a resort hotel at the Aya Hot Springs. In the end we liked both (and the hot springs feed a warm lake for great swimming) – but Sveta preferred the forest setting of the riverside hotel, and we’re already hoping to go back next year! Ivan is happy wherever the wi-fi works, so he was happy in both hotels – but with a preference for the Aya hotel, since it had a Computer Game centre too.
We took a trip up to the Karakol Lakes – which is the “big thing you have to do” locally around that part of the Katun River. It takes two and a half hours to trek up on horseback, and there were a few aching knees when we got to the top – but it’s worth it when you get there. Altogether there are seven Karakol Lakes (I think?) – only three of them are accessible unless you’re a whizz rider and have lots of time. We got to the middle three before a mountain storm sent us scuttling back to the campsite by the fifth lake, for billycan tea and shelter at the picnic site. Luckily, it cleared up soon enough that we could descend again without the rain – but it was pretty slippery underfoot.
Rafting was the big hit with Ivan and Sveta – but we didn’t take the camera… I have a history of bad luck with cameras on the Katun, and my Olympus is still somewhere at the bottom from four years ago. Rafting is best (and safest) done in a team of around 6-10 people, so we signed-up to join a team going the next day for a five-hour trip. It was perfect weather (provided you slapped the sun-cream on first) – of course we got soaked with waves splashing over us, but that’s half the fun of it!
Our instructor showed us the ropes, and we noticed he had a necktie from “Alpha” – the Russian version of the SAS – so we knew we were in safe hands! Even non-Russian-speakers quickly learn “paddle!” and “paddle backwards!” which is all you need. There’s a whole little world of rafters on the Katun, and if you spot another raft, you show them your “butterfly” – you spin the raft round, raise the oars over head, shout “ku-ku!” and then bounce up and down on your seats. Whoever does it best wins – although it’s not really clear exactly what you win. Helmets and lifejackets are obligatory, and always provided.
Svetlana returned from the Aya Hotel Health-Club delighted with signing-up for a whole day of massages, hot-tubs, aromatherapy, manicure, pedicure and herbal teas – so Ivan and I went for an afternoon horse-trek to Devil’s Peak. Ivan found an instant rapport with his horse “Baldei” (“Amaze”), and he was quickly cantering off across the countryside, leaving the instructor and I to a more stately amble and a discussion of the career of Rio Ferdinand.
We had to check-out of our hotel rooms at Aya mid-morning, but our local friends Tanya and Sasha (Sasha is a man’s name in Russia!) took us for a trip up the new ski chairlift at Manzherok, for some great views over the local landscape. We even met a local shaman on the drive back to Barnaul, which was a completely unexpected surprise. Our week in Altai flew by, and we were soon on a flight home to Moscow… our luggage filled to the brim with Altai herbal teas and huge plastic containers of honey.
[Photos by Neil McGowan]
You might also enjoy:
- Holidaying in Altai (part one) The first part of an account of holidaying in Altai in Siberia, Russia, savouring the landscape, history and cultural offerings for the modern tourist....
