I HOPE ..

MAKE NO MISTAKE .. I FULLY REALIZE HOW BLESSED AND HOW LUCKY AND HOW FORTUNATE I AM TO BE ABLE TO TRAVEL AS I DO. THE ENTIRE POINT OF MY WEBSITE HERE IS TO REALIZE MY DESIRE THAT .. IN SOME SMALL WAY .. ONE OF MY POSTS OR ONE OF MY PHOTOGRAPHS WILL MAKE ONE PERSON'S DAY JUST A LITTLE BIT BETTER.

TO FEEL GOOD .. DO GOOD !

I HOPE THAT SOMEONE VISITING MY WEBSITE WILL SEE SOMETHING ON IT THAT THEY WILL NOT EVER BE ABLE TO SEE OR TO DO OTHERWISE .. AND THAT THIS EXPERIENCE WILL MAKE THEIR DAY OR THEIR LIFE JUST A LITTLE BIT BETTER !


IF YOU HAVE YOUR HEALTH AND ADEQUATE MONEY TO FOLLOW-YOUR-DREAM .. WITH DISCERNMENT .. FIND THE COURAGE AND HAVE THE GUTS TO DO WHAT GOD IS CALLING YOU TO DO!


TRULY THIS IS MY DOXOLOGY .. MY PRAISE TO GOD!

YOU CAN ALSO VISIT .. http://babakaps.net .. TO SEE MY OTHER WEBSITE.
Showing posts with label Buryatia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Buryatia. Show all posts

Saturday, 23 November 2019

NOV 23, 19 .. IRKUTSK / ARSHAN Part 5 of 5 .. KHAMAR-DABAN .. TIME TO EAT

The time has come the Walrus said to wrap up this series of five posts of IRKUTSK / ARSHAN. 

How better to do this than to sit down at the number one (Trip Advisor) rated restaurant in Arshan, KHAMAR-DABAN, and enjoy yet another fine dinner in Russian Siberia. 

Before our drive to Arshan, I'd checked Trip Advisor for restaurant recommendations and so I asked our hosts if we could eat at KHAMAR-DABAN. All three of them were familiar with it and it was also their restaurant of choice in Arshan.

KHAMAR-DABAN

Here we are, we've arrived at ХАМАР-ДАБАН



In the above photo ХАМАР-ДАБАН looks small. It is not small. The restaurant extends to the left into the white building.


Do you all see Patti's reflection in the above window?


Inside we walk. 

At this point, looking to the right in the below photo, it still looks pretty small. From my vantage point, I thought that the entire dining area was what I was seeing.


Below can you see Patti (in black with her 4-footed cane to her right) ordering our dinners.


The below photo shows the dining area on the other side of the room beyond the ordering counter in the above two photos.



And then, I turned around and walked into the 'other part' of the dining area.



In these three photos you are seeing the part of ХАМАР-ДАБАН that is in the white building (first photo at the top).


KHAMAR-DABAN is enormous.


 In the below photo, our table was the last table.


A very pleasant 'wintering area' for the plants.



"What's that 'Zilla?"

"When are we going to eat?"

"Zilla! I thought you'd never ask."

Here is (Patti and mine) 'our truth' about meals in Russian Siberia.

The Russian Chefs know how-to-do Chicken Caesar Salads!

Never once, in any restaurant we ate in during our five months together in Russian Siberia, did we have a poor Chicken Caesar Salad. 



Chicken Caesar Salads became our 'default' choice of dinner where ever we ate.




In the bottom below you see steamed meat dumplings.



These are very popular in Irkutsk and Buryatia.



Also popular are deep fried meat dumplings.




Soup and salad.



That is that for dinner here at KHAMAR-DABAN..
ХАМАР-ДАБАН



Our table was the now empty table in the foreground immediately above.

Now I am going to show a few general photos of Arshan that I snapped at random as we were driving around.








When I wrote Part 1 of 5, I did not include all of the below photos and information. No one is going to return to Part 1 of 5 so I am including it here (a day late and a dollar short).

To get to Arshan you pass through the Tunkinskiy Natsional'nyy Park.


https://www.google.com/maps/@51.905089,102.429962,8z







We have come to our final photo of our visit to Arshan.

On our weekend trip, we stayed in the town of Slyudyanka. The name of the hostel that Patti and I stayed in is the Arshan.

In Russian : АРШАН


It just so happens that one of our hosts who took us to Arshan owns the hostel we stayed in.

Talk about being 'connected' ! 

Still Smiling about one fabulous weekend..

Patti and Cap

Thursday, 21 November 2019

NOV 21, 19 .. IRKUTSK / ARSHAN Part 4 of 5 .. WAR MEMORIAL

During my time in Russian Siberia, if there was one truth, if there was one constant for me it was this : Every town / village / hamlet / all of the large metro areas, it made no difference, I found (actually I sought them out) a memorial to those who served in the military during WWII and other conflicts.

It was no different here in Arshan. Sadly Trip Advisor did not show the Arashan War Memorial as an attraction. I just stumbled upon it after visiting THE BLUE BUDDHA.

If you missed THE BLUE BUDDHA post, you may visit it by clicking onto the below link:

http://bobbacaps.blogspot.com/2019/11/nov-19-19-irkutsk-arshan-part-3-blue.html

Which brings me back to the beginning. As you can see, this is Part 4 in a series of five posts about the area I am calling IRKUTSK / ARSHAN. If you have not seen the previous posts, you can just continue to scroll down clicking on Older Posts (in very small letters on the right side at the bottom of each post). 

We will begin with the end of THE BLUE BUDDHA.


Knowing no better, and out just exploring to see whatever I could see, as I walked from the grounds of THE BLUE BUDDHA, I saw a beautiful memorial of two moose.




Not looking for anything in particular, the instant I saw the War Memorial, I knew what I was looking at.

No further words are needed nor necessary.








I was there, in-the-flesh, and I could not for the life of me determine what he is holding. 


The eternal flame.





For a small village such as Arshan, this was an outstanding Memorial.

By the time I got here, it was getting late on a Sunday afternoon. I was tired and we still had more things to do, so I did not fully explore the Memorial. At most (perhaps all) of the many War Memorials I have visited in Russian Siberia, the following words are posted:

No one is forgotten. Nothing is forgotten.


I salute all of our Russian Allies who served and perished in the war.


Cap