No Room At The Inn

Irkutsk

It's all gone a bit Pete Tong in the last 24 hours. The train journey from Krasnoyarsk was a bit of a nightmare from the start as my legendary ox-like constitution finally caved in completely, leaving me to become much more acquainted with the interior of Russian Railways toilets than I'd ever thought possible. Nasty stomach pains too and I didn't sleep at all. It must be something I ate and I'm quite prepared to blame those superficially friendly Siberians who gave me all that food on the train the other day. I thought they were being hospitable but clearly they were all just out to poison me, bastards.

I've been trailing round town for the last couple of hours looking for a place to rest my shattered body but to no avail. There's one place left to try and if that draws a blank I may be forced into skirting round Lake Baikal and making an earlier than expected dash for Mongolia. Bet all that boiled mutton won't give me food poisoning.