Welcome to Port Baikal !!
Port Baikal looks like a rusty semi-industrial eyesore. But the view is really misleading. A kilometre southwest of Stanitsa (the port area), Baranchiki is a ramshackle 'real' village with unkempt but authentic Siberian cottages and a great selection of accommodation options. The village rises steeply, making excellent Baikal viewpoints easily accessible. Still Port Baikal remains largely uncommercialised, lacking Listvyanka's 'attractions' but also its crowds. It is popular for the meditative painters and walkers, but its main draw is the Circumbaikal train ride from Slyudyanka.
Starting from 1900 until 1904 the Trans-Siberian Railway tracks led to Port Baikal from Irkutsk. They continued on Lake Baikal's far eastern shore at Mysovaya (Babushkin), and the rail-less gap was plugged by ice-breaking steamships, including the Angara, now restored and on view in Irkutsk. Later on, the tracks were extended south and around the lake. This Circumbaikal line has so many impressive tunnels and bridges that it earned the nickname 'The Tsar's Jewelled Buckle'. With the damming of the Angara River in the 1950s, the original Irkutsk to Port Baikal railway section was submerged and replaced with an Irkutsk-Kultuk shortcut ( which is today's trans-Sib).
About 10km past Marayoor and 60km northeast of Munnar, this wildlife sanctuary (Indian/foreigner ₹10/100, camera/video ₹25/150; h7am-6pm) hosts de...
Wander just a few kilometres outside the scruff y little hill station of Munnar and you’ll be engulfed in a sea of a thousand shades of green. The l...
South India’s most popular wildlife sanctuary, Periyar (%224571 Indian/foreigner ₹25/300; h6am-6pm) encompasses 777 sq km and a 26-sq-km artifi - ...
Devotees make off erings at this temple, 2km from Tiruvilla, in the form of traditional, regular all-night Kathakali performances that are open to all...
The Shiva Temple at Ettumanur, 12km north of Kottayam, has inscriptions dating from 1542, but parts of the building may be even older. The temple is n...