Things to do in Southern Buryatiya & Chita
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Historical Museum
The Historical Museum charges per single-room floor. The best is Buddiyskoe Iskustvo (3rd floor), displaying thangka, Buddhas and icons salvaged from Buryatiya's monasteries before their Soviet destruction. Note-sheets in English fail to explain the fascinating, gaudy papier-mâché models of Khvashan's eight unruly sons urinating at one another.
Note the Gungarba shrine table (every Buryat home once had one), the Atsagat medical charts (Tibetan medicine was apparently standard here until the 1940s) and the walnut necklace on grey, clown-faced Sagan Obugen (walnuts were exotic in Buryatiya). The less-interesting 2nd floor traces Buryat history in maps, documents and artef…
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Ethnographic Museum
In a forest clearing 6km from central Ulan-Ude is the worthwhile Ethnographic Museum, an outdoor collection of local architecture plus some reconstructed burial mounds and the odd stone totem. Although lacking the pretty lakeside setting of equivalents in Bratsk and Irkutsk, it features occasional craft demonstrations, has a splendid wooden church and sports a whole strip of Old Believers’ homesteads. Marshrutka 8 from pl Sovetov passes within 1km and upon request will detour to drop you at the door for no extra charge.
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Datsans
En route to the Ethnographic Museum, you'll notice Ulan-Ude's attractive new pair of datsans backed by stupas and trees that flutter with prayer flags; there are services from 09:00 to 11:00 most mornings. The nearby hippodrome is the venue for major Buryat festivals, including the Buryatiya Folk Festival, which features horse riding, wrestling and other folky delights.
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Lenin Head
At one end of ul Lenina the main square, pl Sovetov, is awesomely dominated by the world's largest Lenin head, which looks less domineering than comically cross-eyed.
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Military Museum
The dry, Russian-language-only Military Museum is only for those with a passion for Eastern Siberia’s military history, though it does contain some semi-interesting exhibits on Beketov’s Cossacks, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and communist repressions. Each of the six floors bristles with weapons, and the museum’s collection of tanks and artillery can be seen by walking up the passage between the museum and the impressive Officers’ Club building next door.
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Baatarai Urgöö
Two carved Mongol warriors guard this unusual collection of restaurant yurts near the Ethnographic Museum. The central dining hall is how you’d imagine Chinggis Khaan’s spaceship, powered by a central dragon-stove. The menu includes many Buryat specialities: liver and onions, battered omul, shangi (scone-bread) and khuushuur (meat turnovers) washed down with astringent arsa (a warm, sour milk concoction). Take marshrutka 8 from pl Sovetov to the Yurt stop.
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Chingiskhan
A huge carved portrait of Chinggis himself offers a stern welcome to this upmarket restaurant crafted in the shape of a traditional circular yurt. The steppe bon vivant and conqueror of half the world would no doubt approve of the eclectic Eurasian menu of expertly fused Russian, Buryat and Chinese dishes and the finely tuned feng shui. The restaurant is situated in the Sun Tower, south of the river Uda. Take any tram heading south from the market and alight at the Sayany stop.
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Museum
The delightfully eccentric museum retains its original 1922 hardwood exhibition cases full of pickled foetuses and pinned butterflies. Peruse musty displays of treasures salvaged from Soviet-plundered churches and datsany, bricks of tea, Buryat folk costumes and artwork brought back from trans-Asia expeditions by19th-century Russian gentlemen explorers.
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Khmelnaya Korchma
Plastic sunflowers, dangling onion strings, folksy embroidered tea towels and a menu of borscht, salo (pig fat), vareniki (sweet ravioli-type dumplings) and holubtsi (cabbage rolls stuffed with rice) teleport you to rural Ukraine. Live music, liberal helpings and a low-priced lunch menu (R150) makes this arguably Chita’s best option.
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Marusya
A coy 19th-century makeover with polished samovars, matryoshka dolls and waitresses trussed up in pseudo folk costume has brought the Ulger Theatre restaurant back from the dead. Enjoy inexpensive Russian meals at tightly packed tables to the sound of dreamy 1970s Russian chansons on CD, or flee the chintz for the pleasantly sunny terrace.
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Mir Igry
This casino complex has three great bar-restaurants (meals R100 to R400), each with its own theme and atmosphere. It’s popular with young professionals and a great place to strike up conversations over a shot of vodka or 10. The large beer and shashlyk terrace is the place to eat on sultry summer evenings.
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Butin Palace Museum
Butin’s four mammoth mirrors form the centrepiece of the Butin Palace Museum, along with a delightful pair of hobbit- style chairs crafted from polished tangles of birch roots. Three-quarters of the palace, including the grand, triple-arched gateway (demolished in 1970), have yet to be rebuilt.
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Wooden Houses
Chita also has a fair sprinkling of delightful old wooden houses, notably at ul Lenina 104, ul Chkalova 125, ul Babushkina 82 and ul Anokhina 53. Although the former historic centre is now mostly trampled by concrete towers, some timber cottages also remain on ul Dekabristov, southeast of the city centre.
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Buryatiya Literary Museum
In an attractive 1847 wooden house, the Buryatiya Literary Museum contains old photos and manuscripts. A rare 108-volume Atsagat Ganzhur (Buddhist chant book) is inscribed in multicoloured Tibetan script on special black lacquer made from blood, sugar and pounded sheep’s vertebrae.
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Kuznetzov Regional Museum
The excellent Kuznetzov Regional Museum is housed in an early-20th-century mansion. Beyond the gratuitous stuffed elk, you’ll find some pretty interesting local exhibits, including a very thorough examination of the heritage and architectural renaissance of the city and region.
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Kafe Russkaya Dusha
The unwelcoming Kafe Russkaya Dusha sadly vacated the Trading Arches when it was gutted by fire in 2006. It relocated to a pink building in a madly out-of-the-way location, 20 minutes’ uphill walk from the centre. It’s the only café around so ask for directions.
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Kofeynya Shokolad
Remarkably suave for the surroundings, this minicafé makes the best macchiato in town and serves 11 types of latte. It’s built into the front terrace of the Buryat National Theatre building and uniquely enjoys simultaneous views of Ulan-Ude’s two finest churches.
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Zelenaya Rosha
A canopy of plastic foliage covering the ceiling and a tackily dribbling water feature make this a low-lit retreat from the scorching sun outside. Down a few cheap beers or tuck into some basic Siberian comfort food. Chita’s most accessible semipublic WC is in the entrance.
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Fast Fud
.The future is orange at Fast Fud, a garishly decorated McDonalds rip-off, situated on the 1st floor of what will one day be the Alexandrovsky Sad Hotel. Choose mediocre burgers, chips and salads from the picture menu – portions are stingy.
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Stolitsa
This elegant upstairs restaurant has red, black and gold décor, modernist Buddhist-influenced art and old photos of Ulan-Ude. There's a menu in English and a vastly cheaper zakusochnaya (café) around the side. Handy for the train station.
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Opera House
A certain 19th-century opulence is still visible in the attractive commercial buildings on and around ul Lenina. Viewed from near the splendid Opera House, this street is given a photogenic focus by the gold-tipped spires of the 1785 Odigitria Cathedral.
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Samovar
Friendly, costumed staff add to the old-Russia atmosphere of this cute basement restaurant with wooden ceiling beams, spinning wheels and garlands of medicinal herbs. The menu is firmly traditional Russian, heavy with pelmeni and bliny.
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Petr Ishkin
Witty, widely travelled schoolteacher Petr Ishkin speaks great English and enjoys voluntarily helping foreign visitors find their feet during his free time. Two more email addresses for him are petr_great@hotmail.com and petroishkin@yahoo.com.
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Odigitria Cathedral
The gold-tipped spires of the 1785 Odigitria Cathedral were rescued from near collapse in the late 1990s. It commands an appealing area of the old town, with carved wooden cottages extending as far as ul Kirova.
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King’s Food
So-so food, striking pillar-box red and jet-black decor and crass Russian MTV; on hot days use the cutlery to slice a hole in the air to breathe through. On the plus side it’s cheap, clean and conveniently central.
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