Olkhon Island

Halfway up Lake Baikal’s western shore and reached by a short ferry journey from Sakhyurta (aka MRS), the serenely beautiful Olkhon Island is a wonderful place from which to view the lake and relax during a tour of Siberia. Considered one of five global poles of shamanic energy by the Buryat people, the 72km-long island’s ‘capital’ is the unlovely village of Khuzhir (Хужир), which has seen quite a serious tourist boom over the last few years, improbably triggered by a song about Baikal winning a TV contest in China.