In July of this year, I happened to spend 4 days at a well-known resort among Irkutsk and Buryat residents in the foothills of the Eastern Sayan Mountains.
I will arrange photos from Arshan in the form of a mini-series of four posts, the entry brought to your attention is an overview.
First - where is Arshan? I believe that this name is hardly familiar to many.
Its location will be more clearly shown by an excerpt from the map: 
The resort village is located in the Tunkinsky district of the Republic of Buryatia at an altitude of 893 meters above sea level, a 22-kilometer branch from the federal highway A333 Kultuk - Mondy (border with Mongolia) leads to it.
Distance from Irkutsk - 210 kilometers, from Ulan-Ude - 479 kilometers. The road is excellent, you can get there by private car. Or in the following ways:
- by bus number 520 from Irkutsk. In winter, there are two flights a day (at 8:00 and 14:00 local time from Irkutsk and Arshan), in summer - in the morning from Irkutsk, buses depart every half hour. Cost - 350 rubles, travel time - about 4 hours. The flight schedule can be viewed on the website of the Irkutsk bus station, where the function of buying a ticket via the Internet is also available.
- by train / train to Slyudyanka station, from where fixed-route taxis go to Arshan, the cost is 170 rubles.
- by bus or minibus from Ulan-Ude (the bus departs from the Southern Bus Station at 9:00, the parking of minibuses is located at the Ulan-Ude railway station, departure on filling). Travel time - 7-8 hours.
- by plane from Ulan-Ude to the center of the Tunkinsky district - Kyren (departures are carried out on Mondays), from where several buses run daily to Arshan.
My aunt and I traveled on the Angarsk minibus, which for an additional 200 rubles per person makes a check-in for passengers in Usolye-Sibirskoye.
By the way, the road to Arshan is the most beautiful (especially at the entrance to Baikal and after entering the Tunkinsky tract - the Kultuk - Mondy highway). You can shoot landscapes, but I did not try - the camera does not allow you to take good pictures in motion.
1. Bus station 
2. ...on the site of which a mountain goat meets vacationers (regarding the difference in lighting, hereinafter - photographs taken on different days and different times) 
Arshan is a well-known balneological resort in Eastern Siberia. Actually, from the Buryat language Arshan is translated as "source". The main therapeutic factor is carbonic, weakly mineralized, siliceous, sulfate-hydrocarbonate-magnesium-calcium, slightly acidic thermal water used in drinking regime and balneotherapy. Bottling of bottled water was carried out until 1991, and is not currently produced. The taste is somewhat reminiscent of the Trans-Baikal mineral water "Kuka". Associated therapeutic factors are climatotherapy, as well as sulfide silt mud. The main profile of the resort is diseases of digestion, respiration and circulation.
3. Two sanatoriums accept vacationers. More modern, "Sayans" (hulls built in the late 1980s).
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5. The cost of living in a double room - 5700 rubles / day. 
6. And the sanatorium "Arshan", less presentable in its appearance - it pays off with its location in the resort park of the village. "Sayans" cannot boast of beautiful places for walking on its territory. 
7. Dynamics of the number of vacationers. The market time, when free vouchers for treatment are not distributed in budgetary organizations, had a negative impact on the capacity utilization of the sanatorium: 
8. Buildings of the sanatorium "Arshan" 
9. Health path routes are laid in the resort park 
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12. Monument to fellow countrymen who died during the Second World War: 
13. Fine Chasing: 
14. Although the buildings are wooden, they are fully landscaped. The cost of a double room - from 3600 rubles / day with three meals a day. 
15. Soviet panel on a sports theme 
16. Club of the sanatorium. To the services of vacationers there is a library, a cinema and concert hall, a swimming pool, a gym, outdoor sports grounds and equipment rental: 
17. Resort polyclinic 
18. In the Soviet years, almost every city park had an open dance floor, this one is no exception. True, judging by the layer of old needles, it is not used. 
19. Bark of a five-hundred-year-old long-lived larch 
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21. Walking in the resort park is a pleasure. Pure mountain air! 
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24. Unused building in the back of the park 
25. From the park, located on a hillock, we go out onto the stairs leading to the bank of the mountain river Kyngarga: 
26. Parallel to the river bank is an alley - "trading street". In the stalls you can buy a variety of souvenirs 
27. They sell magnets, goods from Mongolia, or, as here, herbs. The most popular one is sagan-dayla (sagan-dali), from the Buryat "life-prolonging". It is good to add to tea, it gives a fragrant aroma. 
28. After five in the evening, the stalls are empty. 
29. Mineral water can be collected in the drinking pavilion, however, you need to take into account the working hours - it is open only during breakfast, lunch and dinner according to the daily routine of the sanatorium. In the rest of the hours you need to go to the source near the river bank. 
30. The Buryats have preserved the custom of hanging and tying multi-colored ribbons on tree branches in holy places. It is believed that when the ribbon sways in the wind, a prayer is sent to heaven, even if the person is busy with other things. 
31. Ladder from the spa park 
32. On the way to the river bank, one cannot pass by the eye arshan. It is believed that the water from this source has a beneficial effect on vision due to its high iron content. You need to wait for the rising air bubbles and have time to scoop out the water with your palm at the place where they come to the surface. 
33. Alas, after the catastrophic mudflow in June 2014, the eye source almost dried up, and not everyone follows the established rules - parents allow children to splash in puddles with healing water. 
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35. Feels like we are in Buryatia 
36. Another interesting tradition is the installation of pyramids of stones, called oboo (or otherwise tours). 
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38. There are also very large ones! 
39. Arshan is located at the exit of the Kyngarga River (bur. Khengerge - "drum") from the Sayan Mountains to the Tunka Valley, bounded from the southeast by the Khamar-Daban ridge. The Tunkinsky National Park is located within the Tunkinskaya Valley - the first experience in Russia of combining a national park with the boundaries of the entire administrative region. 
39a. At the exit from the forest to the shore, there is a source of mineral water (if you look closely, in the previous picture you can just see a pipe approaching it). I did not take pictures myself, because it was always crowded around it - many collect water in canisters, a queue is created. I'm taking a picture from the internet. 
40. After the catastrophic mudflow last year, Kyngarga changed its course. Now the "stone river" has become a kind of attraction - the strength of the stream was such that it demolished trees on its way, leaving only heaps of stones. New vegetation will appear here soon 
41. But what a scope for the construction of oboo! 
42. The power of the river is impressive 
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45. The fallen trees have not yet been removed everywhere either. 
46. You can sit on a stone, meditate to the sounds of a mountain river, or you can fly over it on a bungee 
47. On the way to the waterfalls (about which there will be a separate post) there is a Yurt - a place of "cultural gatherings". In the evening, movie screenings are held here, a visiting musician from Colombia gave a concert. During ordinary hours in the yurt you can taste delicious tea: 
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49. On the way from the source through the trading rows to the village there is a sanctuary "Sagaan Ubgen" - a Buryat pre-Buddhist deity included in the pantheon of northern Buddhism. Revered as the patron of health, longevity, wealth, family well-being. 
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51. There is also a gazebo - the unspoken symbol of Arshan, depicted on most souvenir magnets. 
52. We looked at interesting places within the village, sanatoriums too. And where to stay "savages"? There will be no problems with this - at the bus station, and along Traktova Street leading to it, there are local residents with signs "housing". Some people rent out rooms, others entire houses. Of course, you need to understand that mostly uncomfortable - conveniences on the street.
My aunt and I lived in this house, paid 350 rubles a day per person: 
I must say, pretty decent - there is a stove, kettle, TV. It was possible to rent a group of five people according to the number of beds.
53. In the kitchen: 
54. In conclusion, let's take a little walk around the village itself. It even has its own nightclub! Evening entertainment will not be a problem)
Hello dear friends, subscribers of the channel! Today I will present you a walk around Arshan with some sightseeing. At the entrance to the territory of the village, we are met by the stele "Arshan". In the center of Arshan, opposite the Sayany sanatorium, there is the Khoymor datsan "Dechen Ravzhalin". Entrance to the datsan is free - come in to watch Buddhist services and purchase medicines from the arsenal of Tibetan medicine. Upstairs on the roof of the datsan, as well as on other Buddhist temples, there are sacred animals of Buddhism - roe deer and the wheel of Samsara. In Buddhism, it is believed that it was roe deer who became the first listeners of the teachings of the Buddha. While we are walking around the territory of the datsan, I will tell you about Arshan. The Arshan resort is the most famous in Eastern Siberia and the most visited resort near Lake Baikal. Arshan is located in the Tunkinskaya valley at an altitude of 893 m above sea level. The first written report about Arshan mineral springs dates back to 1894. The Arshan resort was founded in 1920. “Arshan” in translation from Buryat means “healing spring”. This word comes from the Sanskrit "rashiani" - nectar, the drink of the gods. This was the name of a mineral or warm spring, which has a healing value. In the past, Buddhists attributed the property of arshan to some fresh water sources and, therefore, all springs with cold fresh, clean water began to be called arshans, giving them a healing value. This name of the sources is widespread in Mongolia, China, Central Asia, Altai and Eastern Siberia. Attitude towards arshans is special. Those places where mineral waters come to the surface are considered sacred, religious buildings, “obos” are built there, and prayers are held. Sayany sanatorium is one of the sanatoriums of the Arshan resort; it accepts all-the-year-round rest and treatment for diseases of the digestive, respiratory, and circulatory systems. Quite recently, a room of fear was opened in Arshan. And of course, we couldn’t pass by and get scared. In principle, everything is done qualitatively and the children will be very interested. The cost is 200 rubles. for the entrance. This is the famous sculpture "Tehe" (Mountain Sheep) at the bus station from which everyone is sure to take pictures. Here we come to the park of the Arshan resort, the second sanatorium in the village. The park has very pleasant and shady alleys along which it is very pleasant to walk. In addition, there is a monument to the wars who died during the Great Patriotic War in the park. There is also a rope park here, I will talk about it in another film. A unique tree grows in the park - a 500-year-old larch. Its trunk is so thick that only two adults can grasp it. The tree reached a height of more than 20 meters. In this place, it is customary to make wishes and ask for the health and longevity of the spirits guarding the tree, as well as to tie a ribbon on a spruce growing nearby. White staircase in the style of the 50s. This is where the two most popular routes to the waterfalls of the Kyngyrga River begin, I will talk about this in the next film and to the Peak of Love, which I already talked about this spring. The snow-white sculpture "Sagaan Ubgen" (White Elder) of an ancient pre-Buddhist deity, the guardian god of astrology, hearth, fertility, welcomes guests of the Arshan resort at a truly miraculous place - the source of three arshans. There is also an eye source and a sacred grove of tears, near the sources the trunks of a pine grove, according to the Buryat custom, are tied with Hadaks - sacrificial ribbons of matter as a token of gratitude for the cure. Sculpture "Khubuun" (Boy) on one of the mineral springs. A market where you can buy souvenirs and local herbs, everything else was brought from neighboring Mongolia and even from China. The mineral waters of Arshan are rich in their composition: carbonic-hydrocarbonate, sulfate-calcium-magnesium. It has been established that the waters of Arshan are analogous to the Kislovodsk narzan, but surpass it in terms of mineralization. The fame of the healing properties of the mineral springs of Arshan is known far beyond the borders of the Republic of Buryatia. Sacred alley at the Arshan springs. On the way to the springs of Arshan, there is a whole avenue of trees, the branches of which are completely hung with prayer ribbons - chii morins. People leave ribbons before drinking the healing water of Arshan. When tying a ribbon, people ask the spirits of the area for permission to heal. Another sculpture "Sagaan Ubgen" next to the Chinese arbor - the patron of health and longevity, wealth and happiness, brings peace and balance in all matters and undertakings. In front of the statue of the White Elder there is a small alley with benches where you can sit, relax, breathe in the mountain air and enjoy the beauty of the surrounding world. The bridge over the Kyngyrga was restored after the mudflow that covered Arshan in June 2014 and is decorated with beautiful statues. On the way to the second datsan there is a Holy Glade where pyramids of stones are stacked - Obo. Since ancient times, the Buryats have believed that any locality has its own masters and spirits, which ensure a peaceful life and influence further peaceful coexistence in one territory. As a rule, holy places obo are located among high mountains or along wide rivers. Obo is a pile of stones, around which prayers are performed. Thus, the obo cult is the veneration of the spirits of nature as the masters of the area. Khandagaytai datsan "Bodhidharma" - a corner of peace with a pleasant view of the mountains. The central temple of the Buryat religious association "Maidar" is surrounded by a century-old cedar forest, where you just want to walk, breathe in the fertile air and not think about anything. On the territory of the datsan there are two stupas and a prayer cylinder Khurde. The prayer drum (or cylinder) Khurde is a special structure traditional for Buddhism, inside of which there is a sacred text. On the cylinder itself, the universal mantra "Om mani padme hum" is inscribed in Tibetan. The energy of this mantra helps in resolving existing difficulties. By slowly rotating the cylinder in the course of the sun, you increase this energy, thus strengthening the reasons for the realization of your good wishes. There are several excursions in the vicinity of Arshan. In the first half of the 19th century, in contrast to Buddhism and shamanism, an intensive spread of Christianity began among the Buryat population. In 1820, the St. Nicholas Church in Tunka was built. In 1850, Archbishop Nil founded the Nil Desert on the Yekhe-Ugun River. Not far from Arshan, in the Badary tract, there are two operating observatories in the neighborhood: one is radio astrophysical, the other is radio astronomical. Local residents, scientists and ordinary Tunkins call them "Solnechnaya" (Siberian solar radio telescope) and "Leningradka" (RAO "Badary"), respectively. It is difficult to imagine, but it is a fact: traces of volcanic activity from the end of the ice age have been preserved near Arshan. Thank you for your attention, subscribe to the channel. Until we meet again, friends!
rural settlement "Arshan"
Buryats, Russians
Story
Modernity
Arshan. View of the Sayans and the Peak of Love.
Main street of Arshan village
The resort "Arshan" includes two sanatoriums: "Sayany" and "Arshan" of the sanatorium-resort association of trade unions "Baikalkurort". The sanatoriums are located in the Tunkinskaya valley at the foot of the monumental Sayan mountains with snow-capped peaks, on the picturesque mountain river Kyngarga, which has over 12 waterfalls. Of undoubted interest for vacationers is the Koimorsky Datsan, a Buddhist temple operating on the territory of the resort.
The main natural healing factors are carbonic, low-mineralized, siliceous sulfate-hydrocarbonate-magnesium-calcium weakly acid thermal waters and sulfide silt mud, which highly effectively treat diseases of the digestive system, blood circulation, respiration, urinary and endocrine systems, and metabolism. The mineral waters of the Arshan resort have a wide temperature range: from cold (11-13 °C) to hot (45 °C). According to the chemical composition, the mineral waters of Arshan, according to the classification of V.A. Aleksandrov, belong to the 1st class, being carbonic with a high gas content.
In the complex sanatorium-resort treatment, Arshan mineral water is used, balneotherapy (baths, healing showers, irrigation), climate therapy, diet therapy, physiotherapy, paraffin-ozocerite therapy, therapeutic exercises, massage, inhalations, halotherapy and modern diagnostic methods.
Volcanoes near Arshan
Water is used for bathing and drinking, bottled. Treatment of patients with diseases of the digestive system, blood circulation, as well as metabolic disorders. Sanatorium, polyclinic, bathroom building, rest houses. The season is all year round.
The head doctor of the resort "Arshan" Vladimir Ivanovich Songolov.
Half an hour walk from the village is one of the largest waterfalls on the river Kyngarga. There are more than 20 breathing volcanoes in the vicinity of Arshan. The last time they erupted in the Mesozoic era, but due to the presence of hot springs, they are not considered completely extinct. Nearby are the mineral springs of Suburga and Papiy Arshan.
Climate
The climate is sharply continental. Winter is long and cold, summer is short and moderately warm. Precipitation 595 mm per year (maximum in summer). Medicines: mineral water from one of the springs.
| Climate of Arshan | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Index | Jan. | Feb. | March | Apr. | May | June | July | Aug. | Sen. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. | Year |
| Average maximum, °C | −17 | −15 | −3 | 8 | 16 | 23 | 25 | 22 | 15 | 6 | −7 | −14 | 5 |
| Average minimum, °C | −28 | −25 | −18 | −6 | 1 | 8 | 12 | 10 | 2 | −6 | −18 | −23 | −7 |
| rainfall rate, | |||||||||||||
Arshan is a village in Buryatia where there is no Soviet power. Only here they will sell you mushrooms and let you look at the moon through a telescope as a bonus. Today we are in Arshan, a village whose symbol is a goat.
Most of all in Arshan, the residents of houses on the main street were lucky. Any shack here turns into a supermarket.
Here is a boutique hut. The boy fartsuet glasses and women's hats.
Some build kiosks right in the fence, it's already count the oligarchs.
But no matter how far Arshanets lives from the main street, in the high tourist season he will definitely go to Broadway...
Show yourself...
Your car...
Or children)) Prices in June were from 400 rubles and more. It's probably much more expensive now.
There are also many cafes with shaurmakur and chalagach. I don't know what it is.
In general, the local Arbat
They sell a lot, in Arshan the longest market on the planet, while walking you get tired. They sell the same thing, weed, empty bottles and spinners. The market starts from the central park.
But there are very exotic tents, met once, at least. It appears to be Nepalese. Traded robes from the concentration camp.
Bottles are worth their weight in gold. A plastic bottle is the currency of Arshan. They take them in batches. Woe to you if you come to Arshan without an empty bottle! The merchants from the market will swarm you like flies! - Buy a bottle, buy a bottle! - tanned Arshan children will jump around you.
Therefore, we trolled Arshan with a bottle of Essentuki, which not badly offended the Tunkin bottle mafia.
Sign of Arshan. If you see ribbons, then the source is nearby.
There are a lot of ribbons in Arshan.
And here is a man tortured by Narzan Arshan! We saw him!
Every tourist in Arshan considers it his duty to stand on the suspension bridge. The bridge, to put it mildly, is not very good, you can see what they did quickly and rudely.
View of the Kyngyrga with pipes. There are many pipes in the river. They go up and down without any order. A little upstream, the river seems full of water, and then once the pipes flooded.
Some kind of wedding installation, right next to it is an unambiguous arch. I didn’t understand what these faces mean and how they help the newlyweds, but it’s done great.
Scoop everywhere)
I recently wrote that in 2014 Arshan was attacked. The mudflow flooded the village and notably spoiled the landscape. They allocated large millions, drove the Uzbeks, cleaned up, patched up and put up several statues!
In general, small architectural forms are nothing like that, there is something to put an eye on.
Another bridge has been built. No one knows where the rest of the millions have gone. Rather, they know but do not speak. Everything is clearly in the hands of one person. As I already wrote at the beginning of the post, there is no Soviet power in Arshen. We didn't see a single policeman during our stay.
met in the park fregate_vt, he moonlights in Tunka with the overlord.
And instead of the beauties of Arshan, mountains and girls, for some reason he takes pictures of jocks of the Kyrgyz.
Andrey and I were not interested, of course, and we got stuck on tourists.
In the central part of the park, there is a kind of place of execution, there is a chur Veles around three bears and benches.
Local Veles, surrounded by bears, is sad and thoughtful.
Well, what is it like to watch this all day long?
On the morning of the next day, we still walked around the market. While there are no sellers
It's easy to be transported back to the late eighties here. I remember this was even in the city center.
The market ends almost at the foot of the mountains, rests against such a construction of the Stalinist Empire style. I immediately recognized him, in the family archive there is a photograph of a grandmother with a little father on this staircase.
And this is the symbol of Arshan. A mountain goat with which everyone takes pictures, though everyone takes pictures of him incorrectly.
We've found the perfect shooting point! Arshan color.
Oh, and here's something else I wanted to show. Such a gas wagon caught. Works to disperse tourists and firewood.
And so in Arshan it’s normal, beautiful (if you go beyond the village) and mountains! We went to the waterfalls of Kyngyrgi. True, two days went before the first! But more on that next time!
To be continued...
Trip organizer
This summer I visited Siberia. In this post I will talk about the small town of Arshan in Buryatia between the Sayan mountain ranges. To visit different parts of Russia is very cool. And as he says theme , "do not understand people who do not travel to Russia at the first opportunity." Although I got poisoned on the first day, the food was disgusting, as was the accommodation, but still the charms of nature outweighed the disadvantages.
1. In one of the posts I wrote how I buy plane tickets. I will only add that a ticket from Samara to Irkutsk is more expensive than to New York. There are no direct flights - everyone flies via Moscow or St. Petersburg. Under than through Peter cheaper.
2. Fortunately, we came across the company "S7". On the flight Samara - Moscow, they serve tea with chocolate. I am glad that there are sponsors who feed cookies and juice. 
3. Outskirts of Moscow on approach to Domodedovo: 
4. On the Irkutsk flight, which lasts about 5 hours, you can sleep and eat in comfort: food is still food, but the seats are comfortable. We should arrive at 23:30, it's already dark around, you can take a nap. 
5. The most interesting thing happened after landing. As soon as we entered the baggage claim hall, a woman's voice began to repeat: "Employees and passengers, leave the terminal building." "Well," I think, "let them leave the terminal, we're at the airport." But then absolutely everyone was kicked out of the building. It turns out that here they call the airport "air terminal", and the building is generally mined. We were lucky... We were met by my father's relatives in Buryatia. We stood for half an hour, we froze. The Ministry of Emergency Situations said that they would have to wait at least two more hours. Let's go look
cafe. At first, we came across some kind of soviet provincial hotel, where we were rude and were not allowed into the main hall. We stopped at the Bistro near the airport. I think that "terrorists" called from this cafe: now all their tables are occupied. By three, the entrance was opened. The whole huge crowd rushed to the doors. Now, if you blow up, then now. 
7. The first days were cloudy weather - it was difficult to assess the scale of the mountains. I will describe the city. His plan on the map is a mirror image of the letter "P". That is, everything is built mainly around a couple of streets. Apparently, a rumor has reached the local administration that it is now fashionable to lay tiles. They laid it along the existing asphalt pavement. Of course, no one walks on it. All residents are engaged in small business. Along the streets are people with signs "Housing is cheap", many meager cafes and single vendors of products, souvenirs. 
8. Russians and Buryats live here. There is no entertainment, as you understand, except for the "club". 
9. Some Buryats pretend to be nomads and entertain tourists. For 200 rubles you can take a picture on a deer. Yes, I was later ashamed of the exploitation of the animal. 
10. Yurt: 
11. Cows here, as in India, go where they want. Their favorite pastime is to beat with horns at the gate. In the villages, all flimsy gates have been demolished by cows: they are looking for pastures with tasty grass. It is worth adding that they are not followed here. They leave in the morning and come back in the evening. 
12. People go to Arshan because there are springs here. You can dial from a special tap in the building or from the river. I had the imprudence to try unboiled water. Tastes like rotten eggs. Never drink raw water: it is full of microorganisms. The locals do not get sick, because they have immunity, but for us, clean Europeans, it is dangerous. As I said, I got poisoned on the first day. True, I don’t know what caused it: food, water or people. 
13. Mountain river. There are several waterfalls upstream. More about them. 
14. For thousands of years, water has broken through a gorge stretching from high mountains. 
15. Long time ago, student volunteers built stairs, fences and bridges. To pass the main route, you have to go down and up the rocks several times. Vandals dirtied all the stones with inscriptions. 
16. There are several waterfalls, but it is quite difficult to get to them. Almost no one goes further than the first one, but I'm sure there is some kind of workaround that I didn't notice. The bear was placed for beautiful photos. The daredevils manage to climb over the cliff to him. 
17. Chipmunks and squirrels are very fond of people who feed them nuts. They eat straight from their hands. 
18. Insolent Buryat merchants consider it normal to set up a market in such a beautiful place. Everyone has the same Chinese product. The most popular souvenir is Mongolian homemade slippers. They say that they buy them for 50 rubles, but here they sell them for 500-700. 
19. "Nuts? Where are the nuts?!" 
20. Here everyone observes two traditions: they tie a ribbon to a tree and build a tower of stones. In any crowded place, all the trees are hung with ribbons. 
21. No one has running water, so they drink from streams. No one will buy a house without a stream in the yard, because it will be necessary to walk far to the column. 
22. Anyone who does not have a cafe is engaged in pseudo-medicine: he cures smoking in a couple of days, bleeds, sticks needles, and so on. Someone is walking towards them. Of course, they don't even have a medical education. 
23. There are three decent establishments in Arshan, where perhaps the cooks even wash their hands.
