Earlier today, I made the dramatic flight up Lake Baikal from Ulan-Ude to Nizhneangarsk.  We landed a the cool little airport on the edge of the lake; it’s tiny actually, where you pick up your luggage off the tarmac right at the plane!

From the airport, I needed to get to Severobaykalsk, a half hour’s ride away.  Someone had told me there was a bus, so I walked  around to the front, to the obvious bus stop.  There, I asked a guy if he spoke English.  Yes!  It always amazes me.  I confirmed I was in the right place to get the bus to Severobaykalsk, which was also what he was waiting for.

His English was limited, but good enough to have an interesting conversation.  When he found out I’m American, I don’t recall exactly what he said, but the essence was that we’re having some interesting interaction between our respective countries.  I then did something I’ve never done anywhere, let alone in Russia: I got my phone out, opened the window showing a live chart of the price of gold, then made the comment that this current moonshot hinted that something is up right now, that who knows but things just might get even a little more interesting between our countries.

He laughed, then opened a window on his phone.  You guessed it: he also had a live chart of the POG, a much more sophisticated one than mine.  Here are the two phones:

It turns out that my new acquaintance, Alexander, is very tuned in to PMs and owns a little.  I asked if he knows any other Russians who own gold and he said no.

There’s much more to the story than I’m going to write now, but this part was worth sharing before I hit the hay.  It’s a fun story to drift off into dreamland on.  It’s all a dream.  Remember to enjoy it!

GoldBalloon