As we leave the area around the station and enter the main body of the city, I stare out of the windows at the dirty, grey communist-era architecture, mixed with the over-the-top fancy structures that are peppered throughout. We pass through street upon street of blocky high-rises, and we pause at traffic lights at an impressive gold-painted church with a huge statue of Lenin outside.

I’d only planned to look up Moscow in the guidebook, but after Carrie did her disappearing act last night, I had little else to do, so now I know that there is little for us to do here. We should’ve stopped at Ulan-Ude, and gone to Lake Baikal – from what Rory and Martin had told us, there were many things we could’ve done there – but on the other hand, it’s probably just as well we didn’t go anywhere near water. Besides, Carrie planned to come to the city instead, wanting to see the wooden houses and learn more about the Decembrists, but with us barely speaking, I’m not sure what we’re actually going to do for the next couple of days. I just hope the hotel is nice, and that the food here is better than in Mongolia – which really shouldn’t be much of a stretch.

The car slows, and Ivan points out of his window.

‘This hotel,’ he says. ‘Hotel Irkut. Very nice hotel.’

Carrie sits up straight. ‘No. We’re going to the Rachmaninoff. I showed you.’ She leans forwards and tries to pick up the piece of paper that the driver has tossed onto the passenger seat.

‘No problem,’ he says, ‘I cancel this one for you. I take you to best hotel in Irkutsk. Best food. Caviar. Anything you like, ladies.’ He stops the car and gestures again at the hotel to his left. A man in a dark suit is standing outside, and he starts to walk towards us.

‘No,’ Carrie says, more forcefully now. ‘Take us to the Rachmaninoff Hotel.’

The suited man approaches the car, and Ivan winds down the window and starts talking to him in rapid-fire Russian.

Carrie leans over to me and whispers: ‘I’ve read about this. It’s a scam. They have an arrangement with this place, and they’ll take our money but then the other place will get all shitty and they’ll try to throw us out and make us pay for both.’

‘Fuck.’