Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk travel tips

SANTA resort hotel 
This is the hotel where the Japanese tourist lodge when they come to Sakhalin island to see their cemeteries since the times when the island belonged to Japan. The dpuble costs 200 us dollars, which is cheap for japanese. It is a 5 stars hotel, chut chut far from the center, but a taxi from the main post office will cost you 60 roubles. more

Kraevedcheskii Musei 
This Museum is the best in Kamchatka! It costs only 25 roubles (wee, if they know that you are a foreigner, then the price is 70 roubles) and if you wwant to take pictures there is a fee. It has 3 floors and exhibits hundreds of local items belonging to the aboriginal people of Sakhalin island and the Japanese and Russian period. This museum is the number one tourist atraction in Sakhalin island. more

Kolobok Restaurant 
This is a wonderful Russian restaurant. It is situated behind the Main Post Office, in the central street Lenin. They serve blinis with red caviar, pelmenie, delicious milk shakes and gribi or Far East mushrooms with smetana. It is very popular with students and the quality is super! Please, do not miss it if you come to Sakhalin island. In front, near the monument to Lenin and to the tank, there is a japanese restaurant called Furusato, but expensive, although everybody says that is very good. more

MONERON 
One of the cheapest hotels in Sakhalin island. It is besides the railway station. In front there is a hotel owned by Dom Oficierov, called Dalni Vostochni, but first they accepted me and paid the equivalence of 6 euros in a triple together with two lieutenants with their uniforms. But after half an hour a woman asked me the passport and when she saw it she was in diki vostorg (surprised0 because everybody thaough that I was russian from Kabardino Balkaria. Then I went to Moneron and was accepted. I pay 400 roubles for a single. There are no geysers in Sakhalin, that is why I can not sleep in the nature. It is snowing. I hope to board tomorrow my boat to Kurils islands. more