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You can lose everything, but nobody will take away what you saw and what you experienced...
............ 
Aug 28, 2009 02:00 PM Harbin, China - where the tigers are...
I am already in Manchuria. Harbin - the capital of the province is a big, neat city, full of modern skycrapers and friendly locals speaking rather some Russian then some English. Communication is poor, but they smile - and this helps...
In the past on my trail I slept already in the former jail, in the church and even in the former Mormon temple. Here I sleep in the former synagogue. Local family converted it to the basic hostel... The single without window cost just 50 RMB
The quarter I live has all charm of oriental city - especially in the evenings where eateries appear in the sidewalks and the street smells so nice...
I spent half of my day in the tiger park - some 15 km out of the town. Take bus 85 to get there and walk about 3 kms. City transport is dirty cheap - 1 RMB per ride - keep ready 1-yuan notes and pay on entry.
In the park pay 65 RMB - no discounts and they will put you in the luttle bus with bars in the windows. The you go to the Siberian tigers. Wow! They say there is about 800 of them in this safari park (I saw about 150 - still impressive!) It is the only place like that in the world - I think. I got nice pictures, But I did not like that local people buy live animals (from chicken to the cow) to throw them and see how the tigers fight for them and eat them... That's China!
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Aug 26, 2009 02:00 PM Vladivostok - and what now?
They call this nice port "Russian San Francisco". It has beautiful location in the long bay called Golden Horn - like in Istanbul.
Whole day I spent wondering around and taking pictures.
I have to decide, where to go now from Russia...
My Russian visa period is almost over...
It is hard to believe, but Internet gives me a chance to book from here: in Russian Far East cheap flights China to Canada and also last-minute trains in Canada:
http://www2.viarail.ca/expressdeals/
I decided to cross soon the border to China - to Manchuria and then to take cheap flight to Vancouver- Canada
Then my next dream .will come true: a long rail journey through all Canada - coast to coast...
Lets work on it now!
Do not you think that this voyage is converting into my 9th round-the-world expedition?... :)
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Aug 23, 2009 02:00 PM Drink! ...or you are not a friend....
I did not see so far any foreign tourist in Petropavlovsk...
I share my room with locals. This give me a chance to save half of the room rate... but...
He was very nice Russian - we were speaking about our countries and families. And then - in the evening he brought o big bottle of vodka, meat, bread, smoked fish...
"Ugoshtchaytyes, pozhauysto!" - I have been invited for the dinner! There was a problem because I do not drink vodka...
We are friends, lets drink for friendship!
What should I do?
Fortunately for the next night I got a guy from Kyrgyzstan - he was a muslim and did not press me to drink...
It is raining again - I an visiting local bazaars - one kilo of red caviar costs 600-700 roubles... Better then vodka!...
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Aug 22, 2009 02:00 PM Petropavlovsk on Kamchatka
Only once per week the junk Antonov-26 turbo-prop is flying from Magadan to Kamchatka. Can you imagine our luggage on the first few rows of seats and then about 20 pax trying to find unbroken seat in the back. I found one for me!
From the plane and on arrival I saw those famous volcanos of Kamchatka. But now it is raining...
It is hard to say that rainy Petropavlovsk is a nice place. Bud close to the airport I found a new, nice and inexpensive hotel *Privokzalnaya* phone 8-961-960-90-81 (Russian only). They charge 750 rou per bed in the double with comunal shower. But... Since 3 days there is no tap water in all Petropavlovsk. Can you imagine???. Sorry, no hotel discounts for that - you can have a cold bucket shower instead... I have to survive...
Keep you fingers crossed for the better weather, please...
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Aug 20, 2009 02:00 PM Magadan, Magadan...
We made a big loop via Kyubeme and Ust Nera on the New Kolyma Road to meet the Old Road of Bones again in the ghost town of Kadykchan...
The area is famous for the gold mining and for Soviet gulags, where thousands of prisoniers died working in harsh conditions. After 50 years not much of the gulags remained. At least those close to tha main roads were well cleaned up...
It was late evening when we reached the Russian city on the coast of the Pacific: Magadan is the end of the Road of Bones.
It is also the end of our G-5 summit. Now everybody will continue the voyage on his own. Thank you, dear fello toprotters - it was nice to meet you and to spend with you a hard time on the Lena River and on the Road of Bones!
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Aug 17, 2009 02:00 PM Stopped on the Old Road of Bones...
Every local was convinced that is is inpossible to go via buchanka through the last stretch of the old road from Tomtor to Kadykchan... After they built the New Road nobody goes there...
We wanted to try anyway. Our colleagues from USA rented a second bukhanka for safety... First 100 km was bumpy but passable, we crossed few little rivers fording. We reached the border with Magadan Oblast... There the old road became much worse - when the new road is open since years nobody cares of it... After approx 7 km there was huge, 1 meter deep pothole blocking the road. Mud on the left, mud on the right... No way...
In addition heavy wind and rain started with a little pieces of ice falling from the sky...
It was net easy to take the decission about return to Tomtor...
Waterloo? Not! Just one more adventure!
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Aug 16, 2009 02:00 PM The Pole of Cold
Road is awfull. Forget about pavement. Bumps are very common, we are passing fords every day. But what a views of unspoiled nature!
From Tomtor on the Old Road of Bones it is inly 40 km of side road to the village Oymyakon, where once the lowest temperature on the Northern hemisphere was registered: minus 72.8 Celsius - they call the place Pole of Cold.
We took a photos of the little monument. The night temperature at the moment is like 3 deg Celsius...
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Aug 14, 2009 02:00 PM Crossing the big rivers of Siberia
Igor, the local driver of our car came late. He brought also his wife to travel with us - fortunately only for the first two days...
All stuff was packed up (I have only one 30-l backpack, but some other companions came with a big loads) and we drowe from Yakutsk to the Lena river ferry. No jetty - you go in just from the sand... Crossing took mor the one hour. On the other side - in Nizhny Bestyah is the last and cheap place to buy food.
Then hours of drive through green and lush taiga. Foto stops
(sometimes too long) - fortunately we were on time (8 pm) for the last ferry on another big river: Aldan. Sail took us like 1.5 hour - sunset was great but we we reached first overnight stop - Khandyga it was already dark. Not so easy to find a bed - it is Siberia!
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Aug 13, 2009 02:00 PM Do you know bukhanka?
It is not easy to find the car and the driver who wants to go via the infamous Road of Bones to Magadan. It is more then 2000 kms through taiga, remains of gulag camps, broken bridges, rivers to ford etc...
Helpful Agency in Yakutsk (Tour Service, Yaroslavskogo 30/1 apt 66 phone 33 53 34) arranged for us Ivan - the driver of bukhanka. Bukhanka in a little microbus - not very comfortable but very resistant - they say (gniotsa nie lamiotsa!).
We agreed for the price: it will be 13000 rou per day incl. petrol. As a solo traveller I'll never pay such a money - but is will be 5 of us to share this cost. Ferries are extra.
All of us - the toptrotters know the world but not the outback of Yakutia: we are all excited by the new big adventure which starts tomorow.
It is my last message before tommorrow's early morning departure to nowhere. I do hope we will do it in 6-7 days, sleeping in the pasiolok - tiny villages on the way. Now I am goint to buy the supply of food - not so easy available in taiga.
Next message - probably from Magadan after one week. Keep your fingers crossed, please - taiga is great but the flies (meshkha or mashkara) are awfull...
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Aug 12, 2009 02:00 PM Diamonds of Yakutia..
We are back in Yakutsk - the capital of Yakutia. The main resources of this republic (1/5 territory of Russia but only around one million inhabitants) are diamonds, gold and coal...
In Yakutsk, close to the Lenin Square I found diamonds museum. During the day they start here tours almost on every hour. They charge from the foreigners 350 roubles entry fee. If you speak fluent Russian (like me) you can go for 100.
It is well worth to see. There are not only the diamonds but also gold, traditional Yakutian dress and weapon...
In the afternoon I and Kevin went to the farmers market full of vegetables and fruits. Some of them come from Central Asia. I met the sellers from Kirgistan. They were very happy listening about my trip to their country years ago. And I was so surprised when the handed me out a gift: a bag full of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and paprika. They refused to accept any payment. Lovely people!
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