Travelog
This diary tracks our progress along the Silk Roads, with episodes appearing in date order, most recent first. You can get to earlier entries by turning pages at the bottom of the screen.
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- Written by Andy Stone
- Category: Travelog
Beautilful though Russia is, and wonderfully accomodating its people are, one thing is sure: Russia is flat. Endlessly flat. Vast and flat. So it came as no little relief this week that we found ourselves in the Altai Republic - a small corner of Southern-central russia where Mongolia and Kazakhstan meet - and which consists almost emtirely of mountains and lakes. real, snow-capped mountains and crystal-clear lakes, oh bliss!
We stayed at a reasonably lake-side wooden hut on the shores of lake Teletskoe - no puddle at 78 km in length. we went by boat to see waterfalls, and a groovy bit where a meteorite had crashed into the earth creating a kind of bolt-on crater that was now part of the lake. It was one of those perfect moments where there was peace, clear water and mountains coming down into the lake. We also walked a lot and Ellen got far too excited about all the strange flora to be found. I'm sure she will elaborate.
We met 3 nice Russian boys where we were staying, who got me very drunk on good vodka and then took me to the banya. I have never been so clean. We are now in Barnaul looking into how to get to Irkutsk so that we can get our Mongolian visas. Durig the wait we hope to spend some time at lake Baikal.
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- Written by Ellen Winter
- Category: Travelog
- Details
- Written by Andy Stone
- Category: Travelog
Thank you everyone for all your birthday greetings - really cheered me up! On the one hand celebrating in the middle of Russia during such an amazing adventure is mind-blowingly great, but on such days home-sickness does threaten. You all helped me have a wonderful time though, despite the realisation that yesterday was the first day of the second half of my life (3 score years and 10, etc.) - ouch!
I had a wonderful day, with Ellen and Oksana waking me with choclate cake - the only sensible breakfast - followed by a day out on the outskirts of town, walking through gorgeous woodland and a huge lake. And I even managed to fall down some rocks ALL BY MYSELF, landing on exactly the same body parts as I did when I fell out of the bus. Who said you couldn't repeat it if you tried?!
Today I realised, while trying to send some unneeded things back to Blighty, that the Russian postal system is constructed along the same principles as their ecclesiastical architecture - i.e. baroque and labarynthine. Particularly when it comes to breakables. The post-babushka was pushing the mug I was trying to send back (and which she didn't want to post) towards me an inch across the counter when she though I wasn't looking. I of course did the same when I thought she wasn't looking. This went on for over half an hour, and I needn't say who won. Sod tsars, first-secretaries, and generals, Russia is and always has been run by little old ladies, be them from behind a postal counter or (more commonly) as provodnitsas on the trains. They know everything, and like chess grand-masters hold all the strategic aces. You cannot function in this country if they do not want you to! Ask ye not 'is Putin any better than Yeltsin' - it doesn't matter. Ask rather 'how can I not annoy the provodnitsas too much' and you may just survive. Off to Novosibirsk tonight, and from then south to the Altay mountains - hoorah!
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- Written by Andy Stone
- Category: Travelog
For those of you aquainted with Red Dwarf, yesterday was as if I had donned a pair of 'better than life' game-sets for a brief moment. If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, think personal shangri-la.
I should paint the picture: I was in a pub. To all intents and purposes a traditional english boozer, although of course it was located on the edge of Siberia, on a beautifully warm evening in the delightful town of Yekaterinburg. I has holding in my hand a pint of Moorland's magnificent Hen's Tooth, which even in England is as difficult to find as, well, hen's teeth. Instead of scrumming at the bar for half an hour I was served at my table by beautiful ladies. The table with the perfect view of the screen showing the the opening of the world cup. Electric Six were playing on the stereo, and I had the sincillating company of Ellen and our terrific host Oksana. A red letter day, to be sure.
Such reminicences are only marred by the prospect of not being able to get out of this town - all tickets for everywhere seem to be sold out and we may not manage to get to the Altai mountains. Ah well, we shall see what turns up.
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- Written by Ellen Winter
- Category: Travelog
Train really is the only way to travel. We travelled from Moscow to Yekaterinburg on the No16 Ural train, via Kazan. We travelled 'kupe', which is standard class sleeper. We had a compartment for 4 to ourselves, and the provodnitsas, who look after each carriage and generally rule the roost, were lovely and looked after us all the way. They made sure we knew how the bathroom and samovar worked (2 loos, 1 samovar per carriage), rented us lovely fresh cotton sheets for the bunks, made sure we didn't get left behind at halts, kept hawkers off the train, and generally looked out for us. Neither spoke English, I fact I only realised there were other English speakers on the train at one of the last halts when I found a party of Aussies and others loitering on the platform that were part of a guided tour.
The journey was 27 hours of delicious slobbing, broken by interesting conversations and Russian lessons from 12 year old Anton from Dagestan. With much phrase book use, gesticulation, drawing, pointing, and acting we finally established things about our respective families, houses, pets (he has a big cat called Bucks, as in dollars), local landscape (flat near the sea, then really steep mountains), local climate (he lives on the Caspian sea coast, where the water is 300C and he likes swimming), journeys (he was on his way with his Mum to visit his big sister nr Yekaterinberg for the summer), photography, and now I can count to 10 in Russian. Hooray!
I was particularly pleased, because when I ran into aforesaid Aussies etc, we were busy negotiating for food on the platform, and when one of them asked how much things were (in English) I could casually ask 'skolka sto-it?' and understand the reply!!! Unfortunately, the resulting cheese and onion pasties tasted like they had been glazed with mutton fat (a widespread custom across Cental asia), and I forced myself to swallow the first bite, but couldn't face the rest. The tomatoes and cucumber were lovely though, and topped up the flatbread and cheese I had brought nicely. Sticking to wheat and yeast free is impossible on the road, although I do my best when static. (Blini excepted). We also drank endless cups of caraway tea for me and dilute mors (pronounced morrrrse, and made from mixed berry juice) for Andy, from the pretty russian tea cups provided, made with boiled water from the samovar.
We didn't see Kazan, owing to us getting there at 3.15am, but we did see lots of trees on the way. Lots and lots and lots and lots of trees. For quite a lot of the time the countryside was a bit like going through some of the flatter bits of Hampshire, sort of slightly undulating patchy open woodland with grass in between. The trees still have their green spring freshness, and the millions of clean white birches look lovely, especially when set off by stategically placed glaucous rowan trees in flower, and big patches of soft blue lupins on the edges. Bloody impossible to photograph from the train though, so you'll have to come and look for yourself.
We also crossed the River Volga, but it's not that big this far up, only about the size of the Thames at Tower Bridge. We arrived in Yekaterinburg at 8pm local time (we are now 5 hrs ahead of BST, I think) and were met by our lovely VEGETARIAN host, Oxana, after a bit of confusion becasue we didn't get her last email due to a mix up with the train times in Moscow; the train went about 40 minutes before we thought, so it was lucky we got there early. Today it is 290C, but dry, so it's OK.