07.31.08
Posted in General at 6:59 am by Suraj
Every trip has high points and low points. We always hope to have more highs than lows and if it’s a particularly tough trip we hope for at least one high. Yekaterinburg is probably going to be noted down as the low point of this trip. Let me start at the beginning.
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So we left Nizhny and were back on the train to Yekaterinburg. We’re quite used to the double overnight train journeys now. Our staple diet consists of instant noodles, pringles and water. So there was a bit of confusion even when we boarded the train in Nizhny as it was a couple of hours earlier than the timetable had indicated. Trusting to the tour company to know what they were doing we paid this no mind and headed on our merry way. Surprisingly, when we arrived in Yekaterinburg at 1am instead of 3am we were not met by a transfer person. Having almost always found my own way to my digs in the past it’s been quite refreshing having someone waiting to cart us off at every stop. No, that doesn’t include money hungry policemen. So after waiting around a little bit we gave the tour company a call since they supposedly ran 24/7. As you may have guessed, they were expecting us at 3am. They dispatched someone to come get us straight away. I bet they too are very aware of the danger of leaving tourists wandering around a train station. We were picked up by a girl named Anya who seemed a good sort and spoke fluent English. When she heard where we were staying she almost looked scared. The driver threw his 2c in by telling us the showers were across the road. There is a fountain in the park across the road, for those of you wondering. We weren’t too bothered at the time since we knew it was a business hotel so were already expecting a two star establishment.
So you know how hotels are rated in stars? I think we’d need an alternative scale which uses black holes instead. The rooms themselves were basic, very basic. Clearly the hotel did not on a vacuum cleaner or even wet rags or a mop. The toilet facilites were shared amongst all the guests on the floor, each floor could hold about 40 guests so you can imagine the fun this was going to cause. Showers were located in the basement and consisted of three or four open shower cubicles. This shower facility was the only one that served the entire hotel. So 40 guests per floor by about seven or eight floors … hmmm almost three hundred people using four showers. Note how I said people? That’s because it was the same room used for men and women. The sex segregation was handled by a lady out the front who controlled access to the room and I assume made sure only one sex was represented at a time. Needless to say the girls found the whole arrangment somewhat less than appealing. The last straw was probably breakfast that first morning. We turned up to the eating area where breakfast was served. It was quite literally slop. I’m not even exaggerating. There was potato slop, I call it slop because you could drink it through a fat sraw if you so desired. There was also meat slop which was basically chunks of sausage in a watery tomato sauce, the sausages were few and far between. We ended up ‘upgrading’ our rooms to ones that had attached bathrooms instead.
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This little drama set the scene for the remainder of our stay. Next we tried to find the Ekaterinburg Guide Centre so that we could book a trip into the Ural mountains. We found a booking office that we ‘thought’ was the guide centre but turned out to be just the Hotel’s tour desk. In any case .. we booked a day tour to a Nature Park and this done we decided to walk back into town. Since it is a relatively small city we figured we could see the main sights of interest along the way. The Church of the Blood, built at the site where the Romanov family were murdered, is probably their main attraction. I had noticed a Museum of Military History in our guidebook but just like the Soviet War Machine it was a bit on the derelict side and apparently being renovated. Actually this is probably an incorrect assessment since Russia is currently pounding Georgia using conventional warfare. Aside from all this though my favourite place in Ekaterinburg is the Black Tulip war memorial. Built to honour the memory of those who gave their lives in the Afghan war it has since been expanded to incorporate other conflicts that Russians have been involved in. The centrepiece of this memorial is a soldier seated on the ground with his headed hanging and his shoulders slumped, holding his AK-47 in one hand. It’s one of the most beautiful memorials I’ve seen around, generally war memorials tend to be either quite bare, with an eternal flame of some manner or else a cold listing of names and such. This place on the other hand does nothing to glorify war but rather gives you a feeling for the cost of war on those involved at the front lines. So between this and the Romanove death site it was a bit of a bleak day, compounded by the grey skies and sudden showers. Honestly .. if Melbourne goes through four seasons in a day then Ekaterinburg must go through four seasons in five minutes!
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The next day was spent a the nature park. I had decided to wear shorts in anticipation of good weather .. bad choice .. not because of the weather but because of the insects. I’d made another brilliant decision - didn’t take the insect repellent with me. I learned my lesson that day as I was eaten alive all through the walk. On closer examination the next day I saw that it wasn’t just the little pin prick sized bites you’d normally get but I had little chunks of flesh missing from where I’d been bitten by some bizzare cross between mosquitoe and vulture! Nothing of too much interest this day .. on the way to the park we stopped at the border between Asia and Europe so we had the chance to take the usual photos with a foot on each continent. The highlight of the walk was our exploration of a cave looking for ancient cave drawings. We had come well prepared … for not much. With not a single torch between us we headed in using the light of mobile phones and the AutoFocus assist beams of cameras as light sources. Later another couple, that had entered with us, lent us their mobile which had a flash that could be used as a torch. Even with this it was still quite dark and slippery. We eventually made a very hasty exit when we discovered a small cave in which there seemed to be a small hibernating bear or a large sleeping snake. We’ll never know which it was .. or if it was just a large garbage bag … I don’t know who actually discovered it but the group suddenly started exiting and decided against being left alone in a cave with an unknown creature. On the outside the girls decided to compare bums to see who had fallen over the most while I did my dance of insect avoidance. That was pretty much it for the day … our guide was quite keen to get home I think and wouldn’t even let us stop for a beer at the German’s cafe. There was this German guy from Stuttgart that had arrived four years ago and decided it was a prime spot to setup a cafe. He’d been here ever since. I think he may just come ove rin the summer months though. On the way home we had a bit more excitement as a truck had gone off the road so we were delayed for another half hour or so as the truck was lifted out of the ditch. Traffic was banked up for about a kilometre or two either side of the acccident site.
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We left Ekaterinburg quite gladly the next day … this time bound for a little city named Tomsk. Not on the Tran-Sib line itself, unlike Omsk, but it had been recommended to us by someone’s Russian friends. It was to be our first homestay.
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07.30.08
Posted in General at 6:54 am by Suraj
So the journey continued out of Moscow but this time by Bus. We were met by our guide for the day, Tatiana, and bundled onto a mini-van for the trip out to Suzdal. We all breathed a sigh of relief as we were now safe again.
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Suzdal is one of the towns forming the Golden Ring of Russia. Moscow is the South Western ‘corner’ of the ring. It’s basically an area which is famed for its countryside, architecture and history. Mainly because these are the towns where the Russian Orthodox church originated and the entire area is considered an “open air museum”. Personally I think Novgorod should have been classified as one too .. or perhaps a fossil site! Anyway .. back to our story. We arrived in Suzdal, having made a few stops along the way including Sergiev Posad where a monastery dedicated to St. Sergius (the patron saint of Russia) sits. I’ve noticed that the Russians seem to have a LOT of saints. I suspect that the canonization process is a little bit easier here, no need for two separate miracles here. I’m considering moving to Russia and doing something glorious, then you may all refer to me as St.Suraj ….. I’m sure it can’t be too hard to be glorious in Russia … maybe something related to drinking Vodka .. hmm I’ll have to think about this a little more.
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Suzdal is actually a sleepy little town, one that you could walk around in about half an hour. We were lodged at the best hotel in Suzdal … apparently a million tourists pass through every year… it was a four star establishment that was quite swanky looking. It would have been nice if the A/C worked though as it was quite warm in Suzdal. The term “Summer Holiday” is now being used by our little group as a joke since we tend to have rain wherever we go. There had been a correlation noted between the rain and Lisa wearing a particular denim skirt aka “The Rain Skirt”. It’s a little early to assign blame just yet but we will be keeping track just in case. We spent our first and only evening drinking Honey Mead and then dining in a restaurant called the Bee Hive. Apparently the area is big with honey, not just cucumbers. BTW it’s gherkins that the produce aplenty in Suzdal, not Cucumbers. Continuing on …. it wasn’t a particularly interesting town for me and I was happy to move on the next day … especially since our room was a mini-sauna! The next morning we headed to a town named Vladimir, also on the Golden Ring, where we boarded the train to Nizhny Novgorod. Along the way we also visited the “Most famous church in Russia”. It’s a little chapel on the outskirts of Vladimir and sits on an island when the river floods. We dutifully went for a look, waking a drunk man out of a stupor on the way, took photos and headed back. While we were out there Tatiana decided to go for a swim in the pond since we had another guide for this particular section of the tour. After this little diversion it was back on the train and off to Nizhny or as it was know in Soviert times - Gorky.
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Many cities in Russia were renamed during the Soviet times and didn’t return to their old names until the 1990s. It was named Gorky after Maxim Gorky. Gorky means Bitter in Russian. Gorky was a a closed city during soviet times and was also the place to which Andrei Sakharov was exiled. A.S. was the father of the Hydrogen bomb. One of the highlights of this trip was a visit to the museum that is now located in the flat where he spent his exiled years. Unfortunately most of the material is only described in Russian but still worth the visit as a peek into the life of a military scientist behind the Iron Curtain. Nizhny was surprisingly modern and quite free of tourists … except for us of course. We’ve now decided that we are clearly pioneers on this trail as it appears that people on the Trans-Sib don’t actually get off the train at these smaller cities… clearly. Nothing else of interest to report from Nizhny except that they have trams and their Kremlin is a far more serious fortification than any of the other I have seen. It sits atop a steep hill making it quite difficult for attackers, even of the tourist kind, to approach. It was also here that we actually boarded the official Trans-Siberian train #002. Route #001 Runs from Vladivostok to Moscow. So the even numbered routes run eastwards and the odd ones run west. Most of our trains follow the the TransSib route but aren’t actually the TransSib trains since they only service a particular section of the route.
One other thing we did do along the way was visit a little town named Semyonov where the Matryoshka dolls are produced. Most of us call them babushka dolls. Babushkas are basically Matryoshka dolls which represent an old woman. I saw everything from Winnie the Pooh dolls to Hello Kitty dolls. I have attached a picture of a doll painted by an acclaimed visiting artist or should I say Artiste? I’ve already received expressions of interest from the Louvre and the Hermitage but am choosing not to sell since it was not produced as a commercial product.
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Next stop Yekaterinburg - gateway to the Urals.
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07.26.08
Posted in General at 7:00 am by Suraj
 So after the wonders of Novgorod we arrived in a little Russian backwater named Moscow. We were on the look out for a few things here … The Bolshoi, The Kremlin, Red Square and .. The Police! Still scarred by the St.P experience we entered Moscow in the dead of night hoping to make it in unnoticed. We stayed in a fairly central location, in a casino hotel of all places. The Kremlin was about a forty minute walk away so we were well placed for all our tourist activities. Having turned up at two or three in the morning we were lucky to have our rooms allocated 12 hours before check-in. We only had three nights so we had planned to make the most of it.
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Our first day was spent familiarising ourselves with the city. We wandered down to the Red Square area to have a look and also to book some tours. We’d been advised that getting into the Kremlin could be quite time consuming if we chose to line up for tickets. It was quite true. The lines stretched all the way to St.P. Our first stop was actually at the site of the Bolshoi Theatre. Unfortunately it was closed for renovations so we had to make do with the Russian Youth Ballet instead.
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The next few days were spent touring the Kremlin, visiting Lenin’s Tomb, taking hundreds of photos of St Basil’s and exploring the Arbat.
We actually did make it out of the centre as well to visit a state park which celebrated the achivements of the Soviet Union. The highlight of this would be the 100m high titanium monument to the Russian space program and the dodgem cars. The remainder of the park was about as interesting as the Soviet architecture. The Arbat is a bit like Las Ramblas in Barcelona but without the trees and the gypsies .. at least I didn’t notice any gypsies. It’s a nice touristy stretch with plenty of restaurants and cafes. The highlight here for the girls would have been Starbucks … when we first stepped in Kelly was in such a hurry to get her hands on a coffee that she abandoned human communication and resorted to pointing at a picture and making seal sounds. Not surprisingly the person behind the counter could speak english and probably served us with one hand on the alarm button.
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The ballet was a bit disappointing as it was quite amateurish in comparison with the performance of Swan Lake we attended at the Mariinsky in St.P. It probably didn’t help that we were in the front row and could see every mistake at close range. Ah yes, in my many decades as a ballet critic …. no but really it was obvious to us so I’m guessing thos of you in the know would have cringed too.
We also experienced another aspect of Moscow culture - Face Control. We attempted to walk into a fairly well visited restaurant with some of us wearing thongs. I was standing at the back so found it quite funny when the conversation went a little like this
Us: Hi, a table for four please
M’d: Of course .. anywhere down here
Us: Could we have a table upstairs please
M’d: <glances down at the footwear> I’m afraid it’s full
Us: How long is the wait?
M’d: about 30 mins
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So at this point the girls decided to head back to the hotel change footwear, freshen up and come back. We almost made it again except as the new guys said he would check upstairs the previous FC turned up and whispered somethign to him and suddenly it was full again .. surprise surprise. We were directed to the restaurant next door instead where we headed up to the roof-top terrace. Here we were greeted by a waiter in livery making it look like a 18th century ballroom. Water here cost more than the alcohol in our usual haunts. We did have quite an enjoyable night though so much so that Lisa and Cara were caught eating the serving dish that came with our desserts.
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All in all Moscow has been a success since we have not been arrested, although we did have two drive-bys. So now we’re finally on the Trans-Siberian route .. our next stop will be Suzdal - famous for cucumbers apparently. From there onto Nizhny Novgorod the town formerly known as Gorky.
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07.22.08
Posted in General at 7:02 am by Suraj
 So … the journey continued from St Petersburg. We caught a bus in the general direction of Moscow to a sprawling metropolis named Novgorod (essentially meaning New City). The correct way to address this location is the subject of this email. Novgorod was once the Capital
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The city has about 11,000 inhabitants of which none are mechanics.
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I need a little background information first. We’ve started a “photo of the day” competition to keep life interesting. Each evening over dinner we pick a topic for the next day and then you have until the next evening’s dinner (or decision time) to take photos that qualify. The photo has to be in keeping with the topic and at dinner (or whenever the decision made) we vote for which photo is best. Obviously you can’t vote for your own photo, most votes wins.
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One of the first things we noticed after being dropped off at the “modern” bus station, modern because it was built after man discovered fire, was a concertina bus. The middle of the bus was sagging so much that it almost touched the ground. That night at dinner the photo of the day topic was set as “derelict”. Novgorod did not fail to dish up a vast array of subject material. Cars, Buses, Radio masts and even their theatre. It was like being in some sort of post-Apocalyptic town. On a positive note - They had an excellent Pizza restaurant. This was a godsend as the previous night in Novgorod I decided to sample the local fare and ordered Okrushka - A nasty mix Kvas, sour cream and just general nasty tasting items — supposedly very refreshing … I think not. Needless to say I went to bed hungry that night … and most of you know that’s a rare occurrence.
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As usual we had a tour of the location as we were to spend two nights there. We did arrive late in the evening so really two nights and a day. The day was spent exploring their Kremlin - Kremlin just means fort really it’s just that the Moscow one is the most famous. Also we visited what seemed like every one of their 52 churches! Novgorod has the highest concentration of churches in Russia .. and after our tour I wasn’t inclined to doubt this.
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The following day we were bussed off to Vladimir where we were to catch a train into Moscow and the start of our Trans-Siberian journey, Hurrah!
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07.20.08
Posted in General at 7:04 am by Suraj
So I flew from Gatswick to St.Petersburg the city formerly known as Leningrad.. the adventure pretty much started in Gatswick.
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Having not read my Lonely Planet, I was not aware of how modern the Russian airlines’ fleets were. Even the seats were rusty .. that’s right… Rusty! not Ruski! and for the first time ever on an aircraft I was served fish fingers as a meal. I should have guessed it was downhill from there. After landing in St.P I spent over an hour waiting in the immigration line … it seems some nationalites can be processed in twenty seconds whereas others take twenty minutes. Having made it through this debacle I finally got through (in twenty seconds) and found myself a taxi to take me into town. I had a night in St.P before the others arrived. Not wanting to venture out alone in a city “notorious” ( so said the guidebook, Hurrah!) for racially motivated violence, I decided to do some emailing in the hotel. Two terminals amongst hundreds of guests was a bad ratio so I decided to wait it out at the bar. Bad Choice (more on this later). At the bar I decided to start sampling the various vodkas … thus the night ends.
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The next day was spent moving into the hotel where the rest of the group, my friend Kelly from work and her sisters, would be arriving to start our trip. Note: This trip was actually oganised by Kelly and her sisters (Lisa and Cara) but there was a spare spot so I took the lazy route and tagged along. Quite happily we set about doing the usual touristy thing using our Lonely Planets for guidance. By day two we had already been arrested. The weather was quite good in St.P so whilst touring the Russian Museum we decided it would be a good idea to go to a supermarket to pick up some supplies for a picnic and head off to the Summer Gardens for some Lunch al Fresco. I think we probably had about 15 minutes of sitting down and eating before out the corner of my eye I saw two policemen walking up an adjacent path. I had been keeping an eye out because we had heard/read countless stories of police corruption and so-called ‘fines’. Sure enough I saw them veer off their original path and head up ours. Ignoring in the hope that they would just keep walking we kep eating. Next thing we know they’re in front of us telling us we can’t eat in the park - “This not restaurant!”. They gestured that we were to get up and follow them all the while throwing the word “arrest” in there. They walked us to the police booth sat us down and started writing out a ‘report’. In the meantiem they also showed us a slip of paper in English that basically indicated that we were not allowed to drink in public places, museums etc … and that the fine was 1000 roubles. So after a bit of a standoff we decided to pay the ‘fine’ 1000 each, and headed off. Whilst it was clearly a shake-down we did also notice on the way out that there was a sign indicating that eating and drinking was not allowed in the park. Since then we have developed an absolute paranoia when it comes to any activity that could be considered even remotely against the law.
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After the arrest we finshed off our lunch in front of a University where there were plenty of other people eating and drinking, safety in numbers yes?, and then headed off to a river cruise. the theory was that we couldn’t be arrested on a boat. During the boat ride we did notice a corpse on one pier being inspected by police, clearly someone that thought the water in St.P was potable. That’s right people, do NOT drink the water here. We continued with our tourist activities including attending a performance of Swan Lake at the Mariinsky theatre. Along with this we discovered Blini - Russian pancakes, Pelmeni - Russian dumplings and of course Vodka.
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Our second last night in St.P was spent on a pub crawl … more of a bar crawl .. four of us plus a swedish couple. Alex our guide started off with a very local bar … seriously … this place just had old russian men having a ‘few’ drinks after work. Imagine the reaction when we roll in with four girls in tow .. suddenly we were being assessed from every angle, the girls from a few more than the guys. We bought a bottle with the intention of having a single shot and then moving on. Within seconds another patron had bought a bottle for our group, not sure if it was out of friendship or because he was hoping to get the girls drunk. After a bit of joking and cajoling and Alex trying to calm everyone down - at this stage the old man was giving the girls kisses - the old man decided he needed to arm wrestle me. We’ll never know if he was just letting me of or if my lack of flexibility prevented my arm from being bent bacwards because it was declared a draw as neither of us could overcome the other. Given that his biceps felt like rocks I’d say it was the former rather than the latter. He seemed pretty cheerful about it though and then proceeded to jump on me as if I was some tree in the park. This was met with cheers from most of his buddies and eventually he gave up on trying to best me in feats of strength .. methinks he was trying to win the girls off me somehow. We then continued in our quest for othe bars, some were closed (possibly just to foreigners, we were never quite sure) and some Alex avoided because he was afraid of a repeat of the arm wrestling and kissing. We stopped at a Central Asian restaurant for a snack and some sheesha and that’s really where the trouble started. Three contributing factors.
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One - Vodka - The girls by this stage had decided vodka was the nectar of the gods and had no alcohol thus should be ordered by the half litre, especially as we were in Russia.
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Two - Sheesha - We ordered a hookah and some apple flavoured sheesha to smoke while we drank.
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Three - Snuz - Not quite snuff, Mikael and Suss decided to introduce us to this lovely Swedish pasttime of putting little packets of tobacco-like substance between our gums and lip and letting it slowly absorb. Let’s just say that it took all of five minutes before I started feeling dizzy.
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By the time we left this restaurant and headed on to our next stop, to be our final stop, we were well and truly flying, to use a Sri Lankan term. At the last bar we continued with the Vodka shots by this stage everyone had had at least seven 50ml shots. We only made it through two as people were starting to feel the effects but I must say it didn’t stop us having a great time. Alex had abandoned us by this stage as I think he was afraid of the consequences of being around us in our state. We were definitely looking very arrestable. Luckily we were close to our hotel and after bidding goodbye to our newfound Swedish friends we walked back to our hotel. Suss and Mikael - thanks for the fun night and I hope you didn’t get arrested during your stay. Mikael left he Snuss pack with me … not sure if that was a good idea or not … I still have the bottle of Vodka the old man bought us too. We plan to have a vodka session on our next train ride which will take about 26 hours.
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The next day was spent on a day tour out to Catherines palace and was more of a recovery day for some of us that partied a little harded than the rest of us. Certain people were seen to be waving pickled herrings and pringles in the air at our local milk-bar type shop while others collapsed in a fit of laughter just as we walked up to our rooms …. drawing nasty looks from the lady looking after our floor.
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So we finally made it out of St.P by bus … heading to our next stop … Novgorod. This place deserves an entry all its own so I’ll not try and describe it here. So far we have not been arrested since that day and we’re hoping to keep it that way. After Novgorod we head to Moscow, the starting point of the Trans-Siberian (Eastbound).
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