ThisIsVlad

click here for all of my photos from Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk

here are some of them:

biggest lenin head ever in ulan-ude

church in ulan-ude

church in ulan-ude

wooden houses, ulan-ude

wooden houses, ulan-ude

wooden houses, ulan-ude

church, irkutsk

fuzzy plants, irkutsk

nice sunny day. are we really in siberia?

church, irkutsk

ornate door of a church in irkutsk

our picnic at baikal eating smoked Omul

lake baikal

angry cows take over the road

*v

click here to view all of my photos from vladivostok and the transsiberian railway

here’s a few of them:

lenin in vladivostok

vladivostok train station.. the journey begins

babushkas selling their goods

lots and lots of birch trees along the way

villages

villages

*v

you’ll be pleased to hear that there is no shortage of red tape here in russia. despite the fact that communism has come and gone, the country still has enough bureaucracy, red tape, and difficulties to drive a person insane.

Let’s start with just getting in the country. lots of countries let you just grab a visa at the border and come right in. for other countries, you need to go to the embassy, fill out some paperwork, and then you come in. not so in russia. to get a visa, you have to have an invitation from someone inside the country. why? i’m assuming this is some legacy from the communist days when they were afraid of undesirable characters infiltrating the country. maybe, if you could prove that you knew someone living in Russia, they wouldn’t suspect you of coming in to cause trouble. well, now times have changed. you can get this “invitation» from any company if you pay them 30$ or so. so basically, this invitation really is meaningless. it doesn’t prove anything whatsoever except that you paid someone money. I guess now it’s just an extra way for these companies to make cash.

once you finally get this invitation, you can go to the embassy and apply for a visa. the form you have to fill out to apply is insane. you have to put down the last 3 jobs you worked at and their addresses and phone numbers. you have to put down which schools you went to and their addresses and numbers. your last 2 home addresses. which countries you’ve been to in the last year. etc etc and so on. out of the 30 some odd countries I’ve been to, I’ve never seen a application form as complicated as this one. even Syria, other than asking for religion and Israeli stamps, was ten times as short and easy as this one. eventually, once you fill out the application, you drop it off, and hopefully after 2 weeks, you find out hat you are now accepted to come to the country… but only during the 30 days specified on your visa. if you stay even an hour over, you will… *not be allowed to leave Russia ever*. yes. they will literally hold you at the border and not let you leave. I’ve heard of people trying for *weeks* to leave Russia on an expired visa, and even then only being allowed to go because of some connections and a loophole.

ok. great! you have your visa! you have a passport! your problems are over right? wrong. once you enter the country, officials need to be able to track you and know where you are at all times. so that they can do this, you need to register your visa in *every city you go to* if you stay in the city more than 3 days. if you get caught having an unregistered visa, you can get in big trouble. so basically, you have to waste time doing this registration in every single town you visit. ugh. from everything we’ve read, there’s two ways of registering. the hotel you stay at, is technically required by law to register you, or you can go down to the town’s PVU (passport Visa something something) office. luckily, for the most part, our hotels have registered us without too many hassles. well, all of them except one that refused to do it. they said that apparently their hotel “doesn’t have the right» to register people. honestly, that sounds like a bullshit excuse to me. the law says all hotels are *required* to register their guests. but.. whatever.

well, of course, we ended up running into difficulties. after spending two days in a hostel here in st petes, we moved to my relatives house. well, since she isn’t a hotel, she cant register us!! so now what? I guess we have to go to the PVU. so, we go across town and go to the pvu. upon entering, the security guy stops me and asks me what I want. I tell him I need to be registered. he then says that to get registered, I need to get registered through the company that sent me my invitation. but, i say, that company is in moscow… hours away!! he looks at me and asks “well, i really have no idea what you would want from us.”. great. so, he tells us to go to some other address. upon arriving, that address turns out to be just an apartment building. either i heard the address wrong, or he gave me the wrong address. ugh. now what. the one place where we need to register, allegedly says it wont register us, even though all the guidebooks, websites, etc etc all say that you need to go to the PVU. *sigh*.

we decided to ask at the us embassy. we get there and are gruffly told that they are on a lunch break and to wait. an hour later, we return. i talk to the lady who says that, well, basically I’m screwed. she says the only person that can register me is either that company in moscow, or a hotel. apparently, if you come here to stay w/ relatives, you need a different kind of visa. so, i cant really get registered by my relative, i can only get registered at a hotel. ugh. she confirms that pvu, apparently doesn’t register people, despite the fact that everywhere it says that it should. so now what? she says our choices are either, a)go directly to moscow immediately to have the inviting company register us, or b) try to get by without registering. she says if we decide not to register, once we come to the border we will face one of 4 scenarios: 1)no one notices since we were registered for the first two days in st petes. 2)they notice, but after we beg and plead they let it slide. 3)they take the official fine of 1000 roubles (40 bucks) each. 4) they try to take an unofficial fine (bribe) or any amount they decide to ask for. so basically, we are screwed. she says that one option might be to get registered at a hotel that we aren’t actually staying at for a small fee.

so, defeated, we leave. we decide to call the inviting company in moscow, who tell us that they have an agency here. good news!!! we go down to the agency, only to find out that they’ll register us, but only if we pay them 20$ each. such bullshit. seriously, it’s like every step of the way, we have to deal w/ crap or pay money.

**********

the next day, we decide that we should try to figure out our onward plans. we go down to the main train station to buy tickets from moscow to Prague. you aren’t allowed to just go up to the window and buy tickets. you have to first figure out exactly what you need on a computer system (price, date, train number, etc) and then walk up to the window w/ that info. this computer system is a total mess, and not only that, but is unable to actually give prices for international train journeys. so, we get in line for the window. after waiting in a long line, i ask the lady how much tickets are to prague. she says she has no clue. no “I’m sorry”. no helpful info. just i don’t know. uh, great. thanks. so i ask her where i could find out. she says she doesn’t know, maybe i should try the next building. so we go to the next building and wait in line again. we finally get to the front and ask to buy tickets to prague. we get told that they cant sell us those tickets. instead we have to go to another place across town. this starts turning into a never-ending saga.

at the station across town, we start waiting in yet another long line. there are only two cashiers, and one of them has a sign saying that her window is closed. when we are close to the front, 2 guys come up and stand in front of us.

me: umm, what are you doing?
him (in an irritated voice): I’m standing in line. i was here before.
me: before what? you weren’t here!
him: listen, i was here earlier and now I’m back. this is my spot.

and with that he just turns his back to me. fucking hell. a bit later, the guys jus randomly leave. now, this chick who had been sitting in a chair across the room walks up and stands in line in front of us.

me: hey, the end of the line is back there
her: this is my spot. i was here before.
me: you cant just do that. if you’re waiting in line, you have to be waiting in line. you cant just be sitting over there!!
her: sitting!! what the hell are you talking about sitting! this is my spot. I AM HERE!

unfuckingbelievable. but really, what is there to do? i can’t just shove people aside. at this point, I’m basically fuming. this is like the millionth line I’ve been in, and it’s getting longer by the second. then, some guy walks up and starts buying a ticket at the next window. what?! wasn’t she closed?! well, then she turns around here closed sign. apparently, she was on a break, that was supposed to end half an hour ago according to the sign, but she just hadn’t bothered to turn it around. so, i switch course and get behind the guy. the woman behind me gets behind me too. as the guy is finishing, i notice some other chick walk up to his right. i just *knew* she was gonna try to line jump, and i wasn’t gonna have it. as soon as the first customer finished speaking, i started my request, before the line jumper had a chance. well, she wasn’t able to cut in front of me, but she cut in front of the lady behind me anyways:

lady behind me(LBM): umm, what are you doing? i was here.
line jumper(LJ):oh, i work downstairs. employees get to go to the front of the cue.
LBM: but that’s not fair! I’ve been waiting!!
LJ: sorry. that’s the policy. i get to cut.
LBM: fine then, how do you know i don’t work downstairs. lets say i work downstairs too!
LJ: well, you don’t have a badge!
LBM: well, fine, lets see your badge then.
LJ:(fumbles in purse).. ohh… umm.. i forgot it. errr. but still. i assure you i work here!

sheeez. lines here are utter chaos. after that, we still have to go back downstairs, and stand in yet another window to buy our tix from st petersburg to moscow. finally… after almost an entire day spent in line, we now have tickets to moscow, and tickets out of Russia. feeling relieved, and tired, we head out.

******

but it’s not over yet! the train to prague goes through Belarus. another country with strict Russia-like rules. we cant cross their country in a train without purchasing a transit visa. online it says that to get one, you need to pay 35$ and they have it ready in an hour. before heading down to the Belarus embassy in st petes, i call them to check their address. apparently, their own website has an address that was out of date over a year ago. when i call they tell me that it takes *5* days to get a transit visa.. and.. get this… *$100*. WHAT?!! or, if we would like it rushed, we can get it back the following day for $180. what the hell!!! how can they charge 180$.. for NOTHING! we’re not even going to their country. we’re just gonna be on a train coming through. not only that, but how can the Belarus embassy in both the US and the UK charge 35$ for transit visas, while this one charges 100? what, is it to difficult for them to file the paperwork?

as a last resort, i try to call the Belarus embassy in moscow. out of two phone numbers, one doesn’t work, and the other is answered by someone who says that they are the wrong department and gives me two new numbers. i call the two new ones. nobody answers one, and the guy at the other number just tells me to call the first one. after trying a ton of times i call him back and say that no one is answering at that first number. he says that this is not his problem and to just keep trying. arrrrgghh. I’m so sick of this crap!! so in the end, i give up. there’s no way i want to pay 360$ extra to get this stupid transit visa. for that cost i may as well have flown.

so, we opt for plan B. plan B is to take a bus that goes from moscow, to Latvia, and then to Lithuania, and on to Poland, etc etc. this skirts around Belarus. we head to the bus company. i ask how much a bus ticket is from moscow to Riga. she doesn’t know. she can only sell tickets leaving from st petes. to get the moscow tix we need to go to another office… across town of course. great. on my way out, just for fun, i decide to walk up to the airline agent to find out flight prices. she is talking on her mobile. just chatting away and ignoring me, despite that according to her timetable, this isn’t one of the 5 scheduled breaks everyday. i wait. and wait. and wait. finally she gets off the phone. no apology. no “excuse me for being on the phone”. instead, she just glares at me. she gives me this look that says “listen. if you were lying on the street dying, i would rather kick you in the nuts than to help you up. so why the fuck would you think i would want to help you now??!”. after the glare, she just says “WHAT?”. nice, eh? so, i ask her how much a flight is from moscow to prague. she, after a long sigh, says they don’t sell those tickets, and keeps glaring. i then ask, “well, what kind of tickets do you sell?” it turns out that she cant sell any tickets not leaving from this city. all through this, she continues the glare.

and that was it. i just snapped. honestly, i cant take it anymore. i cant take the lines. the constantly being shuffled around. the angry looks. the absolute unhelpfulness. i just cant. I’ve tried. I’ve tried a lot. but, this is just too much. the last three days have just been a nightmare of red tape and other crap. i cant be bothered to try anymore. i don’t care about going to moscow anymore. i just want to GO.. AWAY. so, i turned around, walked back to the bus counter, and bought a ticket from here to Latvia. screw going to moscow. it’s really not worth the trouble. nothing is worth it. so, we’re now leaving Russia on the 17th. several days early before my visa runs out. despite all the incredible sites everywhere, despite the incredible kindness of my dad’s friends and relatives… I’m ready to be on my way. i already saw what i mainly wanted to see which was st petes and the transsiberian. I’m just too tired of fighting the daily battles to bother with anything else.

*v

st petersburg isnt just famous for its canals and the outside of its buildings. it’s also really famous for having some incredible museums. on our second and third day in the city, we went to the russian museum and the hermitage. the hermitage is one of the most famous museums in the world. it has so much art (3 *million* pieces), that not all of it can even be displayed at once. the museum is made up of 4 buildings, some of them w/ 3 stories. it’s practically a maze of artwork. there’s art from so many different countries and time periods… absolutely impossible to see it all. we just tried to check out the “highlights” mentioned in the book, but didnt have enough time for even just that!!

the most impressive thing about the hermitage though, is not just the art that’s inside it, but the building itself. the building is an old palace that used to be used by the tsars. you walk through it and it’s impossible not to be in total awe of the splendor around you. every room is decorated differently. marble everywhere, huge slabs of shiny green malachite, shimmering chandeliers, huge vases, and fancy doorways. the floors and ceilings in each room are decorated in a different motif and color scheme. each room you walk into is more impressive than the last. really, it’s possible to walk through the place and not even bother paying attention to the actual art.

even the doorhandles are crazy

wooden floors

mosaic floors

the russian museum, although maybe not as spectacular as the hermitage, is also impressive. it’s also decorated rather fancily inside, and has a huge amount of art. during our first visit to the russian museum, we rushed through as fast as we could to see as much as possible. it turned out that we missed seeing the special temporary exhibit they had on chagall. so, a few days later, my dad’s friend boris, took us back there and showed us the exhibit. he knew a ton about chagall and spent time explaining the artist’s life to us, and showing us a lot of the thoughts behind his works. also, a couple days later, he took us back to the hermitage as well. he showed us around the ancient greek, roman, and egyptian section. even just this one tiny section of the museum was huge and packed full of stuff. luckily, boris spent a lot of time explaining to us how the work was done and taught us a lot about the history behind it all. we were *so* lucky to have him there with us. if he hadnt been there, it weould have just been a huge jumble of pottery and statues, and we would have just glanced at it all, completely not knowing anyting. i swear, you get so much more out of a museum if you go w/ a knowledgable person! so, in the end, we went oto both the russian museum and the hermitage *twice* and yet still didnt get to see even close to all the stuff each has to offer. art overload!

on one of our days in st petersburg, we decided to take a day trip to petrodvoretz. this is a palace outside of town where peter the great (founder of st petersburg) used to live. *wow*. this place was so impressive. the palace was huge, and was designed by rostrelli, a very famous architect who designed a lot of the famous buildings of st petrersburg. the building itself was beautiful both inside and out, and also had huge gardens surrounding it. the gardens are really famous for having tons and tons of fountains. there are fountains in all different shapes and sizes. also, there are some “trick” fountains too that spray people randomly when they arent aware. there’s also some fountains for the little kids to run around in as well. the grounds are huge and you can spend a ton of time just wandering about and enjoying the place.

you can see out to the bay of finland from here

*v

the first two nights in st petersburg, we stayed at a hostel. in some ways this hostel was pretty cool: great location, really clean, super comfy beds, free breakfast. but in other ways, the hostel had issues: it was pricey (25$ a bed!), internet wasn’t working, phone wasnt working, laundry was ridiculously expensive, no hot water, and i overheard the girl who worked there talking on the phone saying how all of us were driving her crazy and she wished we would just leave. nice, huh? but anyways, all negatives aside, it was really fun to stay at a hostel for a bit. sleeping w/ a bunch of strangers in the same room may not always be the greatest thing, but it definitely pushes you to get to know everybody. we met some cool people from the UK, canada, and norway. it was fun to have people to chat w/ over breakfast etc and also i went out w/ all of them one night to watch the raising of the bridges.

watching the raising of the bridges is a big deal here. since the city was built on a swamp, it actually consists of over 100 islands, separated by canals, and to get across them, there are *539* bridges. yes, thats right, 539 of them. every night, the city becomes a bit of an obstacle course, when some of the bridges are raised for a few hours at a time in order to let cargo ships through. there’s something a bit impressive about seeing a large structure capable of holding up trucks and cars all of a sudden changing shape. it’s even more impressive, when that structure is *huge*… basically a stretch of road 8 lanes across, and it all of a sudden is vertical instead of horizontal. some things in life are just a fact and never change. roads are *always* horizontal, and sometimes they are slightly at an angle, but they never go vertical… it’s just an eerie sight! so, during the nights, lots or tourists and residents of the city often come out to watch the bridges be raised. this especially is a popular activity during the white nights when it’s still light out at 2am when the bridges are raised.

so, we went out one night to go see the bridges. well, large amounts of alcohol were consumed (you are allowed to drink on the streets in russia). several beers, swigs of wine, and sips of vodka later, we almost missed the moment that the bridges were raised. in fact, they were already halfway up when i noticed. unfortunately, we, thinking we were oh so clever, decided to sit on the bank between two of the bridges so we could see not one but two bridges be raised. but the outcome of this was that we were not close to one nor the other, so the whole thingh was less than spectacular. caryn and i are gonna try again in a couple of days.

view across the neva river at *2am*

as wonderful as it was to have people to hang out with etc, we terminated our stay at the hostel when we found out some great news. my dad had gotten in touch w/ his cousin who lives here and she offered us to crash at her place. after paying 50$ a night for two dorm beds, this came as quite a relief. so we packed our packs, and set out to Natasha’s house.

wow. i can hardly believe what a warm greeting we’ve receieved from her. she has been so unbelievably nice. she’s letting us stay at her house. she’s cooked us breakfast every single morning… and not just a simple quick breakfast either. every breakfast is practically a 4 course meal with various bliny, fried eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, different breads, herring, etc etc. the food just doesnt stop until we’re so full (and it’s all really good!). besides that, she’s packed us snacks and lunches when we’ve gone out for the day. she’s washed clothes for us. she makes our bed for us at night. i almost feel bad having so much done for us and yet she absolutely refuses to let us help clean or do anyting. keep in mind, that other than when i was still 3 years old and living in russia, i have only met her one time!! on top of it all, she’s constantly super cheerful and always so nice! really a wonderful person! i guess i’m really lucky that my dad has such great relatives!

it definitely helps to have connections here! but, our luck doesnt stop there. my dad also told us to go meet one of his closest friends who lives here. we visited boris, and he also made us dinner even though we came over fairly late at night. we talked for a while, and it was fun learning about this guy who was such a good friend of my father’s. for instanmce, we noticed some little books laying around on the table… books that looked the same as ones we had seen in my aunt’s apartment. it turns out that boris, in his spare times, writes and illustrates little books that he later gives out to people. he ended up giving us a few of these little books and explaining a little about them. it turns out that he actually hasnt had this hobby for too long… in the past, he was actually more into wood carving. so, he takes us to his room and shows us some of the carving he does. great stuff! all of a sudden i remembered that some of the little statues my parents have in their room are in the same style. turns out that they were a gift from boris. it was really cool to finally meet the person who has been the source of all these cool things… well, i actually have met him one time before for a few hours, but i just never knew that he was the one who’s made all this stuff.

well, that’s not all that i discovered during that meal. i finally may have discovered the reason for my constant tardiness. i’m always late!! i really cant for the life of me get anywhere on time. turns out… my dad has a reputation of being late as well! i never knew that. so that’s where i get it from!! heh. well, so, besides being a woodcarver and making books, boris also knows a lot about st petersburg. well, ok, he actually knows a lot about pretty much everything, but especially he knows a lot about st petersburg. after dinner, we went out for a walk and he showed us all sorts of interesting stuff about the neighborhood that he lived in. stuff that we would never have found out on our own… hell, stuff that probably everyone else that lives there doesnt even know. this man has almost ecyclopedic knowledge of everything there is to know about his city, and he could tell us about the architectural style of almost every building we saw, when it was built, and the history behind it. it was really a very interesting walk!

boris also knows an insane amount of information about art, and a few days later, he met us at the russian museum to show us around the chagall exhibit that was there. i dont know much about chagall. ok, lets face it, i know practically nothing about chagall. during the span of 2 hours though, i learned a ton about the artist, his life, his motivations, etc. boris was able to walk up to practically any painting and explain the symbolism behind it, and talk about what caused chagall to make such a work. it seriously just doesnt cease to amaze me how much this man knows about everything! to top everything off, he even bought us a book on chagall to take home! so nice!!

so, yeah, basically in the last few days, we’ve totally been spoiled. i cant believe how much these people have done for us and how lucky we are to have met them. russians are supposed to be legendary for their hospitality, and i have always noticed that russians are willing to go way above the call of duty to help out friends and family. if you have a russian who is a close friend, they’re usually ready to do pretty much anything for you. their loyalty knows no bounds. it’s pretty amazing just how tight the bonds that russians form are.

it’s interesting, when i asked this guy we met what he thinks of russians, he said he’s heard that “if you dont know them, they can be real [insert expletive here], but if you get to know one, they’ll be the best friend you could ever have”. up until this trip, i’ve always only really known of the second half of this statement as true. i’ve always thought of russians as incredibly giving, kind, and friendly people. after coming here though, my faith was a bit shaken to be honest. i could definitely see the opposite end of the spectrum. the people i had always thought of as generous and nice, would not even smile or say hello to me. well, it’s been wonderful to finally see the good side again. to see that people here can be kinder than anyone can believe. i guess it really is just a cultural thing that sometimes the good part shows, while other times it’s completely hidden…

*v

the last several days have been spent in st petersburg. wow. this is such an incredibly beautiful city. definitely one of the most beautiful in the world. here you can pick pretty much any street in the city and almost every building you see will be great. even buildings that are “ordinary” and not famous in the least are still usually grandiose and amazing. walking through town, it’s one incredible sight after another. you could probably just wander through the streets aimlessly and never tire of the new sights you’ll bump into. the city is just bursting w/ museums, palaces, elaborate churches, statues, and monuments. on top of that, the city has something like a hundred canals that wind their way through town and are criss-crossed by cool bridges of all shapes, sizes, and colors.

7/6/05
trying to figure out how to tackle such a place was rather difficult. looking through lonely planet, i started highlighting places that i wanted to see in town, and i neded up with pretty much everything being highlighted. there was just too much to see here and we didnt know where to begin. luckily, there is lots of time to see stuff. we’re spending about a week here, and the days are long… really long. it’s white nights here and it doesnt get completely dark… ever. after crossing timezones nonstop for the last week, all of this is getting to be pretty disorienting. the sun doesnt start going down until after 11pm here, and even in the middle of the “night” at 2 in the morning, it’s not fully dark, and instead the sky is the color that it would usually be right after the sun sets. because of this, i can never really tell what time it is and it often feels way earlier than it really is. i’ll think it’s 6pm or so, and it’ll turn out that it’s half past 10. all of this works to our advantage though since we can wander around the city and look at stuff till really late. also, everyone in town seems to be up till all hours of the night and the city really seems alive even after midnight.

this photo was taken after 11pm. see how light it is?

so, the first day in town, we did this walking tour that we found in the book. it took us to see some of the highlights in the middle of town. we started off by walking through this huge double arch to go see the palace square. the square has the very ornate winter palace on one end, the Tirumphal arch on the other w/ a huge column in the middle. the winter palace is home to the hermitage museum but we decided to leave that for another day. after taking some time to walk along a few of the cities canals, we ended up at the church on spilled blood. this is one of the most colorful and cool looking churches in the city. it has the colorful onion domes like st basils in moscow but some of these domes also have spirals and others have jagged edges giving it an even more interesting effect. since that first day, i think we’ve ended up walking past this church at least once every day that we’ve been here in st petersburg. even though we’ve seen it a bunch of times now, it’s still really cool to look at each time.

Triumphal arch

Alexander column and winter palace through the arch

one of the many canals

Church on spilled blood

Church on spilled blood

we finished off the walking tour by taking in some more bridges and canals, seeing the Kazan cathedral, and then ended up at the Bankovsky bridge, a small but really cool looking bridge w/ two gryphons on either end. after the walking tour, since we were close by, we walked to this small monument to the seige of leningrad. during WWII, this city was under seige by the germans for *3 years*. i’ll probably post more about the siege later, but the monument was this sign left over from the seige saying “citizens!! during heavy shelling, this side of the street is the more dangerous one.” it’s pretty insane to think that people had to fear for their lives just by walking down the street.

Kazan cathedral

Bankovsky bridge

sign on nevsky prosekt

*v

after spending several days on the train we arrived in Ulan-Ude, a small town in siberia. we had gone there in search of the ellusive asian russian. ok, let me explain that. a few years back, when i had gone to russia before and spent 10 days there w/ my brother and father, my brother had been totally shocked to see asian people speaking russian. yeah, when you think about it, just as there are asian americans, there of course should be asian russians as well. especially given the fact that most of russia is actually *in* asia. but still, i guess it’s just that i’ve seen so few russian speaking people in my lifetime, that it’s a shock to be seeing anyone speak russian that doesnt look like the average russian. so anyways, everytime my brother and i would see an asian looking person speak russian, we’d get all excited.

the town of ulan-ude is located in the buryatia district of russia, which is the portion of siberia closest to the mongolian border. buddhism is one of the predominant religions here. the population here is about half people native to buryatia and half ethnic russians. and the town is a really nice and mellow place to explore in siberia. we had only one full day to spend there, but that short time there was really enjoyable. we didnt really do much. mostly just strolled about the town and checked it out. lots of the buildings in town were the really old quaint wooden log-cabin type buildings that caryn calls “gingerbread houses”. some of these were in poor condition, but others were really well kept up and had freshly painted shutters in all sorts of various gleaming colors that made a great contrast w/ the dark brown wood of the rest of the building. there were random stands set up around town selling siberian berries (similar to blue berries but oval in shape) and other stuff for sale. basically, the town was a great place to just take in the atmosphere and we really enjoyed it.

other than just strolling, we went to go check out the history museum which had an incredible display of traditional buddhist artwork etc from the region. we saw several cool onion-domed russian churches. we checked out the main square that has the biggest statue of a Lenin head that i had ever seen in my life! also, by some random freak chance, we happened to arrive in town on a holiday! it was the anniversary of the town being founded, as we found out from a very drunk but very friendly man who started talking to us. he was the first person so far who seemed genuinely excited that we were here and was eager for us to have a good time in his country. sure it may have been the alcohol talking, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt!

so, we had been searching for the elusive asian russians, and in ulan-ude, we definitely found them. as promised, about half of the town’s poulation was asian. and what i thought was super cool was that it seemed like the towns population was totally integrated. back home, in the “melting pot” of the bayarea, although we have tons of different people of different ethnicities, usually most groups you see will all be predominantly of one ethnicity. not the case here. it looked like almost half the couples i saw in town had one asian and one russian, and pretty much every group of people wandering around town was mixed.

after the all to brief day in ulan-ude, we got back on the train and continued on westward to the town of irkutsk. irkutsk is a town near Lake baikal, the deepest lake in the world. this lake is so huge that it actually contains one fifth of all the world’s fresh water! low on time, we didnt have tons of time to explore irkutsk. it’s known as the “paris of siberia” and is a pretty large town. once again, we saw lots of onion-domed churches, and a bunch of the gingerbread houses. it was so hot while we were there! at one point we were walking near this small pond andthere were all these people hanging out, eating icecream, renting paddleboats, and in general doing fun summertime activities, and i just thought to myself.. how weird!! who would expect this from *siberia*??!!

one of the days there, we took the hydrofoil out to listvyanka, a tiny village right on the lakeside. at the dock, there were a bunch of people smoking Omul, a type of fish from the lake. umm.. well, by “smoking” i dont mean they were using them as cigarettes, i mean they were making smoked fish. this is one of the things this region is famous for, se we bought some smoked Omul, bread, and beer and had a picninc by the lake. the smoked fish was great!! after the picninc, we wandered about by the lake and checked out the quaint houses in town. after walking for two hours though, it got too hot, so we decided to head back to irkustsk.

in town we had ended up sharing a room with two dutch people and so we went out to dinner w/ them. after spending a while not really talking to anyone, it was fun to just hang out w/ some people. we spent a bunch of time sharing our experiences i russia. they too had experienced a lot of difficulties interacting w/ people here. but, i think that after leaving vladivostok, we have had a much easier time of it. part of me thinks it’s because maybe i’ve just gotten used to the way russians interact. or maybe we have just been runing into friendlier russians. sure, people still havent been smiling or anyting, but at least no one has been super rude to us. heh, customer service still hasnt been any good though!! it’s funny though, because of all this, the few times when we actually do have an interaction where a russian smiles, or acts even the tiniest bit friendly, we get all excited about it!

oh, one thing that i completely forgot to mention about irkutsk, was this crazy weird fluffy stuff that was everywhere. i’m not sure what it was. probably some kind of parasite. but, you would see it all over covering different trees and bushes. there was so much of it, that it would blow off the trees and then fly around and it would almost look like it was snowing at times! there was fluff all over the streets, the gutter, everywhere. so weird!

after just a few days in irkutsk, we flew out of there. next stop… st petersburg!!

*v

over the last 9 months, i’ve had my fair share of train travel. i’ve traveled on everything ranging from ultramodern japanese bullet trains, to rickety dirty trains in india. well, the other day, i took the longest train ride ever. i had been really eager to take the train on the trans-siberian route from one end of russia to the other. this is the longest continuous train track in the world and it takes about a week to get all the way across. unfortunately, i dont have that much time to go the full length. it would have been awesome, but instead i decided to juist do the beginning portion from vladivostok on russia’s east coast, to ulan-ude, deep in siberia. the journey would be 2,190 miles by train and would last 66 hours. yes, thats almost 3 straight days on a train.

so, before we set out, i was a bit worried. how fun would this be? on one hand, taking the trans-siberian across russia seemed like such a crazy and exciting adventure. siberia just sounds like such a remote and forbidden place. but, on the other hand, i did worry that we might get bored. a few years back, jamie and i took a 2 day boat ride down the mekong in laos. seemed like an awesome idea before we did it… but in reality, you sit there in a boat full of other passengers, with hardly any room to move and nothing to do. after half a day, it was already boring, and just got more so as time went on. so, would this train ride be like that?

well, it totally wasnt. i had a really really good time. first off, it was really relaxing. caryn and i had a compartment all to ourselves. it was a really roomy compartment, big enough for 4, so there was tons of room to spread out. the train we were on was also really comfortable. i actually got the best night of sleep on a train that i’ve ever had. and also, for some reason, i was never bored. i got to do some reading (read a book start to finish). i spent a bunch of time listening to music on my mp3 player. and then, the scenery outside was just really awesome. lots of really cool forest with tons of tall white birch trees. cool wooden houses everywhere painted in a wide assortment of colors. sometimes there would be these huge stretches of grasslands that were interrupted with sinkholes filled with water. basically, i never tired of just starting at the window and watching russia whirl by. it really is quite a beatiful coumntry. there was definitely a part of me though that regretted that i did this during the summer. cruisng along and seeing everything covered in snow would have been really cool.

one interesting question that we were constantly trying to solve is what to eat. the train had a dining car so we had kind of assumed that we would eat there for most of the trip. unfortunately, on the first day, the restuarant ripped us off big time. we got our food, ate half of it and then looked at the bill. hrm, there were all sorts of things on the bill that we werent given. oddly enough, itemized on the bill (actually on both of our bills) was: corn, green peas, olives, and mushrooms. none of those things were on our plate. what to do? we couldnt just sit there and wait till the service lady came back and have our food be cold. so we ate. when she came around, we asked her about the items and she said we had receieved them. ummm. well, i dont know how dumb i might look, but i think i would have noticed all that random crap on my plate. but she insisted. so basically we paid for a bunch of crap that we didnt get, and after that refused to order anything from the restaurant again.

luckily for us, we could hop out during stops and go run and grab food from small booths at the train stations. or, even better, at some stations, there would be a bunch of babushkas out there selling food. we would buy various baked goods, pelmeni (dumplings), tomatoes, and other things. everything they sold was really cheap and good. it was a lot of fun hanging out on the trans-siberian and chowing down on russian foods. we also bought some sprats (these little salted fishes) and borsht (russian beet soup) too.

the only unfortunate thing about the experience was that we didnt really get to interact w/ anyone. the quintessential trans-siberain experience is to hang out on the train and drink vodka etc w/ newfound russian friends. well, our compartment never got any extra people. of course, after one night on the train, i started suffering from some really crazy allergies. honestly, i’ve never had allergies this bad. so in some ways, maybe it was better not to have to interact w/ anyone. heh, although, the little girl from the neighboring compartment did come over and yell at us from time to time and then tried to tackle us and grab our hair. she was a bit of a manic little kid!!

one thing that was pretty crazy was how difficult it was to ever tell what time it was. we’re pretty far north so the days are really long here. the sun starts setting around 10 or 10:30 and it’s still partially light out even after 11pm. and then, in the mornings, the sun is already up by 4am. so its pretty much daylight all the time. it’s really disorienting!

*v