Many Trans-Siberian Railway travelers cross Russia from Moscow, passing Lake Baikal, then cut south through Mongolia to Beijing. The fools. Not continuing on, to its very Russian end at Vladivostok (about 100 miles from North Korea) is like reading War & Peace‘s 1400 pages and skipping Tolstoy’s didactic, unbearable 40-page essay on war at the end. Wait. Bad example. I skipped that too. … Read on
Yakutsk is the coldest city in the world. In winter, temperatures can fall to 70-below Farenheit. Locals (split evenly between Sakha and Russians) must keep cars running all day — or in heated garages — or their motors freeze up till May. It stands on stilts, to protect itself from the thaws and freezes of the cruel permafrost below. Yet when I returned … Read on
I complained about Russia’s foreigner prices yesterday, and got paid back — in reverse karma* — with a box of new shiny copies of the Lonely Planet Russia guide, which I worked on last year. You never get tired of seeing your name in print. Last year I wrote a little blip on the scene in Vladivostok for The New York Times, which … Read on
I’ve been busy writing up my Russia research for Lonely Planet’s Russia and Trans-Siberian Railway books. I did manage to squeeze in a short article on Vladivostok for the New York Times last Sunday. The city has much more to talk about. One of the things that fascinated me most was a growing breed of new entrepreneurs who are busy re-working how the … Read on
Novy Urgal, the lead town from the eastern stretches of the BAM railway, is clearly not a place most, or any, travellers will come to. The train station has no guesthouse, and a tragic toilet for those needing it. The hotel is under renovation — if you can find it — and a scattered group of tile-peeling buildings are lined along dusty streets … Read on
‘What do you think of Vladivostok?’ I hear this question a lot. I’ve begun my nearly two month trip across Russia’s Far East with two weeks in Vladivostok, so I should have an answer. Its name means ‘to rule the East,’ but it was only meant as a menacing threat to its neighbors from a military sense. The town was closed for most … Read on
