Mother Russia

RANDOM MUMBLINGS

I read in the once weekly english version of the moscow post that there had been some rioting with molotov cocktails and other explosive devices. They may seem normal to you for Russia, but what was interesting is that instead of revolutionaries like the decembrists or the bolshaveks, these were environmentalists. Apparently Russia had just sold a huge piece of land (nearly the size of Colorado) including a nature preserve to China to be used for clear cut logging. I guess it is interesting because it goes to show how far russia has come, to see that it is environmentalists starting these riots. However, russia still does not recycle even glass bottles!

Doro was telling me how she always likes meeting american backpackers, but hardly ever does. And this is true. In one month I am yet to meet another fellow american and in my year in SE asia, I hardly met any. Doro wanted to know why there are not so many backpackers out there...young americans. She said (and I concur) that travelling as a young person is so important. You learn a lot about yourself, about life, about others, about other cultures and countries and just develop a more worldly view. Plus you have lots of fun. The simple response is that it is just not in a culture. But that is a lame response. Why is it not in our culture?
I think a huge region is that for some reason we have the american dream engrained in our brains: graduate highschool go to college, then get a good career and/or go to grad school and then start the career. Work hard, save up, buy a house with a picket fence in the suburbs and a dog and kids, buy a nice car, etc. I am not sure why this is engrained in our culture, but it seems to be. Money is obviously not the issue b/c backpacking is fairly cheap, and a lot of my friends already have bought houses and fancy cars. In europe, they take what is called the gap year. This is a year after graduating from highschool (well it's more complicated bc in europe they finish public school around age 16 and then go two more years to what they call college (equivalent of us finishing highschool and then taking a year of commmunity college perhaps)) in which they backpack around before going to Uni. They also often do this after graduating from Uni before going for their careers. We hardly ever do these gap years, but it is very common in Europe. In addition, in many european countries, school is paid for by the country or it is relatively cheap, so they do not have as big of loans to pay off.
Another reason is that once europeans do get a career, they seem to start off with 4 to 5 week paid vacations and it is not uncommon to run into people with 9 to 10 week vacations. So this is plenty of time to take good backpacking trips every year. Whereas americans seem to get a measely 2 weeks in which they are often discouraged from taking anyways. And they spend these two weeks perhaps visiting friends and family since it is a lot to buy an expensive flight for just a 12 day vacation.
Perhaps another reason is that in America we tend to have more fear and caution. Outside of europe and australia we often see the world as full of terrorists, drug lords and other dangers. Even though an earthquake is just as likely in san fran, china seems more dangerous in that front, etc etc. You have no idea how many americans back home tell me as the first thing how dangerous my travels must be. Europeans live in small countries and are thus more exposed to other cultures and I think are then more adventurous on the cultural front and less afraid.
And lastly, I believe a lot of it has to do with how amazing and gorgeous our country is. The west of our country alone has some of the best scenery in the world and unlimited options for adventure. So a lot of my friends who have not been abroad (I actually have quite a few that have been abroad) have spend a considerable amount of time backpacking, camping, and adventuring throughout our country (which is a very good thing and I myself love it, though cultural differences are not to be found so much. So instead of going abroad they do a ski trip in colorado or a canyoneering trip in Utah or a backpacking trip on the sierra trail. In europe, again, their countries are small so they want to leave more, and you would be surprised at how many europeans haven't explored their own country too much. I still have yet to meet a swiss (besides David from ACI) who has been to the matterhorn!

The three gals from moscow (Xenia, Doro, and Mahey) also were eager to tell me about what I would find out with the russian women as I travelled about. They had met one other american and as soon as he said he was Amerikansky, the russian girls instantly batted their eyes and were swooning over him. After going through russia, this is definitely quite true. I guees there is no need for a russian mail order bride, I can just come here. I think the russian girls like the idea of america and would like to go there as well. But this isn't unusual. In many places I have been from the Philippines to vietnam to thailand, the girls would often get very excited when I would say I was american and say "oh american boy, so handsome". And their mom's and dad's would even be so bold as to say take her to america, marry her, even though I had just met. We always found it so funny, especially in the philippines. Something interesting is that I met about 30 russians on my journey (including employees of hostels) who spoke english. Of the 30, only 3 were men. I don't know if this is because the men are expected to do more of the physical labor jobs and don't go to school or what, but it is the women that all know english.

One other thing that the moscow trio were laughing hard about was lonely planet's phrase book which is supposed to help you with phrases to travel and/or live in Russia. B/c it is heavy, they cut out a bunch of sections before travelling such as buying things for a house, airport talk, business talk, fashion, etc. One they were going to cut out until they read it and found it so funny was the sex/romance section. They couldn't wait to show it to me when we got back to the hostel. 4 pages were devoted to it and it had phrases like: "harder, faster, slower, softer, kiss me here" But the ones that were their favorites and were quite funny were: "so this is why you are not married?" "when does your husband/wife get home" "this is my first time, how many times is it for you" "I am only in this for the sex, not bc I like you"


I have started to get the hang of reading cyrillic and even understanding some now as I leave russia..ha

AHH..PEACE AND QUIET

8/4 At the train station in moscow, the temperature read 42 degrees (nearly 108F). Thankfully, the train was airconditioned even though I was in plantskart (3rd class). The train I was on was going all the way to vladisvostok (7 days away), but I was only going for 3 hours. Thus, most of the Russians were on there for a long journey. It was quite cool to see how prepared they were. They brought out all this fancy stuff and food for their long travel. I guess it is like camping, but just on a train. Since I was only going for 3 hours, I did not have anything other than water. I soon found the little table in front of me filled with cookies, crackers, bread, and tea from all the russians wanting to share. In my area there was an older russian woman, a russian woman and her teenage daughter (of buryat...asian descent) and another russian teenager all from different areas in mongolia. We chatted for a while. Them speaking to me in Russian, me speaking to them in English...and sometimes spanish when I felt like changing things up. But we had a good time, laughed a lot, and really had no idea what each was saying. But eventually the two teenaged girls lost their english shyness. The Buryat gal could speak about as much english as I could speak spanish after 3 years. So we could have some basic conversation asking things like name, age, brothers, sisters, where I was from, where I was going, etc. She would then translate to everyone. The other gal spoke much less english, but she made me a nice card with her array of colored pencils that said, "hello to Travis from Russia" I have the new US passport that has pictures on the pages of beautiful american places such as alaska, hawaii, the tetons, the statue of liberty, etc. So they had a lot of fun looking at them and asking where they were.

After 3 hours, I arrived in Vladimir where I took the bus to Suzdal, a tiny town of about 4000 people. I checked into my tiny wooden cabin hostel along the river and then went out to explore the town a bit. It was so nice to be in the peace and quiet of a small village. My whole travel so far has mainly been through cities...from Denver to Toronto to Frankfurt to Prague to Budapest back to Prague to Stockholm to Sundsvall to Stockholm to Helsinki to St. Peter'sburg to Moscow. Traffic and people and lights and noise everywhere and all the time. So it was so peaceful. It was like going from Manhattan to Wendell or Fairfield Idaho. Just tiny little farming type villages. One of the cool things about Suzdal though was that it had tons of churches. One on everycorner. So you could always see a skyline full of onion domed churches. That evening I met a british couple. We were discussing the difficulties of getting a russian visa and the invitation and registration. THey had applied for theirs two months in advance and received theirs in the mail the day they flew. They were so thankful they had chosen the late afternoon flight instead of the morning flight!

8/5 I spent the morning exploring suzdal. Checking out views of the churches (it was really smokey there too from the fires, but the smoke seemed to add to the charisma of the views of the churches). I climbed a steeple and checked out a couple monasteries and a convent. Instead of the soviet style concrete apartments, the people here lived in nicely painted wooden houses. I checked out the market where the babushkas (grannies) were selling things from their gardens. Life was so very slow here. A complete turn around from moscow. No more fancy sports cars, just soviet junkers. No more rushing around or fashion. As I had explored all the village by the afternoon, I bought some pickles from the babushkas and a honey beer (famous in this region and brewed by monks I think) and went down to the river to cool off with a swim. That evening I took the bus back to vladamir and boarded the 12:50am train bound for Irkutsk. On this train I was Kupe (2nd class) which meant I was in a little cabin of 4 people.

CHUGGING ALONG ON THE TRANS SIBERIAN RAILROAD

"And if evil exists its a pair of train tracks
And the devil is a railroad car" Josh Ritter (evil must not exist...)

8/6 I woke up in the morning to someone putting a blanket on me. It was Isolda, a german woman from Dresden who was a bit older and like to travel to difficult places (Burma, Antartica, Bhutan, India). Also in my cabin was Kristina (german) and Vasily (russian) The two germans were on a tour with 6 other germans. Kristina knew good english, but didn't talk much. Isolda didn't know very good english, but she talked all the time, switching between russian, german, and english. She was funny and nice (she made my bed the first morning), but I didn't always know what she was saying. She spoke Russian though bc in east germany they had to learn Russian in school while they were communists. It was nice that she knew russian though bc she could translate some stuff for us and help us buy things at the train stops along the way when the babushkas were out selling things from raspberries to beer to fish to kolbasa (sausage).
Travelling in the train is quite relaxing. I have always liked travel by train and boat bc you can just sit there and relax with no worries of anything and watch the world go buy. The scenery the first day was lots and lots of taiga (pine trees mainly) with little villages full of cute log homes and then the occassional big ugly soviet looking cities where we would stop for 20 minutes. We'd get out and stretch and walk in the sun and see what the people were selling. We spent a lot of time on the train talking and reading and just watching the scenery, and of course eating instant noodles. Isolda was worried that I wasn't eating healthy enough on the train so she was always ready to share the german sausages (best in the world she claimed) and cheese she brought as well as her powdered milk. Isolda was always calling me the sportman and was convinced I must play american football for the university of colorado (bc of my hat) and she was proud to tell all her german friends she was keeping me strong for my sports. I had some blueberry soup and hot chocolate along to share with them, but they were not too interested in my instant noodles...this was a russian thing to do, not german they said! Although I had brought plenty of food for the whole train ride, Kristina and Isolda often bought me little treats from the sellers and even took me to breakfast once in the expensive dinner car.

8/7 Another day on the train. This time through flatter areas and more fields. More fun talk on the train. Vasily got off at olmsk and we took on a new cabin mate...Marina. She was russian and from way up in the country (according to Isolda). They are quite conserative there and she was also very scared of being in a cabin with a male tourist. She eventually warmed up more to me. But when she ate, I could not be in the cabin as men and women do not eat together in traditional russia and when I ate she was always nowhere to be found. By now we had crossed into asia as we went through the city of Yekantinburg. More reading and resting and the occasional nap on the train.

8/8 The scenery was now much more lush. Lots of pine trees again and wet meadows. It reminded me a lot of the areas on the west side of rocky mtn np where you expect to fine moose. We crossed lots of rivers and the scenery was just really quite nice. Siberia is so massive and expansive and hardly anyone lives there.

THE FROSTY WATERS OF LAKE BAIKAL AND THE PARTYING SWISS

8/9 We were awoken at 4am and told that the train would be arriving in Irkutsk in half an hour. When it arrived, I said goodbye to Isolda, Kristina and the rest of the germans. I think my bunk mates were sad to say goodbye. I saw 4 guys haggling with taxi drivers to presumably get to the bus station. I walked up to them and they said they were all asking too much. I had mapped out using my guidebook how to walk the 3km to the station, so they said they'd happily join me. The funny thing about travelling across siberia is that you lose track of time. You are on the train for 74 hours to get to irkutsk from moscow (71 for me bc I started in vladimir) and go through 5 time zones. I tried to keep my watch updated with each new time zone, but these 4 guys students in switzerland (3 swiss: rafael, andy, alex and one french gigi) had stayed on moscow time (which is what the trains clocks stay on) so it was midnight for them and 5 am for me. A couple of them were quite drunk still from the vodka they had had and there were a couple stops for puking along the way. They were a fun group and they loved to hasle the poor french guy. Apparently he had never travelled before and they kept saying how he would be lost (if not dead in moscow) if not for them. But he took it all with a smile. He didn't know much english (typical french they said). There were all engineering students that had a 6 week class in hong kong starting in february. Most of the class was flying straight there, but they were taking a more adventurous route to get to hong kong, all by rail. The walk was freezing (it was about 38 degrees, a sharp drop from the 108 in moscow)
We took the bus to Listvyanka which is a tiny little town on the shores of Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake. When we got there, my guesthouse that I had booked would not answer the bell. We were all freezing, so Alex hopped the fence and let us in. We then went into the hang out area of the hostel and a couple of them fell asleep under the table. When the manager walked in, two of them were sleeping under the table and gigi was peeing with the door open. I think she was quite shocked and the more sensible Andy said it was a good thing I quickly and calmly produced my reservation or she might have called the russian police, something you don't want. But she eventually smiled, showed us our room, told us how cold it was and turned on the russian banya (sauna) for us. Alex, Rafael, and Gigi then slept until 2pm while Alex and I explored around a bit. We also went to have some olmud, the famous fish from the baikal that is smoked and SO TASTY. Best freshwater fish I have ever had. And only a buck 25 for a fish! After waking up the crowd, we went for a swim in the freezing lake baikal. That evening we had more fish and some vodka and beer on the shores of the lake as the sun set.
That night I was ready to curl up under the blankets and read my book, but they convinced me to come to the disco with them, especially after they said that since there parents were helping to finance their trips, the drinks were on them. So we headed out to the disco, which had a total of about 7 people. Us and two women. But we made the best of the dance party. Gigi was quite funny and crazy. He was running around taking of his shirt doing funny dance moves and by the end of the night was in only his briefs and leading the two women in dance moves. He should probably meet special ted.

8/10 They were all feeling quite tired and sick the next day, so I headed out for a hike along lake baikal and then exploring some of the tiny villages along its shores. I came back in time for the suana and some fish with them. They hadn't moved much all day and were just sitting on the deck of our guesthouse that had a nice view of lake baikal.

IT'S A SMALL SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL


That evening I boarded the bus and headed back to Irkutsk. That night in Irkutsk I was staying at Tatiana's house. I met Tatiana through the couchsurfing website. www.couchsurfing.com if you want to try. She lived in one of those drab looking soviet apartment complexes, but the inside was quite nice. When I arrived, she actually wasn't there bc she had unexpectantly be repaid a visit by some former couch surfers. So when I got to her place, Gize and Christian (Germans) opened the door for me. They had been on a motorbike tour through the "stans" (kyrgistan, tajikistan, azerbaijan, pakistan, uzbekistan) and russia and mongolia. They had met up with an irishman (Simon) who had couch surfed with Tatiana before. WHen they were about 70km's out of irkutsk, Simon's clutch failed so they had been at tatiana's for a week waiting for the clutch to be shipped in from the UK. In the meantime, Simon had fallen for Tatiana and when I arrived they were out at tatiana's parent's house having a banya. I had been invited, but I would be arriving too late and the german's were too tired to go so they would wait for me. The german's had bought lots of food at the super market before leaving irkutsk so now they needed to get rid of it and they made me a big thing of spaghetti and tasty sauce. Tatiana and simon arrived later with fresh fruits and vegetables from her parent's garden. We did the typical hellos and where are you froms. Colorado I said. Oh, Denver? said Simon. No.. Boulder (I always say this to europeans bc perhaps they have heard of it) Oh yes, I love boulder, said simon. Oh really, I said and was about to ask him if he knew of estes park when he said, I worked for Ravencrest for a winter! Wow! Small world. He worked there the year I was a freshman in high school and of course knew Frank (blanking on the last name but our soccer ref) and Jake Hess and company and Luke Thomas. He told me to say hi to everyone back there in Estes (he would be known as Si Johnston back in EP). He told me Luke Thomas had actually done some service work in Mongolia shortly after he left estes. So we had a fun swapping stories an me listening to their crazy motorbike adventures.

VODKA...THE TRUE TRANS SIBERIAN EXPERIENCE

8/11 Tatiana took me to the train station before work. I had 1.5 hours before my train left and I had not had internet since moscow (siberia is still in soviet times in terms of the internet) but i knew a hostel in downtown (2.5 km's away) had internet. The reason I really needed it was bc I had another couch surfing that night and I had not received darima's phone or address and Ulan Ude has NO budget options so I didn't want to be stranded there with an expensive hotel. I rushed as fast as I could (carrying my big backpack) got to where the hostel was supposed to be, finally found it and had about 10 minutes I figured. I checked my email, but no email from darima which worried me a bit. I rushed back to the train, but had time still to buy a water for the train.

Once on the train, on platskart again, the russian women who I was in the bunk above was very much trying to talk to me and explain things to me, but of course I had no idea. She wouldn't let me make my bed and instead made it for me. Then set up my books and water and noodles in all the compartments. She was so sweet and funny. In the next cart over the providnista (carriage attendant, almost always female) spoke english and she came to practice. She was quite good and was on her summer vacation doing this job and studying to be an english and french teacher. She invited me into her special carriage area that had better views so I could out. This was a particularly beautiful part of the trip as it followed the lake baikal for 200km's. She also said she would put my backpack in a special spot to keep it safe so I could wonder around the train. A lot of russians would stop by to talk to her and she was telling me that they were all asking about me and excited to hear I was american. One had heard of colorado and it's famous huge canyon (a common mistake even amongst europeans). She said she would look it up on the internet. Eventually I got the call from a russian man to come to the small dining carriage. He brought out the vodka and me and him and two women began shooting vodka. It is impolite to refuse, but I was a bit worried I would get really drunk. They were all staying on until vladistvostock, but I was getting off in 4 hours to a place that I didn't know and had no accomadation bc I hadn't heard from darima. But soon after 6 or 7 shots I was no longer worrying. Of course they chase the vodka with this sweet stuff they call champagne (17% alcohol according to the bottle). They kept bringing me food (cow tongue with spicy mustard, borsch (with vodka poured in) and more. I usually don't like to eat too much of what people bring, but I ate copious amount to try to counteract the vodka. After one big bottle was finished I thought we were done, but then another was brought out! Eventually after this was finished I went back to the providnista's place to talk more with her. Her name was olga and she was very sweet and cute...reminded me of my little freshman swimming mentee Christine Mabile while at ACI. Really, just like her. We practiced some more english, written this time. I was quite drunk, but holding my composure. We exchanged emails so she could practice writing and if she got a job in canada teaching russian to the french there maybe she would be allowed to get an american visa and I could show her this famous canyon in colorado. But soon the russian guy was back with more vodka and I was back in the dining cart shooting with him. They knew no english of course. Olga told me to be careful with them bc they drink so much but there is nothing you can really do bc once you've had one it is impolite to say no. Finally the train arrived in ulan ude (7.5 hours). I was quite drunk but managed to get my stuff (though not all of it, sadly I left my journal in olga's room...when I found this out later at night I was quite sad! I had lots of contacts and memories in it)

As I got off the train was greeted with the wonderful sound of "Travis?" Darima had recognized me in my last ditch email describing what my backpack looked like and that I would have an american baseball cap on. I was now of course very drunk, but i was able to stay quite normal. Later on that night after we became closer friends and I told Darima about the ride she said she had no idea I was drunk. Ulan Ude is the 1st distinctively asian city along the way. Probably 3/4 of the people, including darima, are Buryats (similar looking to Mongols). Darima knew great english and she had actuall studied at college in north dakota (similar to ulan ude in terms of temperature she said). She toured me around her city showing me things such as the largest lenin head in the world, the new opera house and a nice view of the city. She took me to a buryat place for buuz (a type of dumplings) and then out for icecream. She lived in an old soviet building, of course. She is a teacher at the university and lives in her flat with an italian, a czech, and two koreans studying russian at the university. They were all gone on summer vacation except for one korean, but the czech had been there a week earlier and heard I was coming so she left me a 2 liter (!) bottle of beer in the fridge and somthing they call martini (sweeter and less potent vodka) especially for me. Leave it to the Czechs! That night Darima made me a typical meal of potaotes and mushrooms and she showed me pictures of her university.

TRAVISIO...THE NEW ITALIAN

8/12
I caught the train from Ulan Ude heading to Ulan Bataar early in the morning (6:30am) and found out that I had been placed in a bunk room with two italian gals (Ambera and Franceska). We were in a plush fancy chinese car! I love italians. For some reason they are always so fun and I love how they speak english, always with an A on the end "I lova the viewa from the traina it isa soa beautifula" (kiss of the fingers to go with this!). Italians just have something about them that I love and makes me smile and of course they are always smiling...even when they were complaining about how the fatty and greasy and heavy russian food was bad for their stomachs and how they dreamed of pasta and oil and real cheese. They were tons of fun to talk with and we had fun running up and down the train exploring the different compartments and meeting the providnistas. Most of the people on the train at this point were tourists (and mostly french and swiss) bc the russians don't go to mongolia. At one point they went on to the dining car and asked if I wanted anything to drink. No i said, I had tea. They came back with two beers for me. Oh geeze, not more drinking on the train. But we kept this more civil.
Not long before the border and while we were at the caboose watching the desolate landscape (similar to the dry mountains and high plains of wyoming) roll by someone had place a big black bag under our seats. We had heard about mongolians smuggling things from russia into mongolia. We wondered if that's what this was, but we quickly disposed of it to the providnista bc we did not want to get caught in customs with something illegal (they rarely check tourist bags though. they are much harder on the mongols). At the border we had to wait about 6 hours for customs and all that. We walked the border town, but it was tiny and there was nothing. So we were content to read. We eventually crossed the border and it became quite lush again (it had been raining the whole time). Really incredibly lush and green. The mongolian border stuff was easier, but still took about 3 hours. We are really good friends with mongolia (it is the only true democratic country in asia and sits between two big rivals of ours) so it is free for me to come in and I can stay for 90 days. Eruos pay about 100 bucks for a visa and can stay 30 days. The only place I have been so far where it is not the americans getting screwed on the visa.
On the mongolian side of the border we picked up a very crazy swiss guy. He had missed the train in Ulan Ude. Had been there on time but couldn't figure out which one to get on. (I have to admit the station there was quite confusing i was glad I was there 40 minutes early as I had trouble figuing it out as well). We were kind of turned off by him. Italians can understand spanish and speak it kind of too, so franceska said in spanish we should play a joke on him and that I should pretend to be italian and ambrera's cousin. We managed to pull of this joke the entire time without him knowing even though I speak no italian, my accent is as american as it gets (explained away to him by saying I had a ski scholarship to the university of colorado so I studied there...didn't he see the hat ambrera asked). But it was quite funny and we laughed and laughed about it. We even held it as we finished off the last of my vodka I had bought a long time ago but hardly used.

8/13 Friday the 13th. We were awoke about 5:30 to prepare to disembark in Ulan Baatar. As the sun rose we saw the rolling steppe and grasslands. Huge expanse of emptiness except with a couple gers (yurts) scattered about. As we approached the suburbs of UB (really the only city in mongolia) we couldn't help but laugh that the suburbs were yurts. When we got off the train I had to say a sad goodbye to my italian cousin and her friend and promise that I would soon visit again bc I couldn't wait to have her famous gnocci again.
I had arranged a hostel in town that did free train station pick up and I was glad as it was pooring (and flooding in the roads). I soon met a britsh guy (Leon) and we explored the city a tiny bit, but were working on mainly figuring out our tours for mongolia and making atm visits to pay for them and train tickets to mongolia. For some reason UB is really, really known for its pick pocketing so you don't even carry a wallet (as its a temptation) and hold the money in your hand. When you take out 1.3 million(that equals about 130 bucks) of mongol money at the atm and rush back to the hostel you are careful not to bump anyone and grasp the money tightly in your pockets. We went out for some tasty mongolian food and had some milk tea (gross) I rarealy find foreign food gross, but this was nasty. I couldn't finish it. It's like salty and tastes a bit like hotsprings and really quite wretched.

Tomorrow I leave for a 6 day tour to the mongolian step, ger camping and the mongolian desert. As its mainly nomads and tents, there is unlikely to be interne, except at maybe one outpost, so don't be surprised if you don't hear from me in 6 days. I was not taken prisoner by ghengis kahn...just eating mutton and choking on milk tea in a ger =)