Russia

Irkutsk / Baikal (Ирку́тск / Байка́л)

The night train from Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia took me all the way to Irkutsk without any problems. We did have to spend 2 (or was it 3?) hours at the border crossing in the middle of the night while they checked our passports and made sure we weren't smuggling any people or things into Russia. I'm happy to say the border agents didn't give me any problems with my passport on the way in; the visa I put so much effort into obtaining worked like a charm.  
Irkutsk is known as “The Paris of Siberia,” and it's the closest large city to Lake Baikal, so it seemed like it would be worth a couple days visit. And it was. The city itself is very nice to stroll around in. It's right on the banks of the Angara river which is very clear, clean, and cold – perfectly safe to drink if you ask the locals. From the looks of it, I believe them, but I didn't want to tempt my fate by testing their claim. 
The city also has a rich cultural history which is evident through some of it's architecture and museums. I'll probably get this wrong (feel free to correct me), but the way I understand it, back in the day the Decemberists were kicked out of Moscow and exiled to Siberia. Many of the Decemberists were the great artists, musicians, and intellectuals of their time, so when they all settled in the frontier-town of Irkutsk, they created a rather interesting mix of a city. 

Unfortunately, and in an uncomfortably sharp contrast to the previous weeks of my travel, much of my time in Irkutsk was cold and rainy. It even snowed a little the day I arrived (May 26)! The weather limited my time exploring the beauty of the city, but luckily I had found a last minute couchsurfing host who, in addition to feeding me some great food, took me on a walking tour of the city in the cold blowing rain. I definitely wouldn't have had the will to do that by myself. It's good to have other people around to help motivate you.
I got out of town during a break in the weather for a short visit to Lake Baikal (and it's science center). This is the deepest, most voluminous, and oldest lake in the world. And I think I read it contains 25% of the worlds liquid freshwater. I could list off some more statistics about the lake, but really you would be better off reading the wikipedia article yourself. The lake was an impressive sight. It's huge, clear, and cold and the mountains and forest that surround it just added to the beauty. And they sell great-tasting smoked Omul at roadside stands around the lake.

An interesting side story: To get to the lake you take these normal looking vans which have had the seating modified to cram as many people in as possible (seatbelts? never heard of them). These are pretty common across Russia; they run on fixed routes like buses; and they aren't so different from the collectivos in Central America. Anyway, on this bus/van the older lady who happened to sit across from me spoke really good English. This was surprising for two reasons: it seems not many in Russia (especially eastern Russia) speak English at all unless they worked in tourism, and generally those people are relatively young. Also, studying English wasn't a very high priority 30 or 40 years ago in Russia. It was really nice to have someone to talk to. Then, a little while later when a mother, father, and their ten year old daughter got on and took the seats next to me, I was surprised to encounter an English speaker once again. Not the mom or the dad, but the 10 year old! She told me all about her home town and a couple places she really wants to visit (including London) in travel-guide level detail and style. When I started asking questions it became apparent that she had essentially memorized these descriptions, but her pronunciation and British accent were so good that I kept forgetting that her comprehension and vocabulary still had some catching up to do. Incredibly impressive for being only 10 years old! 

Novosibrisk (Новосиби́рск)

From Irkutsk I took a 30 hour train to Novosibirsk, making my way toward Moscow (and the terminus of the Trans Siberian Railroad) little by little. Even though Novosibirsk is the third largest city in Russia, it isn't a typical tourist stop. The city isn't especially old or beautiful and there aren't really any interesting sights near-by (except maybe the Altya mountains). But I had a good reason to stop: my friend Anya lives there. I met Anya through couchsurfing.org a little over a year ago when we were both in Chicago. As we were both there on business-trips, we didn't need couches to sleep on, but the website also has features that help travelers meet other travelers. Eating alone in restaurants after work while traveling gets old fast, so we were both happy to have some company. 

Novosibirsk - prettier than I give it credit for being.

Birthday party for Yulia with Anya and her friends on the Ob Sea. 

As with many of my distant friends, Anya and I were able to stay in touch through the magic of email and facebook. And I'm glad we did. There might not be many sights Novosibirsk, but I enjoyed getting a taste of “real,” non-touristy, Russia. Visiting with Anya, meeting her friends and family, seeing how they live, observing differences and similarities, and taking a step back to absorb it all in a place where I could blend in to the crowd was well worth the stop. And it was really nice to be staying at a friend's house after so many weeks in trains, buses, hostels and couchsurfers. There's an extra level of comfort you feel when staying with someone you've known for a while. Anya was a great host, and it was really nice to have a few days break from the traveling life.

Moscow (Москва)

The train ride from Novosibirsk to Moscow was about 50 hours and crossed 2 time zones. It is the longest nonstop segment I've taken thus far, and it definitely felt like it (the train I'll take from Toronto to Vancouver at the end of July will be longer; almost 4 days in total). The first day I slept and read and slept some more. Every couple hours or so the train makes a longer (10-20 minute) stop so you can get out, walk around on the platform, and buy ice cream and other snacks. It breaks up the monotony, but it doesn't make time move any faster. By the middle of the second day I had finished listening to all of the podcasts I had downloaded and read all that I wanted to know about Moscow and St.Petersburg. I had even finished reading half of Cat's Cradle, but my eyes were too tired to keep going. In spent a lot of time staring out the window.... 

In Moscow, after my early morning arrival and subsequent hours at a coffeshop, I met with a couchsurfer, coincidentally also named Anya, who had responded to my post the city-wide message board. She had free time that day, and said she would enjoy showing me around part of the city. This was particularly fortunate for me because my time in Moscow was very limited. In an effort to save more time for my friends later in the trip, I had decided to spend only 16 hours in Moscow: I arrived at 5:30 AM and departed on yet another sleeper train 9:30 PM. As I'm (apparently) fond of saying, efficiency was key, and having a local at my side definitely helped. With Anya I visited the Red Square, Kremlin, St. Basil Cathedral, the Lomonosov University, a scenic ski lift, Victory Park, and several other lesser known sites. It was really great to have my own “guide” for the day – someone to talk to, show me things I wouldn't have discovered on my own, answer the random cultural questions that pop up in my head, and help me navigate yet another giant subway system.
My general impression of Moscow was a positive one. It was a much bigger city than anything I had seen since Beijing, and it was the most “Western” feeling cities I had been in since Los Angeles. From the perspective of an American, Moscow was unmistakeably European  – cobble stones, winding streets, parks, central squares, etc, etc – but writing this from a Polish train after having visited Scandinavia, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, I can see how Moscow still had a very Russian feel, especially in the architecture and, of course, the customs and traditions of the people . The same applies below for St. Petersburg, but to a lesser extent: more European than Moscow, but distinctly Russian.

At the end of the fast-paced day in Moscow we met with two other couchsurfers for dinner, and then I made a mad dash for the train. I was almost late due to confusion over which train station was the correct one for my train (there are 3 major ones within less than a city-block of each other), but luckily I made it and was able to get some good sleep on my way to Russia's “Venice of the North.”

St Petersburg (Санкт-Петерб́ург)

I wouldn't expect any of you to remember, but I had originally planned to go immediately to Poland after Moscow – which is not at all in the direction of St. Petersburg. After my almost-mistake regarding the Vietanamese visa, I took the lesson to heart and double checked the visa requirements for the rest of my trip. I discovered that unless I wanted spend 3 days in Moscow and pay for a Belorussian transit visa, my best over-land option for connecting to Poland was a someway tenuous route through Ukraine that didn't sound like much fun (a plane would have been cheaper and faster, but remember that one of my primary goals is minimize the number of flights I take). As an alternative to the Ukraine, I saw that there was a land border between Russian and Finland, nearby to both St.Petersburg and Helsinki. Scandinavia is a place I wanted to see anyway, and I knew I could make a connection to Poland from Germany later in the trip if I still wanted to satisfy my urge to visit my great-grandmother's homeland. Avoiding a visa and visiting Europe's "Land of the Midnight Sun" was enough to send me on my way to St. Petersburg. 
As with Moscow, I arrived quite early in the morning, and as usual, my first step was to figure out exactly where I was in the giant city. A usual safe be is to find a nearby tourist map, subway station, or bus stop, as these often have “You Are Here” markers or identifiable landmarks. (Travel tip: once you've found one of these maps, take a photo of it so you can look it up on your camera later when you're lost again.) After finding myself, my next concern is usually figuring out where to sleep that night – luckily I had already made contact with a young married couple on couchsurfing, Yanis and Yulia, so instead of wandering around until I found a hostel with free beds as I did in Irkutsk, I just jumped on a subway train headed toward their apartment. 
Yanis and Yulia were simply amazing! They were welcoming, fun to talk to, and very sympathetic to needs of a worn out traveler. They offered me some good food, let me shower (much needed after 3 nights in the train), and then I went back out to explore part of the UNESCO World Heritage city - taking advantage of the long daylight hours at nearly 60 degrees North. I took some photos, walked around, and enjoyed hearing more English speakers in one place than I had since Thailand 
The biggest highlight of St. Petersburg, aka Leningrad, was the Herimtage Museum. I could type pages and pages about the Hermitage, but you're probably better of reading a more eloquent source, looking at the virtual tour and taking a peak at my photos to get an idea of the things that I saw. It's huge place, and the 4 or 5 hours I spent there weren't even close to enough time to really enjoy it. Overall, it's a very impressive collection of art and artifacts that are presented in an up-close and personal way within an even more impressive Russian Palace (since when did I become an architecture fan?!). The collection is sometimes compared to the Louve in terms of significance and magnitude. As you would expect, it's crawling with tourists, but the place is big enough to handle the crowds. 

Church of the Savior - St. Petersburg. 

Hermitage Square

Crouching Boy by Michelangelo 

After three days in St. Petersburg it was time to leave, but I had to decide by what method. There are buses, trains, boats, and of course, air planes all providing connection to Helsinki. Airplanes were ruled out on account of principle, the boats looked expensive, and the trains were about twice the price of the buses, so I found myself on an overnight bus to Finland. The bus ride was a memorable one, but I'm currently tired of typing, so I'll save that for next time.


I always have more things I want to say and stories to tell than I have time or energy to type. Russia is no exception. Let me know if there's anything I didn't mention that you want to know about and I'll add it in. I'm writing this largely for your benefit, so I might as well do what I can to keep you happy. 


The maps and photo albums linked at the top of the page have been updated (lots from Russia and sneak peaks at Europe). Go check them out and let me know what you think!

Thailand, China, and Mongolia

View Sabbatical in a larger map


Well, once again I'm behind on my updates. I'm currently sitting on a ferry going from Helsinki, Finland to Stockholm Sweden. Obviously, both of those places are a long way from Indonesia, which is where I last left off. Sorry. 


A lot has happened since then, but in the interest of time and (hopefully) getting you all up to present-day in my story as soon as possible, I'm going to make this more a of a bullet-point summary of Southern and Eastern Asia. I feel bad about doing this because these were very interesting places and I have lots of stories to share – I just don't have time (or energy) to write about them right now. You'll just have to get the rest of the stories next time you see me :-) 


I think I've said before that I'm constantly trying to figure out the optimal balance for my time. It's always split between three things: enjoying and experiencing the current moment, writing about and digesting what happened in the past weeks, and planning/logistics for the coming weeks. All three are equally important, and somewhat mutually interdependent, but since I've been changing locations so frequently and covering so much ground so fast, my writing has been loosing in the tug-of-war. Alright, enough with the excuses.  


I knew before I started on it, that this section of my trip would be a bit different in that I would spend most of my time in transit, only stopping for layover and rest days, rather than taking time to actually get acquainted with places. This was a necessary evil in order to maximize the time I had to spend with friends. As I've said before, I know that I have much more fun visiting people I know rather than sightseeing by myself,  skipping out on some things along the way, for example, the Great Wall of China. 

Thailand

• A short flight from Jakarta, Indonesia to Kulua Lumpur, Malaysia, and then an overnight train on into Thailand. This was my first experience with sleeper trains. I enjoyed it. Way better than buses. It's a good thing that I liked it because there were many more nights on trains to come. 
• I stayed 2 nights at Railay Beach near Krabi, Thailand. A wonderful picturesque beach, with warm water, white sand, and lush jungle on all sides. Combine those with relatively cheap prices and great climbable limestone cliffs all over and you can understand why it's a favorite destination for climbers. 
• Overnight van/bus combo to Bangkok. The price was too good – I should have known something was fishy. We only stopped at places where the only food, water, and toilets in sight were owned by friends of the drivers. During the night, the luggage we had placed under the bus was searched for valuables. Unfortunately, this is something that is fairly common in Thailand (the bus drivers are in on it), so most of us kept our valuables in our carry-on bags. I slept with my small carry-on in my arms or with my feet in the straps in such a way that I would feel it if it were moved. The girl behind me had her backpack at her feet, but someone still stole her iPad. There is a lot that could be said about this, but worst part for me the is feeling that you and your stuff aren't really safe while you're sleeping. 
• Spent half a day in Bangkok waiting for the train headed for Laos. I visited Bangkok during my last trip to Thailand/Laos, so there wasn't much that I wanted to see, but I did enjoy getting out and seeing some new sections of the city. 

• The night train was uneventful. It felt very restful and secure compared to the night before. When we arrived in Laos the next morning, I was talking with some other travelers about my plans to continue on to Vietnam via bus later that day. They asked if it had been easy to get my visa for Vietnam. What visa?!? I had read that there was a visa-on-arrival option for Vietnam, but apparently even that option requires some kind of letter in advance. Quick research on the train (thankfully I had saved the info to my computer) revealed that getting the visa in Laos would take at least 3 days – days I would have to sacrifice from somewhere later in my schedule. I started looking for alternatives. Was there a way to get into China without going through Vietnam? Answer: Yes! The guy at the hostel said the bus was leaving for Kunming, China in less than 2 hours, so I had to make a decision fast. It wasn't an easy decision. First because it was a 50 hour bus trip on bumpy roads through a part of Laos and China that doesn't get tons of visitors. And second because it would put me on a completely unplanned route for at least the next 4 or 5 days. I would be back on on schedule by the time I got to Beijing, but I didn't know anything about the places or route in between. Also, keep in mind that I had spent the last night/day on a train and the night before that on a sketchy bus.   Contrary to what might seem like an obvious decision, I quickly bought some more food and drinking water and hopped on the bus.

• This was my first (and maybe last) trip on a sleeper bus. Instead of seats, they have narrow bunkbeds stacked 2 or 3 high. Apparently very common in China for long trips, and probably the most comfortable way you can spend a 50 hour bus ride. It's still a bus, and the roads are still bumpy, but it could have been worse. I slept a lot, looked out the window, listened to all of my podcasts and read travel guides. No one else on the bus spoke English, so the purpose of our stops was always a surprise – I had to watch everyone else to figure out if it was a food-, bathroom-, gas-, water-, or smoke-break. Not that we needed the smoke-breaks; everyone seemed perfectly happy to just smoke on the bus. :(

China

• Border crossing into China went over without a hitch. Hooray, my visa worked!
• I spent 3 nights in Kunming. I didn't do much sightseeing there, but I needed a couple days to recover after spending the last 4 nights in buses and trains in 3 different countries. In Kunming I stayed a very comfortable hostel and spent a lot of my time on my laptop figuring out train schedules to Beijing, Mongolia, and Russia, making couchsurfer connections in those places, and refining my schedule for parts of the trip further down the road (and double checking that I wasn't making any more silly mistakes like that visa for Vietnam). I did do a little sightseeing in Kunming. Check out the photos. 
• The train from Kunming to Beijing took 2 nights. I had a really good time on that train ride. It was clean and comfortable, and the 5 other people sharing my compartment/berth area were really friendly. One girl spoke pretty good English so she helped translate. The views out the windows during the day were pretty nice too. Small talk via translation and hand signs got old after a while, so I decided to see if they wanted to learn some knots. I had some rope (useful for many purposes when traveling), and knots are easy to share even without words. They loved it! Especially the grandma in the group – she kept calling me teacher and wanted to learn every knot I could show her. They kept practicing over and over until they got them all – bowline, square, figure eight, double fisherman's. I loved it too. [Yes, Chris Swift, I can hear you laughing already]. 

• I spent 2 nights in Beijing. Just enough time to have dinner with a couchsurfer, figure out how to book my train ticket to Mongolia (not as easy as you would expect), and see some of the main sights.  It might have been the weather or just the timing, but Beijing wasn't my favorite place. There were some nice things to see, and I'm sure even more nice things I didn't see, but I'm happy I didn't schedule a long stop there. 
• The train from Beijing to UlaanBaatar, the capital of Mongolia) worked out perfectly in the end, but but there was a lot of uncertainty initially. There are three options for getting to UB: 

1. Since this is the first leg of the Transmongolian Railway (one of the Transiberian routes), so you can buy a ticket on one of those trains. It will cost of about 200$US, takes 1 night, and departs twice a week. 
2. They attach an extra carriage to the back of the Transmonglian trains. The extra carriage stops at the border when the rest of the train continues into Mongolia. It's a lot cheaper since it's not international, but you have to get out at the border town, spend the night, and then cross the border the next day by jeep and catch a Mongolian train on the other side. Total cost around 60$US and takes 1 or 2 nights depending on the mongolian trains. 
3. The third option in a combo of 1 and 2. You buy a ticket for the cheap, non-international train carriage and then while you're en route, if there are extra beds in the international train you can pay the conductor for an upgrade at a highly discounted rate. But, if there aren't any extra beds, you have to fall back to option 2 and spend the night in the town in the middle of nowhere. Total cost of about 100$US and only 1 night. 

• I was lucky and option 3 worked for me! Upgrading to the international train also meant that I was, for the first time in about a week, traveling with other Westerners again. I enjoy traveling with locals and getting the immersion experience, but on those long trips sometimes it's nice to be able to speak English. 

This is where the track widths change from the standard size to the Russia size. The bogies have already been switched in this photo. 

Mongolia 

• I only spent 2 nights in UlaanBaatar, and since Mongolia is such a huge place with relatively poor transportation infrastructure, most of what I saw for Mongolia was from the train on the way to UB and from UB to Russia. What I saw from the windows was really beautiful, especially in the north: rolling hills covered in grass, semi-nomadic families living yurts (locally called “gers”), some of the cleanest looking water, and pretty rives. The southern part I didn't see as much of since we went through at night, but it's a lot of really big desert. 

• UB itself was interesting. It's a big city, but not very dense. They have a lot of room to spread out. Half of the country's population lives there, but the low density leads to a certain feeling of disorganization. There are some nice sights in town (see the photos) and the people were nice. I tried some traditional food, which as you would expect coming from a nomadic culture is largely based on animal products – meats and cheeses. I did like some of the foods (eg buuz ), but others (eg milk tea) I did not. 
• From UB, I took a train straight into Russia, all the way to Irkutsk, near Lake Baikal (oldest, deepest and most voluminous freshwater lake in the world), but you'll have to wait until the next post to hear about Russia. 

--- I updated the map, photos, and itinerary sections, so go check out the new additions in the links above --- 

Indonesia

From Japan I took a flight to Indonesia with a layover in Singapore (which has one of the nicest airports I've ever seen). My purpose for going to Indonesia, and part of what motivated this whole trip, was the chance see my brother whom I haven't seen in a couple years. With that in mind, I was a little disappointed that he couldn't meet me at the Jakarta airport because he was working the night shift, but in his place he sent one of his Indonesian friends, Debby. Having Debby there was great – she speaks Indonesian, so the taxi driver didn't try to scam us - and shes a lot better looking that Ryan anyway.

Debby and I at the airport. 

After the go-go-go pace at which I went through California and Japan, I needed a couple days to relax, so I checked into a "nice" hostel (still only about $10/night) near where Ryan lives and set up camp. I spent some days poking around parts of Jakarta, meeting with Ryan and his friends, catching up on emails, researching the next stops on my trip, talking with other travelers at the hostel (including a primatologist doing research in remote Indonesia), having lunch at the US Embassy (sorry, no photos allowed), finally receiving the debit card for which I've been waiting 3 months and as many countries, and trying to get my Russian visa.

Inside the Russian Embassy in Jakarta

Russian visas are notorious for being some what difficult to obtain. In fact, there are entire websites and companies dedicated to helping you negotiate the process. In the past, if you filled out the right paperwork, got your letter of invitation, had all of your ducks in a row, and paid the right fee, you could get a visa for Russia at almost any Russian consulate in any country. However, in recent years, they've started enforcing a rule requiring your visa to be issued from a consulate in your home country.

For this reason I wanted to get my visa while I was in California, but due to the visa processing times and my flight to Japan, it was going to be cutting it all too close. I decided I would ask at the embassy in Jakarta, and if they said no I could mail my passport back to the States to get the visa. Mailing it back would mean being in a foreign country without my passport for at least 2 weeks – a somewhat risky endeavor – but it seemed like the only choice. I was in luck though; at the Jakarta embassy I asked my question, waited an hour for an answer, and after a brief hesitation they said, “yeah, sure just pay your 250$US fee for rush processing and it will be ready in a week.” A week later, I had my visa in hand. Success! [250 might seem like a lot, but the normal, slow fee in the US is 140, the rush fee is 250, and you can add to those 120 if you have an agency help you. And if you include parcel service back to the US, I was coming out waaay ahead for only 250$.]

Spending time with Ryan and his friends was an interesting experience. They are an eclectic mix of US Marines, Indonesians, and various expats who work at the embassy. Jakarta has a high degree of income inequality, and high rates of poverty, but this group (with some exceptions) exists primarily in a bubble of relative wealth that surrounds the embassy. I don't want to come off as sounding judgmental as I'm sure I would be in that bubble too if I lived there, but as always, the contrast, proximity, and mixing of the two extremes was interesting.

Ryan's friends are a fun group. I especially enjoyed chatting with some of his Indonesian friends. They spoke great English, so it was a good opportunity for me to get answers to some of the cultural questions that had been lingering in my mind.

My family will be happy to hear that Ryan's friends and acquaintances (I met his boss too) all had really great things to say about him. They said he's friendly, helpful, funny, and always taking care of people when they're unwell. They say he can be a bit mischievous at times (I could have told you that), but they were always really happy to see him when we walked into a room. No one would believe we were brothers at first glance. One guy even forced me to show my passport before he would believe me. I also thought it was funny that despite being taller and more handsome (I'm including these comments because Ryan said he's been ignoring my blog – I'll show him) … despite being taller and more handsome, his friends often thought I was the younger brother. Ha!

This isn't a particularly flattering photo of either of us, but really, who's better looking?

After spending a little over a week in noisy, crowded, polluted, traffic-clogged Jakarta (Chuck, you were right), I was in need of a break. I also didn't want to leave Indonesia with Jakarta being my only impression of the country. A group of students from Canada that I had met at the hostel had gone to Jokjakarta which is said to be the cultural center of Java (Java is island on which Jakarta is located). The chance to have companions for sightseeing and other activities for a change was too good to pass up, so I took the very scenic 8 hour train ride over to Jokja and met up with the anthropology students from Toronto.

And I was not disappointed. I had a really great time there. Good food, great conversations, and a visit to Borobudor – the giant temple in my photos – where we got to see, despite my attempts to leave earlier, an annual Buddhist ceremony with these magical flying lanterns.

There were many great parts about my time in Jokja, but one of the highlights was the food at the homestay where I stayed. 2 meals and day, free internet, and laundry was all included in the 15$/night in this beautiful house with lots of intricate woodwork and panels. And the food they cooked was wonderful. Lots of traditional Indonesian dishes and some borrowed from nearby countries. It wasn't the cheapest place in town, but it was a great bargain for what you got.

Sitting down for a great dinner at the luxurious homestay in Jokja.

After traveling relatively solo for so long – making my own plans, setting my own schedule, changing plans at whim – it was a bit difficult for me to be in a bigger group (15?) where we spent a lot of time waiting for people or somewhat blindly following the leader without knowing exactly where we were going or what was going to happen next. I had a great time with them in the end, but was sometimes good exercise for my patience :)

At Borobudur 

The Indonesian and Canadian students

Lantern lighting 

After Jokja, I took the train back to Jakarta, met Ryan for one last dinner, spent the night in a hostel, and then headed to the airport. Coincidentally and appropriately, I once again met Debby at the airport. She had missed a flight earlier that morning to go do some wedding planning, so she was waiting around for the later flight. We had a short chat, then I got on the plane headed for Malaysia. My original plan had been to take the ferry from Indonesia to Singapore so as to avoid the flight, but the flight was shorter (by about a day), safer (Indonesian boats are known for far exceeding capacity, and sinking), and cheaper (by about half), so I couldn't pass it up. It was a good decision, but I hope it's the last flight I take until the one from Europe back to North America.

More photos and videos (I finally got the videos uploaded) from Indonesia are linked from my photos page.

Stay tuned for a post about Thailand, China, and Mongolia. In the mean time, keep track of my progress on the maps.