Novosibirsk: 19.03.2008
7.30 pm local time, 5.30 pm Muscat time.
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This belt of Russia that we are covering now – Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk and Kemerovo – is neither east nor west Russia but bang in the middle. It was a long journey – 12.30 am departure from Muscat, 6.00 pm arrival here (local time) via Dubai and Moscow.
.In Russia March witnesses the death-throws of winter. Novosibirsk temperature is 0 degC to minus 5 degC. There is snow on the ground, there are flakes drifting down, but the ice has started melting and the roads are wet, muddy and slushy. All the cars are terribly dirty because I am sure liquid water is at a premium in sub-zero winter!
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.Although food was at odd hours (dinner at 4.30 am, lunch at 4.30 pm), food was not an issue this time (compared to the last time I travelled in this region), because (a) I am a non-vegetarian again, which makes a big difference to the available menu in Russia, believe me, and (b) since I am flying Business Class, the cuisine is upper European, low in oil and spice, therefore easy on the stomach. We are flying Aeroflot in most of the sectors and it is not bad at all.
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The city was founded in 1893 as the future site of the Trans-Siberian Railway bridge crossing the great Siberian river Ob and was known as Novonikolayevsk after Saint Nicholas. It also was the name of the Tsar ruling at that time Tsar Nicholas II. The bridge opened for traffic in the spring of 1897. Its importance further increased early in the 20th century with the completion of the Turkestan-Siberia Railway, connecting Novosibirsk to Central Asia and the Caspian Sea.
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[For further details, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novosibirsk ]
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Novosibirsk has a population of around 2.5 million and seems quite a prosperous town with a large number of business visitors. We could get a booking only in Hotel Novosibirisk, a 4-star, but quoting a tariff of $250 for quite normal rooms!
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It was only in the evening that we could catch up on our morning ablutions, which was embellished by a long soak in a hot bath with a glass of vodka. Then we put on our togs again and prepared to go out for dinner.
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Out of my two colleagues, Arun and Ramesh, Ramesh is vegetarian and had been starved all day, but Novosibirsk offered no relief in terms of an Indian restaurant. The available leaflets all offered nightclubs where a peaceful meal was likely to be disturbed by a bunch of dancers posturing around our table. So we took a walk and found KFC right next door! However, in deference to Ramesh’s need for a ‘good veg meal’, we passed that up and entered an Italian joint that offered pizzas, spaghettis and pastas.
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We also ventured a post-prandial perambulation at minus 5 degC and wind that challenged the insulation our clothes quite strongly.
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The city was founded in 1893 as the future site of the Trans-Siberian Railway bridge crossing the great Siberian river Ob and was known as Novonikolayevsk after Saint Nicholas. It also was the name of the Tsar ruling at that time Tsar Nicholas II. The bridge opened for traffic in the spring of 1897. Its importance further increased early in the 20th century with the completion of the Turkestan-Siberia Railway, connecting Novosibirsk to Central Asia and the Caspian Sea.
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[For further details, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novosibirsk ]
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Novosibirsk has a population of around 2.5 million and seems quite a prosperous town with a large number of business visitors. We could get a booking only in Hotel Novosibirisk, a 4-star, but quoting a tariff of $250 for quite normal rooms!
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It was only in the evening that we could catch up on our morning ablutions, which was embellished by a long soak in a hot bath with a glass of vodka. Then we put on our togs again and prepared to go out for dinner.
.
Out of my two colleagues, Arun and Ramesh, Ramesh is vegetarian and had been starved all day, but Novosibirsk offered no relief in terms of an Indian restaurant. The available leaflets all offered nightclubs where a peaceful meal was likely to be disturbed by a bunch of dancers posturing around our table. So we took a walk and found KFC right next door! However, in deference to Ramesh’s need for a ‘good veg meal’, we passed that up and entered an Italian joint that offered pizzas, spaghettis and pastas.
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We also ventured a post-prandial perambulation at minus 5 degC and wind that challenged the insulation our clothes quite strongly.
Novosibirsk: 20.03.2008
The day dawned bright and clear. I looked out of my window on the 23rd floor and saw a white world. It had snowed at night and the roads, pavements, esplanades, rooftops, cartops, treetops, were all bathed in white. Numerous black figures scurried about like insects and snow-shovels paraded back-and-forth like mowing maniacs. Satisfied with the state of affairs, I did my kriya, dressed up befittingly and went down for a continental breakfast, Russian style.......
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We met three important customers today. Russia is still severely restricted in terms of foreign exchange regulations, so corruption also exists, but Russians by and large deal straight. Nothing like Africans, or even Indians for that matter.
.The roads were full of slush from the melting snow, especially at the edges of the roads, which were waist-high banks of snow from the road-clearing activities. Temperature was minus 4 degC and cap and gloves were absolutely required. But the snow is really endearing. Especially in areas where it was undisturbed, like the roundabout circles, it looked like softy ice-cream laid out on pancakes!......
We met three important customers today. Russia is still severely restricted in terms of foreign exchange regulations, so corruption also exists, but Russians by and large deal straight. Nothing like Africans, or even Indians for that matter.
.The roads were full of slush from the melting snow, especially at the edges of the roads, which were waist-high banks of snow from the road-clearing activities. Temperature was minus 4 degC and cap and gloves were absolutely required. But the snow is really endearing. Especially in areas where it was undisturbed, like the roundabout circles, it looked like softy ice-cream laid out on pancakes!......
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We had a quick lunch at ‘New York Pizza’ where nobody spoke in English and the menus were in Russian, but by virtue of some forgotten pantomime skills, we got what we wanted. Dinner was at the hotel, preceded by a few pegs of vodka, where Arun gave me company.
We had a quick lunch at ‘New York Pizza’ where nobody spoke in English and the menus were in Russian, but by virtue of some forgotten pantomime skills, we got what we wanted. Dinner was at the hotel, preceded by a few pegs of vodka, where Arun gave me company.
Novosibirsk: 21.03.2008
Today was slightly warmer, at 3 degC, and we are getting used to it. Although it had not snowed afresh, the white layers are as solid as ever. We had to get into some by-lanes today and there the snow lay really thick and quiet.......
In a snow-covered park with black-and-white juniper trees rising starkly from the ground, a boy was throwing snowballs for his dog. It was eerily beautiful, like watching a silent black-and-white film on TCM!
.We had lunch at ‘Makaroni’, an Italian-based upmarket place. The Russian populace is quite stylish, with a definite preference for black. And compared to Asians and Africans, quite straight in business dealings. Arun, who had dealt with African customers till now, was in a continuous state of pleasant surprise. Most of our Russian customers know passable English and Ramesh knows kindergarten Russian, so we managed without interpreters today.
Novosibirsk: 22.03.2008
This was our last day in Novosibirsk, with a flight to catch at 8.30 pm. We would reach Irkutsk at 12.30 am after a 2-hour flight (Irkutsk is 2 hours ahead in time).
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Apart from business visits, there is no particulate tourist spot in Novo. We saw the Theatre building and the Library, and we crossed the river Ob a few times while on our rounds. The sides of the river were frozen over with the central stretch having some running water.......
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But it was all made beautiful by the snowscapes. Although around 7 degC now, snow was everywhere and the parks in particular were really like dreamlands.
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We had lunch at New York Pizza once more, being a fast-serving place. Sergei the driver faithfully came in with us. We do not normally think of sharing our table at a restaurant with our driver, but he was a middle-aged dignified chap and not at all out of place.
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It’s a Saturday. Weekened has started and New York Pizza is full of youngsters and families. The Novo teenagers are a decent lot. Not loud, in dress or manner, quite unlike the punks and razmatazz that you’ll find in Moscow. “More tra-di-tion, “ said Sergei, who speaks slight English and is carrying a Russian-English booklet today in order to bid us goodbye properly!......
But it was all made beautiful by the snowscapes. Although around 7 degC now, snow was everywhere and the parks in particular were really like dreamlands.
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We had lunch at New York Pizza once more, being a fast-serving place. Sergei the driver faithfully came in with us. We do not normally think of sharing our table at a restaurant with our driver, but he was a middle-aged dignified chap and not at all out of place.
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It’s a Saturday. Weekened has started and New York Pizza is full of youngsters and families. The Novo teenagers are a decent lot. Not loud, in dress or manner, quite unlike the punks and razmatazz that you’ll find in Moscow. “More tra-di-tion, “ said Sergei, who speaks slight English and is carrying a Russian-English booklet today in order to bid us goodbye properly!......
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Our customer Maxim had taken us to his shop today, which is located in a used-car sale yard. Don’t even think of an equivalent of the Wadi Kabir Friday car souq – 6000 cars standing here, at a pinch! The used cars that have arrived from Japan (the major source) are 3-5 years old and look brand new, carefully kept free of snow and ice by a battalion of brush-brandishing boys.
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We checked out at 6.30 pm, after watching the end of Terminator-2 on TV, very dully dubbed in Russian. The room TV had all Russian channels, else dubbed like this. Watched a bit of ‘Namak Halal’ , Russian-dubbed, till it became a strain hearing Amitabh speaking Rusiian in a querelous high-pitched voice!
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Airport security precedes check-in in Russia and I have to take off my boots every time. The security guards are mostly ladies, but their body-search is quite thorough!
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I was the only traveller in Business Class, which was not a surprise, being a weekend. They served a cold supper – shrimp, crab, salmon fillet, salami, bacon – all slow-cooked and with practically no oil.
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Irkutsk was minus 5 degC, but the bus ride was really really cold. We checked into the ‘Baikal Business Centre’, a hotel just 15 mins from the airport, thank God!
Our customer Maxim had taken us to his shop today, which is located in a used-car sale yard. Don’t even think of an equivalent of the Wadi Kabir Friday car souq – 6000 cars standing here, at a pinch! The used cars that have arrived from Japan (the major source) are 3-5 years old and look brand new, carefully kept free of snow and ice by a battalion of brush-brandishing boys.
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We checked out at 6.30 pm, after watching the end of Terminator-2 on TV, very dully dubbed in Russian. The room TV had all Russian channels, else dubbed like this. Watched a bit of ‘Namak Halal’ , Russian-dubbed, till it became a strain hearing Amitabh speaking Rusiian in a querelous high-pitched voice!
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Airport security precedes check-in in Russia and I have to take off my boots every time. The security guards are mostly ladies, but their body-search is quite thorough!
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I was the only traveller in Business Class, which was not a surprise, being a weekend. They served a cold supper – shrimp, crab, salmon fillet, salami, bacon – all slow-cooked and with practically no oil.
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Irkutsk was minus 5 degC, but the bus ride was really really cold. We checked into the ‘Baikal Business Centre’, a hotel just 15 mins from the airport, thank God!
Irkutsk: 23.03.2008
This is a Sunday and our morning program is visiting Lake Baikal.
.The lake is around one hour from Irkutsk and a favourite weekend spot for Irkutsians. Two of our customers, Pasha and Oleg, who themselves were close friends, came to the hotel to take us in Oleg’s Land Cruiser. Temperature was close to zero, with a slight wind, so packed a miniature of vodka, just in case......
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Baikal is as such a beautiful lake with greenery all around. In summer, there is boating and fishing. Travelling around its perimeter takes two days! Although end-March is supposed to be spring (we disagreed till we were told that winter temperatures here are around minus 40 degC!), Lake Baikal is still frozen right across! We could see people walking on it and a couple of cars were enjoying skidding around.
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We also walked down to and on top of the iced lake. At the shallow part of 3 metre depth, we could see right down to the lake bed through the solid ice that was green in colour and had crack patterns running down to the depths. It was really beautiful, like standing on green jelly. But the cold was harsh with us. All that ice was also psychologically benumbing, I’m sure! We had to take pics with our gloves on. As per Oleg, in another two weeks, we could not have gone on to the ice any more; it would have been dangerous. As it is, he refused to take the car onto it. The centre of the lake is 800 m deep.......
Baikal is as such a beautiful lake with greenery all around. In summer, there is boating and fishing. Travelling around its perimeter takes two days! Although end-March is supposed to be spring (we disagreed till we were told that winter temperatures here are around minus 40 degC!), Lake Baikal is still frozen right across! We could see people walking on it and a couple of cars were enjoying skidding around.
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We also walked down to and on top of the iced lake. At the shallow part of 3 metre depth, we could see right down to the lake bed through the solid ice that was green in colour and had crack patterns running down to the depths. It was really beautiful, like standing on green jelly. But the cold was harsh with us. All that ice was also psychologically benumbing, I’m sure! We had to take pics with our gloves on. As per Oleg, in another two weeks, we could not have gone on to the ice any more; it would have been dangerous. As it is, he refused to take the car onto it. The centre of the lake is 800 m deep.......
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We visited a set of stalls near the lake that sell fish, Baikal fish, cleaned and mounted on ‘seekhs’ (ie skewers) already, ready to be grilled. There were vendors grilling fish as well as meat and serving it with pulao out of a huge vessel. Looked very tempting.
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The river Angara flows out of Lake Baikal. We stood near the river and saw how the ice from the edge of the frozen lake was breaking away and flowing down the river. Unusual sights.....
We visited a set of stalls near the lake that sell fish, Baikal fish, cleaned and mounted on ‘seekhs’ (ie skewers) already, ready to be grilled. There were vendors grilling fish as well as meat and serving it with pulao out of a huge vessel. Looked very tempting.
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The river Angara flows out of Lake Baikal. We stood near the river and saw how the ice from the edge of the frozen lake was breaking away and flowing down the river. Unusual sights.....
Back in Irkutsk, we went for lunch at a typical Russian restaurant, ‘Bier Haus’ (meaning Beer House in German), pretty upmarket, with waitresses dressed in traditional costumes. Pasha ordered a ‘pitcher’ of vodka. I discovered that tradition demands that the host should keep topping up the glass as soon as it empties a little, so the trick is to drink very slowly. It’s neat vodka, mind you. I guess, in spite of the defensive measures, I must have drunk three large pegs..
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.Food was lavish. We had a seafood appetizer dish and a bacon appetizer dish. Ramesh, being veg, ordered garlic bread with cheese. Arun ordered his favourite Beef Stroganoff with rice, while I had veal with spinach and cranberry sauce (it was a solid but tasty piece of meat). Our Russian friends had a round of Russian salad (cabbage with meat) followed by mussels, mushrooms etc. Quite solid eaters. A dish of Russian mushrooms (big green pieces with cream) appeared as a vodka accompaniment, but the pungent taste was not to my liking.
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When we were dropped back at the hotel, we could only think of sleep. A three-hour shut-eye followed by kriya revived my energies and at 9.00 pm we went down for a “spot of dinner since we were not hungry”. I had a Ukrainian Borsch soup, full of healthy vegetables, the predominant one being beet, that I dutifully consumed, as well as chunks of meat that I dutifully ignored. An after-dinner walk in sub-zero, discussing many things like history and mythology, wound up the day.
Irkutsk: 24.03.2008
Spring IS here, since it has stopped snowing for the last 4-5 days and the snow on the ground is visibly reducing. At Irkutsk, the wind adds to the chill factor; otherwise the temperature is pleasant zero degC!
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Irkutsk has a population of around 700,000. Together with the twin city Angarsk (which is financed by a petroleum refinery and an aluminium mine) and one other city, this small region just about crosses 1 million. But Irkutsk is a very old city. In the early 19th century, many Russian artists, officers, and nobles were sent into exile to Siberia for their part in the Decembrist revolt against Tsar Nicholas I. Irkutsk became the major center of intellectual and social life for these exiles, and much of the city’s cultural heritage comes from them; many of their wooden houses, adorned with ornate, hand-carved decorations, survive today in stark contrast with the standard Soviet apartment blocks that surround them.
.[For more details, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irkutsk ]
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Being around 600 km from Ulan Bator (Mongolia), we see a number of Oriental faces. As per Oleg, our jovial customer, people in the north (former Tartar belt) are tall and strong and drink vodka while people from southern part of Russia are short and weak and drink beer!
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As in Novosibirsk, the people here seem quite clean-living. There may be a few night clubs and strip joints in Novo, but I could not see any signs here. Skin quality is very good and the people very handsome. And they love Irkutsk.
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Every time I have visited Russia or Ukraine, I have been amused by their total avoidance of colours in male attire. Black, black or brown is the theme. My maroon scarf, mostly half-hidden, used to stand out like a bunch of sunflowers at a funeral. Even ladies, as soon as they cross middle-age, seem to change gears to the more sombre shades. Style not dowdy at all, but colours are subdued.
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Our customer Pasha, a fairly big shot employing some 80 people, took us around his place and then treated us to lunch from his warehouse lunch-room. It was by far the best food I had had till now in Irkutsk. Salad, borsch soup, spaghetti with meatballs – very tasty and very soothing.
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I had visited Irkutsk earlier in 2003, but it had been just for a day and a hurricane visit. This time it was quite enjoyable and a totally new place for all intents and purposes.
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Russians are quite jolly and friendly and love to talk about families and babies. At the same time, they have a no-nonsense approach to business and in meetings they would get down to the point right away.
.Around 4.00 pm, when the day’s work was over, we trundled down to Karl Marx Street, which is the town centre (I believe Karl Marx street or Lenin Street is always the town centre at this part of the world!). After walking around a bit in the unrelenting sub-zero, we popped into ‘Bier Haus’ again for some warmth. This was the same restaurant where Pasha and Oleg had treated us to lunch on Sunday. Finding that a Screwdriver was cheaper than a coffee, we indulged in the national drink, together with cheese on garlic bread.......
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Our Russian friends told us that there were no Indians living in Irkutsk (nor in Novosibirsk). There are no Indian restaurants. We notice people on the street do a double-take when they see us, in spite of the fact that we are ensconced from head to foot in warm clothing. Something must not be looking right. In spite of that, more people than we expected speak some degree of English – it is an optional language in school.
.We had dinner at the hotel. While Arun struggled with a steak that was half-a-cow, I ordered a potato dish that was ‘alu-peyajer-tarkari', a la home, though difficult to have just like that without accompaniments.
Our Russian friends told us that there were no Indians living in Irkutsk (nor in Novosibirsk). There are no Indian restaurants. We notice people on the street do a double-take when they see us, in spite of the fact that we are ensconced from head to foot in warm clothing. Something must not be looking right. In spite of that, more people than we expected speak some degree of English – it is an optional language in school.
.We had dinner at the hotel. While Arun struggled with a steak that was half-a-cow, I ordered a potato dish that was ‘alu-peyajer-tarkari', a la home, though difficult to have just like that without accompaniments.
Irkutsk: 25.03.2008
Our last working day at Irkutsk.
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The weather has improved and is in the range of Indian winters. The snow has practically melted away, the roads are dry and children are having ice-cream!
.We spent time today at the auto market that is full of auto retail shops. There is no point trying to compare these with auto retail shops in India. This market is set up like a trade fair complex, with shops instead of stalls, with uniform frontages and display panes, numbered in order. Everything labelled, arranged and displayed, the aisles spic-and-span, refreshments available in one stand, restaurants outside the complex. It is targetted at car owners, not so much the garage-mechanics, so the ambience is quite upmarket.
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The city is situated beside the Irkutsk river, which joins the Angara river right there. After lunch, we visited the city Angarsk, situated on the other side of river Angara, around 45 km from Irkutsk. It turned out to be a poor step-brother, with wide roads, prolific trams, and large colonies of LIG and MIG flat-blocks. The road to the city was nice, lined by bare cedar and green pine trees.
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Our flight to Krasnoyarsk is at an unearthly 2.30 am, so we will lose sleep quite heavily. Like seasoned travellers, we lay down for a 1.5 hour nap, but as expected, could not sleep a wink. The TV channels in Russian did not help pass the time.
The city is situated beside the Irkutsk river, which joins the Angara river right there. After lunch, we visited the city Angarsk, situated on the other side of river Angara, around 45 km from Irkutsk. It turned out to be a poor step-brother, with wide roads, prolific trams, and large colonies of LIG and MIG flat-blocks. The road to the city was nice, lined by bare cedar and green pine trees.
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Our flight to Krasnoyarsk is at an unearthly 2.30 am, so we will lose sleep quite heavily. Like seasoned travellers, we lay down for a 1.5 hour nap, but as expected, could not sleep a wink. The TV channels in Russian did not help pass the time.
Krasnoyarsk: 26.03.2008
Our flight was tracing a path back from Irkutsk to Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk being 2/3rd along the way. Since this was a much smaller plane (belonging to Utair, a local airline), it still took 2 hours.
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After a long time I was boarding a small propeller-driven plane, and after a long time I suffered from claustrophobia again. I felt hot, suffocated, itching at unreachable places through layers of clothing – even my feet were complaining at being ensconced in thick boots. So I took off my jacket, my sweater and scarf and packed them, solved a Russian crossword, walked up and down disturbing the air-hostess trying to serve food, finally went right to the back where there were a few empty seats and I psychologically felt less hemmed in. Finally borrowed a blanket and fell asleep.
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The disembarkation was very primitive and conducted at minus 8 degC at 4.40 am. The luggage was identified and unloaded right on the tarmac, which we lugged onto the bus. The bus promptly dropped us 50 metres from a taxi-stand and drove off! We dragged the luggage crunching over ice and shivering away to glory, not in a mood to negotiate much even when the taxi-driver asked for 1200 roubles ($50) for a drop to Hotel Yahont.
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We reached the hotel at 5.00 am and were told that our rooms would be ready at 6.00 am only! Till then, why didn’t we relax at the bar? Somehow, she then gave us one room and we snoozed on the sofas for one hour. This hotel is quite old and the rooms are actually suites, with a separate room housing sofas, writing table, TV and fridge. The panellings are old-fashioned, but the room-radiators are very effective.
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.Kransoyarsk is the largest city in the Siberian area. The Krasnoyarsk region with 3-4 towns is also quite old and the inhabitants quite middle-class and humble. These places are not tourist-friendly and there are no leaflets lying around detailing “10 things to know about Krasnoyarsk”, or a route map with old buildings marked. We passed an old bridge over Yenesei river that flows through the city and our taxi-driver pulled out a 10-rouble note to show it depicted there. When we passed an old church at the top of a hill, he pulled out the same note again and showed us the church also picturised. Krasnoyarsk region seems to have monopolised the 10-rouble note!
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.Daytime was not too cold at 8 degC. Our customer meetings went as planned and we had a roadside lunch of ‘shwarma’, made Russian style, that was quite good.
.After a full working day, we did not feel like going out for dinner, but had a quiet meal at our in-house restaurant, consisting of soup and some chicken.
.The rooms here are quite funny, with a lot of interference among the doors to the bedroom, sitting room and bathroom. Not a good set up really but then very few ‘international’ tourists like us land up at Krasnoyarsk!
.After a full working day, we did not feel like going out for dinner, but had a quiet meal at our in-house restaurant, consisting of soup and some chicken.
.The rooms here are quite funny, with a lot of interference among the doors to the bedroom, sitting room and bathroom. Not a good set up really but then very few ‘international’ tourists like us land up at Krasnoyarsk!
Kemerovo: 27.03.2008
We had half-a-day’s work at Kras, after which we had planned to leave for Kemerovo by car around 12.00 noon.
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The first realisation which struck us on waking up was that spring had definitely not arrived at Kras – because it was snowing! Not great fluffy balls but more like white powder blowing about in the air. The ground was white already though the roads had been kept clean. Temperature was around minus 2 degC, but we were more worried about whether this would hamper our road travel plans. Fortunately, the snowing remained mild and our Camry driver Valada did not seem much perturbed by the weather.
.We had ordered packed lunch from the hotel and left at 12.30 pm, expecting to cover the 650 km distance in around 7 hours. There was snowfall for the first 150 km or so, after which it cleared up, though the landscape remained blissfully white. It was quite thrilling to see trees covered in snow and the rolling plains stretching away so smoothly, broken by lines of bare patchwork cedar trees and the occasional shrubs. One almost expected to see a troop of wolves run out of the trees and go plodding through the snow. We stopped at intervals to take pictures but always ended up dissatisfied with the limitations of photographs.
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.During a coffee break, we stopped at a village and hunted out a café. The villages are very quaint. All are old with very peculiar colour schemes in the houses, with window-frames bright blue or bright yellow while the walls remained a dingy brown wood finish. Even the café-cum-bar was inside a huge enclosed building with a massive iron door and you had to climb up some musty flights of stairs to reach a big hall set up with a bar at one end and the tables arranged against a wall. Our request for only ‘chai’ was received with some suspicion by a massive matron and with amusement by the two young girls looking after the bar. When I came back from a visit to the toilet, I found that ‘chai’ had been served at break-neck speed and the two girls were now standing in the middle of the hall, holding bits of paper and reciting dialogues with expression and flourish. Apparently our patronage had disturbed the rehearsal process of an amateur play!..
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The sun set majestically while we were driving westward from Kras to Kemerovo, giving us a few nice sequences of sunlight shuttering through the forests of dry trees as they marched past us at 100 kmph. We finally entered Kemerovo at 8.00 pm and it took us another hour or so to find the hotel, which was sort of ‘beside the river, beneath the trees’, an out-of-town picturesque hotel in a pine forest situated beside the river. It should be a nice sight in the morning, but for tonight we satisfied ourselves with a very good dinner at the in-house restaurant.
The sun set majestically while we were driving westward from Kras to Kemerovo, giving us a few nice sequences of sunlight shuttering through the forests of dry trees as they marched past us at 100 kmph. We finally entered Kemerovo at 8.00 pm and it took us another hour or so to find the hotel, which was sort of ‘beside the river, beneath the trees’, an out-of-town picturesque hotel in a pine forest situated beside the river. It should be a nice sight in the morning, but for tonight we satisfied ourselves with a very good dinner at the in-house restaurant.
Kemerovo: 28.03.2008
Morning was clear and not so cold, probably 5 degC. The snow still lay thick by the roadsides near the hotel, the snow-clearing machines having just shoved them to the side of the road, at some places leaving a six-foot high bank. There is a river that passes nearby, named Tom (so obviously there is a small town named Tomsk just beside it), but it is not visible from the hotel. We did cross it a couple of times later. Still iced over.......
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Kemerovo is a small town, with a population of 550,000. It is a popular winter resort for Russians, with miles of heavy forests and well-maintained ski-slopes. A couple of our customers bemoaned the fact that we were leaving tomorrow, else a skiing trip was in the offing! We promised to stay longer next time.
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Like all Russian cities, Kemerovo also has wide roads and chunky buildings, although signs of modern architecture are more evident here than in bigger cities like Novosibirsk. It has perhaps the best educational atmosphere in the Sibir region, housing three Universities. We spent some time at the feet of Pushkin’s statue standing in a square near one of the Universities. Electric trams and buses are abundant and the supermarkets, although very non-descript façade-wise, are really huge inside, well-stocked and full of both Russian and foreign products..
......Kemerovo is a small town, with a population of 550,000. It is a popular winter resort for Russians, with miles of heavy forests and well-maintained ski-slopes. A couple of our customers bemoaned the fact that we were leaving tomorrow, else a skiing trip was in the offing! We promised to stay longer next time.
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Like all Russian cities, Kemerovo also has wide roads and chunky buildings, although signs of modern architecture are more evident here than in bigger cities like Novosibirsk. It has perhaps the best educational atmosphere in the Sibir region, housing three Universities. We spent some time at the feet of Pushkin’s statue standing in a square near one of the Universities. Electric trams and buses are abundant and the supermarkets, although very non-descript façade-wise, are really huge inside, well-stocked and full of both Russian and foreign products..
.Although the people here do complain of high prices, the prices are comparable to India. Petrol costs 22 roubles per litre (around $1/-) – about the same as India. However, the standards of dress, whether driven by weather or by style, surely eat into their pockets. The average Russian is quite a friendly person and they are always thrilled when we utter some words in Russian, pronunciation no bar. Some charges seem slightly on the higher side though. Our hotel, 10 km away from the city, apparently a getaway place, costs 4800 roubles ($220/-) per night and an all-day taxi charges $20 per hour.
.We had lunch at an Italian restaurant ‘The Sacramento’. Thanks to Ramesh, who is veg and finds Italian menu a better fit, we have used up our quota of Italian food for the next year or so!
.......We had lunch at an Italian restaurant ‘The Sacramento’. Thanks to Ramesh, who is veg and finds Italian menu a better fit, we have used up our quota of Italian food for the next year or so!
.We came back to the hotel at 6.00 pm, took a walk photographing pine trees and begged off from a customer who was determined to take us out to dinner and ply us with vodka.
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Incidentally, I had bought a bottle of Smirnoff Black Label vodka at Dubai duty-free when starting the tour and even as I am writing this line, I am drinking the last sip of the last peg. What fantastic planning!
.Dinner at the restaurant in the hotel was a boisterous scene. Today being Friday, it was the beginning of the weekend. Apart from couples, there were two big families gathered for dinner. With a guy and a gal belting out popular Russian numbers, the diners practically trooped out for every song and back to their table again at the end of it! There was no dance floor to speak of but that did not deter the young blimps and old couples. It was nice watching them have fun – there was a fierce determination to it. To the old, this freedom has perhaps come quite late in their lives and the young of Kemerovo perhaps have very few joints where they can go by themselves and enjoy. Anyway, the revelry was quite energising and a fitting finale to our trip.
.We leave tomorrow morning for a flight to Moscow at 9.00 am and will reach Muscat via Doha at midnight. This was a good trip overall, having had a brief glimpse of snowbound Siberia without having gone through the rigours of minus 40 degC, which is what this region goes through in the depths of winter.
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.
Incidentally, I had bought a bottle of Smirnoff Black Label vodka at Dubai duty-free when starting the tour and even as I am writing this line, I am drinking the last sip of the last peg. What fantastic planning!
.Dinner at the restaurant in the hotel was a boisterous scene. Today being Friday, it was the beginning of the weekend. Apart from couples, there were two big families gathered for dinner. With a guy and a gal belting out popular Russian numbers, the diners practically trooped out for every song and back to their table again at the end of it! There was no dance floor to speak of but that did not deter the young blimps and old couples. It was nice watching them have fun – there was a fierce determination to it. To the old, this freedom has perhaps come quite late in their lives and the young of Kemerovo perhaps have very few joints where they can go by themselves and enjoy. Anyway, the revelry was quite energising and a fitting finale to our trip.
.We leave tomorrow morning for a flight to Moscow at 9.00 am and will reach Muscat via Doha at midnight. This was a good trip overall, having had a brief glimpse of snowbound Siberia without having gone through the rigours of minus 40 degC, which is what this region goes through in the depths of winter.
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