Answers

How to contact ALROSA?

June 4, 2009

A London-based liaison officer wrote to me “I am trying to get a deal together to buy 200,000 carats of rough diamonds from Alrosa in Yakutia. Only problem is, their English speaking representatives’ websites do not work, nor do their telephone numbers. Very frustrating!!!!” Then he added the best line I had ever read “You are the only person in Yakutia I can find.” The liason officer knows how to please people and what to say…

Frankly saying, I didn’t expect receiving such an inquiry. Thought, everything is cool with the biggest Russian diamond-mining company and its abroad affiliates. So… Read more…

A Turkish traveller, who is planning to complete the around-the-world lonely trip “Istanbul2Instanbul”, is asking: “Everybody is talking about the danger to cross the Road of Bones alone, however, there are lots making lonely trips with thier motorbikes or cars. Do you think that it is dangerous to be alone on this road? If so, can it be a solution, for example, to go together with a truck which carries goods from Yakutsk to Magadan, if there is any?” Read more…

At long last, I managed to get 2009 Summer Hydrofoil Vessels Timetable for those, who expressed the strong wish to travel along the Lena River from Ust-Kut to Yakutsk. This is a long voyage, I need to warn you. Read more…

Received a message from the U.S.:

I think your website is a great service to travellers who are interested in visiting Yakutia! I have been to Yakutsk before and love the nature. After looking though the internet and your site I still have two questions that I couldn’t find answered. Both of them have to do with what kind of roads or passenger services exist.

What can I say? Thanks a lot for giving me a positive feedback. Appreciate it. So good to hear it from time to time. Think, maybe, it will be good to quote such feedbacks in the seperate page category :)

Read more…

The next request from South Korea was like “Will you tell some a very cheap way to make residence registration at a guest house in Yakutsk? How much will it cost for a night?” Read more…

An Australian based in Hong Kong keeps asking me. He wrote “A number of travel agents, like tour operator Olympia-Reisen-Sibir, are advertising an Artic cruise tour to Tiksi on the Mikhail Svetlov from July 21 to August 3 (arriving back 3am on August 3.)” Read more…

For last weeks, I received similar inquires from Poland, UK, Hong Kong and the Netherlands. All of them regarded the longest voyage along the Lena River, of course, in Yakutia. The question was like “Is there any regular passenger boat that goes from Yakutsk to Tiksi? Not expensive one?” The first one arrived in the early May. At that time, I knew that there was one passenger ship going on the route. That’s “Mechanic Koulibin.” So, I thought it would be easy to find out the requested info. Read more…

An Oymyakon-based travel enthusiast, Semen Baishev, informed me that in the course of summer he is going to arrange tours to the legendary Labynkyr Lake that is famous for a monster. Read more…

Well, the question asked by a Dutch seems easy to answer. But… when we talk about roads to remote settlements in Yakutia, everything appears to be so complicated. The same issue we get with this question.

Sebyan-Kyuel is a small village located by the Silyan River in Kobyasky Ulus, North Yakutia. Check the map. Known much as the place of reindeer herders’ settlement. Read more…

In the course of the week received two requests with the same question like “Do you know the contact info of the Yakutsk-based expert, who can give profound information on how climate changes affect melting permafrost.” The first inquiry arrived from two world-known photographers and another from a Swedish journalist. Read more…