Hi! My name is Bolot. I am a journalist. Based in Yakutsk. Ask me a question about the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Siberia / Russia, and get the answer.
I hear this question very often. Frankly saying, it was that show, that forced me to upload winter photographs of the Road of Bones (officially known as the Kolyma Highway) built by GULAG work camp inmates in the time of Stalin.
Well, if anyone is interested in the winter Road of Bones condition. Here we go. Further, please, find 45 pictures taken the last winter by me. Read more…
Captain Magadan on the Road of Bones. Aug. 2010, Yakutia, Siberia.
This year’s summer and early autumn the Kolyma Highway (the Road of Bones), located, as you know, between Yakutsk and Magadan, was pretty busy… in terms of hosting adventure motor bikers from many nations.
So if you’ve got questions about the current summer-autumn Road of Bones condition, please, check the following list of adventure motorcycle travellers, whom I personally met or learned about, and you can get in touch with them and require more detailed info.
What did they report? General road information remains almost the same as I described in previous posts filed under tags, Road of Bones and Kolyma Highway.
Proud to announce the opening of the photo exhibition “On the Road of Bones: Ghosts of the Siberian Gulag Along the Old Kolyma Highway” at Kris Waldherr Art and Words studio gallery in Brooklyn, New York, today.
About exhibition
Through photography and mixed media, “On the Road of Bones” reveals the secret history and hidden landscape of Kolyma, formerly the land of Soviet labor camps and the coldest inhabited region on earth. Stunning new works by young native Siberian photographers Bolot Bochkarev, Nastya Borisova, and Ajar Varlamov trace the remains of the vast highway built across the taiga, tundra, and permafrost of North Asia by Stalin’s prisoners. The exhibition juxtaposes the tragic events of the past with the powerful natural beauty of the frozen land and the daily lives of northern people.
Shot today. Edited today. Broadcasted on the famous Yakutsk News Channel today. Daniel Robino is a superstar! Read more…
Address: 21 Lenin Avenue (проспект Ленина, дом 21), Yakutsk/Russia.
How to get: From the airport by a taxi (~20 min, 150-250 rubles, max. 300 rubles, don’t pay more for the ride) or by buses # 4, 14, 109 (30-35 min, 15 rubles for one way, bus driver might ask to pay extra for huge luggages).
How to book: by phone +7 (4112) 42-13-92. In Russian only.
Type: appartment-based hotel/hostel.
On the map: see the below.
It is located in a Stalin-like appartment building in the very center of Yakutsk. On the main street, Lenin Ave. Across the road in front of ALROSA s 4-stars hotel Polar Star. Click the photo to enlarge.
Magadan drivers compiled the so-called road legend (description of roads) for the route Magadan – Yakutsk – Bolshoi Never – Chita. They gathered information on settlements, distances and availability of gas (fuel) stations, cafes, repairs shops, places to stay for nights, road police stations, roads condition, etc.
Everything is presented in one .xls file in Russian. Bisides, authors indicated their contacts. If you’ve got any question, please, feel free to get in touch with them. One thing to remember. They speak Russian.
For instance, distance between Yakutsk and Magadan is 2024 km, between Bolshoi Never and Yakutsk is 1157 km.
Though I am based in Yakutia, I am often asked about the availability of any GPS maps for the roads of Magadan Oblast. Well, here are a few links for downloading such files.
Nina and Nikolay Stenins, hostel owners in Khandyga. With Bjoern Steinz, a German photographer on the right side.
Here is information about where to stay for night in Khandyga. There are three hotels, but I recommend to stay at Nina & Nikolay Stenins’ place.
Back to hotels. One is called Presidential Hotel (the official name is different, but that’s the way, how people call it). It is a few-storeyed concrete hotel, where the 2nd President of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Vyacheslav Shtyrov prefered to stay. As you know, he was born in Khandyga. Who can stay there? First of all, those ones, who were invited by the administration of the Tomponsky region and major locally-based companies. The second in the rating list is known as Vedomstvennaya (it is also people’s name). Usually it hosts people arrived to visit organizations in Khandyga. Actually it is a big appartment with three big bedrooms, shared kitchen, shared lounge, shared bathroom. To stay in Presidential and Vedomstvennaya costs not less 1500 rubles per night. The worst option is the third one called Hotel of Khandyga. It is a ready-to-sink two-storeyed wooden building with a dozen of shared rooms, one toilet and without kitchen and bath. It is cheap and used by guests arrived from nearest regions. If you decide to spend night in this hotel, please, keep your room closed with a locker. That may protect you from drunk neighbours :)
The best option, I think, is the Stenins’ place. Read more…
Watch the real Siberian video done on the Kolyma Highway (the Road of Bones) by Oisin Hughes, an Irish adventure biker, who yesterday made it to Magadan from Yakutsk just for 4 days only. In this vid you will see, how close to the edge he was biking in the Verkhoyansky mountain area. Fantastic and thrilling! That’s Siberia! That’s the Siberian challenge!
Oisin says, “Jesus, I nearly died when i rewatched it… Got way way way too close to the edge here, gives me the colly wobbles just looking at it…”
My comment will be simple. While being early in this summer, he was really lucky. Weather was awesome. Sunny and no rains. But… the end of his biking happened to be not so much exciting.
Further, please, find what happened and get the information on the current condition of the Road of Bones (the Khandyga – Kyubyume part). Read more…
Oisin Hughes, an Irish Giant, is the first adventure biker of summer 2010, who arrived on his motobike to Yakutia on the way to Magadan. Yesterday he made it to Yakutsk from Tynda. He spent two days on the road. Really fast! This morning (pretty early, at 8.00 am) on my way to the office, I found him in Lena Hotel. Actually, I woke him up… Read more…
2008-2011 (c) AskYakutia.com. Powered by NameCheap.com, my best domain registering & hosting company.