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.
A presentation picture of the Museum of Gulags located in Khandyga, Siberia/Russia
Last two days I spent at 2011 Sakha Travel Exhibition in Yakutsk. It is an annual event held during the first weekend of April. I attend the exhibit just to find new travel enthusiasts from various regions of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
This time I was lucky to meet Mr. Ivan Igoshin from the settlement of Khandyga. He knows almost everything about history of GULAGs in Siberia, as he is the founder of Yakutia Gulags Museum. Right, it is located in Khandyga, where he lives. You can see him in the picture with a tower. Besides, he is a leader of Khandyga Travel Club.
Chernyj Prizhim on the Kolyma Highway, so-called Road of Bones, in Yakutia, Siberia, Russia
I have written a lot about ways between Yakutsk and Magadan, Yakutsk and Oymyakon. Actually, both are the same. They are on the Kolyma Higway, known also as the Road of Bones or M56. I thought it’s time for requests to stop coming. All posts on this theme are filed under Kolyma Highway and Road of Bones.
Instead, I started receiving very specific questions. Love them all. They are specific as their authors are not regular people. Last two messages arrived from companies that focus on extraordinary expeditions. One was from explorers, who do so-called cold climate journeys. Another from the TV show, that arranges and broadcasts breathtaking off-road driving.
Two requests are related tightly to Oymyakon and the way to this place. Actually, questions sound the same.
This is the road from Yakutsk through Vilyuysk to Mirny. Driving by members of the winter 4wd expedition to Russia’s Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), one of the world’s coldest places on the globe. Four cars – three Nissan Patrols and Toyota FJ Cruiser – and seven men. These are 5th and 6th days of the YakutExpo expedition started on February 24th, 2011, in Nerungri, initiated and conducted by Artemyj Lebedev, a top Russian blogger.
Received a request from the French couple, Olivier and Marine (www.lescolporteurs.org), doing a world tour by bike. Here’s what they are asking:
We already reach Shanghai from France. We are currently planning, what comes next: we should join the Shakhalin island through Japan, come to Yakoutsk and then try to join Magadan by the ossment road, if possible. From Magadan, we may try to join Anadyr, if any opportunity would come (we read your post regarding this route).
So our questions are :
1. Which one of roads lead to Yakoutsk from the South?
2. We, maybe, there in summertime. Do you think it is possible to make it to Magadan with bike in this season?
3. Do you know a way to apply for the Chukotka permit without buying a very expensive tour with a specialized travel agency (which we do not need, since we are travelling by bike)?
4. How do locals or others protect themselves against the voracious siberian mosquitoes?
A never-frozen brook in the Verkhoyansk Range, East Yakutia, Siberia
One day I received two inquiries regarding drinking water in Yakutsk. The first one arrived from India saying, “What about your food habits (including drinking water)during winter?” The second request was asked by an American teacher, who was writing a paper on the use of drinking water in the Siberian city of Yakutsk. The latter contained more questions that the first one had.
I am often asked about possibilities to travel to Oymyakon, the so-called Pole of Cold, from Yakutsk in the winter. Some requests sound like, “Can you arrange the tour to Oymyakon?” and some of such message authors even started promising me free beer… My god, I am not a travel company and, certainly, I do not do someone’s work for beer, but I know how to make DIY-trips from Yakutsk to Oymyakon, one of the world’s coldest place.
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So happy that it became possible to help Russia Today TV Channel with meeting a shaman in Yakutia. How did it happen?
A few weeks before the New Year celebration, a Russia Today producer called me and asked how to meet a shaman in Yakutia, Siberia/Russia. I started to explain and tell exactly what I wrote in the previous post “How to meet shamans in Yakutia?“. Said that it was a bit hard task, if they wanted to make a story with a real one. Not so many of them left in the region… and all of them prefer to live at remote places, far from people.
They would need to travel to a shaman’s place in taiga. The nearest one, Fedot P. Ivanov, is located near the village of Vilyuisk, minimum 5 hours by a car from Yakutsk. Find him and ask him for letting them to do the interview with him, and it’s not guaranteed that he would express his wish to show up on TV, as he is tired of journalists’ attention and consider them pretty annoying.
Recommended to get in touch with Galina E. Shadrina (see her contact), who are considered as shamans’ assistant and eye in mordern civilization. Russia Today appeared to be really lucky. Galina managed to invite one of shamans to Yakutsk. It was Leonid Savin, who is based in the village of Zhigansk, North Yakutia. His flight from Zhigansk to Yakutsk was possible to one good person, who agreed to pay his flight.
Russia Today made a story. Watch the video above. Currently, Leonid Savin is stuck in Yakutsk. He is doing clarification rituals at people’s requests and this way he is trying to earn money for getting back to Zhigansk. Don’t know, if he would agree to come the next time for another TV crew… but who knows :)
Meanwhile, read RussiaToday’s story ofYakutian shamans. I like it much. Read more…
A ferry on the Lena River near Yakutsk on Nov. 15th, 2010. Photo by Alexander Li, Yakutsk Vecherny Newspaper, Vecherka.Ykt.ru
Is it possible to cross the Lena River near the Siberian city of Yakutsk in November? This is a really good question. The answer is Yes and No. Everything depends on weather, precisely, on the condition of the ice cover on the Lena River.
November is the period of transition and so-called freezing-over. It’s time for the Lena River to get frozen, acquire ice cover thick enough for the use of ice river roads.
Keep in mind, there are no bridges over the Siberian river of Lena at all. The river might be crossed by ferry (in navigation period) or ice roads (in winter).
These young Poles asked me, “Have you heard about Slavomir Rawicz’s The Long Walk?” I said, “Sure. It’s a real story about the Polish prisoner, who escaped from Gulag and walked southward to India.” And they were like, “Yeah, but you know what?! Its author says that it was him, who escaped to British India, but in reality the depicted character appeared to be another Pole, who lives now in the UK in poverty. A true hero is Witold Glinski. He didn’t earn anything from the book revenues, because he is very modest and unpretentious, and the publishing house was too authoritative to convince him to keep silence.”
Further, three guys, Tomasz Grzywaczewski, Bartosz Malinowski, and Filip Drozdz, started disclosing all the truth. Finally, they said they wanted to make the documentary and share the truth with the whole world by making the Long Walk Plus Expedition.
In October Polish guys finished the Long Walk Plus Expedition in Calcutta. Read more…
