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.
All answers about Yakutsk City in the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, Siberia / Russia.
That’s what I see on my way home in the evening. In the last Friday evening, Dec. 4, 2009, we had -41ºC and fog and no winds. So the frost was almost dry and burning, and my quickly frozen camera was slow to take pictures. Many unfocused shots were just deleted. See the left pics.
That’s a X-mas tree on the Ordzhanikidze Sq. No garlands and decorations yet. We are promised to see its finished beauty on Dec. 9, 2009. Hope it will be so. Read more…
Yeah, it’s cold, but not so cold as it can be. Waiting for -50ºC.
See more my pics. Some of them are not sharp. My camera got frozen in a moment. The lens were so slow to focus. Read more…
The Copenhagen Summit made climate changes topical in news. Interesting, but Yakutsk and I felt this fever as well. A couple weeks ago five western journalists arrived in Yakutsk to make reportages about the affects of global warming in Yakutsk. In the summer I helped two photographers Mathias Braschler & Monika Fischer, who searched persons with tumbledown houses for portraits to show in Copenhagen, and Jonathan Watts, a Beijin-based The Guardian correspondent.
Recently I have received similar requests from western journalists. The last one was from the Swedish Aftonbladet newspaper reporter. He asked the following questions and got my replies. Read more…
In the beginning of November 2009, I wrote the post “Descending into the world’s deepest shaft in the permafrost zone.” In a few days after I received a message with a lot of questions from a Hungarian scientists Adam Soereg.
He wrote “Data from Yakutsk is extremely important, because this is the longest dataset in the Eastern Siberian region, longer than any series in the United States. Yakutsk shows an abnormally high rate of warming since the early 19th century, but what if the official values used by large agencies between 1829 and 1854 are 1.9°c lower than reality?”
Once I published long-distance taxi rates that can be taken into consideration while traveling within Yakutia. But I’ve never written a post about pecularities of using such a ground transport, precisely about advantages and disadvantages of going from Yakutsk to Magadan via the Road of Bones (Kolyma Highway) by taxi.
UAZ is used as a long distance taxi within Yakutia. Photo provided by Slava Mestnikov.
This time I decided to fill this gap. First, let’s recall the route and list “pros”, then I’ll mention some important things to remember. Read more…
I was frequently asked about hostels/small hotels availability in Yakutsk. There are some, and they are different. At long last, I found time and checked a few.
Here is my current pick. That’s Metro Hostel. It is cheap and clean. It has many big advantages. Let’s list them. Read more…
It must be a great honor for me. It’s not the first time when I am asked to post a press release. This time the 2009 Yakutsk Mammoth Tusks Auction organizing committee addressed me with the request to share the event announcement. Well… Here we go.
1. Official name and address of the Auction organizing party
Open Joint-Stock Company “SakhaEXPOMammoth”, building 24, Vilyuiskiy trakt, 4th km, Yakutsk, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Russian Federation
The journey along the Lena River from its head evokes much travelers’ interest. Reasons vary. Recently I received another request, but from the U.S. this time. An Orthodox priest wrote:
“I want to travel by river to Yakutsk, June 2010 for a sabbatical project because early Orthodox missionaries to Alaska took this route in 1794. Where is the best location to catch a ferry or the hydrofoil on the Lena? I don’t have to recreate the entire journey. Should I take the BAM to Ust’-Kut and then go by river?”
My answer repeated some previous posts partly, however, I decided to add this reply to the existing data base as well. Read more…
I have a German friend, Bjorn Steinz. He is a pro photographer based in Prague. Two years ago he visited Yakutsk in November. He spent a few days just walking around on streets and taking pictures of people. Since then I promote his works and website oka2 Photography on every occasion, and I am grateful to him for giving such an permission :)
Here are what he came out with.
On Nov. 4, 2009, in Yakutsk, the capital of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), a group of three people descended into the world’s deepest ice vertical tunnel, Shergin’s Shaft, that had been buried and forgotten for more than half a century. It was the important historical, scientific, cultural event called “The Storm of Shergin’s Shaft” designed to get a few rare samples for permafrost researchers and show a new way to observe never-melting, frozen soil layers.
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