Goodbye Russia

Goodbye Russia, originally uploaded by ericdues.

I begin this email tired and full after about 10 miles of walking/
hiking around the lake today in what was a cold but pretty sunny day.
Part of that hiking included this view at the mouth of the Angara
river (the only outbound river of the 300+ rivers at this lake), which
was after a 35 minute hike up a snowy mountain after a 3 mile walk to
reach the base of the snowy mountain. I will say that I was pretty
tired after that but since I hadn't really eaten anything all day and
I expended a lot of energy, I figured I should eat a lot of protein.
So I commenced walking down the mountain and, after a stop my the Lake
Bakail museum, another 5 miles to buy some smoked omul fish... two of
them. There is nothing quite like smoked fish caught that day being
sold by those who caught it. I finally figured out that the most
efficient method of eating it is to break the spine at the head and
tail and then most of the meat can be pulled away from the skin in one
piece by using the spine. From there you can get nearly all of the
meat off the ribs without any bones.

Well, tomorrow I catch a bus back to Irkutsk and then a train onto
Ulan-Bator (Mongolia). Assuming all goes as planned I am essentially
done with Russia (after some brief sight-seeing in Irkutsk tomorrow).

While I didn't go there this time, St. Petersburg is definately much
more westernized, A.K.A. tourist friendly, than Moscow. I actually
found that getting around outside of Moscow was not too bad; in fact I
would venture to say that it was actually easier in these smaller
cites due less of a "pushy" atmosphere and less intrusive police.
True, the same old ladies are everywhere to impose their will on you,
but the cites and towns that I visited were much more manageable.

I still find it a self-rewarding challenge to buy groceries and food,
but I tend to gravitate back towards the same stores and markets each
time (if I am in a place long enough) and the clerks seem to then know
what to expect from this dumb American that can merely point at
objects and say (very poorly I'm sure) only the most basic of words
and phrases.

I am not sure if I will ever have the desire to come back to Russia
unless it was with someone who spoke the language; which would of
course be a much different experience, but not necessarily a better
one. I think knowing the language would take some of the mysterey and
mistique from the experience, and then any city becomes just a city.
This is probably why American cities tend fail to be very intriguing
to me, because getting around them is so easy for anyone who speaks
English... you can just ask for directions. The only two other places
that I am interested in visiting here are the far northern city of
Murmansk and of course the terminus of the railway at Vladivostock.

For all of the visa hassles that I had, and the fact that they just
passed even stricter laws in the past 6 weeks, I can not possibly see
how this country will be able to succesfully welcome a large
international crowd for the 2014 winter Olympics. I would hope that by
then some of these antiquated laws and the general atmosphere of a
police-state (although it is not as bad outside of Moscow and St.
Petersburg) will subside.

I am getting very excited now about Mongolia and China (and if this is
posted, that means they let me out of Russia and into China). One
reason is because I can stop carrying the heaps of paperwork,
registrations and old train tickets with me at all times to prove that
I am not a spy or a terrorist or in some way breaking an obscure visa
registration law and therefore have "big problems" and have to pay a
fine to a corrupt border guard. Also, trains will begin runing on
local times instead of Moscow time, and since I will be in the same
time zone I can actually set my phones clock to the correct time
instead if keeping it in Moscow and constantly converting the time
into local time.

I do not need a visa for Mongolia, which is absolutely awesome. The
Chinese visa does not need registered to prove my whereabouts, and
unless I lose my passport (a catastrophe of the highest order), I do
not expect the hassles of Russia and Belarus in the final two
countries. Also, there is still much more for me do and see.

Assuming I meet up with the people from the tourist camp that I am
staying at in a National Park (Terelj), I hope to do lots of hiking
and picture taking and possibly some horseback riding. Mongolia should
make a good transition between Russia and China, as the people will
tend to look and act more Chinese but their language is loosely based
upon Russian.

I expect Bejing to be pretty incredible as well, and I just hope it is
not raining the day I am planning to hike one of the most untouched
stretches of the Great Wall. Thanks to a Canadian girl in the hostel
in Moscow, I think I might have a better idea of how to find the
hostel... but I still plan to spend about 4 hours clueless and lost
trying to find the place.

So far, the two pairs of travel socks and underwear are working out,
and the investment I made in lightweight performance travel clothing
was definately a good one, as I have not been too teribbly cold or wet
yet. I have also not shaved since Minsk, and other than some trimming,
do not plan to until I am back home; it is not the best look, but
since I couldn't grow my hair sufficiently "hippie long" enough
between shaving my head for the Tough Guy and this trip, I had to do
something.

Well, in feel that I have rambled on long enough and I will start a
new email when I have more to say.

- The Dues