Krasnoyarsk, May 23rd 2010

The 4.000 km train ride east into Siberia was like travelling back in time. From a warm 25 degrees in Kharkov, the temperature in Novosibirsk did not reach further than 4 degrees, with frost at night.

After having spent the night in -a for me- luxurieus hotel, i wrapped myself up warmly and set of for Tomsk, some 270 km further to meet Ekaterina and her boyfriend Nick. Kate used to be my colleague in Palex and was handling Kazakh for the Philips account in my SDL days. To my surprise, the Russian drivers respected me more than the mad Polish and Ukrainian drivers and also the roads were of better quality. With a nice tailwind, i made good progress. However, the first night in my palatka (tent) was freezing cold. I did not manage to sleep until early in the morning. My sleeping bag could not handle these temperatures. So the second night i booked myself a truely Russian style hotel in Yurga, a horrible looking industrial town.

The day after I arrived in rain in Tomsk. I met Kate and had a warm shower while she got the cat from the vet. The poor thing had undergone some surgery, but she's ok now according to the latest reports The follwoing 2 days Kate and Nick showed me around town. Tomsk is a nice charming town famous for its many wooden houses. Besides the touristy stuff, i bought myself a new sleeping bag (Marmot Trestles 15), one able to cope with the freezing nights. Kate also introduced me to the Palex people, a nice bunch Coincidently, the husband of one of them heads the local newspaper "Tomskiy Vestnik". So i made it for the second time in a foreign newspaper, now in a more positive way The article (written by Sergei Parfionov) and translation will be uploaded in the next update - my Facebook friends can view the article on FB already.

On Sunday May 16th I said goodbuy to Kate and Nick and started the 650 km ride to Krasnoyarsk. Followed the national highway M53. To my pleasure, the road offered many cafe's so that had nice meals whenever i had hungry. Due to my limited knowledge of the Russian cuisine, these meals mostly consisted of borsjtsj (soup), kartjoffel (mashed potatoes), salad, and some meat (goulash or Sjashliek) and tea or coffee. But still, every time this tastes like a 2 Michelin star menu

I experienced to issues during this 650 km ride and made good progress. On Thursday 20th I arrived early evening in Kraskoyarsk. I went to one of the hotels Kate had looked up for me and had given me directions to, expecting to take a nice hot shower soon. The lady was very nice and asked me for my passport and the earlier mentioned "immigration card": 'Immigration card njet' I said. And so i got refused. I was puzzled as i had not needed a card before to check into a hotel. She tried calling other hotels but all said 'njet'! I slightly panicked imagining myself sleeping on the streets. Finally, one "hotel" (a boat) took me in. This place turned out to be some sort of place for pleasure and entertainment, but luckily for me there were no clientele this evening I contacted Kate and she arranged to meeting for me with the immigration police the following day. Now, normally one avoids Russian police as much as possible, but i had ot choice and they (all woman in this department) actually turned out to be very nice - my unresistable charms, i guess. They organised an interpreter (Christine, the daugther of one of the officers) and within 2 hours i was outside with my immigration card free of charge. The following day I met up with Christine and her Egyptian boyfriend for a drink.   

Tomorrow, Monday 24th I will start one of the final kms of my Russia trip to Irkutsk. The total distance is some 1100 km, and the weather conditions look quite good. Sergei however warned me: "The road from Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk is very bumpy and somewhere almost ruined. It is only called "federal highway", but really looks like some cart way. I tried to hitch-hike to Baikal, but the road was washed away because of pouring rain. A huge truck was stuck in the mud and blocked the road so I had to came back to Tomsk as the way was unpassable.
But those places are so beautiful! Too bad you'll see it colorless, gray. I think there are two extremes in Eastern SIberia -- terrible cold and stunning heat. So your trip can be really extremal. Have fun but take care=)"

So i will cross all my body parts hoping that the road, weather, ticks and mosquitoes will be good to me. 

Some data:
Total cycling days: 31
Total km: 3.881
Total cycling hours: 192.5
Altitude meters: 20.501

The main (and first) university in Tomsk

A traditional Tomsk pancake with chicken, cheese, tomatoes and pickles. Very tasty

Another Russian drink. Kvas. This is a non-alcoholic beer-like drink

(i am the person in the background!!)

Kate and Nick in front of a renovated wooden house. It belongs to the city and the govenour hosts his guests here

The M53 towards Krasnoyarsk. The road was not as busy as it seems on the picture.

Patches of snow can still be found along the way

Because spring is late, the surroundings and small villages still look pretty depressing

Krasnoyarsk, May 23rd 2010

It is already some time since i boarded the train in Kharkov, Ukraine.

The day before departure, one of my room mates in the hostel i stayed in, Jens - who has been living in the Ukraine for almost a decade -, got me a luggage ticket for my bike. As these stories always turn out, the wagon manager did not accept either my bike nor the ticket. Jens was able to smooth things out with a 30 euro additional fee

And off i went for 3 boring days. Fortunately, i boarded in the evening and was able to sleep pretty soon.At midnight, we passed the border into Russia; passports and everything were checked. They had some difficulties with my passport as i was in their view a "far-away-foreigner". So not one from the neighbouring countries. But with a few remarks about Marco van Basten en Ruud van Nistelrooy i informed them that i was Dutch In these hectic moments, i did not get nor applied for a so-called immigration card.

On the second day, we crossed the European-Asian landmark and passed through the Ural mountains. Honestly speaking, i had expected something more impressive and some sloping hills, and within a few hours, we had left the mountains behind us to began to traval through the immense Taiga (forest in Russian). The landscape was dominated by birches and pine trees.

My fellow passengers were nice. Some of them spoke English, so i able to chat the hours away. The ipod which i had received as birthday present from Barbara also helped in the boring moments

On May 9th i arrived in Novosibirsk. This day is also the celebration on Russia's victory over Nazi Germany, and one of the most important holidays in Russia.

Schatje, thanks for resizing the pictures for me! Love you!

View from the train as we were entering the Urals

One of the many stops were people were able to buy some refreshments or other useful items

I was located in the last wagon 

This is what the inside looked like. Nothing changed in the last 40 years, pure nostalgia!

The highway from Novosibirsk to Tomsk.

One of my camping places.

This sort of camping in actually not recommended as these woods are crawling with ticks.

A safer place is to camp on open farm lands (but trying to find one is a completely dirrerent story...)