Tom’s finally gotten around to writing the last one, so congrats for still checking on us! Or more likely, for receiving an update email…
While we took notes of what we encountered on our way back to Europe, most of the time was spent driving. So this post might get a bit boring. It’ll be more of a log really, a diary for us to remember the long road home.
Let’s see, where did we leave you last time? We were still in Mongolia (which seems like eons ago now…), getting ready to start the long ride home…
Friday, the 27th of July: UB
We spent the day in UB, mostly shopping for souvenirs. There was also a new dinosaur museum, which Tom thoroughly enjoyed. Along the way we also visited the national Mongolian museum, which shed some more light on the fascinating history of this country.
(Wafa’s best impression of a dinosaur.)
(Now we know where Star Wars found their inspiration.)
Saturday, the 28th of July: UB – Sukhbaatar (350km)
After saying goodbye to the nice people in the hostel (most importantly Rocky, our guide for our Mongolian trip, and Jamie, friendly Dutch fellow-traveler), we got on the road. Drove all the way to the Mongolian-Russian border, to a town called Sukhbaatar. On the way we visited a traditional bow ‘factory’, which consisted of a guy and his workshop. Very artisanal indeed.
Sukhbaatar itself is hardly worth mentioning. Bland little town, with a hotel that manages to be relatively new and rundown at the same time. Quite the feat.
Sunday, the 29th of July: Sukhbaatar – Lake Baikal (500km)
Our second Russian transit visa started on Sunday, so we headed to the border and got in line. While we crossed the Mongolian part relatively easy, the Russians were a lot more thorough. Had to unpack most of our stuff.
We passed the last ‘Asian’ town on our way to Lake Baikal, Ulan-Ude. In hindsight, it was really strange to notice the division between ‘Asian’ and ‘European’ people: Mongolia fully Asian, as soon as you cross the border there’s a mix, and by the time you get to Lake Baikal, it’s like you’re in Europe: only ethnic Russians to be found. If you look at the map, that’s way to the east of where we expected Caucasian people to be the standard! As we would learn on the way, Russian explorers colonized this stretch of Siberia already in the 17th and 18th century, so it’s thoroughly Russian. Unlike Kazakhstan for example, which was only added to the Russian imperial empire in the early 19th century.
While driving on the shores of Lake Baikal, we also tried the local delicacy of Omul. This is a smoked fish, a cousin of our salmon, which is deliciously tender and juicy… Tom’s salivating again just by writing this down 🙂
Our hotel was nice, but the price started feeling European again, which was less nice. Built like a giant log cabin, we had some nice borscht and beers. Omnomnom.
Monday, the 30th of July: Lake Baikal – Irkutsk (200km)
Driving on windy roads bordering the lake, it took us 3 hours to arrive in Irkutsk. We quickly found the local Suzuki dealer, which changed our shock absorbers for a measly 70€. At this point, Suzy had to have been in better shape than when we had left Belgium. Or so we thought…
(The new absorbers were made in Belgium! Kinda funny, exported to Russia, we imported them back to Belgium…)
By the time the Suzuki guys got finished, it was late afternoon, and we checked into our hostel in the centre of the city. Irkutsk is a pleasant place for an evening stroll, eating some good omul and buying Siberian honey.
Tuesday, the 31st of July: Irkutsk – Tayshet (650km)
Nothing to report. Lots of driving. We checked into a roadside motel and had an instant noodle dinner. The Siberian landscapes were somewhat hypnotizing though: endless shrubbery, pine forests and good roads (thankfully). More villages along the way than we had expected, too.
(Tom’s optimistic attempts at driveby photography mostly resulted in pictures of Siberian gates.)
Wednesday, the 1st of August: Tayshet – Mariinsk (770km)
Again, nothing to report. Even more driving. Checked into a nice little hotel in a small city. Had takeaway dinner.
Thursday, the 2nd of August: Mariinsk – Novosibirsk (430km)
While Novosibirsk is the 3rd city of Russia, we mostly found it very bland. We do remember having some very good food in the Beerman restaurant though (located in the local Hilton ^^). Tom enjoyed a half liter Affligem beer as well. Finally back to civilization, indeed!
Friday, the 3rd of August: Novosibirsk – Omsk (650km)
We enjoyed Omsk more than we had Novosibirsk. Pleasant city, dating back to the early 18th century, with some sort of festival going on. Good beer, good noodles and a brand new hostel.
Saturday, the 4th of August: Omsk – Lake Burabay (450km)
This was the last day of our second Russian transit visa, so we crossed into Kazakhstan again, through what had to have been one of the easiest crossings of the whole trip. Russia and Kazakhstan have some sort of customs union thing going on, so crossing over we were almost waved through. On the Kazakh side of the border, Maps.me gave us the option of a shortcut again, which we happily followed. After all, we were in the civilized world again, how bad could it be?
… Pretty bad, as it turned out. As we passed endless stretches of farmland, the road started degrading until it turned into little more than a cart track. Thankfully, not too many potholes (we’d had enough of those for a lifetime). We arrived at our destination, lake Burabay, around 6 in the evening. Big surprise though: this turned out to be one of the major tourist destinations in all of the glorious nation of Kazakhstan. On a Saturday evening in summer. So finding a place to sleep turned out to be very difficult indeed. After a very, very frustrating evening (during which we asked for room prices in a 5 star hotel casino (“400€ for one night? Such a shame, just above our budget…”) and considered camping next to the lake, surrounded by Siberian killer mosquitoes and drunk Russians) we finally found a place to sleep at 9.30PM. A crappy room and wedding party music blaring from upstairs. We’d had better nights… :p
Sunday, the 5th of August: Lake Burabay – Astana (250km)
After a week of almost nonstop driving, we wanted to stretch our legs a bit, so we decided to climb one of the hills next to the lake. The hill turned out to be rather steep and slippery though, so we turned back after half an hour. We were still a bunch of lazy tourists, after all!
After a refreshing swim in the lake, we headed to Astana. The road turned out to be some of the nicest highway since… Iran, probably? Without Iranian madmen driving on it, too!
Arriving in Astana in later afternoon, we hit up the local ATM and found ourselves a delicious Uzbek restaurant. Giant dishes of horsemeat plov and chicken lachman… Mmmm…
(Also: interesting interior design.)
Monday, the 6th of August: Astana
On our first day off since UB, we rented some bikes and did a little tour of the city. We went to the local mall (shaped like a giant yurt) and drove over the central Astana boulevard. While the architecture in this city was certainly… interesting, it all felt very artificial. Until 1997, Astana was a provincial backwater, with not even 100 000 residents. That year, however, the president of Kazakhstan decided to make Astana his new capital (mostly in a bid to keep the ethnic Russians in Kazakhstan from seceding, apparently). Combined with the oil dollars that started flowing in, Astana now resembles some sort of Dubai in the middle of the steppe. Or so we think, having never actually been to Dubai…
Tuesday, the 7th of August: Astana
We slept late and went for lunch in a nearby Asian fusion restaurant. Very nice indeed. Afterwards, we went to the Russian embassy to arrange our third (and final) Russian transit visa. The embassy lady was not very friendly, however. We had asked for 9 days to do our last transit, as we hoped to see a bit of Moscow and St-Petersburg along the way. She was adamant that we could only get 6 days, however, considering the distance we would travel. Citing car problems (which would turn out to be all too real), we tried to persuade her to give us a bit more. She got a bit annoyed with us though, saying ‘If I want visa in Europe, also problem!’. Whatever, we’d just asked nicely for it, no need to get all offensive.
We had dinner in the same Asian fusion restaurant, which also served some nice (and cheap) cocktails!
Wednesday, the 8th of August: Astana – Oktyabrskoe (500km)
We were told we could pick up our Russian visa at noon, at which point we were pleasantly surprised we could stay in Russian 9 days anyway. Thank you, strangely passive aggressive embassy lady!
We still had about 2000km to travel in Kazakhstan, so we got on the road quickly. Making good time (no more shortcuts from here on out…), we arrived at a roadside motel in the evening.
Driving through this part of the world was a challenge in itself: we’d driven through deserts before, but these were limited in scope, you might say. A few hundred kilometers and you’re through them. The next couple of days were something else though: landscapes that were completely empty, but for the steppe and the skies, thousands of kms on end.
Thursday, the 9th of August: Oktyabrskoe – Qarabutaq (760km)
Drive, drive, drive. From 9AM to 6PM. Roadside motel.
Friday, the 10th of August: Qarabutaq – Aktobe (225km)
Short drive. Spent the rest of the day resting. Nothing much to do in Aktobe.
Saturday, the 11th of August: Aktobe – Uralsk (475km)
Very boring drive. We stayed in a local DAF truck center, which had a hotel attached to it (?).
Sunday, the 12th of August: Uralsk
We had the day off in Uralsk, as our Russian visa only started on the 13th. We slept late and wanted to go to the lake, but when we got to the car, we noticed oil leaking from underneath it… Turned out to be a good choice to have a safety margin for our Russian visa. We found a local car shop (open on Sundays!) and they inspected the car. While they found out there was a problem between the engine block and the crank shaft, causing oil to spill, they probably also fucked up the water pump, somehow. As coolant started leaking on the floor while Suzy was hanging in the air. Lucky for us, they had all the necessary parts… We could hardly make a scene, as we still needed them to fix Suzy up, but it felt rather bitter having to pay for something they probably caused.
Monday, the 13th of August: Uralsk
We had hoped to cross the border, but as noon turned into dusk, we were still waiting for Suzy to be fixed. Replacing the rubber ring in the crankshaft necessitated taking off the whole thing, which made for some pretty cool pictures though:
Finally, at 6.30PM, we got Suzy back. As it was too late to cross over now, we found another place to stay. Cheap, but rather smelly apartment…
Tuesday, the 14th of August: Uralsk – Penza (700km)
We crossed the border early in the morning, so we could make up for lost time the day before. While waiting at the border, Tom noticed some oil was still leaking. It seemed to be less than before, so we drove on to Samara, where we had a local Suzuki dealer have a look. He told us the Uralsk guys appeared to have done a pretty bad job replacing the rubber band… Fuck it! They couldn’t replace it though, as they would have to order the parts we needed. Told us to check the oil level regularly while driving.
We made it all the way to Penza, which meant that we crossed two time zones in one day, by car!
Wednesday, the 15th of August: Penza – Moscow (650km)
While leaving Penza, we noticed there was now also an engine belt squeaking its head off. What the flying f*ck. Shit just kept piling up :’). At this point, we would have been happy if we’d just made it back to Europe. Our travel insurance covered car breakdowns all over Europe, which was now just over 1000 km away…
We later learned that squeaky belts are no problem onto themselves, though. Being the mechanical novices we are, we didn’t know this, so it did no one’s nerves any good.
When we arrived in Moscow, it had started raining. And by raining, I mean flooded-streets-and-hardly-see-anything raining. By the time we got to the city center (quite some traffic jams) and checked into our hostel, the evening dinner we had been looking forward to, almost turned into a midnight snack. But we had made it! Moscow! Europe! Civilization! Transportation in case of car breakdowns!
(Crazy light at dusk.)
Thursday, the 16th of August: Moscow
We got feedback from the Uralsk car shop, and they told us it was quite normal there was still some oil leaking. It should eventually stop. A quick check underneath Suzy seemed to confirm this. The squeaky belt had turned into full-on cat strangling at this point though :’).
Taking another day of from driving, we visited the highlights of the city. The Red Square, St Basil Cathedral, a walk around the Gum shopping mall, a tour of the nicest subway stations… After a couple of weeks cooped up in the car, our legs started seriously hurting by the end of the day.
(Russians have a thing for naked saints, apparently.)
(The GUM shopping mall used to be a Soviet department store, but is now occupied by all sorts of luxury brands.)
(Nice touch: the marble on the walls matches the meat in the store!)
Friday, the 17th of August: Moscow – Ushaki (650km)
Before noon, we took our time to visit the Kremlin proper. The cathedrals, the Diamond Fund (some of the largest diamonds of the Imperial collection!)… All very impressive. All in all, we were rather pleasantly surprised by Moscow (and Russia in general, to be honest): especially Tom expected a more depressing, unfriendly city and country. But it turned out that, at least in summer, Russia and Moscow are really beautiful and, at times, interesting places to visit.
We left the city around 1PM and drove all the way to St-Petersburg, sleeping in a little town with a quaint blue church some 50kms outside of the city.
Saturday, the 18th of August: Ushaki – St Petersburg (50km)
We were immediately struck by the difference between Moscow and St-Petersburg: while Moscow has its historic core, the rest of the town center is mostly new to brand new buildings. St-Petersburg on the other hand, has retained more of its original character. We quickly planned out a walking tour. This took us from the Fabergé Museum (Fabergé eggs!), to the Kazan Cathedral (huge!), the Church on Spilled Blood (mosaics!), the Winter Palace (green!), the statue of Peter the Great (statuesque!) and St Isaac’s Cathedral (also huge!).
(At the end of the day, Tom’s shoes looked like this.)
After an exhausting day, we booked tickets for the Swan Lake ballet in the Mariinsky Theatre on Monday (because, when in St-Petersburg…) and went looking for dinner. We wound up in the Soviet Café, which aimed to recreate the Soviet era atmosphere. We sincerely doubt many people had such excellent food in those troubled times, though; delicious borscht, herring and beet salad, dumplings and many others found their way into our thankful bellies…
Sunday, the 19th of August: St Petersburg
We basically spent the whole day in the Hermitage. Probably second only to the British Museum and the Louvre in the breadth and depth of its collections, we saw many items we recognized from cultures encountered on our travels: Sassanid (Iranian) silverware, Soghdian wall paintings, Mongolian religious artefacts… Lovely!
(Creepy Siberian dead people…)
(This Qajar era painting of an Iranian woman is a bit less modest than what we saw in Iran…)
Monday, the 20th of August: St Petersburg
On our last day off without any driving, we slept late and afterwards headed out to see the Peter & Paul fortress, the traditional military bulwark of the city. While it certainly has its merits (the church contains the graves off all Russian tsars since Peter the Great, including the murdered family of Nicholas II), it lacked the kind of grandiose highlights or exhibits we’d come to expect of St-Petersburg.
(There was also a space museum, with a used Soyuz module! Almost as awesome as Tom’s icecream!)
In the evening we went to the Mariinsky Theatre to see the Swan Lake. While Wafa thoroughly enjoyed her night out, Tom quickly gave up on ever finding the appeal in a bunch of tight-clad men and women jumping around on a stage. Yes, there were some nice or even beautiful scenes. But all in all, 3 hours is way too long to be watching what is basically a silent puppet show.
Tuesday, the 21st of August: St-Petersburg – Tartu (350km)
On our final day in Russia, we wanted to visit Catherine the Great’s palace outside St-Petersburg. When we got there though, it was closed for the day :-/ Should’ve looked it up first, I guess. But really, who closes their museum on a Tuesday?
Lucky for us, there was also the Peterhof nearby, which is basically the palace of Peter the Great. Apparently you can’t visit it on the inside though, which (again) we didn’t know. As it was a very rainy day, we didn’t feel much like strolling around the gardens.
We left early for Estonia. Which was a good call, as the lines to cross the border stretched way back. The crossing itself went fast (Estonians seemed quite surprised to see a Belgian passport though). And that was it! We were back in the EU! Last real border crossing of the whole trip!
Wednesday, the 22nd of August: Tartu – Riga (250km)
Most unnoticeable border crossing of the whole trip (in the middle of a village). Visit Riga. Nice old town. Just strolling around, drinking, eating…
Thursday, the 23rd of August: Riga – Bialystok (500km)
Drive from Riga to Kaunas (Lithuania). Spend a couple of hours. Drive on to Bialystok (Poland). Last time changing money (bloody Poles and their Zlotys…).
Friday, the 24th of August: Bialystok – Warsaw (300km)
Go to Bialowieza forest. National park closed without guide :(. Stroll through not national park. See bison in reserve.
Drive on towards Warsaw. Find nice motel just past the city. Last dinner is pizza and grilled pork neck… mmm…
Saturday, the 25th of August: Warsaw – Home (1250km)
Idea is to drive 700 km to Magdenburg, Germany. Once we pass Berlin (around 2 PM), we decide fuck it, drive on to Belgium. After a whole day of driving (9AM-10.30PM) and 1250 km, we arrive in Belgium!
