bmtv111 The Trans-Mongolian Journey

The following is a video montage of my journey from Irkutsk, Russia to UlaanBaatar, Mongolia aboard the Moscow to Beijing Train. It also includes a few clips from my first day in the city of UlaanBaatar.  For more video entries, including many that didn’t appear on this blog, from my Siberian journey, follow this link to my blip.tv videos.

bmtv108 Adventures in Tomsk (1 more time)

I set off from Tomsk in the direction of Kemerovo more than 2 weeks ago, yet memories of the adventures and encounters that I had there still dance in my head.  In sorting through all the video I recorded during that time, I’ve put together one more video montage of my experience as a guest lecturer and overall visitor in Tomsk, a city which I found to be very interesting; where everyday I learned something new.

Post Trans-Siberian Irkutsk

IrkutskIrkutsk, Russia: land of engineering, the trans-siberian railroad, an oil pipline to China,  raw materials, and a whole lot of water.  After 36 hours from Novosibirsk to Irkutsk I arrived tired of the cramped train cabin but well fed after two elderly Russian ladies felt it was their job to keep me fed and call me to the table every 4-5 hours.

The trans-siberian train is much less the tourist vehicle than I imagined, with April being the off-season, I found myself the lone non-Russian for several rail cars.  As a result it seemed the notoriously cold train conductors memorized my name and would come over to explain little things about the train to me, where things are located and how to work knobs and buttons.  My cabin mates seemed fascinated that I came to Russia and actually wanted to go such a long distance on THIS train.  They also seemed fascinated by how skinny I am.

While this famous train might be a dream for alot of travellers from around the world, in Russia the train is still very much a way of life. Love it or hate it, they know exactly how to approach it, what to bring, what to wear, and ways to both take care of themselves and pass the time. Watching grandmothers and grandchildren, it became clear that this is a time-honored tradition being passed on generation to generation regardless of what kind of government is in place or how the world economy is doing.

Me, I’m on my way to Ulan Batar, but first I’d like to see this lake Baikal. So a brief pause with limited internet to test the waters, and then its on to the vast nation known as Mongolia!

bmtv107 Hello Tomsk

First video entry from me here in Siberia. Standing in a park in downtown Tomsk just assessing how the trip is going and what plans have been made for the next few days.

Secret Cities

Old TomskAs we stroll through the snow-ice-slush filled streets of Tomsk, my new friends here have come to understand my penchant for abandoned places and forgotten history. It just so happens that Siberia has plenty of forgotten history and strange stories that could keep a citizen reporter like me busy for a long time. The trick is getting access when you’re an outsider and you don’t speak the language.

My favorite story so far is about a place only 7 kilometers outside of Tomsk, a town by the name of Seversk. Some may remember it from when it was called Tomsk-7, the town where 3 important nuclear reactors were located. What makes this town stand out more than the already impressive number of nuclear facilities it houses, is that during the Soviet Union the government decided for security purposes, the existence of these towns should be kept a secret, and access to these towns would be restricted. How do you restrict access to a town? They took a page from the medieval days of kings and kingdoms, they built a wall around it. To get in one must have official permission, or be a resident, and surely NOT be a foreigner.

With the fall of the Soviet Union in the beginning of the 1990’s, it was decided that these towns (most at least) should be able to choose if they want to stay closed off by walls and armed guards. Amazingly, many voted to stay that way. Why? Perhaps it was fear of the outside world. Fear that their lives would change in a way they never wanted. Whatever the reason, it is amazing to think that 7 km from where I sit at this very moment, there is a massive wall that surrounds a town of 100,000 people who in order to go to work in the morning, must show papers to military personnel at a checkpoint.

Take this already interesting situation and add the facts that 1 – Through nuclear disarmament deals between the US and Russia, 2 of Seversk’s reactors have been shut down, and 2 – in 1993 there was an explosion at one the facilities resulting in a radio active cloud – what you get is a very confusing and difficult situation within the walls of Seversk.  Or at least, that’s what I think when I consider potentially large unemployment plus an extreme environmental hazard, bottled up in one town.

Coming up next A podcast about Seversk and life in a secret city. I can’t get inside, but I’m hoping to speak with someone who comes outside on a regular basis, maybe I’ll even get to go to the wall just to see it first-hand.