Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ivan Kichilin, flashing the peace sign, with his friend Evgeni Barandin. Ivan was orphaned as a teenager when both par-
ents died from illness. He begged the Russian government to defer his mandatory year of military service, but they re-
fused. That tough training, Ivan says, “makes
Russians
.” You find many young men return from the service hardened.
After leaving Moscow and traveling across the world's biggest country, to finally see Russia's Pacific coast gave me
chills. I was searching for some poetic ending, so I went to this spit of land extending into the bay near Vladivostok.
Quiet reflection was rudely interrupted by this gas-guzzling, four-car ferry that
put-put-putt
ed its way to the shore,
slammed into a rock, piled cars on, then loudly made its way off into the bay again. (
David Gilkey/NPR
)
My wife, Rose, with Alexei Kamerzan at a café in Novosibirsk. Alexei's mom was among those who benefited finan-
cially from the Soviet collapse, filling the void when state companies broke up. She started a carpet empire that her son
helps to run today. Alexei went to college in the United States and vacations abroad. He thinks Putin's last election vic-
tory was rigged, calling that “unpleasant, but not such a big deal.”
Heading to the station at dusk in Novosibirsk, Siberia's largest city, to board an overnight train east to Krasnoyarsk.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search