Barnaul Day 2

Our blog is lacking pictures, so I figured I’d pack it full this time ;-)

This was 30KM into Russia from Mongolia.

This was a cafe…

Abacus in use at grocery store in Altai – complete with EFTPOS

I thought I was struggling with the grass seeds at our last camp, but I think the dog came off worse

Town pride is back on the table – Barnaul

Our hotel

Complete with ‘Hookah Room’ which charges by the hour… Perhaps this was NOT lost in translation.

Everything gets a hiding on the roads we’ve been on. It’s nice to be going through our stock of spares. This should be our last service on this continent.

I made a point of grabbing this photo before I took it for a service. ‘256,700 Magadan’ is the kind of oil filter you want to hang on the wall of your garage! Sadly it’s gone now.

That reminds me, I’ve got to install extended diff breathers when I get home to stop this from happening. The oil from both diffs had water in them. The service cost $~250 which I initially was a bit pissy about, but then again, that did include the engine oil, rear diff oil and power steering fluid. I supplied the oil filter, air filter, front diff oil. It’s been so long since I’ve had to pay someone to change oil that it doesn’t feel like good value, no doubt it’s normal though. They greased all the universal joints which is also good. When we camp tomorrow night I’ll change the fuel filter. I didn’t really want them taking it off as it’s easy to be careless and damage the water float sensor on the bottom.
It’s less than a month since we were in Magadan – wow!

In the bath at the hotel, bleaching our water containers which no doubt have developed some gross contents. There are no outdoor taps here, so we will have to walk past reception twice trying to be inconspicuous with 20L water bottles.

Cassie:

On our walk down the main street of the city tonight, Lenina St (every Russian city we’ve been in has a Lenina St without fail) in search of dinner we came across a small group of teenage guys and heard one of them speaking english. We stopped and asked did we just hear them speaking english and sure enough, one of them said yes, that he was trying to teach his friends some english words. This guy was 18yo, heading to university in St Petersburg soon to study politics. He’s super interested in America and Australia and wants to live in Australia for a period of time after his studies. His english was perfect and he said our accent made it very easy for him to understand us. I told him his english is excellent and his accent is quite American. He was so happy to hear this because he loves America so much.

We asked him if he would recommend anywhere for us to have a bite to eat and he suggested a bar. So off we headed and ended up on the top floor of a modern building, took one step out of the elevator dressed in shorts, thongs and t-shirts and couldn’t get back in the elevator quickly enough! It was the most swankiest place I’ve ever set foot in and the hostess who greeted us as soon the elevator doors opened immediately looked at our clothing and footwear. I’m sure she was thinking how do I politely tell these idiots they can’t stay here!? We saved her (and us) the embarrassment and went down to the next floor to a restaurant/bar that was themed as a fire station. Cool! Call me corny, but I’m a sucker for themed restaurants. They’re a bit of harmless fun and a bit of a laugh. The waitress taking our order was dressed as a member of the emergency services personnel, our cutlery was delivered to our table in a miniature replica of an old school, timber water bucket as we sat near the front of an old fire engine truck. Yeah, you all know you secretly think that’s cool.

Anyway, it was actually one of the fanciest, tastiest meal we’ve had….ever! Seriously. There you go, don’t judge a corny themed restaurant by it’s cover.

We didn’t get a photo of our meal tonight, but here’s some culinary delights from Barnaul. Coffees, milkshake and apple strudel…all the healthy stuff really.

We did actually eat proper meals during our stay here, these were just to fill in the gaps! In fact, I think we may have over eaten yesterday, it was all so good! It’s pleasing to note that neither of us have either lost or gained weight during the trip. We weighed ourselves on the baggage scales at the last Russian border (as you do!).