We’ve booked in for two nights (however I suspect we will extend this) at Hotel Sonata.
It features all three of the holy trinity. Carpet, Shower & Wi-Fi. The wifi isn’t riveting and seems to drop out every ten or so minutes. I’m still determined to get some video online for you.
We have photos!!! - https://picasaweb.google.com/twomagadan/VladivostokToYakutsk?authkey=Gv1sRgCKKAmfLlp_-WrQE The dates were wrong on the import, so the second set start after the shot of our hotel in Yakutsk. Not pictured is 1 million miles of filthy horrible roads. We’ll leave the video to demonstrate that. Sorry, that will make the video a bit boring I’m sure, but this has been a driving holiday after all.
We started off a bit earlier today around 6AM and we’re glad we did. Although the road was terrific, with the barge river crossing and finding a hotel, we were hot and bothered by mid day. As with everything in this trip, we lucked out on the barge crossing. We turned up, made a note of the sailings only to find we were hours early. Wait, nope, this line is moving… oh and we’re on the barge now – we waited 5 minutes tops. Like a true local, we ‘barged’ our way on, only allowing people in front when they are about to roll sideways down the embankment or we heard a scaping noise. We were fortunate to be one of the first 10ish on there (I’d guess it would take 30 cars?) so we watched the fury unfold between two ‘bread loaves’ jostling to get on. As it turned out, the sailings seem to be fairly frequent. When we were leaving, we forgot to buy a ticket. We lined up on our way out, but confused and amused by our inability to explain our predicament, they waved us off the barge without paying. I felt bad about that. You should be able to see our tracking points across the river.
This town is very dynamic. We’re one block away from the guts of it which is cool. We just walked around looking at buildings we’d be prepared to stay in, hoping that some of them would be hotels. We found one, payed our dues, registered our visas and went upstairs. We slept this afternoon for what felt like a minute but was more like three hours. We felt physically dead after, but mentally great, so we headed out for dinner. Our 'I’m OK message’ didn’t send when we arrived around mid day, so I resent it about an hour ago.
We crossed the town square where the ‘2012 5th Children of Asia sports games’ seems to be having a meet. It’s a huge deal here which is terrific. The town has come alive with maps and books dedicated to serving visitors for this event.
Cassie is walking around with my phone with Google Translate – so many signs we have not read!
More content coming later.
A suggestion for temporary, on the go, personal hygiene, if you can't have a shower is baby wipes. So get a couple of packets of those if you can.
ReplyDeletelol yeah we've got one pack nearly finished and about three more to go. baby wipes are awesome.
DeleteHey, just checked out the photos. A good mix and good to see some smiles in there. Like the macro shots of the flowers and butterflies.
ReplyDeleteThe local food doesn't look too bad. Much like anywhere I guess, you mostly get good ones and then the odd dodgy one.
Awesome photos! Now I have seen it all I wont need to go, cheers :)
ReplyDeleteH Grader and Cassie!!
ReplyDeleteso fun to read your blogs.. sorry for delayed addition to the comments... Murray, Ava and i have gone to ground the last 2 months with a lovely combination of 'whooping cough' and bird flu!!! (lets hope you guys have all your vaccinations in order - no doubt you do being so organised.. albeit only waving to the odd person puts you in little risk of contracting anything weird and unusual!!! except mabey food bourne illnesses!)
sadly it has taken us weeks and weeks to even get out of the house(aside from stumbling to work, getting home, passing out in bed to recover and spending weekends at home on the lounge praying the PAY-TV-Parent (AKA Foxtel) would keep Ava entertained enough to enable us to die on the lounge for long enough to build up energy to feed her... Oh so much fun.
she is a couple of weeks in front of us with the illnesses and can rest so she is coping better then we are with the symptoms.. clearly we are just sooks also
anyways Ava is turning 3 in late july ... and teh news in the Thornton household is we have a little brother or sister on the way - due in early Dec... at this stage Ava loves little babies so hopefully the love will continue even when she has to share but clearly we are preparing for this not to be the case!! albeit i bought the new baby a blanket and showed it to Ava when i put it on the cot in the baby room she burst into tears and said 'noooooo its myyyy cot'... (it may sounds freakishly organised to already have the nursery set up but quite the contrary we never took it down from Ava and moved her into a new room with her 'big bed' so really looks are deceiving and we are freakishly lazy... (and masquerading as 'busy')
Ava is at a very funny age - she loves her little cousin Charlie and insisted on wearing a little white dress Charlie gave her as a 'hand me down' nearly every day for 2 weeks ...was getting hard to keep white and clean so i have had to hide it) quite apart from it being a summer dress and we had temps of 13 degrees during the day the other day which is unheard of in brisvegas
not much other news - we are off to singapore/thailand for 3 weeks late july for avas bday to see my sister(it is my sisters birthday the day after Ava's)
the food sounds interesting... doesnt sound like they have heard of the Atkins diet over there... !! couldnt establish if you are able to get fruit and veggies etc but i will go back through more blogs over the weekend... couldnt seem to get the pictures to open - will try later on my home PC...
btw - baby wipes rock even in normal life back here! Particularly versatile - toilet paper, washing dishes, cleaning oil off machinery or stains off clothes, sticky coffee and drink spills in cars or smears off ipads etc etc... highly useful!!! i have been told that the ones with true 'baby oil' in them also are useful as mozzie repellent but i havent tested that theory....
take care, drive safely and have fun!!!
love from us all in brisneyland