Ira and Vasili
Author: Tom Bell
Visiting daddy at work on March 8, International Women’s Day
Breakfast in Khabarovsk
Here we are eating an incredible breakfast with Svetlana’s cousin, Ira, and her daughter, Annya. The breakfast included caviar, liver soup, borscht, some kind of cantelope, bread, meat cutlets, pastries, candy, and coffee
The Russians are Sprawling
We’re flying over the suburbs of Moscow as we make our approach for landing. Until a few years ago, this was mostly forest land, but American-style subdivisions are emerging as wealthy Russians abandon the dense, Soviet-era apartment complexes in the city. The landscape seems haphazard and unplanned. Still, compared to the development around Los Angeles or Washington DC, the Russians have a long way to go before they beat the Americans in sprawl.
Leaving USA
A we are about to board Aeroflot flight for Moscow no Internet access for llaptop. Typing on phone. We have lots to report but we will wait until we arrive.
Home (Yarmouth, Maine) to Destination (Khabarovsk, Russia)
Ihila: After Khabarovsk, we will travel by car to Krasny Yar, my mother’s village. This video visually shows the distance between our home and destination. Instead of flying west, as this video shows, we are flying east (which happens to be the longest and cheapest route available).The farthest I’ve ever been is across the country, not across the world. Although I am nervous, I’m also excited to take up this new adventure.
Khabarovsk, Russia
Ihila: After Khabarovsk, we will travel by car to Krasny Yar, my mother’s village. This video visually shows where our destination is.
Our destination: The Russian Far East. Here’s the map:
The village of Krasny Yar is the blue pin in lower right of this map.
Welcome
Ihila: Hey, I’m Ihila Lesnikova (Tom Bell’s daughter) and I’d like to welcome you to our website! The purpose of this website is to write about our experience in Siberia and post photos and videos. In a way, I guess it’s our only link to America. I hope you enjoy learning about Russia and native culture.
A Journey to a Far-Away World
We are traveling from Maine to the Russian Far East to a remote mountain village in a forest populated by a huge variety of creatures, including elk, wild boar and the Siberian tiger. Most of the people who live in the village are members of an indigenous tribe called Udegeh. This is the village where my wife, Svetlana, grew up. She has not been home to her village in 17 years. We will be traveling with our 16-year-old daughter, Ihila.
The village is some 8,200 miles to the west of our home in Yarmouth, Maine. But we will be traveling the other way around the globe, eastward, a distance of some 12,000 miles. While the journey is longer, it’s less expensive because air travel within Russia is less expensive. We will leave Saturday on a bus to NYC and then fly nine hours to Moscow and then another eight hours to Khabarovsk, a city of nearly 600,000 in the Russian Far East. Then we will travel by car about five hours to the village, Kransy Yar. Seventeen years ago, it was impossible to reach the village by car in summer, when the Bekin River was not frozen over. But a new bridge now makes summer travel by car possible.
Our daughter, Ihila, will also be contributing to this blog.
Tom Bell
People of the Tiger 