chicagobest

Olga broke the news to many of us that Novosibirsk finally had a youth hostel. It is in a good location, near the Rechnoy Vokzal subway...

Ruth is right in that kupe class is way more comfortable and clean than platzkartny. Platzkartny is not always bad but is better over...

Thank you very much, Olga. I am really pretty amazed that common tourists can even see something like the Ice Maiden. One example is the...

Thank you very much, Olga. I am really pretty amazed that common tourists can even see something like the Ice Maiden. One example is the...

Traveliing Librarian, the Wall Street Journal just did a front page article about vegemite. They said it is gradually dieing out. I have...

I have visited the Kazakh Railways website but it has no English button and when I plug the URL into google translate it does not...

Looks like we are going to be in Astana this summer. Never been there, but I have been to Kazakhstan 3 times. How hard will it be to buy...

Ruth is correct. But with a couple of days in Irkutsk, you should have no problem booking the next leg from Irkutsk to Ekarerinberg....

Thanks for your post, Ruth. I asked Dan about this and he knows it cold from the Mongolian side, not the Chinese side. I have probably...

I have read that the border between China and Mongolia is now open to tourists of all countries who have a visa. My understanding is that...

There is a good and cheap public bathhouse right next to Panfilov Park in Alma-Ata, about a 10 minute walk from the exquisite Russian...

I believe the atomic spaceship idea, however farfetched it may seem, has many adherents in Russia. Most Russians I have asked about this...

I wonder if anyone knows about practicalities of visiting sites in Russia where mysterious incidents have occurred. I have a couple in...

When I first took the Trans-Siberian in 1978 the train stopped for 15-30 minutes at many places, and there was almost always a lot of food...

Thanks for the tip, Olga. I did not know that the Ice Maiden was on display in Akademgorodok. Is the Museum of Ethnography open to the...