13 Aug Kemarova and North
The small town of Kemarova boasted free wifi in the public squares and a huge variety of random statues, but we had a fruitless search for the hotel listed on the Internet booking site. However, while a few of us were out wandering in search of the Aurora, Don, Will, and Tomy were befriended by an incredibly nice group of English-speaking Russians who offered to help us find accommodation for the night. They called an area hostel, rode along with us to find it, and even helped with the translation with the matron there. All after 10:30 at night. Super nice folks and the hostel was a gem, plus it was only 500 rubles per night each. We had pizza down the street, then a good night of rest, with Don and Sarita and I sharing a triple room in the spotlessly clean hostel. Pietro suffered a bit for his order of pizza, which led to him receiving a tiny pizza instead of the large one he was expecting. His face was priceless when the waitress arrived with it at our table. We also got cold beers, still a novelty after so many weeks without anything refrigerated.
A rainy day of travel awaited us the next morning, as we continue our push to Irkusk and Lake Baikal. Discovered a few leaks in the bus in the driving rainstorms.
Lunch today was not so successful or tasty. We stopped at a roadside market that sold frozen sandwiches corresponding to a printed sheet with numbers and pictures. There was no way to actually determine what was in them, and the angry Russian clerk in her purple smock and hat was stone-faced to our inquiries. We selected our best guesses, which she then put in the microwave, plastic wrap and all, to thaw them out. This resulted in boiling hot exteriors and frozen insides, with indeterminate contents regardless of temperature.
Meanwhile, a dozen or so Russian teens had gathered outside the bus, clamoring to get inside for a picture. They were the pushiest locals we’d met so far, and made Stefano particularly nervous with their excitability and numbers. We ushered them all out and took off before any trouble happened, but all in all, it was a less than positive lunch stop.
We drove on to Krastoyransk, entertaining ourselves with a guys versus girls bus volleyball game, using an inflatable globe as the ball and the hammock tied across seats as our net. The girls won, of course. And we got out a lot of frustration by beaning each other with the ball in our rule-less game.
We were unable to find a place to stay in town, so we decided to get a bite to eat and keep driving. We thought a place advertised as an Irish Pub would be a good choice, but it actually was enormously loud nightclub that served food very slowly. Don had to stay at the bus for us to eat, and the wait was interminable.
When I went out to check on him during our 2 hours of waiting for food, he was holding court, talking to locals and even befriended a young Canadian/Russian guy named Max who brought him water, cookies, and chocolate as a gift “of Russia” and a note wishing us well.Very nice to get to talk to friendly folks.
We left out of town sometime after midnight for another dreaded overnight, with Pietro and Stefano at the helm. They drove until 5am, stopping at an all night truck stop that had cappuccino and pastries, which was as Stefano described “an oasis” after a long night on washboard roads with dense fog. Tommy and I replaced them at the front of the bus and we continued on to Irkusk on the chilly and foggy Siberian morning.