November 14 On this day I was to have a guided excursion to Boudhnath and Pashupatinath, the price of it was included into the cost of the trip. There was a guide for me and a car with driver. This day was the last day before the trek, so I was rather excited, if not very. It was warm in Kathmandu during all my stay. The sun shone most of the time, but in the evenings, when I went to the hotel’s third-floor open-air restaurant, it felt a bit chilly. Sitting there, waiting for the food, and looking at the airplanes flying by... I must confess the trip to Kathmandu and Annapurna Base Camp has been the most exciting so far. The excursion started at 9 o’clock in the morning and the two places were among ... read more

There is another short story about another short trip of mine, to a town called Sergiev Posad located in the vicinity of Moscow. The town is part of the famous Russian Gold Ring route and, due to its closeness to Moscow, I decided that I should visit it on November 10 to fill the time slot between my arrival from my hometown and the departure of my flight to a remote country. The idea was to leave the luggage in the luggage room, take the commuter train to Sergiev Posad, visit the Laura of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius, and there would still remain much time to spend at the airport. In October, I looked through an encyclopedia entitled Russian Cities, and made a mental note of Sergiev Posad among the preferable towns to visit ... read more

When I tell somebody, especially a girl, that I’ve been to Chernobyl and Pripyat, there is immediately a reaction that, don’t I want to have children, and it’s always the same thing, as if I cannot think for myself and choose for myself and what do babies have to do with someone’s trip to Pripyat? I don’t even have a girlfriend, and doubt so much it’ll change in the nearest future, so should I care that much about unborn babies? If I am father to a mutant-baby, that’s another story, though… I’d rather not dwell on the scientific approach to the radiation dose one receives during the 4-5 hour stay in the Zone, because I do not know how to calculate all the stuff and neither I am able to use a dosimeter. But I do ... read more

Not a long time has passed since my trip to Altai. Now, three weeks after we returned to our homes and lived up to the end of summer, having nice conversations in the evenings with Dasha (appears under the alias of D. in the Altai story) and dreaming of our return to the mountains, we have had our fun in Chelyabinsk. Ludochka (the second girl) was also there, so there were three of us. Chelyabinsk is not as old as other cities like Kazan or Nizhny Novgorod for examples. It’s sort of a diary, so I write about every little trip for me to remember; moreover, I might have said earlier that Samara was the beginning (better say, continuation) of my Russian cities tour; so Chelyabinsk is next. You had the opportunity to see Yekaterinburg in ... read more

Foreword Altai is a mountain range in Russia. The mountains are not as high as the Himalayas, but they offer plenty of possibilities for tourism and active rest. You will find the general information about Altai somewhere in the Internet. My idea was to join an organized group of tourists on the route called “Kolban and Kuiguk: Route for Men of Spirit” (the word “men” means here human beings of both sexes); groups are invited there each year on different routes. Please visit www.altaystrannik.ru for more information. The site is in Russian. I had this idea somewhere in April or May. Why did I decide to go there? I found an advertisement about tourism on Altai in some group of the popular Russian social network “vkontakte”. I found it cheap and rather interesting, and almost at ... read more