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Other entries in Ulan-Ude

Ulan-Ude, Last Day in Russia

I got a bit of later start the next morning, went to Ulan Ude and took it a bit easy in the internet café with obnoxious children. I then went to the post office and bought some post cards and stamps.

After that it was time to meet Natasha. Since she was going to be late, Natasha sent her friend whose name sadly I don't remember.  She was a fellow language student. We were not sure what to do so we headed for the beach, even knowing that it was something of a joke.  There wasn't a beach, just a bend in the river that had some open space.  Near the beach was the newly built main Orthodox church.  Since it was just a regular church I was a bit nervous going in. My companion was especially nervous as she was Buddhist and later confided that she had never been in a church before.  It was just a quick visit, there was even a shop towards the back selling all sorts of icons and other religious items.  After that we got on a bus and headed towards a monument of an old Buriat hero astride a horse and then another WWII monument complete with tank.

It was time to meet up with Natasha so we boarded a bus headed towards her flat. It was nearly a newly built 20 storey high rise that apparently was a local sign of hope for good things in the future. We got lost trying to find the flat in a sea of apartment buildings. Our route formed a 15 minute walking circle and after a quick phone call we met Natasha near the bus stop that we had arrived at. We met up with Natasha and two more of her friends, including another Natasha.  We went to a local café and I had some more Russian pancakes, more like crepes. We were walking around trying to figure out what to do when it started raining. They decided we should go to the local ethnographic museum. Being too smart for myself I told them that it was most likely closing in 15 minutes and that it was a fruitless endeavor. So we bought a little food and went back to the second Natasha's flat and things were a bit silly boisterous and fun.  It was a real student flat and reminded me some of the efficiency I used to have at university except that their flat was a little nicer and mine had better facilities. Natasha was living with her brother who was a bit of a joker.  So we sat around

talking.  We had dinner, they called it special student food, it reminded me something of the Russian equivalent of ramen.  It certainly wasn't bad, and it was nice to share some of their fellowship.  It was dark and rainy and we walked to an ATM for the Second Natasha and then around the corner to the Lenin Head where we parted company with another one of the friends.  Natasha and the only friend who wasn't an english student were then walking me towards the bus station for my shared minivan back along the pedestrian commercial strip, Arbat (named after a street in Moscow of the same function). I indicated that I wanted to spend a little time in the local internet café and then it was goodbye. A couple of days earlier I had no connection to any of the people that had I met in Ulan Ude, but with all of the people that I spent time with, it for the most part felt much more natural than awkward.  Internet cafes were a bit hard to find in Russia and this one was full of loud 8 yr olds playing 3D shooter games.  I didn't spend too long as I needed to make it to my soviet style hotel before its 11:00 curfew.

For my two week trip in siberia I spent in the neighborhood of 30-35 dollars. Also for every day I was in russia I spent nearly 6 dollars in all the visa fees, and related expenses like overnighting my passport to seattle and back and paying for a rush fee in case they decided that it was ok to use all 15 business days to process my application. Looking back on it, I loved my time in Russia,  all the friends I made, friends that I met.  All the hospitality, meet dumplings and numerous tea times. On the negative side was lack of good eating choices, lack of a service industry that is nice to you.  The post soviet culture still has many remnants of the soviet era in constant contrast to the march of globalization.  Some day I hope to go back as its a big country and I felt like I missed a lost of destinations with my 30 day tourist visa.

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