DEC 17, 18 .. THE BUS TRIP FROM KYZYL ( КЫЗЫЛ ) TO ABAKAN ( АБАКАН ) IN RUSSIAN SIBERIA.

Today's RHETORICAL QUESTION :

"Captain! You've had a long day! You were up early. You got to the bus station in Kyzyl early. A 7-1/2 hour bus ride up to Abakan is taxing to say the least. You're settling into yet another new place. You got to the Supermarket and hauled 15 liters of bottled water and lots of groceries back to your flat. Why don't you just chill-out, go to bed early, and realize tomorrow is another day?"

"Ah-h-h .. I'll get back to you on that."

By the way, on the grocery run, I did a very-first-ever-in-my-lifetime action!

Never in this lifetime, Never ever in my 82-years, have I done a supermarket run in a taxi.

It was use a taxi or Mike and I would've had to haul the above extremely heavy, bulky and burdensome load back to our flat, in the dark, on snow and ice, in a totally unfamiliar area walking about 1 kilometer.

Mike and I hitched a ride TO the bank (in a huge shopping center) with my new landlord so I could pay him the rent we owe to stay in his flat. He either took us to the bank in his automobile or he did not get his money. 

BUT then he took-the-money and ran (he excused himself) saying he did NOT have the time to wait 1/2-hour (or longer) while Mike and I shopped for the next week.

To be honest, the 100 Russian Ruble taxi fare (U.S. $1.54) was worth every tiny little ruble just so Mike and I could relax and thoroughly explore a gigantic supermarket we'd never been in.

Number One on my to-do list in a new venue : Get an ample supply of good, safe, bottled drinking water. It takes a few days to build up a supply of safe boiled water and I need water NOW. To drink and to bathe from the neck-up.

"Oh Dad! I feel like dot.net! You hardly ever get down to the nitty-gritty of your day over here on me." /sign me/ Your blogspot site.

Any journey begins with one step.

I've got to hand-it-to-Mike. He's made this run from Kyzyl to Abakan and back about 10 times. He emphasized to me that the buses are first class, first rate equipment.

Mike sure was correct. Get this. They emphasize that you buckle up your seat belt and, if you don't, and they catch you unbuckled it is a 500 Russian Ruble (U.S. $7.69) fine on-the-spot. If you do get a non-compliance fine, the next violation gets you set-down off-the-bus at the next rest stop.

 

Do you all see Lida photographing Mike in the below photo?

Let's you and I take a little-peek-inside.

The below photo was snapped from my seat up front, window side.

At one of our rest stops, I went to the back of the bus and shot the below photo.

I was proud of our bus. They use two drivers who alternated between rest stops.  We were in the snow, it was snowing, and we were in the mountains. I felt in good hands.

Below you have it. Kyzyl ( КЫЗЫЛ ) up to Abakan ( АБАКАН ).

Do you all see Mike / Lida / and a friend below?

And our scheduled 9:30am departure time was actually at 9:27am.

And I got-it-right. The instant the driver closed the door and we began to move, I texted Patti and we visited by telephone for about 13-minutes as we motored through Kyzyl. We'd no sooner gotten out of Kyzyl than we were dropped stone cold.

It continued that way all the way North to Abakan. We'd hit hot-spots and I'd text Patti. Often, by the time Patti could try to reach me, we'd be back in remote Russian Siberia.

So I caught on and only texted Patti at rest stops or when we were passing through a small village and I had strong bars.

En route, we'd stopped at flag-stops. If the flag was up, we had a passenger waiting to board.

In the mountains, in the cold of a December morning in Russian Siberia, the inside of the windows were covered with a thin film of ice. I'd scratch myself a little opening and quick shoot a photo because my opening would almost instantly ice-over.

It was actually a pretty nice day outside. Nice but cold.

"Cold? Really Captain? You're sitting beside the window that ices over almost instantly after you scrape clear your opening."

Then suddenly, the warmth of mid-day sun coupled with us going down the North side of the mountain range, and our windows were clear.

Time for a real rest stop as opposed to a quick stop at a flag-stop.

Above you can see it's snowing. Below you can see the results.

A nice salad with two slices of hearty Russia bread for 70 rubles (U.S. $1.08).

We are almost to Abakan.

Abakan. We're here safe and sound. What a day.

Alexander and Alexander (yes, each of our hosts is named Alexander) were ready and waiting for us.

We zipped over to 'look-at' our flat to see IF we approved of it.

Our kitchen.

The bathroom. Two separate rooms.

"You WHAT?"

"Yes! Highest speed Wi-Fi is included."

"We'll take it!"

1,700 Russian Rubles (U.S.$ 26.16) per night and it sure beats Motel 6 in the U.S.

So off to the ATM we went and I paid in full (cash) for eight nights.

Now back to the RHETORICAL QUESTION at the beginning of this Post.

I am just so thrilled to have the highest speed Wi-Fi that I could NOT resist putting up a pair of Posts on dot.net and blogspot!

"Surprised Patti!"

Love Cap

The 'before photo' of our kitchen table that I showed you above.

Two photos of our kitchen table after I learned about having Wi-Fi.