I HOPE ..

MAKE NO MISTAKE .. I FULLY REALIZE HOW BLESSED AND HOW LUCKY AND HOW FORTUNATE I AM TO BE ABLE TO TRAVEL AS I DO. THE ENTIRE POINT OF MY WEBSITE HERE IS TO REALIZE MY DESIRE THAT .. IN SOME SMALL WAY .. ONE OF MY POSTS OR ONE OF MY PHOTOGRAPHS WILL MAKE ONE PERSON'S DAY JUST A LITTLE BIT BETTER.

TO FEEL GOOD .. DO GOOD !

I HOPE THAT SOMEONE VISITING MY WEBSITE WILL SEE SOMETHING ON IT THAT THEY WILL NOT EVER BE ABLE TO SEE OR TO DO OTHERWISE .. AND THAT THIS EXPERIENCE WILL MAKE THEIR DAY OR THEIR LIFE JUST A LITTLE BIT BETTER !


IF YOU HAVE YOUR HEALTH AND ADEQUATE MONEY TO FOLLOW-YOUR-DREAM .. WITH DISCERNMENT .. FIND THE COURAGE AND HAVE THE GUTS TO DO WHAT GOD IS CALLING YOU TO DO!


TRULY THIS IS MY DOXOLOGY .. MY PRAISE TO GOD!

YOU CAN ALSO VISIT .. http://babakaps.net .. TO SEE MY OTHER WEBSITE.

Monday 17 December 2018

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.





5 comments:

  1. WOW, AGAIN you have WiFi available IN YOUR ROOM. Yippee!! Nice to be able to 'make' the bus trip with you via your post. I see what you meant when you said on the phone you were "on a very nice bus." Glad you got to a market for water and other groceries. Your flat looks adequate. Yet another chapter begins, this time in Abakan, Siberia. Hugs, Patti

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank YOU My Dear One. It makes me wonder. Really it does. NO Wi-Fi for a week in Kyzyl. THEN in the room of my modest hotel in Kyzyl I have Wi-Fi. So did our Higher Power decide, "Oh our Captain really wants / or needs Wi-Fi?" and BINGO Wi-Fi appears. Sorry I missed your call. It was 3am when I texted you and when I pressed 'send' I went instantly to sleep. A 58 photo Post after the full day I had made me sleepy (exhausted). The 5 liter bottles of water are soooo HEAVY.

    SO NICE you are able again to post comments here on blogspot. I really enjoy your insights. It will take awhile to settle here in Abakan. It looks enormous And I'm tired out but SO HAPPY I got the post published. Much Love .. Cap

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cap, Your adventures are amazing. I look forward to your posts every day. What great friends you have there in Siberia. Gord

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Gord. Do you know what? I myself am looking forward to my adventures from day to day. YOU of all people Gord KNOW why I have so many great friends here don't you? Those same great friends are in Royal Oak and Birmingham and .. Smiles Gord .. Cap

    ReplyDelete

TO ENTER A COMMENT .. SELECT A PROFILE BY CLICKING ONTO THE 'SELECT A PROFILE' BUTTON ABOVE. THE MOST SIMPLE METHOD IS TO EITHER SELECT (BY CLICKING ONTO) A GOOGLE ACCOUNT (WHICH CAN SIMPLY BE A GOOGLE G-MAIL ADDRESS) OR TO SELECT ANONYMOUS. THEN WRITE YOUR COMMENT AND IF YOU WISH .. PREVIEW YOUR COMMENT .. AND THEN CLICK ONTO THE PUBLISH BUTTON TO PUBLISH IT ..

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST IN MY WEB SITE .. I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR TAKING THE TIME AND GOING TO THE WORK TO POST A COMMENT HERE .. CAP