Travelers never think that they are the foreigners. 

Russia:   As we leave Russia after 22 days, 7500 miles behind us and passed 11 time zones-we crossed Siberia, climbed and descended Urals and Caucasus mountains, sailed on Black Sea, saw 49 Lenin statues, stayed in 16 different hotels-dumps and hotel California, which could be heaven or hell, -were stopped 49 times by police check point, were bribed once. We saw Russian bureaucracy in full action in Vladivostok and most of all we met most amazing people who invited us in to their homes for vodka and horse meat.    Russia is a largest country-almost 17 plus million sq. kilometers.  Population: 143.4 million. Per capita consumption of alcohol: 15.1L per year. Number of Nobel Prize winners: 20.  

Here are our observations: We are proud of our accomplishment of being able to drive across this very large country from most eastern point to most western and trust me we felt it every day. Even local Russian told us that they won’t even try to do what we did. There were few days when we thought we may not be able to make it. We were so occupied getting through these roads that we hardly thought about our own safety. We drove through snow storm in middle of the May, where roads are covered with snow 2’ deep. Drive with your fingers crossed hoping that the car is still on road, as there no snow clear service available in this part of the world. All you see is pure white desert with tree branches touching the ground with weight of snow. We sat in snow with -15 degree for 3 hours due to non drivable conditions.Used road side and woods for daily output of bodily nectar and waste, as toilets are – well cannot describe in words. 

Russia is divided in two regions: East and West. We feel that East has not been touched since tsarist days. The population is very sparse, few hamlets distances away. I guess that's why it has not been developed as West. In west one can see the wealth is flowing. Russia is trying to make up for the lost time and rushing to full blown capitalism. It seems that they want to forget about the past, while in East it does not matter what system they have it in Moscow. The infrastructure, houses, people and even police are different. People from west tend not to cross Urals to visit east. We met few people and see their expressions-what's wrong with you, why would you do think like that- when we told them that we drove from east.They all always without failure would ask how we did we deal with militias (police). People still have old dogma about police and are still afraid of them. The KGB might be history, but ordinary Russians now look over their shoulder and rear view mirror of their newly imported cars for police. Locals still think they live in time of Stalin when it comes to police.

Even cars in west are different than east - more European than Japanese. But people across this massive nation are the same if you avoid the big cities. Great people, ready to help. City people tend to be more westernized than western people. They all well dressed, sometime over dressed, wearing high heels on dirt and dirty walks. Pants are so tight that one can read the credit card number from back pockets. I never knew so many European and American brands till I came here. They love their cars. The influx of foreign cars has only been around for the last 17 years and they don’t seem to get enough.

We will never forget those young samurais, who drive their new Japanese cars on eastern Siberian torturous roads for 5 days, while sleeping in car, carrying nothing but a single pair of clothing, bottle of vodka and 5 spare tires.  

Most wealth is concentrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Old Stalinist factories outside every town still puking out acidic black smoke, and are still in operation and support local communities. Ami hates these tall smoking chimneys-eye sores.  We think lightly that bad roads all over Russia may be a political strategy of Moscow controlling the imports by not giving them decent roads. Bigger cities we drove through are full of potholes. Life of cars must be 3-4 years. Work in progress on roads is slow or almost not existent. Road work ahead signs must be there for so long that they got rusted and rooted in grounds.

But overall Russians are proud of their nation and will support Putin to take them to next level if not into other planet. We must not forget that this nation was the first one to put a man in space. Now the cold war is over and not spending half of their GDP in arms warfare they could use this money for infrastructures.   Some people we talked are happy to have Russia as its own nation while others feel sad loosing the USSR. Our Syrian doctor friend loved old USSR. Everybody can travel along this vast area of earth in these old USSR countries. Now they need visa.  One Armenian couple  we met in ferry to Turkey who was travelling to Armenia by going to Turkey, than cross in Georgia to go to Armenia, which is only 100KM from Russian border which is close. He couldn't travel through Chechen and Dagestan area due to terrorism with the Caucasian people. You think British screwed up the world boundaries, check out the old USSR and Eastern Europe map. There are still new countries in waiting to be born such as Kosovo. 

Tourism: has been ignored. Most touris we see are from former USSR countries. Hotels seem to cater to local businessmen who are in plenty now.  We see things differently here, but for local people these hotels must be Hyatt or Marriot. We never got the welcomes in hotels as tourist. Immediately on our approach we get "Nyet" no rooms available. They couldn't care a less if we stay there or not. Second issue: Visa and its registration process. This old Visa registration system for foreigners is dysfunctional and we have not figured out what purpose it serves. It is highly important that one does not lose the immigration card-small piece of crappy paper. Losing it can create a huge problem and opportunity for huge bribe.  It creates a constant anxiety and stress. One has to find a hotel or OVIR office to register the visa if you stay more than 72 hours in same city. Most cities do not have OVIR office. There are no tourist offices in tourist spot such as Irkutsk - home of largest fresh water lake in the world. Hotel with registration facilities charge large amount of money for a night due to this service. We figured it out in end why these babushkas-old ladies sitting behind desk- in small hotels didn't care for us. Well they have to go through process by photocopying our passports and visa pages, make an entry in the log book and give us a receipt. Too much paper works for $100 a night room (insert sarcasm here).

We learned that Putin is trying to build a monument in Yekaterinburg where Asia and Europe plates are meeting. Well it will be nice if he fixes the roads first so people can see this monument.  

Economy seems to be good in west part of Russia. Petro dollars appear to be bringing lots of wealth in state. People have money o spend and supplies available in shops unlike what we saw on TV in 90s. They all seem to be able to afford high prices hotels and restaurants, designer clothes. Western brand stores are all over. Despite the bad roads, there are many cars on roads. Putin gets lots of credit for this well being.  People seem to ignore his desire for staying in power forever.   Overall we both liked Russia and her people. It's an interesting place, full of contrast. We never felt unsecure at any time.  

As they say in Russia, Da sva da nia (Good Bye)    

Best Regards    arun and ami