Chukotethnoexp. Part I. Yakutia
March NeryungriMapA railway yard employee checks the number on the seal. It matches. We can open the container.  Another worker cuts the seal.  The first car is hauled out into the street. Now all we have to do is start up Coucousique and drive it out.  Neryungri is a fascinating city. It hasn’t changed one bit over the past year. The same posters in the same places, the same buildings, the same groceries on the familiar shelves. Time has no power over Neryungri. But this time I managed to make it to the open pit coal mine, which is the whole reason the city exists. The pit stretches all the way to the horizon and is completely covered with coal dust.  Cyclopean excavators empty out buckets of enormous size into gigantic haul trucks.  Regular cars look like toys next to all this special machinery.  And everything is surrounded by black snow.  What most amazed me is the fact that a mining haul truck driver’s salary used to be 1500 rubles in the Soviet Union (200 was already considered very high). Even cosmonauts made less, I think. But at least now it’s clear why people strove to come here. YakutskMapYakutsk hasn’t changed much either. This monstrosity of an overpass still hasn’t opened for public use, but now it’s got a banner about stability on it.  We Yakuts stand for stability, for a decent future! A hammer and sickle to join Pugachyov, Vyazma, Pripyat, Novoaltaysk and Barnaul, Kineshma, Kansk and Bratsk and Syzran in the collection.  Simple Yakut life.  A graceful traffic light beam.  Because it was right before the 8th of March (International Women’s Day, a major holiday in Russia), there were resourceful buses selling flowers all over the city.  Flowers Our plan was to drive all the way up to Chukotka, making a brief detour to Magadan along the way. The route ended up looking like this:  Just like last year, we drove down frozen rivers.  Encountered some Yakut horses (which procure their own food in the winter by digging through the snow with their hooves). The horses send regards to their friends in Iceland.  Encountered an owl. 
In Yakutia, you pass about Ytyk-KyuyolMapThis isn’t a cave man on a pig, it’s a Yakut on a Yakut cow.  Propaganda in the street.  Time to have a second child! Motherhood fund for the family’s well-being! 365 698 rubles. Growing every year. The Pension Fund of the Russian Federation Rural scenery.  There are quotes from the classics all around town.  Goethe The gas pump auto shut-off mechanisms don’t work at any of the gas stations in Yakutia. We ended up with gasoline overflowing from the tank almost every single time.  Attention! The pump auto shut-off has been disabled. Be careful! Teplyy KlyuchMapThe gas station attendant’s booth is made out of a cistern. A fairly common design around here.  Alternating layers of fresh snow and fresh soot from the boiler room cover every surface, creating a slightly surreal landscape.  KyubyumeMapThe first abandoned settlement on our route.  But there’s a café and gas station called Cuba operating on the side of the road here. The café serves horrible pasta and the gas station attendant answers the question “Where’s the bathroom?” with “Why, all of Yakutia!” and a big circular arm gesture.  You get so used to the ease of pulling over and relieving yourself by the side of the road that it takes an effort to restrain yourself from peeing right on the street in the city.  There’s beauty all around.  And a halo demonstration every day.  TomtorMapThe road that leads here is bumpy.  There isn’t a whole lot to do here.  A Pole of Cold stele stands in front of the village. It proudly displays the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth: − 71.2 °C.  Cold But everyone knows that the coldest temperature ever was really in Oymyakon, so we head there. OymyakonMapOymyakon is just a village, at the edge of which is another commemorative sign dedicated to the coldest temperature ever recorded. It’s warm outside today: −45 °C.  Oymyakon “Pole of Cold” Verkhoyansk is also vying for the title of “Pole of Cold” and claims that the measurements recorded in Oymyakon were taken a long time ago and eyeballed. The thermometer dips below minus 60 in the winter in both places. But no one stoops so low as to open a theme café or souvenir shop dedicated to the freezing temperature. Ust-NeraMapA wonderful city.  Wide streets.  Cozy homes.  Trash dumpsters.  Icicles drying on the clotheslines.  Elections.  Everyone to the polling stations! A great place to pursue success. As it’s running away from here.  Pursue success! |
