Chapter 12

volcano!

This is a real photo of a real active volcano. Smoke was coming outside of it when we flew over it. It was one of those once of a lifetime things you feel lucky to experience and see. Here I am, flying around the ring of fire. I'd hate to be the fool that found out for my village the lava isn't really a good thing for people.

posted by RU ETL @ 12:57 AM 0 comments

yeah yeah we almost died...

yes, i was almost attacked by live bears in the wild. Humans I think for the most part are really stupid. I'm sorry but a bunch of people on our trip saw these bears and went closer and closer to them. Its a mother and her cub, leave them alone. And then one joker started THROWING SNOWBALLS AT THE BEARS WHO WHERE JUST ACROSS THE RIVER!!! I freaked out. I'll get into this story and upload photos of the volcanos and the valley of the geysers soon. I'm overworked and tired and I don't live in the US so cut me some slack.

posted by RU ETL @ 12:49 AM 0 comments

friends in strange places

We all have to meet downstairs Friday morning to get on the bus to go the the heliport near town. About 10 people are no shows since they are tired and drunk from the night before and a group of 5 leave us to go skiing in the mountainside. I don't care, more room for me. We take another Korea bus that reminds me of my old High School Bus in South Korea. A client friend for London joins me and we chat all the way to the heliport. I understand intellecutualism but I'm not a fan of gossips. Most other people that I don't know, their lives are not of any interest to me. I know this sounds cryptic buts it more of a reminder to me about something that I'm glad about...(long story)..

I'm sitting in my copter, ready to take off. A helicopter takes off in a funny manner. If it can, it tries to accellorate a bit on the ground and then push off. Also it takes time for a helicopter to gain altitude. Luckly, they handed out to all of us earplugs to prevent hearing loss. Helicopters are REALLY LOUD and i need to nead to hear the machineray to know that its working....

Here I am, in the sky, shoulder to shoulder with the mountains. We were on our way to visit a gold mine and than a nearby volcano to swin in its natural hot springs. I was just awestruck by the beauty outside. I took many photos but nothing can really capture the amazing terrain.

We arrive at this mining complex in the middle of nowhere. I think we were near the city of Hoduka or near that volcano. There were these makeshift building and heavy machinery about. We land on a patch of snow....yes its almost june and I'm about to walk around in the snow. I expect it to be close but surprisingly it isn't. Its warm out, the sun is shining and there is snow on the ground. I take a few steps and after my 5th step, my leg breaks threw the snow.....boy there is a LOT of snow packed into this patch. Almost my whole leg gets engolved in the snow. I have a bum knee...ouch I'm in pain...I break free and continue walking.

I should mention that in my helicopter and on this trip is my good friend/co-worker nikoli from the new york office. The man who taught me everything about russian stocks and my good friend. He's 0ne of the few people I really trust about certain things. I'll tell you a story about nikoli. I was working in NY as a low level assistant. We use these bloomberg machines to check stocks, trade and correspond with clients. Nikoli had a bloomberg terminal on his PC and I did not. The powers at be did not want me to get a terminal nor did he ever really want me to really learn. Nikoli put in a special request to the computer guys to get a stand alone bloomberg machine in between our desks and then told me that we should share. Selfless....I'll never forget that.

So nikoli and the others are all excited about the snow and start throwing snowballs at each other. These snow ball fights became more and more common throughout the whole day...actually thru the rest of the trip. It was warm and sunny out! and I was throwing around snow. We make our way to the company presentation. They film us coming into their compound. Wealthy investors show up to Kamchata to lend their support. Grins all around. The presentation was boring and ended in 45 min. They did explain the whole process on how gold is mined and processed and all the different steps that are involved. NEAT! They then escort us to these huge snow buses. I can not describe what exactly I'm talking about....but its a snow bus.

We go deep into the forest and up the hills to this shack which is the gold mine. It looked more to me like the unibombers house. There was nothing to see and people got restless again and started up with the snowballs. I really wish I could just capture just how remote of a place we were in. There are NO cities, NO roads or trains. We are in the mts and can only be reached by helicopter. There are no houses nearby or paths. Bears walk all around....yes bears. (I'll get to the bear attack later...) I have never been to such a remote place ever.

We then cram back into the make-shift buildings and have a hearty lunch. Homemade Borsh, rice, meat and potatos. Tea and cookies. It was actually really good. We all ate and made our way back to the helicopters with the CEOs and heads of business of the company we were seeing. Off we went on a 45 min ride to Hodutka Volcano. On the ride over I meet a client of ours who is english but spent time warmly talking about his lovely russian girlfriend back in London. He was a portfolio manager in London and one of the nicest guys I've met in a long while. Very wittly, very sarcastic, very british. Although he was very shy about it, I figured out during the day that he was dating a friend of a friend in London. She is a very sweet and loving person so I'm happy for him. I tought him some choice words in Russian that make nikoli roll his eyes.

We arrive at the non active Hodutka volcano. This small little dog welcomed us on the helipad and jumped into my lap when opened the helicopter doors. Boy he was excited to see anyone! So here we are at the volcano. Its huge, beautiful and majestic. Nearby are these hot spring that are supposedly warmed by the thermal heat. Here we are in the middle of nowhere, its completly silent and beautiful. Snow is on the ground, the water is hot, and its time for a swim. The management of the company we went to visit came to join us on our swim as well.

At first I was going to pass on the opportunity but nikoli would not have any of it. It did not take much but I changed and dove right in. He took my camera and said that I would really want to remember this moment. He was right. That was probably one of the most memerable swims ever.

We then boarded the helicopter, went exploring around PetroPavlovsk and enjoyed our evening. The US Navy was in town. A bunch of cracker jacks were walking around looking for a good time. A group of us went to eat dinner (at my pushing!) at this local Korean resturant. We were so close to Korea, I knew the food would be good. It was. My new friend from London, nikoli and a bunch of us then went for a long walk around town. I had no idea what time it was but it seemed like the sun was setting. It turned out it was around 10:40pm! We decided to go exploring the local night life.

We make our way to a club call Volcano (how original). Most of our trip participants were there already. Interesting how the russian regions let their hair down. It was like a really dodgy discotech First a woman came out and did a belly dance, than randomly this other girl did this striptease (we all looked at each other in confusion) and then finally the local dj opened up the dancefloor for us to boogie. We stayed out till 3am and it was fun talking to these people I shared this interesting day with. Its funny, you go to college and you make a group of friends, surround yourself with a support system. You move to Russia and you meet some nice guys who help you out when you are in trouble. You live in Korea and meet others like you and make you feel like you are at home. And now being at the end of the world for 48 hours, I'm sharing stories about my life and having a great time with people I probably won't see again. Certain people are meant to get along more than others. I'm glad I keep meeting new people, but I still really appreciate and love everyone else I know or have known.

posted by RU ETL @ 11:49 PM 1 comments

..midnight in a perfect world..

Where did I leave off...ok so I'm past the big metal gates and meet the driver who is going to take me to the Bel Kam Tour hotel. Turns out the Bel Kam Tour Hotel is about an hour drive from the city so I had time to wake up and get used to the surroundings. All I see around me is mountains and/or volcanos. Snow still on the ground in the upper forrests and people getting into Korean buses.

What!? Korean Buses?! yes it seems that Korea has donated their old city buses to Kamchatka to use. The funny thing is that did not bother to take off the advertisements on all the stops the bus will go to. I still read korean and am shocked to see that my bus goes to Socho-dong to Kangnam-ji. Maybe he'll make a stop at the Youngsan Electronics market, I need to pick up some eletronics.

"Welcome to Kamchatka" says the driver...welcome to confusion, to time difference, jet lag, snow, unfamiliarity, and disorientation. But the funny thing is, if I have no responsibilty to a location (ie I do not have a meeting to go to or meet someone) I get really buzzed about being someplace completly new. The adventure/explorer blood in me just gets going. The first thing I did was call my fellow adventurer Mike Eakes and tell him where I was. I was happy to have surpised Mike with my phone call since it just happened to be his birthday when I was calling. I have called him in the past on his birthday by accident after some other crowning events in my life, he was happy to hear from me and I was just as happy for him.

We made it to the hotel and it was completly desolate. It seems our company trip was going to take up most of the rooms at this small 4 star resort in the hills. The hotel is on some natural hot springs so people come there for the remoteness of it. I was amazed to see snow on the ground, right next to the hot pools. Since I was a late joiner i lucked out and got the biggest room they had. Depressingly the hotel room was much bigger than my "dorm room" in Moscow. I've lately become somewhat obsessed about changing apartments, but I'll unlikely want to leave my artistic and historic neighborhood. I take a nice long bath, settle in and fall asleep. It was 6pm Kamchatka, 9am Moscow, midnight chicago.

I wake up not knowing what time it was and stubled downstairs. My cellphone was sporatically working and it did not adjust to what time it was locally. I did not bring a watch so my body was really confused about what time it was. I woke up in time to see everyone slowly arriving and making there way into the hotel. I was greeted by colleages and clients whom I've known for years. We all chatted for a while and then they all went to bed.

I was wide awake...and feeling restless. There were these really hot, nice pools of water outside that were calling to me. It was alright outside (jacket weather) but i really thought a nice dip in the hot water would relax me before bed. So I jump in. Overwhelmed by the amazingly hot water, I completly lost my brain. I did someting so stupid that it would make any story of my accidental death seem pausible. I decided "hey, where is my camera phone, let me take a photo of me in this hot springs, the smoke looks neat"

Behold, photos of me inside the pools, just 15 seconds before a burst of hot water came onto my back, forcing me to scream and release the telephone into the water....did the cell phone survive?......sadly....no. I spent the rest of the trip trying to find cell phone stores all over the russian ring of fire but to no avail. Its seems like the locals are more obsessed over weather and food than gadgets....the poor uncivilized fools.

I retreat back to my Shangri-La, saddened by the fact that my precious phone is no longer working. I plug it into the charger just in case....nothing...sigh. Well I've been up for a while at this point and I notice that the sun is coming up already! Is it late or early? I had no idea since there was no clock in the room, I did not have a watch, and my cell phone, my link to the world world has just died. At that moment I knew I was untied to my responsibilities and felt that my brother Captain America from Easy Ride would have been proud. Tomorrow the helicopter awaits....

posted by RU ETL @ 11:27 PM 1 comments

Acting like its the end of the world...

So where do I begin. My company was taking clients on thiis whirlwind tour thru out all of Russia. At the end of the trip they were going to go to Vladivostok and for 4 days they wre going to go sightseeing in Kamchatka (KamYatka in Russian). It was my dream while working here in russia that I would venture around and see the far east…experience Siberia…and see parts of the planet that others have never dared to go. Tim who organized the trip was really upset that he couldn’t go due to last minute business. He did keep egging me on about going. By Tuesday morning I had enough and told our in house travel agency to figure out how one can go to Kamchatka and to book me a ticket. The group was going to arrive in Kamchatka Thursday night. This would mean that I would have to travel on Wednesday (due to time difference) to get there Thursday. To everyone surprised there is a daily flight to PetroPavlosvk-Kamchatsky (the main city on this firey peninsula). For all your history buffs out there (I was a Russian/East Asian history major in college, as well as political economy….but anyways) Petropavlovsk is one of the oldest Far East Russian Cities founded in 1741 by a Danish (yes Maria and Christina..be proud) born captain who sailed there on two ships, the St Peter and the St Paul. Another thing to note is that it’s a 3.5 flight away from anchorage….but I’ll get to that.

I went home Tuesday night, packed my bags and informed everyone about my impromptu trip. Part of the trip was two days of touring the terrain via helicopter. Kelly seemed rather worried about me flying in a copter because well….those things tend to fall from the sky. She told me that I had to text/call her when I was done with my rides.

I got the office to write up a schedule so she had some idea where I was since I figured communication was going to be a bit tough. My mother was worried too, esp. about the fact that there were Russian helicopter but she also told me not to give Kelly a heart attack and make sure I let her know I was ok….women….anyways I stay up most of the night packing. I’m such crap at packing. I ALWAYS bring more than I need to. What is it that makes me think I want to wear a different outfit for all occasions and multiple pairs of shoes? I never do! I always bring home a good part of the clothes un-used. I have this small carryon case and I’ve decided that I can fit everything in that. If it doesn’t fit, it’s not going….Annoying my Ipod stopped working the previous weekend during a software update. Being entertained on a flight is key, but being entertained on a Russian flight is even more essential.

Wednesday finally arrived. I’m sitting in the office all giddy, getting all prepped up for my trip. I get the final details from the marketing department and I’m feeling confident. Then it happens. At around 10:59 am Moscow time the power goes out. The computers still work in the office but the lights go out. No one was thinking ahead cause it turns out that we have a backup reserve generator for computers but do not have anyway to keep the servers cool and Moscow was in the middle of a heat wave….we have exactly 2 hours of computer time left. The Moscow stock exchange was closed and cell phones stopped working. Very eerie de ja vous from my
experience during the NYC power outage of 2003. Local Russians had no idea what was going on.

There were reports that some of them thought that Russia had entered war and that the end of the world was coming.

Panic ensued…so I summon my driver at 11:45 am to come get me. It seemed that things were not going to be solved soon. There were people trapped in the subway and roads were being blocked by trolley buses that stopped working mid-turn. An hour later my driver said he was about 20 mins away. It was 1pm and Charles my boss told everyone that we were going to pack it in and not work today. Nick and Pete called their drivers to come get them as well. I felt that my guy would be downstairs waiting for me. Since cellphones stopped working there was no way to get in touch with him.

Me, pete, nick and a few others stood around outside waiting to go home. The guys call my driver “bubble-head” cause he sometimes doesn’t really think things through. They were convinced that he was going to show up last even though he left his home an hour before the other guys. Please don’t let them be right bubblehead, I thought to myself. Of course pete’s driver Yuri whom Faiza became fast friends with showed up with Pete’s younger brother. Then 15 min later Nick’s driver showed up. Oh great. It was hot outside, I don’t speak Russian really well, and all my friends had their rides home and I was stuck at this abandoned office with no way out. But instead of rushing into their A/C powered luxury SUVs and jetting to their country homes, they stayed. Nick and Pete put there arms around me and said “we’ll wait till your guy shows up, we don’t leave you”. They do say you really value your good friends when you are in trouble…im just glad I know some solid people in moscow. Well they stuck around another 45min in the heat, didn’t give me and lip and waited for bubblehead’s arrival. It was 3pm. My flight that day was leaving at 10pm. Moscow traffic is legendary, and well if there is no power, its even worse. I decided to go straight to the airport and wait it out there.

Nick and pete are really good about money. If you can’t make it to the atm to pay rent, they are ready to help you Before I left for the airport I found out that the travel office did not buy my ticket yesterday and I had to go to the airport and pay for the ticket with my corporate card. I asked nick for some money just in case. He gave me a handsome amount and I felt much better about going about my way to the airport. What I didn’t know was that all the credit card machines and ATMs in town were not functional due to the power outage. Lucky me. So it took us 2.5 hours to get to the airport. I slept most of the way. I got to the steaming pile of crap that is Sherametevo-1. No not the steaming piece of crap that is the international airport across the street (Sheremetevo-2) which my sister flew in and out of and hate hate hate….so much that I am making Kelly, jenny, and Jason fly into the ultra modern domodedevo airport. Sherametevo-1, the domestic airport is like the airports in Pakistan…(yes that bad). I had to pay for my ticket with the cash nick gave me (which was all of it!) and wait for hours and hours for my flight to be called..

The flight to PetroPavlosk was on Aeroflot, my new home airline. As me and Faiza discovered, Aeroflot is not that bad…It was an Illyshin – 98 or 96 class plane. A big mofo The flight time from Moscow to Kamchatka direct is 9.5 hours, the same to New York City…but I was flying over the same country. I’ll be gaining hours on my way east. The flight left at 10:10 Moscow time Wednesday night, and I will arrive in PetroPavlosk at 4PM Thursday afternoon I had my mini-dvd player and starwars to keep me company. Yeah, I admit it, I’m sitting in business class of a plane watching star wars….I’m a dork. The stewardess was nice, kept offering me Vodka shots to help me sleep. I kept on passing. She thought it was strange I was passing up all that quality alcohol…..what can I say, I’m a dork. We had to put the shades down cause the sun was out and we needed to sleep. Got a few hours of rest. No Ipod…I missed it.

I wake up notice that we are starting to descend. I look out the window and see snow and ice. Mountains and more and more Mountains. Is this it? Have I arrived? Well I did. The plane flew over the water and then the land. I saw a massive air force base, huge satellites, and an impressive landscape. We landed at this non-airport. There were only 3 other planes around and no noticeable airport building. These security officials board the plane and ask to see all our passports. Yes even Russians need papers to travel from state to state (a hunt for red October reference…good movie). The woman who looked at my documents reminded me that I needed to get registered when I got to my hotel…yeah yeah, I know you the drill you security obsessed people.

I boarded a bus that did not take me to a building, but instead to a huge metal padlocked gate. They opened the gate and let us out. There were all these people excited to meet the new arrivals. I met up with my ride to my hotel. It told me it was 4:30pm and he welcomed me. I flew from where they thought it was the end of the world to the actual end of the world….Boy what a long flight and a long day...

posted by RU ETL @ 8:06 PM 0 comments