Trail Log 1995-1997 - Lamar at Colorado State University

Siberia and Lake Baikal
June 15-29, 1997
June 15, Sunday. Left Fort Collins 5.45 a.m., Denver to San Francisco, arrive 8.35. Met the main
trip leader here, Victor Kuzevanov, Director of the Botanic Garden of Irkutsk State University,
Irkutsk. Met Margaret Betchart. She is President of the International Association of Ecotourism.
Left San Francisco on Aeroflot 12.30. The plane is an IL-62, Ilyushin-62. Landed in Anchorage,
Alaska, about 5.00 p.m. Flew in over Prince William Sound and Kenai Mountains, some striking
snow covered mountains.
Flight to Khabarovsk, over Bering Strait, sometimes water with ice in it, though the flight is much
over northeast Russia, all in daylight, arriving about 8.00 p.m. local time, on Monday, June 16
(therefore skipping a day because flying across the dateline).
June 16, Monday. Checked into hotel, an Intourist hotel. Room mate is Mort Glass, Belmont, MA.
Atmospheric sciences, retired. Met the assistant tour leader here, Aleksey Golovko, astrophysics,
especially solar prominences, observed from an observatory on the shores of Lake Baikal (visited
later).
The city is rather typically Russian, full of doms, and rather rundown and weedy looking. You don't
get the impression of being in the Orient, either from the architecture or the people. There is lots
of cotton in the air from cottonwood trees. Warmer and more humid than I expected. There are
614,000 people in Khabarovsk. 86% are Russians. There are only 3 churches; formerly there were
over 30.
Stretches of the city have the depressing gray blocks of huge apartment houses that go on forever.
Khabarovsk was named for Khavarov, a brutal Russian explorer.
Salaries are $ 150-250 per month. A typical academic salary is, in equivalent $ 150 per month, or,
$ 200 for better paid positions.
$ 1 = 5,780 rubles.
In 1993, when I was in Moscow, the exchange was $ 1 = 1,200 rubles.
Military service is compulsory for young men, and many seek to avoid it. In the army, life is difficult.
They may not even have enough to eat.
General notes on Siberia:
Siberia means "sleeping land." You can put all of the U.S. into Siberia without touching its
boundaries, and fit all of Europe, except Russia, in after that, with room to spare. (Lonely Planet