Problems in Saratov

Day 122  Sunday 31stJuly 2011  

The night watchman released our bikes from the courtyard and then, after loading, we had to wait around to exactly 7am before the doors to the breakfast room were opened and we were allowed to fill ourselves for today’s journey to Saratov. Being Sunday and relatively early we found ourselves on empty city roads, the very same roads that had been full to bursting on our arrival two days previous, and our progress out of Samara was swift. We went north towards Tolyatti where we crossed the Volga and started our route south west following the river on its journey to the Black Sea. We also encountered being stopped by the police at a checkpoint – our very first in the whole trip across Russia. The DPS policeman was rather stern as he said “machina dokumenta” and I handed over my V5 translation and an International Driving Permit. They cast their eyes over them and rattled something in Russian to each other and then handed them back and waved us on. I am fairly certain that they had no idea what the documents were and they never asked to see our insurance either.

We went through the industrial city of Sizran and carried on our way south west along roads that varied in quality depending on how much abuse the surface had taken from the heavy trucks that use the way each day. Deep ruts and the occasional big pothole meant that we had to stay alert and avoid being complacent because just one hit and we could either be thrown off the bikes or cause serious damage to wheels or suspension.

We arrived in Saratov in good time. It was around 3.30pm when the sat nav finally got us to the Sokol hotel. It was a strange place as it seemed to sit within a factory complex and things got even stranger when we went to reception to book in. The girl took our passports and immigration cards plus the all important visa registration document from our previous hotel in Samara and then telephoned someone and after a long conversation she relayed to us (using Google translation on her computer) that there was a problem. I managed to collar two Belgian workers who were staying at the same hotel and they told us that this wasn’t a proper hotel but more of a place where people are sent by their companies to relax. Between us we managed to work out that the problem was that they could not register our visa today in Saratov because it was Sunday and they were not allowed to let us stay without a registered visa. All of our pleadings fell on deaf ears but the Belgian guys suggested we try the Hotel Slovakia and the receptionist managed to find an address which I hastily put into the Sat nav and we set off again – this is the second time that booking.com has led us a merry dance with hotels so I will be more cautious when using them again (if I use them again !).

The Hotel Slovakia was found and it was a good location, right on the banks of the Volga, all that we needed now was a room. The receptionist spoke a little English and the all important “yes, we have a room” was music to my ears. We booked in, showered and had a (very expensive) beer in the bar before taking dnner on the terrace outside – all very civilised. However, with all positive things inRussia there is always a negative to counterbalance everything. Our registration papers will not be ready until after midday tomorrow so our journey time to Volgograd will be severely hamperd – can’t have everything !

Plans for the Road Ahead

120 Saturday Day 30^th July 2011  

We discussed our route over breakfast and decided that we would really like to ride the Transfaragaan route across the mountains in Romania and it would be best if we took the southernmost border crossing from Russia into Ukraine then followed the Black Sea coast towards Odessa and then out into Southern Romania so that we could hit the Transfaragaan going South to North. The plan then is to exit Romania into Hungary then into Austria. At this stage we will have arrived in the Europe that we have ridden so many times before so our best option is to head for home. This means that we may now be home by the last week in August nearly five months after setting off on 2^nd April – that seems like a million years ago !!

Plan hatched we set about having a look around Samara. I discovered that Frunze Street, where our hotel is situated, is also home to Stalin’s Bunker which was built for him in secret (but never used) during the German advance on Moscow during World War Two – Samara having been chosen as the placing of the new capital if Moscow had fallen. Sadly it is only open to tour groups, not individuals, so we couldn’t visit. 

However, Samara also sits on the mighty River Volga and it has some wonderful riverside beaches which today were packed with sunbathers who were braving the scorching heat of the day. We walked along the promenade and stopped for a cold beer but the heat was just a little too much and we headed back to the hotel taking a few snaps of the city buildings along the way.

Beach front - Volga River

 

River Boat on the Volga

 Some of the buildings & street scenes in Samara :

We armed ourselves with some cold beer and fruit and locked ourselves away in our air conditioned room and took some time to catch up with our blogs, our finances, emails and also to book hotels ahead for the next few days – a night in Saratov and a couple of nights in Volgograd (once called Stalingrad) where I am looking forward to seeing the largest non religious statue in the world depicting Mother Russia. The Statue towers some 279 feet and stands near the hill Mamayev Kurgan and commemorates the Battle of Stalingrad. More information on Wikipedia Click Here

Arrival in Samara

Day 119 Friday 29^th July 2011  

At the reception computer  the previous night I had tried to book an Azimut hotel in Samara but it had proven unsuccessful because of a software issue (Azimut is the hotel group which owns the Hotel Vladivostok) but I had, at least, managed to salvage the address and it was this that I punched into my Garmin just before we left our wooden house in the woods.    

It had rained during the night and some spots still came down as we packed the bikes. We said our goodbyes at “reception” and hit the main part of Ufa and noticed that we were headed towards a big dark cloud which was kicking out flashes of lightning. It was less that ten minutes before we hit the full force of the raging rainstorm – water was gushing out of the sky and it was possible to see only a few metres ahead. Many cars had stopped at the side of the road and water in some parts was over an inch deep on the asphalt but still we kept going at a steady slow pace. It was a good twenty minutes before we emerged on the other side of the cloud and the rain eased then stopped and a further half hour or so before we hit blue sky and sunshine.

The road, still a main route to Moscow, was again full to bursting with slow, smelly trucks and ample places where police lurked to catch the motorist off guard but we kept within the limits and managed to get by all of these obstructions. The biggest problem for us continued to be the heat. The thermometer on Mark’s bike registered over 40 degrees at one stage and by the time we got to Samara we were cooked. It didn’t help matters that we had arrived (as we usually seem to) during rush hour and the traffic was at walking pace for a good ten kilometres of our journey through the city and our bike temperature gauges hit critical a couple of times – we have to be very wary of this as our machines are air cooled and if they overheat there could be significant problems for us.

The traffic eased as we reached the last half kilometre and then as if somebody had it in for us the way ahead that would lead us directly to our hotel had been closed for roadworks and we had to take a slow detour back into the traffic.

Eventually we found the hotel and it was with trepidation that I arrived at the reception desk and asked the all important question “do you have a room?”. The answer was yes but only a business room which has wifi and air conditioning – HEAVEN !! I booked it for 2 nights and then went back outside to relay the good news to Mark. 

Our Hotel - The Azimut Hotel, Samara

We went straight to the room, put on the air conditioning, dumped our gear and went back downstairs to park our bikes securely in the hotel courtyard at the rear. We got back into the lift and a nice lady squeezed in with us – I felt so embarrassed as we must have been two heaps of sweaty stinking men and she was stuck with us whilst the lift took us to the fourth floor.

We entered our room and in the short time we had been away it had cooled dramatically and we were now very happy sat on our beds in our underpants again ! We showered and went in search of a supermarket where we bought a supply of drinks (some of which had to be alcoholic !) and some goodies to allow us to have a picnic in our room which we did and thoroughly enjoyed our scoff.

A sit down with the computers also revealed that we had passed through yet another time zone but this one knocked off two hours, not one, so we are now only 3 hours ahead of home. Tomorrow we will sit and plan our route for the next week or so – we have quite a few options so we will make our decision after a good night’s sleep.

Ufa

Day 118 Thursday 28^th July 2011  

The basic shower in the Chelyabinsk “hotel” apartment was enough to give a small respite from the heat and even at 7am it was beginning to warm up so we set about taking advantage of the cooler morning air and got going.  The sat nav did its job well and we picked up the main route out of town and left city rush hour behind us but picked up all the lorries along this main route to Moscow. We also noticed a lowering of driving standards as kamikaze Russians took head on chances in their bid to get by the slow, black smoke belching trucks. A proliferation of police speed checks along the way also did nothing to help us pick up any sort of progress so we laboured along in the heat, dust and fumes of his busy road.

Occasionally, we would hit small pockets where the traffic would be much less (especially around lunchtime) but on the whole it was a bit of a sap on both physical and mental energies. 

Quiet Section of Road - Mark behind me

Some roadside "shops"

Another heavenly quiet section of road

I had prebooked the hotel Raduga in Ufa on the internet back in Tyumen where we had a wifi connection so it was just a matter of being guided there by my ever faithful GPS.

We arrived at the given address only to find a large white government building. I asked the gateman about the gostinitsa Radruga and he looked at me confused and said “Nyet” (no) but then produced a pen and paper and drew me a little map which seemed to indicate that the place we were looking for was behind the government building via an access road a little further along. We followed his instructions and went down a little wooded lane in a forest and came upon an enclosed area which bore no resemblance to a hotel but we did spot the word “Raduga”. 

I went forth and found a reception and said “Gastinitsa Radruga ?” and the said “Da” (yes) so it looked like we had found what we were looking for. However, there seemed to be lots of puzzled faces and consternation and then I said “Booking. Dot com” and they checked the computer again and then they went a bit pale, several hurried conversations went on – I asked “Problem ?” and they said “No Problem” so at least something good was happening. I was then whisked away to a little office where I was told to sit down – boy was it hot – the sweat was trickling down my neck, my back, my legs,  I was sitting in my own self made sauna. The lady in the office was querying a few things with the lady in reception and it all seemed to centre around registering us (hotels in Russia have to register foreign nationals so that they can keep track of their whereabouts). I tried to explain that we had ridden the whole width of Russia and this was the first time we had encountered any problems regarding registering us but it fell on deaf ears. Then almost as suddenly as it had started the office lady asked me for some money and she ripped 500 roubles out of my hand (about £10) and I was taken back to reception. Another lady beckoned me to follow her and she took me back to the car park where Mark was waiting and then she told us to follow her. We rode through the grounds on a small path which led to a little two storey house and, apparently, this was ours for the night !

"Our House" in the woods

The inside was wood cladded and it had its own banya (sauna). The bedrooms upstairs were good but it was baking hot and, again, no air conditioning and, despite a complete search of the house, no fan either. It did have a shower though and it was good to get refreshed and changed into something clean. 

Inside the house - living room

 I went back to reception to see about wifi connections but there were none (the internet booking said that there were) so I used the reception computer to send a couple of emails home to let everyone know that we were safe and well. The staff had managed to find an English speaking student who explained to me that this really wasn’t a hotel but a health spa for people with arthritic problems – that explained why I had seen so many older people walking around with black mud on their knees and elbows held in place with clingfilm; The penny had dropped – they were not geared up to be a hotel and especially one which had to cope with foreigners needing to be registered – a learning curve for us all then ! It also appeared that the nearest restaurant was some way and we just couldn’t be bothered to ride so back at the house we raided our emergency camping provisions and had our only meal of the day, a small dish of noodles and tuna, and very tasty it was too. 

Some old Soviet gates near the house that caught my attention

The night was unbearably hot and the dreaded mosquitoes buzzing in the ear and biting ankles and elbows led to a fitful and uncomfortable sleep.

Chelyabinsk

Day 117 Wednesday 27^th July 2011  

We chose to take the road to Ekatrinburg and had pre-booked a stay in a hotel in Chelyabinsk so we set off at the moderately early time of 8am and we found the way out of Tyumen city without problem.  We refuelled on the city outskirts and met a Russian biker on a Goldwing who was travelling around the area, he was disappointed that he hadn’t known we were staying in the city as he could have shown us around all the “good” places – whatever that may have meant – maybe it was good that we hadn’t met earlier !  Despite making a couple of wrong turns (that actually turned out to be the right way) the road conditions were good, it was clear and sunny so we made excellent progress throughout the day and even managed to stop for a pork shashlik at a roadside cafe and this compensated us for missing out on breakfast. The 600 km trip to Chelyabinsk was finished by 3.30pm and my Garmin sat nav took us directly through the busy city to our hotel.

Now I use the word hotel loosely. It was set in amongst the residential tenaments and at first I thought it bwas a derelict building.  We only paid 1300 roubles for the night (about £30) so we didn’t complain but everything about the Uraloshka was basic but at least the staff were friendly. As with Novobirsk  the people at this hotel in Chelyabinsk were obsessed with “hooligana” (Russian is where we get the English word hooligan) and they begged us to put our bikes in the nearby guarded car park. More for their peace of mind than ours we aceeded to their request and put our steeds in the trusty care of the attendant for the princely sum of 50 roubles each (about £1). We found the local shop and bought a big bottle of beer, some bread, cheese and tomatoes and set about making ourselves something to eat back at the hotel. Our room was actually a small apartment boasting a sitting room as well as our bedroom but sadly no air conditioning but even nine floors up it had the required number of mosquitoes to annoy us through the night. To make matters seem worse there was no wifi signal in the room – we suspect that it was possible to connect in the reception area but the dodgy lift coupled with the fact that we were now sat around in our underpants meant that we just couldn’t be bothered.

Room With A View

Tomorrow we head for Ufa which is a relatively short  450 km ride so we may make it in time to do some sightseeing as well.