Vladivostok

Total distance traveled = 1722 km/1070 Miles

There seems to be only one hostel in Vladivostok, well with any kind of web presence anyway. Consequently both Chris and I had booked the same place,the 'See You Hostel'.

When booking, the owner had sent instructions on how to get to there by bus or taxi. Arriving in the evening, I probably would've just got a taxi if I was alone to save potentially getting lost on the first day. But the significantly lower cost and the feeling of safety you get with other travellers overruled and we took what was a surprisingly easy bus ride, taking us about 15 minutes out of the city.

This took us into what could politely be called 'a lower socio-economic area'. Run down high-rises and graffiti covered walls greeted us. The 'hostel' was actually a large apartment with two rooms full of bunk beds, on the 4th floor of one of these buildings. It was, admittedly, slightly better than the other buildings surrounding it, but it still had the look of a gang hideout or drug den. Once past the 3 inch thick steel door of the building and into the apartment, the decor looked a little better. The inside of the building was clean, and the apartment itself looked much better than I had expected. The only downside of the hostel itself was the bathroom/toilet. As it was basicaly a flat there was only one of each, meaning there were sometimes long waits in the morning due to the 14 or so people staying there.

Writing this on the train, I've realised that I didn't take any photos of the outside of the building. Maybe I can get one from another of the travellers I met and add it later.

The staff were very helpful, despite the fact that the language barrier sometimes made asking the simplest questions and requests Herculean. One area we seemed to spend a long time on was registration. Russian law states that foreigners need to register their stay in the country. Unfortunately, the laws aren't particularly clear, and recent changes have confused the issue further still.

My interpretation, and one that I had confirmed on an internet forum, was that I needed to register within 7 days of entering the country, and then again if I stayed in one city for more than 7 days. Explaining this to the staff and trying to object to their view that I didn't need to register at all made up most of my communication with them. I'm sure that they thought I was being overly cautious and too keen to line the pockets of the government, but I didn't really want to be on the wrong side of the law, especially in a country like Russia.

After I finally thought I'd arranged to get one of the members of staff to take me into town and register, on the agreed day he was nowhere to be found in the morning. I caught up with him at 4pm, when he told me that the office was only open 10-12pm. As I was leaving Vladivostok that night there was no possibility of registering. This led to another prolonged conversation, mostly using Google Translate (surprisingly accurate in Russian compared to Japanese) about how the mix up occurred, and were I could register in the next 6 days.

Anyway, back to Vladivostok itself. I wasn't particularly impressed, and am quite glad that I only stayed one night. I wandered around looking at old buildings (including Yule Brenner's old family home), memorials, and statues, with another guy from the hostel- Stew. We also walked along a promenade and to a funicular, both of which seemed to be under some sort of rennovation. A number of the buildings were covered in scaffolding too. Apparently there's some kind of exhibition or conference next year, so this may be the reason for the extensive building work. Despite the funicular being closed, we were able to reach the viewpoint by climbing some stairs. I quite liked the Soviet style statues and monuments scattered around the city. They're all very powerful and angular in their depiction. I think most of my photos of the cities are of these kinds of statues!

Also staying at the hostel were a group of Korean travellers. They all spent about 80% of their time hunched over their phones or laptops, or sleeping. I'm not sure if that's a generational thing, something unique to Korea, or a combination of both. I understand the appeal of the internet when travelling to keep in touch with friends and family, plan your travel, and check attractions, but they seemed to be watching TV and music videos most of the time - things they could have done at home without travelling! They didn't communicate with other guests unless quizzed either.

While I didn't think much of Vladivostok as a whole, it was good to meet and chat to the other travellers (Crystal, Chris, and Stew) and learn a bit about their plans and background. I'd also found out that, despite their somewhat menancing facial expressions, once approached most Russian were pretty friendly and helpful. this was something I was counting on in thecoming days on my train journey.

Few more photos here...
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Japan%20to%20Russia/Vladivostok/?albumview=slideshow