saracen's VirtualTourist Home Page

Hi,

I am a Scotsman living on Sakhalin Island in Eastern Russia - I've been working here since 2001 and moved here permanently in 2004.

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the capital, is no St Petersburg, but there is a hard to identify 'something' about the city that keeps me happy.

Winters here can be very harsh - temperatures around -20 deg C or lower. This photo doesn't really do it justice - those piles of snow by the side of the pavement can reach 10 ft or more.

The coldest I have seen it is around -45 deg C. It is hard to describe just how that feels, swift numbing of the extremities, sharp pain in the forehead, your runny nose instantly solidifying - something you may want to try once, but not for long!

I love old Soviet posters and mosaics etc. Sadly the mosaics are gradually decaying but I try to capture as many as I can on film.

I will stick some photographs of pictures and monuments on a separate page, but in the meantime here is a picture of the entrance to the commercial port in the city of Kholmsk on the west coast of Sakhalin.

The island is very long and narrow, and the transportation infrastructure is pretty poor in areas, especially by car.

For that reason, most people travel up and down the island by train. This picture shows the evening train at Nogliki, mid way up the island. It departs for Yuzhno at 5pm, arriving next morning at 8am. If there's a buffet car running, a very good night can be had...

2 hours south of Nogliki lies the little town of Timovsk. The town sits in a geographical bowl which means it tends to get the best and worst of weather - summers are very hot, meaning the area is very fertile and produces and abundance of fruit and vegetables.

Winters, on the other hand, can be especially vicious, even by Sakhalin standards. Temperatures of -50 degrees are not unknown here.

Kholmsk is one of the main sea-ports on the island. With the rapidly expanding oil industry, it is becomng very busy. The town itself sprawls across the mountainside, its ubiquitous maze of overground heating pipes adding to the mess.