Altai. Teletskoye Lake

Somehow I can't stop writing about Altai. Perhaps I would write about Caucasus if I lived close to Caucasus, or about the Alps, if I lived there.
But I happen to live in Siberia and one of its main attractions is Altai.
Today I'll write about Teletskoye Lake.
It's the biggest and the deepest lake in Altai.
Situated at a height of 434 m above sea level, the lake is 78 km long and 5 km wide. Its surface area is 233 km²; however, due to its considerable depth (325 m), the lake contains no less than 40 km³ of fresh water. The lake transparency is high, with the visibility of the lake water ranging from six to fourteen meters. The water temperature is no more than 8-10 degrees C in summer, but there are small bays where it can be up to 15-17 degrees C warm, thus it's possible to bathe there.

Here's what Wiki says about Teletskoye Lake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Teletskoye

Altai Mountains, November 2010

I started dreaming of the next Altai travel as soon as came back from there in the end of August. Altai is able to capture you, perhaps the same way as all mountains do.
November 4-7 is a public holiday in Russia and everyone can enjoy some days-off. Unfortunately the weather is usually dull-gray within this period. It's late autumn, no leaves on trees, sometimes it snows, sometimes it just freezes, but sometimes we are lucky to have relatively warm and sunny weather.

Altai Mountains, Chuya Road and surroundings. Conclusion.

Hello, everybody reading my blog.
I'm finally up to writing the last part of the story about our Chuya Road travel.
And it is just the right time to finish the story as spring is already here and I'm packing my backpack for the next tour, not knowing yet where we'll go.

Altai Mountains, Chuya Road and surroundings. Part 4

In the end of the previous part of my story http://mytravelog.blogspot.com/2011/02/altai-mountains-chuya-road-and_20.html
I said we were going to see the the Northern-Chuya mountain range. And we did it. We saw many other amazing sights too.
It's just unbelievable that all these things are less than 1000 km away from Novosibirsk. This distance is not large, if we remember the total dimensions of Russia.
But when one comes to those remote places, one feels as if one would be in another world or even on another planet.

Novosibirsk in pictures.

I'm no good at photography. Unfortunately.
But fortunately there are people who are extremely good at it.
And fortunately some of them live and work in my home city and they make really good pictures.

In the blog of one of them, Slava Stepanov, a young but talented artist, you can see amazing pictures of Novosibirsk, Novosibirsk Region and some other destinations.

I've stolen one of the pictures of Novosibirsk to show it to you here, and the rest you'll find in the artist's blog below:

Novosibirsk from a helicopter:
http://gelio-nsk.livejournal.com/134682.html#cutid1

Academgorodok from a helicopter:
http://gelio-nsk.livejournal.com/126649.html



The photographer's website: gelio.newsib.ru

Altai Mountains, Chuya Road and surroundings. Part 3

After some time of silence I'll continue my story, the second part of which can be found here:
http://mytravelog.blogspot.com/2011/02/altai-mountains-chuya-road-and.html. Hope I'll be able to finish it by August when, hopefully our next Altai travel  is going to happen.

Having left Kur-Kechu camping we went on our travel along the Chuya Road, in the direction of the border with Mongolia.
The day was wonderful! The sun was shining in the clear sky. It was a bit cold in the morning, but it's typical for mountains.
In a small village called Inya we bought a big sack of potatoes, carrots, cucumbers and onions for as cheap as a bottle of vodka. Unfortunately the locals are addicted to drinking, and all travelers should be aware of that.

Altai Mountains, Chuya Road and surroundings. Part 2

I've been pretty silent for nearly a month.
A lot of work...
But the sun is shining brighter and brighter and it's the right time to start planning the next travel.
And to remember the past summer, of course.

Well, I started to describe our Altai travel here: http://mytravelog.blogspot.com/2010/12/just-to-remember-summer-in-middle-of.html
And I stopped on Seminsky Mountain Pass.
So I'll continue.
Seminsky Pass is high, 1700 m over the sea level, the road to the top of it and down is almost straight, hardly any bends, so it's not so easy to get on top even by an off-road vehicle. But the way down the pass is quite easy.

Ice and snow wonders in Novosibirsk

The festival of ice and snow figures is already a good tradition in Novosibirsk. This event traditionally takes place in the central city park each January 8-13 and attracts artists from different cities of Russia and even from abroad.
Snow should be quite solid, so about two weeks before the festival it is put into big wooden boxes and pressed.
Sometimes artists have to work in rather severe conditions, as the average temperature in January is about -20 here, and this year it was about -30 the day the festival started.
Unfortunately snow is a fragile substance and sometimes figures get a little destroyed just after they are made.
After the figures are built, they remain in the park for about 1 week and then get completely destroyed. And only the pictures remind us of this wonder.

 This year's winner. This figure is called Energy. I made this photo on Friday, the 14th, and on Saturday, the 15th it was already somewhat destroyed (a couple of rays were missing)..

 Best Friends.

 My Fish. As far as I remember, it was made by people from Kazakhstan.

 Somewhat abstract figure. But looks amazing.

 Buddha and monkeys. Made by Altai artists.

 This one took the 2nd prize.

 Don't know what it means, but I liked this most of all.

Young artists can also participate in the event. And their works are as interesting and beautiful, as those made by adult masters.

 It is a real happiness for me to see that this nice thing was made by the children from the school where I studied.

A character from a popular modern Russian cartoon.

I hope you like the pictures. It is a real pleasure for citizens and guests of our city.

Siberian Birch Bark Museum

The museum of birch bark crafts in Novosibirsk is unique.
It claims to be the only one of that kind in the world.

In it a visitor enjoys the vast collection of pictures, figures, decorations and even icons, all of them made of birch bark in Novosibirsk and in other cities and regions. Most of them are new, but some were made several decades and even centuries ago.

The collection is amazing! Some figures are so strikingly complex that one just can't imagine how the artist was creating them. It is not an exaggeration to say that all pieces are masterpieces.

As it is a purely Russian style of arts and crafts, the most pieces represent characters from Russian fairy tales. All those wood goblins (called Leshiy in Russian), Baba Yagas, wood spirits (lesovichoks), sauna spirits (banniks) and so on. There are many objects of worship, some kind of amulets kept in the house or worn as decorations. Even icons can be seen and bought here, blessed by the Russian Orthodox Church.
A lot of objects reflecting lifestyle in an old Russian village.
There is even an 18+ hall, skillfully hidden behind a plain door, so ask your guide or a museum officer to open it for you!

Some simple things can be bought in the museum shop, and larger objects can be ordered from the aetist.
I recommend visiting this museum to all guests of Novosibirsk! It is small, so the tour won't take you more than 1 hour.

The museum has two exhibition halls, located ul. Sverdlova 21, and ul. Gorkogo 18, each of them in the historical downtown, close to the main attractions.

Altai Mountains, Chuya Road and surroundings. Part 1.

I've been silent for so many days and even week. A lot of work, a typical situation for the end of a year.
And today I've managed to finish the last project I had to translate, to cope with the necessary bookkeeping and even to clean the house.
It's quite cold outside, which is typical for the middle of winter.
Real Siberian Christmas and New Year frosts...
I'm looking forward to New Year's Eve and thinking about summer.
It's quite a long time to wait, and too early to make plans, so I'd rather remember the last summer.
It was really great, with our travel to Altai Mountains. It is something like a tradition for our family already.
It was the second time we went to Altai with our kids.
And for me it was somewhat the 10th travel there.
The first time I visited Altai was when I was 16. My cousin, who was 26 at that time, took me with her. She was with her boyfriend and paid almost no attention to me, so I had a lot of time and opportunities to walk around, to look and listen and to fall in love with that wonderful region so deeply that all my numerous travels to Europe, which I also love, cannot replace that passion for Altai.

Snowfalls in Western Siberia are turning into severe frosts

Winters in Siberia are something special. Very special even for the locals.
Snowfalls of the last three days are turning into severe frosts.
It was -5C in the morning and -17 early in the evening. The forecast for tomorrow is thrilling, about -30 in the night and between -24 and -29 in the daytime. Tomorrow we'll check what it will be like.

But today's morning was fabulous, if you just try to forget about traffic jams, which trapped the whole city.
But I don't drive a car, and as the weather was wonderful, I decided to take a little walk. It was snowing heavily, but there was no wind. A kind of perfect winter weather!

Just try to imagine what winter in Siberia is!
Would you like to experience it? Come to Novosibirsk somewhere in late November - late March. I bet your travel will be unforgettable!

Traffic jam. A typical picture these days

An interesting sign, but even mites in Siberia are very strong

 And this is what I see from my window now

 And it's just the beginning of winter. Who knows how much snow we'll have by the end of March?

Biysk. Siberian peer of St.Petersburg.

Have you heard of Biysk?
'What is it and where is it?' is a common answer. No wonder, a small city in Altai Region has no bright moments in its biography, but it's of the same age as St.Petersburg and was founded by the same person - Peter the Great, and it is an honorable fact in itself!
And not only this makes the city interesting. Later on, in the 18th and 19th centuries, the city became the starting point of Chuysky Tract connecting Russia with Mongolia and China. It was a big and important trading center.

If you go from Novosibirsk to Altai mountains, Belokurikha or Mongolia, you have to drive through Biysk, which is 330 km from Novosibirsk in the southern direction, there is just no other way! But hardly any makes a stop here and spares a couple of hours for a little walk. And we always did the same. I went to Altai about 10 times, but it never occurred to me to walk around the city and to look at it.
When we were going to Altai in November this year for the weekend, I decided to correct that mistake. And we spent about an hour and a half walking around the old part of the city.
It was really wonderful! A quiet and peaceful atmosphere of the city makes you feel as if you are in the past, Soviet or even earlier...
Empty streets, stone buildings of the 19th century...  This is the oldest part of the city, it is here where one of the first Siberian fortresses was built more than 300 years ago. If it were Europe, the street would be full of tiny souvenir shops and cozy cafes. But it is in the provinces of Russia, and such regions suffered a lot during the perestroika period and have still not recovered after the crisis. Local people say the earnings are too low, and it shows: almost no advertisements and billboards in the streets, too few cafes, hardly any restaurants, business and trading centers, not so many cars...

Drama theatre. A nice building of the beginning of 19th century.

Post office

A former merchant's house. Now an administrative building

An orthodox cathedral.

A former merchant's house, bow belongs to the university.

Peter the Great, the founder of the city.

Former merchants' houses.

 The atmosphere of the city is calming, it's really nice to be there. But I don't think I could live here after crazy and busy Novosibirsk with a lot of opportunities. The locals say there are terrible problems with work, very few good schools and only one University with a moderate choice of courses.



Modern city districts are as quiet and calm as its historical center.
The central street of Biysk, Lenin street, with a nice park in the middle. Few people, low prices for ice-cream and other nice small things as compared to Novosibirsk.
Here we found a really good cafe with surprisingly low prices and a really rich choice of dishes and drinks. The cafe is situated Lenin Street, don't remember the exact address, but it's near the Hotel Biysk.

Now I recommend visiting Biysk to everyone who drives to Altai or Mongolia or back.
Moreover, unlike Altai mountains, it is possible to reach Biysk by train, it is the last station in this direction. It takes about 8 hours from Novosibirsk by train and about 4-6 hours by car, depending on the driving situation.

Would you like to have a guided tour around Biysk? I will be happy to be your guide!
It is possible to find a hotel here, the prices will surprise you!
Despite the city is small, there are a couple of really interesting museums, the Museum of Chuysky Tract among them. You will learn about the history of this important and famous road.
And in the Natural History Museum you will see hundreds of species of animals, insects, fish and birds living in Altai and close to it.

Interested? I would be happy to read your comments.

About Novosibirsk, my home town

I started this blog to write about my homeland and my experience as a tourist guide, and to invite all my readers here.
And I find it reasonable to write about my hometown first.
I was born and have always lived in Novosibirsk, except for one year in Europe. That experience was wonderful, but I decided to go back home after that year, because I really love it here.

My city is unique in some sense, as it needed just 65 years to become a city with more than 1 million population. Thanks to this fact the city is often called Russian Chicago. Now 1.5 million people live here.
It's a big city. Of course not as huge as Moscow, the capital and most known Russian metropolis, but it's enough to make life really crazy.

The city lies almost in the very center of Russia and is a good way point if you travel along the Transsiberian Railway or wish to go to Altai Mountains and Mongolia after visiting something else in Russia.
The city has a lot to offer, though there are not many historical sights. No wonder, 'cause the city is just 117 years old. But it's a great example of the Soviet age with tens of so-called constructivism architecture specimen.
 And you will certainly like the chapel symbolizing the center of Russia and the opera and ballet theatre, one of the  grandest theatre buildings in the world.

And our winters! Come and visit Siberia in winter! You might dislike -30 and even -40, but you will certainly never forget it!