Any ruskies or anyone familiar with here?

I'm looking for on-the-ground advice for navigating the russian rail network off the trans-siberian, also looking for the same sort of info in terms of links from Ukraine. Anyone have some experience, fairly recently if possible. While I understand that air is better for some routes I have a strange lack of faith in an airline where the tail of the plane has been known to come off.

I"ll be leaving around June, I'll most likely be in Ukraine for 3-4 weeks on business, after that I'll be heading on to Moscow and be there for a couple of weeks total. I'm more interested in info in terms of getting into Kazahistan and up towards the Kara Sea.

[size=1]Hoooollly... :eek:

Sorry for not having the experience or knowledge to provide you with any practical advice, but I still feel obligated to tell you that eventhough it may not reflect in prices, a sum as small 10 euros is still considered quite a nice money by many of us ex-Soviets...


My appologies if this was too off-topic. Just commenting from a place that could be considered "near the frontline".[/size]

Where's that, Mont? :confused:

I suppose Fodor's isn't what it used to be ...

Has StaceyV been around lately? She could perhaps ask Arsen.

a few people have PMed me and been very helpful and I've managed to find a couple of other people, I should be ok, thanks all =)

xoxoxoBruce wrote:

Where's that, Mont? :confused:

I'll hazard a guess and answer this one, bruce... just about anywhere outside of Moscow, St Petersburg, Kiev and maybe four or five other major cities. No, I'm not kidding.

O dear, this definetly seems to haved turned out as your typical newbie attention whoring... :o

Seeing the thread hadn't received any replies yet and considering you could most likely get the practical information (like, will anyone speak English on the trains out from Moscow) from official sources like Lonely Planet and travel agencies, I just thought I'ld offer you the friendly, albeit a little biased "Going to Kazakhstan by train, (presumably) alone and (presumably) not speaking Russian? You're nuts!" ;) [size=1](Didn't consider the PM's)[/size]


Bruce, that would be Estonia. One of the former Soviet republics.

O dear, this definetly seems to haved turned out as your typical newbie attention whoring...

Not at all, that's what the Cellar is about.
If someone asks a question and you have the answer (or an answer) you should offer it. If you don't, then the Cellar will go away. :(

Hell, a thousand posts or first post, it doesn't matter, it's the information that's important. It doesn't have to be complete information, just a piece of the puzzle. If enough people offer pieces, we can put it together.
Sometimes we can't solve the puzzle and a thread will lie dormant until someone comes along with more information but if we hadn't gathered what we could already the new info wouldn't mean anything.

The bottom line is....I sure can ramble on. :blush: