Camping is not such an accessible thing for us here in Russia. I'm not saying it's impossible, just very inaccessible. We don't have a car, which basically makes it impossible for us though. We made a decision shortly after arriving not to buy a car. The only thing we could see it being necessary for was recreation.
Summer is nearing an end. After a couple of cool weeks at the start of August it has warmed up again. :) We wanted to make the most of the opportunity and take some time in nature before the Summer ended. We haven't much holiday time this year either. I don't think we will get all our holiday time in this year. :(
We found a little travel agent that just opened here in Akademgorodok. We had a couple chats with them and explained what we wanted. Somewhere quiet, in nature. Russians have these places they call "turbaza". The little translation is "tourist base" or a resort. They are not resorts by western standards, they are more like our equivalent of a church camp site.
We booked a little cabin at one of the these tourist bases for three days from Thursday to Sunday. The price was not very cheap, but it included food, and what can you do? A neighbour that we are getting to know offered kindly to drive us there. We started off on our adventure with her at 1 o'clock on Thursday. We were heading for a tour base on the "Krasnoyarsk Sea", the river upstream of the Hydro Power station is more like a very large lake than a river.
Not too far into our trip we had another adventure. Our neighbour clipped her rear view mirror on the rear view mirror of a parked car as we passed it. She kept driving. A little ways down the road the police pulled her over, as they had been behind her when it happened! It was quite weird to see her get out of the car and argue with the police, and watch them argue back. (We would never argue with the police in Australia.) A few minutes later the other car pulled up beside us and the driver of that car got out, and aggressively confronted our neighbour, right in front of the police! It turned out that he had been parking illegally, so she was not to blame. No real damage had been down anyway, to two old cars. But, it was quite something to witness.
Forty five minutes later we were getting on to a little motor boat to take us over to our resort. When we checked into our room we were disappointed to find out how poky it was considering the money we had paid. The weather was turning a little dreary and we felt a long way outside our comfort zone. The last time we lived in Russia we would never have attempted something like this on our own, so I think it shows some growth and cultural adaptation. That evening we felt a little culture shocked. We changed our expectations and decided to not let it get the better of us. We went for a walk down to the water to explore.
On Friday the weather was perfect. Very sunny and quite warm. Meal times were 10am, 2pm and 8pm. But we adjusted to this too, although it messed up PJ's schedule a bit. We enjoyed the morning sitting around in the sun reading, Abigail playing in the playground and hunting for salamander lizards. We fit in a dip in the water before lunch. The water was freezing cold in the first spot we went in. After some minutes of adjusting, my feet were still cold and I could not get my head under. A mother and son staying there took us for a walk and showed us a much warmer spot. In contrast it felt warm! I could get my head under but not for too long. Still, it was one of the most stunning spots in the world to go for a swim.
So we were enjoying ourselves. I told Melody that I didn't mind what Russian food they served us in the "stolovaya" or dining hall, so long as there was variety. It shows how far we have come that I was really enjoying all of the Russian food they put before us, stuff that I would not have enjoyed on my early visits to Russia.
That afternoon we were reading again and thinking about another trip to the water. I wanted to get the good camera out and take some better shots of the scenery. I have started reading a book called "The Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia" by Piers Vitebsky. It's a very well written book, that I might share some more about another time.
About 4 o'clock it started to turn sour. We had a cabin to ourselves, with a little bedroom, but also another room with a couch a table and a fridge, with a rustic painted wooden floor. The resort had just earlier turned on some blaring Russian dance music. It cut right through our tranquility. The same thing had happened the afternoon we arrived, the day before. That time I asked them if anyone had requested the music, as it was loud and disturbing. A short while later they turned it off. I didn't feel like the same conversation again, so I decided to just try to adjust myself culturally again and deal with it.
That might have been ok if that were the whole story. A short while later the manager of the resort was coming over to our cabin. He had a bunch of towels and sheets. I thought to myself that we didn't need anymore. They were for the other room in the cabin with us. We would be sharing the cabin that night! I asked the manager if that were necessary, could they not use a different cabin? At that stage there were only a couple in use and they place was quite empty. But no, that night and over the weekend they would be quite full and we would have to share. Another blow to our cultural expectations. This time we felt a little more nervous. We knew that the chance of sharing the cabin with drunk noisy people was a high one.
Melody and I sat at our table for a little while shell shocked. What would we do? We prayed about it and asked God for wisdom. Melody decided to talk with the kitchen ladies and try to get the full story out of them. When Melody returned she brought the bad news that there would be a disco that night until 2am. It's important to understand that the sound was already filling the whole site and would continue to do so for the next 10 hours. I think I have said before that sometimes I think Russian people can be afraid of silence (well Russian city dwellers that is) and it baffles me how they can spoil such peace and quiet with blaring dance music.
When Melody told me there would be a disco that night and we knew the situation would be the same all weekend, I said we had to get out of there. Melody also asked the kitchen ladies if people would be drunk. Indeed they would, was the answer and there was every chance we would be sharing our cabin with drunken neigbours. We have had enough experience with drunken Russians in the past to know that there can be a lot of aggression and violence. This was not something we were going to hang around for, especially with little kids.
The mother and son that we had met, were leaving shortly on the boat. We asked them to wait for us. We packed quickly, but carefully to not leave anything behind. We apologised to the manager for leaving but told him we did not feel comfortable with little kids and a disco and alcohol. We called the travel agent, who in turn called the office in the city for the resort. A refund was not guaranteed by any means.
We came home with our tails between our legs. We knew we had made the right decision. But we were still super disappointed to miss out on our camping. We had been enjoying ourselves for a short time before it all ended.
It left us asking questions. Will we ever be able to take a restful break while living in Russia? Can we make life work here? We realised that these were doubts that the enemy uses to try to undermine us and make us feel insecure. It left me feeling confused and upset about how much sway alcohol has in this country. It turns out that there are Russians who agree about the enormity of this dilemma. Take a look at this article: where the Russian Health minister calls alcohol evil! (I still enjoy a beer or wine, but never to excess.) A friend pointed this article out to me that evening, and it served us a cheer up, a bit of black humour.
To be fair, these sorts of things can potentially happen in Canalia (Canada-Australia). But in those locations we are not as vulnerable. We are not subject to potential racism that can come out when people are drunk. We better know how to call the police in to diffuse a situation. We better know how to avoid such situations in the first place. In fact we did avoid the situation before it turned ugly, we just left it at sour. Next time we know not to be there on a weekend at all, or instead with a group of people large enough to have the whole resort. It may be worth trying out the Sanitorium side of things, which is more health oriented and not party oriented. We live and learn. Melody has the idea of asking the travel agent to work out some sort of credit, so that we can go back for the last two days some time soon, but not on a weekend. I hope this works out. It would allow everyone to save face, and I don't like burning bridges.
2 comments:
Hopefully you will be able to make a return trip to the holiday resort during the week.our thoughts are with you all.The scenery looks beautiful.
that's a real pity. Blaring music can be a bit of a theme - and no doubt extremely annoying in such a setting. I do hope you can get your credit. You guys are looking great by the way. I do hope that failed attempts aside we can see each other in person before too long. It looks like a very beautiful area, and one I would love to visit.
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