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May 2008
publication date: Jul 1, 2008
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author/source: Polly Evans
| PollyEvans.com Newsletter |
May 2008
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I was away for two weeks of April, this time in Chukotka in the very far northeast of Russia (it's only about 80 kilometres from Alaska at its easternmost point). UK-based readers of this newsletter may be interested to know that Chukotka is the province of which Roman Abramovich is governor (for those not in the UK who are now scratching their heads and saying, 'Who?' Abramovich is the billionaire oligarch who owns Chelsea Football Club). Before he took over the reins eight years ago, Chukotka was desperately impoverished but Abramovich has spent hundreds of millions of pounds building schools, hospitals and houses. The results are impressive. But the spending habits of oil tycoons aside, the trip was really incredible. We snowmobiled across the tundra, and visited an Eskimo village and nomadic reindeer herders. Read on...
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| And the winner is... |
The winner of my website travel-writing competition this month is Jack Karolewski, for his extraordinary story about a journey to Iran in 1977. Jack wins the Bradt guide of his choice. Not realizing that a sacred tomb in Iran was for Muslims only, Jack and his friends went in - and his friend naively took a picture. The crowd turned on them; the police held back the furious faithful and signalled to the young Americans to run for their lives. Read all about it here. I've also posted on my site two almost as fantastic pieces, the first by Marcus Dalrymple about a bike ride through the South American jungle, where he and his friend narrowly escaped the jaws of a puma and the police played Russian Roulette, and a lovely story by Alex Ekins about a cowboys' beauty competition with a difference. Please keep on entering - it's a real pleasure to read about so many bizarre adventures, and next month the winner could be you.
The winner of the newletter draw, meanwhile, is Claudia Imatt, so Claudia will be receiving a signed copy of one of my books.
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| On a Hoof and a Prayer hits the shelves in the US |
OK, so I told you about this last month, but I'm telling you again - it's now on the shelves! What are you waiting for?
Go to my website for the full low-down, including a blurb, an extract, and recommendations on how to repeat my journey - or parts of it - for yourself. And click here for the photos.
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| Chukotka |
This was an wonderful trip on many levels. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it was one of the best trips I've done. There was not only outdoor adventure but culture, crafts, and history.
I was travelling courtesy of Go Russia; the Chukotka part of the trip was arranged by a new local tour operator called Chukotka Discovery - it's a brand-new venture, starting up for the public from next winter. I was travelling with a group of international tour operators and press, including Go Russia who will be offering the journey to UK travellers.
It's not a holiday for the faint-hearted - on the first day we snowmobiled for 11 hours across the tundra in temperatures of minus 20 or so - but the rewards are remarkable if you can bear a little discomfort. We stayed two nights in the Eskimo village of Uelkal where they fed us whale blubber and walrus. Uelkal sits on the coast, facing towards Alaska. We were all fascinated by the rusting old radar station that dated from Cold War days.
From Uelkal we snowmobiled to Egvekinot, where our accommodation was in cottages that were surprisingly luxurious given that we were in such a remote and little-visited spot. In Egvekinot, we toured the excellent museum, and took a reindeer-skin bracelet making class. Some of the most infamous of Stalin's gulags were located near Egvekinot, and the next day we drove along the road the gulag prisoners built. We also stopped at the derelict gulag buildings where prisoners were housed. It was a cold and windy spot, and utterly desolate.
We then continued by bus and Caterpillar (a vehicle like a tank but without the guns) to the reindeer camp. But you can read all about that at my website, as it's the subject of this month's Quirky Guide. |
| Bradt/Independent on Sunday travel-writing competition |
There are just 15 days left for you to fine-tune your entry to this competition (to which I feel great personal loyalty, as I won it two years ago...) Entries should be 800 words or less on the theme of 'The Heart of the City' and prizes include a trip to Kyrgyzstan and a creative writing course in Granada. Go to www.bradt-travelguides.com for more info. Deadline is 16 May.
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| A few days in Moscow |
I travelled to Chukotka via Moscow (courtesy of Go Russia, which specializes in trips to all parts of the country). So I thought I'd spend a few days there. I'm not sure it's my favourite city in the world, but there are definitely some very good bits. I very much enjoyed watching a military parade in the Kremlin - how do they manage all that goose-stepping without falling over backwards? - and the cathedrals in the Kremlin were truly beautiful. In one cathedral, a voice choir called Anima was singing religious music. It was so atmospheric that I bought their CD. My favourite bit, though, was my visit to Lenin's corpse. I have a weird fascination with the embalmed bodies of communist leaders (I've visited Ho Chi Minh and Mao as well). Lenin was a lot less orange than Mao, but more or less equally waxy. More interesting than the bodies themselves, I think, are the crowds that visit them. In Hanoi, the Vietnamese come in from the countryside and are genuinely moved to see the mausolueum of their much-loved former leader. In modern-day Beijing, they're mostly Chinese, but they look a bit bored and are eager to get to the souvenir stalls outside. But in Moscow - where Lenin's tomb used to attract such large crowds of the communist faithful that you had to queue for half a day to view him - there was just a handful of visitors, and they were all Australian backpackers.
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| Cold-water swimming...again |
My cold-water swimming escapades continue. Diligent readers of this newsletter will know that I was very taken with my experience at the cold-water championships in February. And so, together with my swimming buddy Ruth, I have signed up as a proper card-carrying, year-round member of the Tooting Bec Lido, a hundred-yard, outdoor, unheated pool in south London. We've swum at the Lido a lot before, but always in full summer. On Friday, we went for our first cooler-weather swim. The water temperature was 12 degrees (toasty by cold water swimming standards) - and it was a disaster. We were only in the water for about 15 minutes, and the swim was lovely, but when we got out I became hypothermic and a few hours later, Ruth broke out in hives! We've taken a few words of advice since from a seasoned cold-water swimmer. "You broke all the rules!" she said. Apparently the trick is not to take your swimming hat off till you're dressed, and then replace it with a woolly hat. And if you're prone to problems, you should skip the hot shower which only makes matters worse as it draws blood away from your core. So we're heading back this Friday (we've paid £110 for these passes and we're going to enjoy it...) to see if the new regime works. Watch this space.
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| London Wetland Centre |
It's struck me this month that, when I'm abroad, I'm increasingly interested in the wildlife around me but that, when I'm at home in London, I do absolutely nothing about it. This is all the more embarrassing because I live within walking distance of the London Wetland Centre, which is supposed to be the best urban site in Europe for watching wildlife. And so, yesterday, I took action. I signed up as a fully fledged member of the WWF which gives me free access to the centre. I'm planning to be down there a lot over the summer. I'll be the one in the hide with an anorak and a pair of binos, who's still learning the difference between a sparrow and a swan.
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| This month at PollyEvans.com |
There's only one Book of the Month for May, but it's in keeping with this month's Siberian reindeer theme: Reindeer People by Piers Vitebsky. Vitebsky is an anthropologist at Cambridge University's Scott Polar Research Institute. He spent many years visiting reindeer herders in Siberia and this book not only unveils that little-known world, but tells the very personal stories of the herders who welcomed him into their lives.
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