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So you want to do the Trans-Siberian?
And you've looked at a map, and decided to go to Japan?
And you want to go via the BAM, Sakhalin and Hokkaido?
In August of 2007 we went from coast to coast through Russia and into Japan. We had planned to go via the Trans-Siberian to Vladivostok and then by ferry to Niigata in Japan. But we looked at a map and had a clever idea - why not go further north, on the Baikal-Amur-Mainline (BAM) to Vanino and catch a ferry to the island of Sakhalin and another ferry to the northern tip of Hokkaido, to Wakkanai?
If you think this is a clever idea too, this web page is for you.
It is possible to do this journey, but not easy.
Here's what happened to us...
The first step is to get to the northern tip of lake Baikal, to Severobaikalsk.
From Irkutsk: The most obvious way is by train. This is also the slowest, taking around 18 hours since it has to detour around the Altai mountains west of Baikal. A better way is to take the hydrofoil-ferry, the Raketa, which takes only 12 hours. The Raketa terminal is south of town. Take a number 15 marshrutka (minibus) from the train station and get off at the Raketa stop.
From Olkhon Island:The only way to Severobaikalsk from here is by Raketa. The ferry stops at a special terminal (made from a sunken ship) 300m up the road from the normal 'mainland' ferry that every one uses to reach Olkhon. It does not stop in Khuzir as one driver told us. But be warned! We were told that the ferry will not stop at Olkhon if there are no passengers to pick up! To ensure it does stop for you, it would be a good idea to buy your ticket in Irkutsk before you get to Olkhon.
It seemed like a simple thing : to go from Severobaikalsk east to Vanino on the BAM. When we got to Severobaikalsk however, there was much shaking of heads. "Difficult," Oksana the ticket lady said, "very difficult." We were ready to cry. "Come back in the morning," she said, "and I will have something for you."
In the morning, she had something for us - tickets to Vanino. Not only that, but she had found us accommodation for the night and was so friendly that she changed our dismal opinion of the miserable Russian ticket agents. We were so grateful for her help that we bought her a box of chocolates.
The next morning we left Severobaikalsk, heading for the Pacific.
Oksana had routed us to our destination but by something of an interesting route. From Serveobaikalsk we went east on the BAM to Tynda. Tynda is a nice, tidy town with a swimmning spot near the river and people who are very proud of 'their' railway.
From Tynda however we switched back to the main Trans-Siberian route, heading south to Never and then east again to Khabarovsk.
We were at a loss to explain why Oksana had sent us this way but we have two theories :
-I've seen differing opinions on whether or not the BAM is actually finished. Perhaps, it's just not possible to reach Vanino and Sovetskaya-Gavan that way.
- Our train arrived at Tynda an hour late, 40 minutes after a connection to Komsomolsk, east on the BAM would have left. I suspect Oksana was wiser than we and knew we were unlikely to make such a short connection.
But we were disappointed to leave the BAM - we found it more beautiful and much more friendly than the tourist-heavy TransSib routes. But the detour worked, we reached Khabarovsk in two days and were within spitting distance of Russia's Pacific coast.
In Khabarovsk we switched trains again and headed north, back up to Komsomolsk and the BAM. From there it was a short ride to Vanino and, if we'd stayed on the train, Sovetskaya-Gavan.
This is where the trip got tough. Buying a ticket here is an ordeal, unlike any other.
There is only one company running ferries to Sakhalin island - and they don't care much for passengers. They make their money running freight back and forth between the island and the mainland.
Here's how it worked for us -
When we asked the locals if this was normal, they all shrugged and said, "Yes, it's Russia."
The port of Kholmsk is where you'll arrived on Sakhalin. It's an unlovely town with nothing much to recommend it and even the locals seemed intent on blitzing through it to the capital - Yuzhno Sakalinsk.
There is rumoured to be a bus but no one had seen or heard of it. Instead we relied on the every faithful marshrutka (or minibus) for a death-defying ride through the rain to Yuzhno. It cost about 200 roubles per head.
From outside the train station at Yuzhno there's a bus that runs every hour to Korsakov, taking about 40 minutes and costing 100 roubles. It might be possible to catch this and blitz through Sakhalin in one day but we played it safe and stayed a night in Yuzhno and another in Korsakov, so we could arrive at the ferry in plenty of time for our sailing.
It's fairly easy to find the ferry terminal in Korsakov, but there's one last little bit of bureaucratic nonsense you have to go through before you finally escape Russia.
Although you might have your tickets its a good idea to get to the ferry terminal a couple of hours early. Not only do you have to clear customs and immigration but you also have to pay a port tax before you can leave. This can be paid at a little window in the ferry terminal and you have to show the receipt to the customs people before you go.
Then you just have to clear the usual Russian visa hurdles and you're home free.
Enjoy.
The trip is possible, potentially even enjoyable. But for us it was a nightmare of frustration and a trial of endurance. This was mainly because we were already exhausted, we were running out of time on our 30 day Russian visas and, by this stage, we just wanted to get out of Russia.
If you have lots of time or you can find someone to pre-book all this for you, it would simplify things enormously. If you could take the time to travel the BAM it would be well wroth it. I would recommend the BAM over any of the Trans-Siberian routes which we found to be soulless and dull.
