August 21,2015 Novosibirsk to Tomsk

Today we rode through some new geography in Siberia, from the industrial/military town of Novosibirsk, to the more vibrant Tomsk.  Tomsk is one of the oldest towns in Siberia, and is the third largest.  It feels young due to growing youth population, yet has history, as a center for gulags during the Soviet era, and is on the trans-Siberian railway, so a lot happens here.

Breakfast was very good and fairly prompt considering the size of our group. I think Svetlana had a lot to do with that, after last night's disaster, when a lot of us gave up and went to bed before the food was served. She pitched in to help get the plates on the table quickly, allowing the waitress to concentrate on making coffee and bringing the eggs and plates of puff pastry out of the kitchen.   In any case, we all made it to the bikes and the orientation meeting by the 8:45 scheduled departure time.  

The group spent a few minutes before briefing getting the bikes ready for today's ride

Dave cleaned the many bugs off the windshield. 

The hotel was getting ready for another wedding. Last night's wedding affair was pretty loud.  Although the music was quieter after midnight, we heard the merriment through our open window until 3 AM  - and we were often wakened by helicopters flying very low immediately overhead - their rotor wish actually moved our sheer curtains.

Janis gave the morning briefing. We were headed to Tomsk.  Established in 1624, is located on the Tom River and is only 256km (160 miles) from our start in Novosibirsk.  This would be a short ride today, and expected to arrive by 1 PM or so.

We left the hotel compound, turning left towards what looked like...

A building with airport written on the front of it. No wonder the helicopters sounded like they were landing on the hotel roof.

Alex and Ira, our friends from Jakarta, Indonesia, were ready for the day's ride.

The ride out of the city was uneventful. Where there was traffic, we were able to pass or filter to the front. The Russian drivers politely gave us room to maneuver past them.

Just around the corner, most of the group stopped to fill up. Since we filled up late yesterday, we left the group and headed out onto the country roads with Boz...

... And opened it up - passing cars...

... and farm carts at will.

This little town had quite a few smalI woods-sided houses like many that we've seen previously in Russia.  Again the window detailing caught our attention. 

This one looks as if it is slowly sinking into the ground. 

We haven't seen many other motorcycles in Russia, but they are famous for their BMW-copy called the Ural.  In this town we saw a lot of Ural motorcycles with side cars like the one on this lawn.

Nearly every property has something for sale out front.

There was a motorcycle with a side car sitting in front of almost every house.  Imagine these places in winter, which lasts about nine months in Siberia, with sub-zero temps and deep snow for six months. There are many winter-only roads in Siberia, which are passable only when frozen.  I am not sure that we'd like to return to see the hash conditions, but our sense is that what we are seeing is very temporary and much nicer than the dreary reality of long, cold, dark winters in these tiny, cold wooden houses.

We saw this group of cool old Russian cars as we breezed by with Boz, but didn't get a picture.  The main group stopped here later for lunch and Svetlana took this picture of John Jesson with the cars.

Today we had to navigate around a herd of cows, now pretty much an every-day occurrence for our group. 

They weren't bothered a bit...

By the traffic.

The letter "S" is replaced with the letter "C" in Russian - hence the name is "Tomsk" to us. We will NEVER get any part of the cyrillic alphabet, much less the Russian language.  We try to learn a few words to be friendly, but it is tough.

Around 11am, Boz pulled over to discuss riding plans for the rest off the morning. We decided to just go to the hotel because it was only about an hour away.

At one point Boz quickly pulled over to the right to avoid a driver passing on our side off the road. 

We passed over three Tom River as Tomsk came into sight.

Tomsk is a mix of tasteful old, and surprisingly acceptable new, compared to the architectural abominations we've seen in European (western) Russia.

Again we saw some great old wood-sided buildings...

... And some that have seen better days.

This one must have been a beauty. It's the largest wooden private home we've seen to date. The detailing around the windows is pure artistry.

Traffic was heavy, but motorcycles can usually find an opening.

We saw the town's interesting mosque...

We reached our hotel a little after noon. It's on the central square near a Lenin statue. It is interesting that many of the towns that we pass through still have dominant Lenin presence, in statues and street names.  Virtually every place we go has a Lenin Street (Lenina Ulitsa in Russian).  Considering the horror that the guy left in his wake, we are surprised that he is still omni-present. 

Svetlana took this picture of the square as the group arrived later in the afternoon.

After checking in and taking our gear to the room, we decided to walk around the corner and find a restaurant. 

"Pasta Mama" was it.  Honestly, much of the food we've eaten on this trip so far is not all that different than what we get at home. But pizza sounded like the perfect meal after a morning of fast riding. 

The squid and baby octopus pizza arrived and smelled delicious. The crust, however, looked greenish-grey in color, and not because it was overcooked or burnt.   Hmmm-a bit different, but the aroma won us over. Perfect!

The rest of the group took a more leisurely ride, stopped for lunch along the way, and arrived around 3:00 PM.  When we returned to the hotel, we found the standard lineup or our twelve bikes in front.

And as usual - another wedding was underway! (photo by Svetlana)

As we were walking to dinner this evening, we saw yet ANOTHER wedding party -and this couple was wild:

Th bride eventually flashed her underwear, but all in fun.  There's gonna be an even bigger baby boom in Russia if our trip is any indication - we have seen at least a dozen wedding parties so far, maybe more.  This may be because we are staying at hotels and resorts, or because summer is so short here, but we also see lots of cars with rings on the roof, and flowers indicating "just married" - at least that part of the economy is chugging along just fine.  The survival of the species is assured!

Tomorrow we will continue riding eastward across Siberia.  This week will be a bit laid back compared to most, with two 2-day stops, one to have the bikes serviced and the second at a lakeside resort. We can't wait to see what's next.