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Mebertz
Joined: 16 Dec 2007
Location: Suncheon
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 Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:45 pm Post subject: Vladivostok, Anyone? |
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In the next few months, I'd like to do a boat trip to Vladivostok.
I don't speak Russian, but I don't speak Korean either, so I don't think that will be an issue.
Has anyone been there? If so, what were some issues that you encountered?
Cheers,
Mike |
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dogbert
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: Killbox 90210
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| Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 7:08 pm Post subject: Re: Vladivostok, Anyone? |
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| Mebertz wrote: |
Has anyone been there? If so, what were some issues that you encountered?
Cheers,
Mike |
Hot women
Clean air
Interesting architecture
Gigantic salmon
Flying over N. Korea
Kvas |
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Mebertz
Joined: 16 Dec 2007
Location: Suncheon
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| Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 8:07 pm Post subject: Re: Vladivostok, Anyone? |
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| dogbert wrote: |
| Mebertz wrote: |
Has anyone been there? If so, what were some issues that you encountered?
Cheers,
Mike |
Hot women
Clean air
Interesting architecture
Gigantic salmon
Flying over N. Korea
Somehow, I don't see these as issues. Plus, Russian food, as simple as it is, is far better than Korean food. But, issues?
Kvas |
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dogbert
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: Killbox 90210
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| Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 9:53 pm Post subject: Re: Vladivostok, Anyone? |
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| Mebertz wrote: |
| dogbert wrote: |
| Mebertz wrote: |
Has anyone been there? If so, what were some issues that you encountered?
Cheers,
Mike |
Hot women
Clean air
Interesting architecture
Gigantic salmon
Flying over N. Korea
Somehow, I don't see these as issues. Plus, Russian food, as simple as it is, is far better than Korean food. But, issues?
Kvas |
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I believe Tiger Beer did a great post on his trip to Vladivostok, which would be worth searching for. I think "davai" or "soviet man" also posted on the disadvantages of taking a ferry from S. Korea to Vladivostok, the main one being that the port of embarkation in Russia is not close to Vladivostok and does not have user-friendly transportation links. Also, that part of Russia does not have a lot of people who speak English well enough to provide assistance to tourists, so you may want to take a group or guided tour.
There is the issue of getting an invitation/visa for Russian travel, although that is more a matter of cost and time.
If you are not wedded to the idea of going by boat, I'd suggest also checking out this site: http://www.vladivostokavia.co.kr/ |
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Mebertz
Joined: 16 Dec 2007
Location: Suncheon
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| Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:06 pm Post subject: |
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DB,
Thanks for that. I won't do tours, but I know that there are some Germans there and a German embassy, so if I need any help, well, that was one of my majors.
Thanks.
Mike |
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davai!
Joined: 04 Dec 2005
Location: Kuwait
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| Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 3:58 am Post subject: |
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davai!
Joined: 04 Dec 2005
Location: Kuwait
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| Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 4:13 am Post subject: |
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Cool city. The boat, however, is 30 hours and the plane is 800 bucks.
Not really a backpacker kind of place, but a great city if you're a dirty old man 
I had fun there, but it was kind of boring. I had a few American friends there and some Russian friends there, and I speak Russian, which helped. Very little English is spoken.
Unless you go there in the late summer, you can't enjoy the beach, there are military museums and other random attractions, such as an auto museum and some cheesy hotel casinos. Don't forget Yul Brenner's house. Underwhelming to say the least.
If you go, take the train up to Khabarovsk and spend the day. Kh. is alot more Soviet and might be cool. (I've never been)
I'd personally like to do a loop to Vladivostok, then to Harbin, China on to Beijing, Tianjin and back to Incheon. Scratch that. I don't want to come back to Korea.
good luck and PM me if you have any?????? |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:20 am Post subject: Re: Vladivostok, Anyone? |
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| There is the issue of getting an invitation/visa for Russian travel, although that is more a matter of cost and time. |
Maybe it's more difficult with the boat?
I flew on Korean Airlines (although Vladivostok Air is the cheaper deal). When I bought that ticket, the travel agent had an invitation letter for me immediately. I could either have had the travel agent get me a visa with that, or I could do it myself. I chose to do it myself as I wanted to check out the Russian Embassy. Just bring that and the ticket, and they'll issue you the visa fairly straight-forward with a day or two or three waiting period. Fairly easy process (by plane anyways). You also have to say where you will stay your first night hotel-wise.
To the OP:
They only have 5-6 hotels available in Vladivostok. You can't just stay anywhere, they have to be approved by the Russian government. I stayed at Vladivostok Hotel I believe (if I remember right). Regardless of where you stay, it will be a minumum of US$50/night in Vladivostok and goes up from there. If you choose to go to the city of Khaborovsk, I think I remember hearing the prices were half that for lodging. I also heard its a cooler city in general - although I liked having the ocean and beaches of Vladivostok.
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Actually DAVAI! helped me out quite a bit before I went there. I also agree with some of the main points he mentioned.
1) Definetely NOT a backpacker place. It's a very LOCAL place. As an American, most people didn't realize I was a foreigner in the first place, but when I did speak, they were quite shocked to have a real American among them. This wasn't a bad thing, by the way. They were just wondering how an American ended up in Vladivostok.
Along the same vein, there are no expat bars, whatever expat community is there is fairly non-existant. I also met an ESL Teacher there who posts on the 'other' board - the Russian Board who lives in Vladivostok. Drinking a few pints, I think he told me he only knew of less than 10 expats total that he knows of, even having been there for a couple years already at that time. I could see that, I didn't recognize any foreigner anywhere that was visible.
I spent 8 days there. It was way too much time. The cooler thing about Vladivostok is there are kiosks all over the place, and you can order a beer and walk around with it anywhere at anytime. Nearly everyone else is doing that anyways, particularly around the waterfront. It does get boring as there isn't an expat hangout and pretty much everything is in Russian, and the city core isn't that big, easy enough to see everything in a few days.
There is one amazing cafe which I'm sure I wrote about it in an older thread. All the cool people of Vladivostok hangout there, a lot of wealth, and a lot of very striking women go in and out of there all times of day and night. It's 24 hours, and absolutely packed even in the middle of the night. Great food too. Great place to eat after drinking and going out. |
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soviet_man
Joined: 23 Apr 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:49 pm Post subject: |
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Good summary Tiger.
The thing with Vlad is that prices have gone way up in the past few years. |
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