Japan on a Budget

There is an interesting story on a Phillipine Website called www.rappler.com about how to visit Japan, a notoriously expensive country, at moderate cost. The complete reference is www.rappler.com/life-and-style/travel/59518-budget-guide-osaka-kyoto-japan.

It includes advice on how to get a cheap air fare from the Phillipines by booking far ahead when a promotion is announced, but also good ideas that can apply to all visitors. The author prefers staying at hostels or guest houses rather than hotels, and says that by booking ahead and avoiding major holidays you can get a traditional style room for about $35 per night. It will have air-conditioning, hot baths, WiFi, and be clean, apparently.

Kyoto and Osaka are known for their abundance of traditional architecture and temples, and are the cities to visit if you want to get a hint of the old Japan. Most temples and shrines are free, or charge admission of $4 or so at most. The best way to get around to see them is by using an all day bus pass which also costs $4.

Food can be expensive in Japan, but not if you stick to dishes like curry rice. A meal with a very large serving of curry rice, meat and tea goes for about $7, or try converyor belt sushi which costs $1 a piece. Sukiyaki is a fast food chain the writer likes.

Shopping is not a great bargain in Japan, but is an interesting experience. The international chains like Zara (www.zara.com) are among the less expensive places to find clothes if you need them.

I have observed how prices at shops like Zara vary from country to country. Here is Canada Zara is a low- to medium-price chain, but in Russia it is considerably more costly. A cotton shirt that cost about $70 in St. Petersburg would, I suspect, go for less than half that in Montreal.

Electronic Book on Russia Now Available

If you haven't kept up with all the postings here, or if you just want a lot of information about how to visit Russia on a budget in one place, check out my new ebook "Budget Travel Tips for Russia." It offers ways to save on food, lodging and transportation while visiting one of the world's most challenging countries for travellers. It is available for purchase from my Website, www.travelwriterforhire.com

I couldn't find anything similar on the market, so decided this would be a good way to help people who want to travel in this very fascinating country without breaking the bank. It is filled with links to useful Websites, as well as tricks I have picked up over a number of visits to the country Ronald Reagan once dubbed the "Evil Empire."

Depending on how this goes, I'm thinking of producing a series of similar short ebooks of budget travel tips for other places I know well, such as Montreal, cruises, Berlin, Washington, etc. The major publishers seem to be neglecting the budget market now--even Lonely Planet guides contain high end hotel choices for the well-heeled. And since the whole publishing scene is very much in transition, this is as good a time as any to experiment with new ways of helping people travel better and for less money.

In any case, I would very much appreciate your purchase and feedback.

The Smolny Institute

I had heard about the Smolny Institute for the Education of Noble Girls for a long time, and on my recent visit to St. Petersburg finally got to see it (pictured above.) Originally a cathedral and convent, it was made into a girls' school by Catherine the Great in the 18th century. Modelled on the teachings of Voltaire (a friend of Catherine's,) it wasn't just a finishing school. Students were required to live there from age 5 to 18, and to study languages, mathematics, science and religion in addition to dancing and drama.
The Institute is also known for its architecture. It was designed by Rastrelli, who also designed the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, in neo-Classical style. Following the October Revolution of 1917, Lenin closed the school and used it as his government headquarters for some months. (He later moved his government's capital to Moscow.)
The Smolny is located on the main island of St. Petersburg, on its northeast corner somewhat far from most other attractions. Unfortunately it continues to be used for government purposes, and was not open when I was there in May. Normally a few rooms, which have been made into a museum, are open to the public.
If you are interested in Russian history and/or in the education of women (a noble endeavour,) it's a must on any visit to the Venice of the North.

Siberian Dawn

I've just discovered still another winning entry in the competition among English-speaking writers on Siberia. It's titled "Siberian Dawn: A Journey across the New Russia" by Jeffrey Tayler, published in 1999. It is based on an overland trip he took from Magadan in extreme northeastern Russia to Poland in 1993, when the shackles of Communism were just beginning to fall off Russia's extremities.


It is an excellent book, but very different from Ian Frazier's more recent book on travelling in Siberia. Like Frazier, Tayler is an American, but considerably younger and with far better command of the Russian language. In fact, he can pass for a native and on checking up on him, I discovered that he still lives in Russia although his most recent book is about the Congo.


His book is quite personal, detailing how he undertook this journey out of a need to live in the present as much as possible, and to penetrate beneath the surface of Russian life in a way that you cannot do when you stay in expensive hotels.


Along his very arduous route Tayler encountered many interesting characters, mainly working men and women living in remote areas. He travelled both by road and by train, and stayed in many dodgy places. Much of his journey took place in winter, the quintessential Siberian season.


Unlike Frazier, Tayler does not allude to earlier Americans who travelled in the region and wrote about it. But he does write well, and obviously has the knack of getting perfect strangers to open up about their lives.


His book is a worthy addition to Western writing about Russia, and an easy read. The edifice below  is a typical Siberian wooden church at an open air museum near Lake Baikal on the road from Irkutsk to Litvianka.

Buryats and Baikal

To the Buryats, an Asiatic ethnic group who live in the region of Lake Baikal, the lake is sacred. The Buryats have their own autonomous region, with its capital at Ulan Ude on the eastern side of the lake. According to Ian Frazier's "Travels in Siberia," a train runs along the southern shore of the lake and connects Irkutsk to Ulan Ude, a trip that takes about 24 hours and sounds fas-cinating. Ulan Ude is also easy to reach by plane from Moscow or other Siberian cities.
But even without visiting Ulan Ude, you will see evidence of the Buryats in and near Irkutsk. They are a shamanistic people, and there are many spots where particular trees and bushes are decked with colourful ribbons that pay tribute to nature spirits. It is a local custom when passing such places to stop and tie a ribbon. I also observed people throwing small coins toward the trees.
The Buryats are believed to have originated in Mongolia and to have travelled north to escape persecution by the Buddhists many centuries ago. Who knew Buddhists persecuted people? Today about a quarter million Buryats live in the Baikal region, and some of their cuisine is popular with locals and visitors alike. A particularly delicious treat is a meat-filled pastry called a pozhe, brimming with hot gravy. Keep reading for information on where to get good pozhes near Irkutsk.

The picture below

is of the writer at a Buryat shrine on the road from Irkutsk to the Small Sea of Lake Baikal.

Impressions of Irkutsk

Irkutsk, which lies six hours by plane or three days by rail east of Moscow, is the capital of Eastern Siberia. A city of some 600,000, it seemed bustling with new wealth and new development, in addition to significant pockets of poverty. In my first three days in Irkutsk I saw three traffic accidents, compared with none on the rest of a three week trip. Irkutsk drivers may be reckless, but most of the cars I saw were shiny and new.
Once known as the Paris of Siberia, it was the place of exile for most of the noble revolutionaries known as the Dekabrists, who were sent here following their failed revolt in December of 1825. I stayed in a large comfortable house in a suburb of the city(gated, naturally) that is named for the Dekabrists. It was strange but pleasant after an uneventful flight that landed at about 5:30 a.m. Irkutsk time to be greeted by a smiling, fashionably attired host who led us to her sparkling clean European SUV. then took us to her home not far from the airport, fed us breakfast and let us rest for a few hours to beat the effects of jet lag.
She later drove us downtown and showed us the sights, including a large park overlooking the wide Angara River. It was the last day of school for Irkutsk students, and the park was full of soon -to- be high school graduates celebrating what they call Last Bell. The girls were dressed in black with lacy white aprons and small headdresses, which reminded me of native Breton costume. They had small silver bells pinned to their dresses, and everyone was in a cheerful mood.
On a later sightseeing tour we visited the square of three churches, two Russian orthodox dating from the early 18th century and a Roman Catholic cathedral built by Polish exiles in the late 19th century. It is the largest Roman Catholic church I have seen in Russia, and still holds services.
The main streets of Irkutsk are still named after Communist heroes, Karl Marx and Lenin, and it is really possible to say, "Meet you at the corner of Marx and Lenin." Some of my Marxist professors would be delighted.

The Cathedral of the Epiphany, built in 1718, is on the square of three churches and is often used as a symbol of the city. It is in a style known today as Siberian baroque, and is pictured below. A nearby church, the Church of the Saviour, is built on the spot where Cossacks founded Irkutsk more than 300 years ago.

Circum Baikal Railway

Baikal, the enormous lake in eastern Siberia, is a place of superlatives--deepest lake in the world, oldest lake in the world, a UNESCO world heritage site containing more fresh water than all the Great Lakes combined. It even has a species of seal called the nerpa, a small rotund animal found nowhere else on earth. The rare Barguzin sable, prized by furriers, can be found along its shores.
However, Baikal is not easy to explore. Much of it is inaccessible by road. Hikers roam trails along the lake, but many of them are steep and forbidding. One way to see a lot of the lake on a day trip, and to enjoy some early 20th century railway architecture, is to travel on the Circum Baikal Railway along the shore of the lake from Port Baikal to Kultuk. This involves taking a bus from Irkutsk to the lake, then a short boat ride to Port Baikal where you board the tourist train. The trip can take up to 12 hours and costs about $50. The price does not include meals or drinks, and travellers are advised to bring their own. At some stops there may be people selling drinks and local delicacies such as smoked omul, but you could be very hungry by the time you reach them.
The train makes five stops where passengers can explore the surroundings, marvel at the engineering and architectural achievements of the builders, and even take a dip in the crystal clear but usually frigid water. On the return trip to Irkutsk the Circum Baikal uses the track of the Trans Siberian Railway, so even if you don't have time to take that fabled train you get to ride on some of its track and roadbed.
I'm a train lover and enjoyed this small train very much. But even if you aren't, it offers a good way to see remote stretches of the lake if you don't have your own transportation. You pass by small wooden homes accessible only by water, and catch a glimpse of the real Siberia away from the cities.

Below, some passengers disembarking from the Circum Baikal train.

Friendship Force International

I have written before about Friendship Force (http://www.friendshipforce.org,) a cultural exchange organization that offers home stays in various places around the world. However, that was before I had a chance to experience one of their exchanges.
My recent trip to Russia was a Friendship Force exchange organized by the club in Dubuque, Iowa. Most participants were from that club, but there were also two each from Texas and Nevada, and myself from Montreal. We stayed for a week each in St. Petersburg and Irkutsk with hosts, and for another week at hotels in and near Moscow.
It was relatively inexpensive, but it was also an amazing experience. My fellow Ambassadors (as exchange members are called)were uniformly welcoming and helpful, and my hosts in both cities were very kind and generous. Although I knew none of the other Ambassadors when I began the trip, by the time I returned I felt that I had a lot of new friends.
Friendship Force offers more than 250 exchanges a year to destinations around the world, and many are open to non-members. I can recommend the group heartily, and I plan to join one of the clubs either in Montreal or elsewhere. By travelling with a group like this, you have the chance for unique experiences such as visiting an English class at a public school in Vyborg as I did, meeting high level Russians who are eager to meet you, and getting a real glimpse into the lives of Russians who do not work in tourism.
This was my first trip with FFI, but I hope it will not be my last.

Not your mother's Aeroflot

I recently flew on Aeroflot Russian airlines (http://www.aeroflot.com) from Moscow to Irkutsk and back, and was pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness and newness of the plane, as well as the service. Best of all, all announcements were bilingual in Russian and English.
I did suffer a little nostalgia for the good/bad old days of Aeroflot when a surly unilingual air hostess pushed my travel companion down in her seat when she tried to go to the washroom while the seat belt sign was illuminated. In Soviet times Aeroflot was an accurate introduction to the difficulties foreign visitors were likely to experience on the ground. Today, though, the airline is thoroughly modern. My only complaint was that I could not figure out how to order an alcoholic beverage in economy class. I think the drill is you have to order and pay for it in advance of the meal, but I'm not sure. Another change is that Aeroflot no longer serves Canada, so there is no non-stop flight from Montreal to Moscow as there used to be.
I flew in a comfortable Airbus, and on its Website the airline boasts that its fleet which consists of both Airbus and Boeing aircraft, is among the newest in Europe. No more lurching Turpolevs, and at least on the Irkutsk route, no more scrambling for seats because seats were often unassigned and overbooked.
The flight to Irkutsk is long, six hours, but proved to be smooth and I felt a sense of security knowing that if any problem did arise, we were over land and for most of the trip there was little on the ground to hit except for trees.
Aeroflot is advertising special fares on some routes within Russia, including a return fare as low as 2,000 rubles (about $75) to Mineralnye Vody in southern Russia, a spa town and gateway to the fractious Caucuses region.

Moscow Hotel Bargain

Last week during a visit to Moscow I spent several nights at the Alpha Hotel, part of the Izmailovsky Park complex of hotels. This is a large but pleasant hotel that caters to tour groups big and small, and the cost of my room, which included an enormous and tasty breakfast buffet, was included in my tour price. When I checked the price online, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the cost of a room at this time of year starts at only $77. Checking prices for September, I found that they were higher, but still as low as $102 per night. The summer price is about half what I paid last time I was in Moscow in 2007, for a hotel situated equally far from the center.
Rooms at the Alpha are basic but very clean, and mine had a tub, hard to find even in Russian homes. The Alpha, which is part of a five hotel complex comprising 7,500 rooms, keeps to the old Soviet system of having an attendant on each floor. You are supposed to leave your room key with her when you leave, and she also keeps track of the minibar and telephone charges. Long distance rates were moderate--about $10 for a five or six minute call to North America.
One big advantage of the Alpha is its location, literally just across the street from a Metro station. The station is listed on my Metro map as Park Izmailovsky, but now seems to be known mainly as Partizanskaya, and it connects directly to the stations near Red Square downtown. Another plus is that it is next to a very large park and to the Izmailovsky souvenir market, an ornate Disneyesque place with turreted buildings that is reputed to have some of the best prices in Moscow for souvenirs. Unfortunately the market is open only on weekends.
With such bargain room prices (for Moscow) there had to be a drawback to this hotel, and there is, especially for summer visitors. Rooms are not air-conditioned, and it looks as if the city is in for another very hot summer. If you leave the windows open for air at night, it can be hard to sleep because of traffic noise--rooms on higher floors are better. I was so tired because of the fast pace of my tour that I didn't have much trouble sleeping, but it is a consideration.
Rates quoted above are from the Website http://www.moscow-hotels.net.

Amazing Siberia

I just returned from three weeks in Russia, including my first visit to Siberia, storied land of suffering and exile. I can report that there is a lot more to the place than those old tales, however true and valuable they may be.
Irkutsk, capital of eastern Siberia, is a booming cityof about 600,000 inhabitants with lots of traffic and new building. Made famous by the Dekabrist revolutionaries of 1825, it has long been considered the pearl of this vast, underpopulated region. The noble revolutionaries of the 19th century and their wives who voluntarily joined them in exile brought cultrue to this remote, forbidding area. Some of the mansions they built here still survive, along with numerous old churches and even a large Roman Catholic church built by Polish exiles.
Today Irkutsk is home to a large academic community and appears to be benefitting from some of the wealth generated by Russia's oil, gas and mineral development. There is still poverty, but the general mood seems upbeat.
I travelled to Irkutsk as part of a tour organized by Friendship Force, (http://www.friendshipforce.org) an international organization that brings together diverse groups of people who visit one another's homes. My host in Siberia was very generous and welcoming and did a lot to make my stay very pleasant. The same applied to a different host in St. Petersburg. I'll tell you more about the trip with pix in the coming weeks.

Budget Travel in Tokyo

The February-March print edition of Money Sense,(http://www.MoneySense.ca) a Canadian magazine, has a short but useful article on how to visit one of the world's most costly cities on a budget, and without staying in a capsule hotel. A capsule hotel, for the uninitiated, has rooms that resemble train berths or coffins more than they do conventional hotel rooms. The bath, naturally, is down the hall and the capsule places offer rock-bottom prices (for Tokyo) of around $40 or $50 a night.
The writer has found some budget hotels where actual rooms, sometimes with breakfast, start at about $65 a night. He also recommends buying a pass for the city's extensive train and public transit system for about $19 a day, and an attraction and museum pass for $24 a day. High prices, yes, but this is Tokyo. Best of all, he suggests places in the Japanese capital where you can get a filling meal or snack for between $5 and $10.
If you always thought a trip to Japan was out of reach financially, this article proves that it is not. I did not find the article in the online edition, unfortunately. Money Sense doesn't publish many travel articles, but the ones it does have are generally good, as are many of their more general articles on investments and financial planning. (Full disclosure--I have written for Money Sense.)

Egypt's Attractions

This clearly is not the time to visit, but Egypt is a country everyone should see at least once. Its monumental attractions--the Pyramids, the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel--and many, many others are well-known, but equally impressive is the friendliness of the people. Admittedly much of that friendliness is motivated by a desire to make a sale, but Egypt is the only country I have visited where virtually everyone you meet who can speak English will say "Welcome to Egypt."
Egypt was the first country I visited once I had seen much of Europe, and I've returned several times. On that first trip I travelled alone, with only a reservation at the stately if down-at-heel Hotel Semiramis right on the Nile. The sight of the river from my balcony that first morning is one I'll always remember. The Semiramis is no more, but there is no lack of interesting, inexpensive places to stay in Cairo. A quick internet search uncovered several thatlook nice and are very modestly priced--the Arabian Nights Hotel downtown near Al Azhar Unviersity has rooms with breakfast and bath for only $20, while near the Pyramids at Giza the Horizon Pyramids charges $42 for a room with the same amenities.
The wonderful Mena House right beside the Pyramids is a worthwhile splurge. And a Nile cruise is not to be missed, although access to many tombs is restricted now because of the deleterious effect of too many tourists on ancient frescoes. On my first trip I was able to book a cruise on an old-fashioned boat (think Death on the Nile) after I arrived, but to be sure of getting a berth it is better to reserve ahead.
Egypt is not an easy country for travellers, but there are few places in the world with equal historic riches. We can all hope that the riches survive the present unrest, and that order is soon restored in a way that will meet at least some of the popular demands. The long-suffering Egyptian people deserve that.

Dormitory Delights

There doesn't seem to be any central source of information about them, but rooms in college or university dormitories are still a good bet during school vacations. Many Canadian unviersities open their residences to non-students during the summer, as do some in the United States, in Spain, Scotland, Ireland, Malta and Argentina, among others I have written before about the many options available in student residences in high-priced London during school holidays. Near New York City, Long Island University offers rooms to visitors starting at about $50 a night when classes are not being held.
Usually rooms in residences are considerably cheaper than those in commercial lodging (other than hostels,) and they often come with other perks like low-cost dining options and use of sports facilities. Generally the rooms are singles, with shared bath.
B & J Publications used to put out a book called "Campus Lodging Guide" with details on residences open to visitors, but unfortunately the last publication date seems to have been 1999. If there are Websites offering similar information on a number of such residences in different universities, cities and countries I have not been able to find them. Such a listing, preferably with an online reservation form, would be very helpful to budget travellers.
So, for the moment you have to do some research yourself. If you plan to visit an expensive city during summer or over Christmas, check out its colleges and universities to see if you can book a room and save some bucks. And if all else fails, you can always sign up for a summer course that gives you access to on-campus housing.