Vladivostok

[Kris]

I was wondering what Vladivostok is like. I have not heard that much about the city, yet it has always interested me. Can someone tell me what it is like. I know it is a port town, but does it have an airport?? Does the Trans-Siberian railroad end in Vladivostok??

Kris

[Dr_Woland]

Vlad is a nice but small town. It got over-taken as the main city of the Far East by Khabarovsk, due to Stalin's policies in the 1930's. (He believed Vlad was full of anti-communist spies, and kept the city "down" as a result).

Yes, the Trans-Sib starts/ends there - there is a plaque on the main platform of the train station, showing where the first spike was hammered-in in 1898 by a young man called Tsarevich Nikolai - who was to become Nicholas II.

There is not really a lot to see in Vladivostok - a couple of tiny museums, and that is "it". There's a nice beach called Shamora, about 5 km from town through a nice road. The weather is nice in Vlad because of its Pacific location, it feels very "non-Russian".

One of Russia's current biggest-selling rock groups, "Mumii Troll" come from Vladivostok, and started the style called "Vlad-Pop" :-)

If you have a lot of money, you can stay at the Daewoo Hotel - one of the tiny handful of 5* hotels in Russia.

Dr W.