The Waiting

Our time here in Vladivostok boiled down to one thing, waiting. In the beginning we were waiting for our car. Then we had to wait to figure out visas, and wait some more to find a Russian person to help us with our visas. Then wait while each person who heard our visa story laughed at us and then wait some more while they slowly decided that they could actually help us. We had to wait for packages containing parts for the car. Half of the packages were apparently in some strange limbo land that occupies Russia between Moscow and Vladivostok. No one seemed to be able to help us in English or in Russian, but we continued to persevere even when it seemed like there was no chance. We called numerous numbers and were passed along from one place to another...

Then, seemingly at random, the person on the other line would respond with, "AUSHDO8A3 321J1028 OJKCANKJN A 1IR0PH192 HRL." Thats my attempt at writing Russian, but basically saying "Yeah, the package is right here, come pick it up." Why it took that long to figure out that a package was actually in the city I have no idea but, I now knew that if you keep looking hard enough you can find what you are looking for in Russia, usually.

So that first package contained the skid plates for our car but not the new springs for the suspension which is a little more important to the survival of the car. The springs however were stuck in limbo land and we had no idea when they would arrive. So in the meantime we started going shopping for the car. We bought Soviet style gas cans, off-road tires, a spare wheel, and a fire extinguisher. We attached fog lights and started putting all the vinyl on the car.  However, each night we were spending over our daily budget just by staying in the hostel. We decided that we had to leave no later than July 13th to make it to Mongolia on time. Since we didn't have much else we could do until the other package came we decided to go camping to save money.

We went to Rusky Island, which we were told was pretty and had many good places to camp. However that did not turn out to be the case. We couldn't find anywhere to camp, heck we weren't even sure we were on the right island cause it didn't fit any of the descriptions we were told. We ended up just heading straight off the road into a kind of dense area about 50 feet from the road, but completely hidden. We spend two nights there, the second day of which I spent by myself alone in the tent as Jack and Richard went back to Vlad to check in on the car and get last minute supplies. I stayed because we were pretty sure we were going to have to camp again and we did not want carry our gear to and from the island again. Around midday I received a call from Jack saying that the springs had arrived!!!! So pumped!!!! Anyway, Richard came back and we packed up everything and returned for one last night in the hostel and are about to leave in t-minus two minutes... So stoked to start on the road.
It finally feels like this trip is about to begin.

--Ezra