Wonderful article on living alone for six months in the Siberian wilderness

[darrenleroy]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2013/may/31/siberia-cabin-lake-baikal-russia

I just read this article and was impressed. There's a short video that accompanies it here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/video/2013/may/31/escape-to-siberian-cabin-video

I love the line that says:

Milan Kundera said because Russia didn't have an elite in its history, and no Renaissance, Russians are still in a state of irrationality and magical thinking, like the Middle Ages.

I have met many Russians in the last couple of years and could never put my finger on what it was about them that was different to other northern Europeans. They look like us but they don't act like us. There is a different spirituality about some of them; like another dimension exists for them outside the here-and-now. Maybe it's the vastness of their terrain.

 

[santaman2000]

You've just reminded me of a classic old book I still want to read. Alone; by Admiral Richard Byrd. www.amazon.com/Alone-Byrd/dp/0874773881

 

[darrenleroy]

I just watched Happy People: A Year in the Taiga. What a documentary!

 

[rik_uk3]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2013/may/31/siberia-cabin-lake-baikal-russia

I just read this article and was impressed. There's a short video that accompanies it here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/video/2013/may/31/escape-to-siberian-cabin-video

I love the line that says:

Milan Kundera said because Russia didn't have an elite in its history, and no Renaissance, Russians are still in a state of irrationality and magical thinking, like the Middle Ages.

I have met many Russians in the last couple of years and could never put my finger on what it was about them that was different to other northern Europeans. They look like us but they don't act like us. There is a different spirituality about some of them; like another dimension exists for them outside the here-and-now. Maybe it's the vastness of their terrain.

Could be the home brewed vodka.

 

[Goatboy]

You've just reminded me of a classic old book I still want to read. Alone; by Admiral Richard Byrd. www.amazon.com/Alone-Byrd/dp/0874773881

Have you read "North To The Night" by Alvah Simon? LINK Very good read about overwintering alone in an ice trapped boat in the Arctic.

 

[realearner]

Brilliant some of these people just DO, liked the writing of this guy, so another book on the list.

 

[santaman2000]

Have you read "North To The Night" by Alvah Simon? LINK Very good read about overwintering alone in an ice trapped boat in the Arctic.

Thanks. Just added to wish list for later shopping.

 

[treadlightly]

Very interesting, thanks for posting.

 

[Elen Sentier]

Milan Kundera said because Russia didn't have an elite in its history, and no Renaissance, Russians are still in a state of irrationality and magical thinking, like the Middle Ages.

What a glorious phrase! It rings true for me ... off to read article and bookmark, ta for the heads-up.

Just watched the video - with utter envy! - and I love the way he speaks, "you can spend a very great moment doing nothing" and the way he talks about stuffing as much into his time as possible ... and learning to grow out from that habit! Book now on wishlist! I love people who are open and grow like that, connect ...

 

[knifefan]

Saw this in the press last week!! The guy actually spent 3 days alone!! And it was far from "roughing it" he took solar panels to power his laptop
And satellite internet connection. In between partying with tousists, planned visitors and the odd excursion to town and neighbours!!!! I think they gave the book a 1 star rating
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Elen Sentier]

Saw this in the press last week!! The guy actually spent 3 days alone!! And it was far from "roughing it" he took solar panels to power his laptop
And satellite internet connection. In between partying with tousists, planned visitors and the odd excursion to town and neighbours!!!! I think they gave the book a 1 star rating
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

Ah well !!! What a shame !!! Good thoughts - bad actions !!!

 

[Goatboy]

"Milan Kundera said because Russia didn't have an elite in its history, and no Renaissance, Russians are still in a state of irrationality and magical thinking, like the Middle Ages."

Russian history is littered with elites, it's why it existed as the empire it was and had a revolution which produced even more, and as for no Renaissance it had it's own indigenous one and the modernisation of Peter the Great. I do think they have a different mind set though but that's partly because so many cultures have been brought under one banner.

 

[darrenleroy]

Maybe he was talking about a scientific or educated elite. And the vast wildness of the place means isolation for many of its inhabitants. Combine that with a harsh climate and one might encounter people who are more in tune with nature and its magic. Just an idea.

 

[darrenleroy]

Saw this in the press last week!! The guy actually spent 3 days alone!! And it was far from "roughing it" he took solar panels to power his laptop
And satellite internet connection. In between partying with tousists, planned visitors and the odd excursion to town and neighbours!!!! I think they gave the book a 1 star rating
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

I don't think the idea was to 'rough it'. Would you have a link to the press article? It sounds entirely at odds with the one on the Guardian website. Having said that the average Guardian journo probably thinks setting foot outside Greater London is entering the wilderness ha ha.

 

[darrenleroy]

Happy People: A Year in the Taiga is Werner Herzog's documentary study of a Siberian village focussing on the trappers. It not only looks beautiful but also shows trappers at work in the wilderness.

 

[Goatboy]

I don't think the idea was to 'rough it'. Would you have a link to the press article? It sounds entirely at odds with the one on the Guardian website. Having said that the average Guardian journo probably thinks setting foot outside Greater London is entering the wilderness ha ha.

No No, they're roughing it here, LINK

 

[knifefan]

I don't think the idea was to 'rough it'. Would you have a link to the press article? It sounds entirely at odds with the one on the Guardian website. Having said that the average Guardian journo probably thinks setting foot outside Greater London is entering the wilderness ha ha.

I think it was the mail on sunday - book review!! The guy, who is a French travel journalist, wanted to experience "total solitude"!!! But it seems it turned out far from that - I don't think he even made it to the end of his "planned isolation" period

 

[abominable_scouse_monster]

You know what I envy the guy, that's the kind of place I would love to live some day.

Be it alone with my thoughts or a significant other I would love being isolated.

 

[andybysea]

The romantic notion of being alone somewhere totally remote is a thought many people have myself included, the down side is of course if you become ill, a tooth abcess,a urine infection, little things easily treated at home but become very serious left,the people who did survive being stranded or abandoned somewhere, were lucky to not starve to death or die from dehydration, but also infection/illness,you only have to go through a victorian grave yard and see the young ages people died,probably the majority could have been saved with modern medicine, so whilst being alone in the wild hundreds of miles from anywhere is a romantic notion, for me now at my age thats what it will have to stay.

 

[tamoko]

[video=youtube;4D4sfuv8D1c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D4sfuv8D1c[/video]