The first one has some great music and a couple of traditional Russian catamarans running some of the bigger rapids.

Heere is some video of a flip at Okinskij (Oka) Rapid.

This last video has more footage of the rapids and will give you a sense of the scenery of the Sayan Oka.

The expedition was not without danger. Klaver reports “I mostly feared the gorge through the Porozhny Mountains, halfway the route. A satellite picture clearly shows the whitewater sections, twenty white spots over a length of one hundred kilometers. The only available report had been made by Russian rafters many years ago. As the report didn’t mention the category of the whitewater, I was left in complete uncertainty. It could be anything up to class V, roaring masses of water that could easily tear apart my fully packed sea kayak.”

The real danger however came completely unexpected. “The very first day I paddled the Suntar River without any suspicion of what to come. I approached a large forest to make a sharp turn to the right. It was too late to discover that the river went straight under a large pile of driftwood, made from large trees that were ripped from the riverbanks by the river. The kayak was parked against the wood and was almost pushed under the water. I could barely leave the boat and get my equipment on solid ground. From that moment the journey didn’t impose any serious problems.”

Most strenuous were the multi-day hikes into the mountains. There were fallen trees, loose rocks and marshes. And of course there were the mosquitoes. During one of these explorations the rain came pouring down, and I started to worry about the kayak far away on the riverbank. According to Klaver “A river like the Indigirka can rise two meters within a short period of time. With a little bad luck, your boat will be lifted from the riverbank to be carried all the way to the Arctic Ocean. The nearest village was two hundred kilometers downstream, so I shouted with joy when I found the kayak at the same place I left it, with the help of GPS.”

Vlad in Saint Petersburg

This time I came to Russia one week prior to meeting our Kaa-Khem guests. I spent one day in airless, overcrowded Moscow with my high school classmates and left for St. Petersburg on a night train. I have to say that Russia has made significant progress in this area. The railcar was new, very clean, and quiet – despite that it was just a standard car for regular Russian citizens. But it was funny to meet in my compartment a college student from Mexico City, and a Russian (but English speaking) car salesman. We had a great time (even without traditional Russia vodka).

The train arrived at the St. Petersburg rail station, which is an architectural copy of the station I left from in Moscow, but felt like a very different world. Peter the Great built St. Petersburg as a “window” to Europe and without a doubts it is the most European in Russia.

My college friend Sasha met me at the station and drove to his apartment in Kupchino – the area began as a suburb 40 years ago but now you probably may call it a mid-town. It was nice to see how much cleaner the city was since my last visit 6 years ago. Of course in many ways it was only about the façades, as I only remember grey, smoky buildings from the Soviet era in this area.

After a short rest Sasha took me to Petergof – the area outside the city where a unique park complex of palaces and fountains is located. For both of us, it was the place where we spent a lot of time walking with our girlfriends (one of them became Sasha’s wife) on “white nights” among the fountains, which looked very strange without people.

I remember that in the 60s, the palaces were still in ruins after the German invasion during WWII. But ironically, security was not tight like it is now, and we could easily enter the park at night with our dates (of course not through the official entrance).

Park in Saint Petersburg

Today the park is completely restored and crowds of tourists flood the palaces and walkways of the park. If you are a foreigner, you must pay for a ticket, but Sasha used his Russian passport to get tickets for about 20% what I would pay with my American passport. Believe me – you won’t be sorry that you paid for your tickets. You will never see anything like this anywhere else – Russian Tsars had good taste for luxury. There are many options to reach the park: you may take a train, drive a car along an excellent road among Putin’s palaces, or take a boat from the center of St.Peterburg.

We came back to the city and met at one of the metro stations (probably the deepest in the world) with our college friends. We sat outside of a small café near the Russian Art museum, drank some beer (it is not bad at all now), talked about life, friends and recalled some stories from our college life. Then we walked to the Neva River. It was late, certainly well after 10 pm, and low sun threw that magical light to the beautiful buildings and reflections on the river and canals. Like many years ago we slowly walked along the river and streets and enjoyed seeing each other. I drug my feet behind my friends and felt something special about this city. I do not know what it was: air, light, spirit of the city – but it was very special. Probably I looked like a happy puppy. You have to walk Leningrad late in the evening and maybe you will experience the same feeling.

The next morning another of my classmates came to see us. Sergey spent 25 years working and doing research in Chernobyl. It was very interesting to listen to him and Sasha, who also worked there for awhile. Their professional view on the accident and the situation there were much more measured and less sensational then one may read in the media.

Then we went to see our college – Institute of Technology. It was almost empty – summertime – and we could not get to our departments. It was sad to see the degradation of what was once a great school. We looked at old desks that were probably there 50 years ago and dilapidated warehouses and lab buildings inside the main yard. It seemed that the Russian education system went downhill in post-Soviet era.

We continued our walk, visited some cathedrals that were in pretty bad shape since the Soviet time and tried to find Shashlychnaya (Kebab house) near Nikol’skiy Cathedral that was our favorite 40+ years ago. People on the streets looked different than before: they looked less suppressed, smile more, are better dressed, more stylish and accepting of the behavior of the outside world. I remember how old Russians objected to the normal style of behavior of my German rafting friends, whom I once brought to Leningrad. There are no such things now.

Saint Petersburg

Still Russians are very stubborn in their vision of the world and their own country. I argued with my friends trying to show them the disadvantages of the Russian model of democracy in comparison with the Western model, but with no success. Despite this we are and will be friends even though we live in different worlds.

That evening Sasha threw a party for us at his house. It was so nice to see the guys seating without shirts (there is no AC in majority of Leningrad apartments) around a little table with a big bottle of vodka and simple, but tasty food we had all made. We drank to all of us, our friends who already passed away, our city, and our friendship.

The next day we went to Peter and Paul Fortress, saw a very interesting exhibition of sand sculptures and that evening, I met our Kaa-Khem guest from Italy. It was not an easy task as he did not know the city and instead of waiting for us at Catherine the Great monument on Nevskiy Avenue, he stopped at Kutuzov monument (Russian general who kicked Napoleon out of Russia). I understand that there are many monuments along Nevskiy, but difference between these two is obvious – Kutuzov is a man and Catherine is a woman. Nobody could understand mind of Italians, but eventually we found Simone!

At night I left St.Petersburg by the same train. Of course my friends did not let me go without bottle of the best Russian vodka – “Tsarskaya” (Tsar’s) which we happily finished with Zach in Moscow.

When we arrived in the city center of Moscow we entered a whole new world. It was like other big cities, but the people had a different vibe. Moscovians seem like a hardy people and slightly depressed. It was a hot day in Moscow and I was incredibly jet lagged, so the first day was a blur.

Zach in Moscow

After some sleep I was incredibly excited to see Red Square so Vlad and I took the subway, which was an amazing experience. The subways are deep underground and you take the longest escalator I’ve ever seen.

Subway Escalator in Moscow

I absolutely loved all the artwork in the subway stations – next time I go to Moscow I want to spend an entire day photographing the subway stations.

Zach and Vlad in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral

We made it to Red Square, which was nothing like I expected. The square is not red. I always thought the Kremlin was the multicolored building with cool roofs, but it turns out that building is Saint Basil’s Cathedral. The Kremlin is a huge walled off area with buildings inside that are the center of Russian government. Right in front of the Kremlin is Lenin’s Tomb with a sloppy looking police officer guarding it. I just could not believe that the father of the Soviet Union who has a huge tomb in front of the Kremlin was guarded by one sloppy soldier. I expected Vladimir Putin with a machine gun, not this guy.

Russian Guard at Lenin's Tomb

On another side of Red Square is a shopping mall. Across the square from Saint Basil’s Cathedral is the Russian State Historical Museum. There were tons of tourists and 3 wedding parties taking photos.

We spent a couple days in Moscow and had some fun adventures. We walked around the city and Vlad taught me about Moscow and Russian history. We saw plenty of drunk people, which makes sense because they sell beer on the streets next to ice cream stands. We enjoyed some wonderful restaurants and ate Vlad’s favorite, Caucasian food. I thought that meant white person food, but it turns out there is a mountain region called the Caucases and they have wonderful food.

Moscow is also where Vlad started one of his funniest habits. He would turn to me and start talking in Russian. It was fun to watch him speak Russian with others around the city. I think he felt at home speaking his native language and at times he would turn to me and say something that I could not even begin to understand. This went on for the next few weeks and always made me laugh inside.

Some highlights were Balshoy Theater, the building that Yeltzin stormed with a tank, Lenin’s Tomb, and that cool church.

After Moscow we went to Siberia for 2 weeks, which was drastically different. On our return trip home we had a few more days in Moscow where I stated to feel more comfortable getting around so I focused on learning the Cyrylic alphabet. Vlad took me to see much of the city and helped me pronounce words that I would see at stores and on street signs. My favorite was Starbucks Coffee.

Starbucks Coffee

When we left Moscow I was sad to say goodbye, but hopefully I’ll be back soon enough.

It did not take a long time to choose the Kaa-Khem River. I ran the river in 1986 with a group of my good friends and my daughter, a high school student at the time. The river left me with sense of happiness. Everything was good: beautiful landscapes, clean water, good weather, fishing, cedar nuts, berries and mushrooms, lack of mosquito and flies, long conversations with friends around the campfire. The rapids were not scary but enjoyable and we ran the river lazily and happily. I wanted to come back to see and feel it again.

The Kaa-Khem is one of main sources of one of the biggest rivers in the world, the Yenisey, and runs among southern ranges of Sayan mountains in the Tuva republic of Russia. Some Americans know about Tuva and Tuvans because of their unique throat singing. The region was not always accessible because of its remoteness. Twenty five years ago we camped in the Kyzyl airport for three days waiting for good weather to fly to the river. But at least in those days we could fly to Tuva’s capital directly from Moscow.

In modern Russia it is practically impossible – there is only one small 8-seater flying from the big Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk to Kyzyl once per day. These flights it would make our trip very expensive. Prices are so high that people can’t afford to fly and therefore many flights that existed before are cancelled now. The 4-5 hour long flight from Moscow to Siberia cost 2-3 times more then flights from California to East coast.

So we flew to Abakan City and from there we drove to Kyzyl along one of two roads that connect Tuva with rest of the world. The good road (on Russian scale) winds between beautiful green ranges of the Sayan Mountains. There are some small eateries along the road where traveler can get inexpensive simple but tasty food.

Welcome to Tuva Sign

Kyzyl did not look dusty like it did 25 years ago (but maybe it is because it was rainy). On the corner of two major streets two drunk young Tuvans beat c… of each other – nothing changed during 25 years. To be fair there are some restaurants in Kyzyl now with good food (they were completely absent in Soviet times) and you can even buy German and Belgium beer!

We left our Ford van and loaded up into famous Russian military truck “Ural”. This monster can run even bad roads (on Russian scale) or lack of them.

Siberian Ural Truck

Our group had Zach and me as American guides, Anatoly, Lena, and Stas as our Russian partners-guides and 9 guests – 5 Americans (among them Larry whose company on many rivers I enjoy for 10 years), a “crazy” Italian, and three Russians.

Two Russian guides were taking down traditional 4-person cat with two guests, Zach was responsible for all our supplies loaded in a gear raft, and I had 6 people in a paddle boat. Anatoly was our safety kayaker.

Our first river day was very long. The fast current carried us through a densely forested area. We passed about 30 miles and stopped at the Saryg-Er river mouth. In less than half an hour Sasha caught something incredibly huge that he could pull to the shore only with help of Anatoly who jumped into the river. The fish was an exotic Siberian fresh water relative of salmon named “taimen” about 4ft long. We spend the rest of the evening preparing and eating of “uha” from its head, fried taimen, and drinking vodka (we are in Siberia!).

Sasha and His Taimen

Even without rapids Kaa-khem was not boring. Landscapes were beautiful, water clean. We grazed on berries in taiga and picked up some mushrooms.

On third day we reached our first rapids – so called Mel’zey cascade. Some rapids were challenging and exciting. The water in one of the rapids was strong enough to break the frame of Russian cat. Our guests and Zach were amazed at how fast Russian guides fixed it with a piece of wood.

Entering the Mel’zey Cascade

We will remember the camp at Mel’zey river mouth as best place for fishing: our guests caught many greylings and lenoks (rainbow trout). Actually we had fresh fish at every dinner.

Before our next serious cascade of rapids – 7mi long canyon “Cheeks” we visited a tiny village of “old believers” – religious refugees whose roots are in the time of Peter the Great. They moved away from civilization to live a very simple life. The men even did not talk to us. All of them had waist long beards and continued their everyday business. There are only 7 families in the village but each family is 10 people in average. They are busy in long Siberian winters also!

The “Cheek” canyon is a great intense series of rapids. It was fun to run them and it is almost impossible to scout the rapids of this canyon. Soon after the Cheeks Canyon the Kaa-Khem is joined by another big river – the Kyzyl-Khem. There is a stunningly beautiful campsite at the confluence.

Island at Confluence of Kaa-Khem and Kyzyl-Khem

A few miles downstream we stopped for a lay-over day. Anatoly built a great Siberian sauna. Everyone made several rounds to hot steamy “banya” with whipping from birch wigs and diving to cold Kaa-Khem. After it and shot of vodka you feel like born again Russian.

We ran Kaa-Khem for three more days. Now it is a very big river. Still there are some good rapids, very picturesque landscapes, a bear on the shore. In other words – everything that you may expect in Siberia but no mosquitos!

Our van picked us up at Ust’ Buren village. We had a short stop in Kyzyl and took photos at the Center of Asia monument vbefore leaving Tuva.

Siberia is bigger than the USA and we only saw a tiny piece of it. Everyone wants to see more. Zach is already studying Russian for our return. We are ready to go.

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