The Internet as My Traveling Companion Across Russia

By Con Bach

After obtaining at lot of information by surfing the web, I was very anxious to get going and see all the famous and historic sites that I read about.

I told my children that I would try to keep them informed by e-mail about my travels and state of health while I was in Russia.

I guess I was just lucky at my first hotel that Intourist booked me in St Petersburg on September 6, 1997. At this hotel there was a business office for hotel guests that provided service for computer use, e-mail and fax. As well they helped me with information on places to see in St Petersburg. Every day I would send an e-mail to my children telling them what I saw in St.Petersburg the previous day. This is like receiving an instantaneous post card every day. The cost of sending an e-mail was 3000 roubles or about 50 U.S. cents. In Moscow, there were no such convenient e-mail facilities at the hotel that I stayed in. However after some inquiry I found that some of the Post Offices provided e-mail services for about 50 U.S.cents for ½ hour of use on the computer. After the e-mail was prepared, the attendant would send the message. In Irkutsh I stayed in a hotel on the shore of Lake Baikal. This hotel was on a hill that overlooked beautiful Lake Baikal. They had a business office for guests but only had a fax. I sent a fax to my wife in Windsor as we have a fax machine in our home. This cost me $10 US dollars. In Vladivostok I went to the main downtown Post Office and had no trouble using their e-mail services almost every day I was there. Their cost was the same as before i.e. 50 U.S. cents for ½ hour use of the computer.

I returned to Canada via Alaska as the only flight out of Vladivostok to Seattle was with Alaska Airlines. As there was a scheduled stopover in Anchorage, I stayed 8 days in Alaska and toured the area. I had trouble finding a place to send e-mails from until I walked into a computer store and asked where I could send an e-mail from as I wanted to send an e-mail to my children. The very friendly man said no problem just use one of our terminals. When I asked to pay for the use of the terminal, he just said "There is no charge but just tell your friends how nice the people are in Alaska and particularly at our computer store ".

In Vancouver I stayed with my son for a week and could e-mail to my daughter in Toronto. I traveled across Canada on the VIA train and arrived in Toronto and visited my daughter and her husband. From my daughter's computer, I e-mailed my son in Vancouver that I arrived safely in Toronto. Finally I got home and then I could e-mail my 2 children that I was back in Windsor and was happy to be home and in Canada.

I had traveled round the world alone and was away from home for 2 months. Thanks to e-mail I was able at very little cost to keep my children informed about what I was doing and that I was still in good health. Oh, did I mention I speak Russian and this made a big difference as a tourist!

Con Bach