Sakhalin Island experiences

Many people ask me about the experiences I had while living and working in Russia. I'd be happy to share some of my experiences because it was an exciting time in my life and I met many wonderful people in Russia and Korea during this time.

I was hired by Veco Alaska to work on the Sakhalin 1 project in the Russian Far East so after several weeks of preparation during summer of 2004 I boarded the 13 hour Korean Air flight from Los Angeles to Seoul, South Korea. After a brief stop over at Incheon airport it is another 4 hour flight to the city of Yuzhno situated on the south end of Sakhalin Island. Company staff met me at the airport and by van we travelled into the city of approximately 200,000 residents. The first task upon arrival is to secure Russian currency as credit cards and such are not in general use. Lada, our company rep would direct the driver to an area where the money exchangers would trade tattered Roubles for crisp new US dollars. I never used the bank system on the advice of Lada and was informed that we got a better exchange rate using the black market traders. I must admit the first time was a little unnerving as these gentlemen were heavily armed and for obvious reasons. It was business as usual for them and over the course of the next 20 months would become that for me as well. Arrival day was usually spent at the Sapporo Hotel in downtown Yuzhno getting acclimatized to the culture and with several hours before the train departure I would often walk over to Sakhalin Center which is the headquarters for the major oil companies doing business in the Russian Far East. There are several good souvenir shops and a restaurant serving delicious omlettes. The 15 hour train ride to Nogliki was always an experience. We would travel first class so there'd be only 2 sharing a compartment. For some reason there was no heat control in the compartment so it was always unbearably hot and you'd be forced to leave the door open which did invite thieves on several occaisions. At Nogliki we'd be met by the company Kamaz 6-wheel drive truck for the 6-8 hour ride to Chayvo. Road conditions were always a factor in determining how long the ride would be. I have memories of the Kamaz barrelling through mud holes that would have swallowed any other vehicle or the blizzard when travel seemed impossible with several feet of snow on the road. Our ultimate destination was Chayvo where ECC-Veco was contracted to Exxon to construct roads, drive piles, underground utilites and such during construction of Sakhalin 1 Onshore Processing Facility. At that time this was the largest foreign investment project in Russia. My job was to supervise the Russian Surveyors and provide training in the operation of the high tech surveying equipment which they had never seen prior to this job. They were using equipment that would be in a museum in Canada. It quickly became evident that they were excellent surveyors and only lacked exposure to modern equipment. When I arrived in Chayvo during summer of 2004 there were about 300 Russians and Expats in camp and at the end of my last tour there were 5,000 people from Russia, Turkey, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Phillipines, Canada, US, Kazakstan and others. It had truly become an international village. We worked 42 days on and 12 hours per day so at the end of the rotation you were ready for 3 weeks off. Nothing felt better than climbing on that train for the ride back to Yuzhno and flights home. Upon arrival in Seoul the excitement was starting to build and touching down at LAX was always such a relief. Only 5 more hours of air travel and I'd be home. I'd always have to overnight in Vancouver due to flight schedules but with every mile I was closer to home!