The Russian Boot Camp

"What are the living conditions like in Sakhalin?" I hear you ask...... well even if you didn't ask, I thought I'd tell you. To be honest, its a squillion times better than I thought. I was expecting a concrete bunker, complete with cold showers, frequent power outages and a 3 servings of slop in the mess each day. Well, frequent power outages yes, but the rest is really not too bad. Let me expand.

I live in a construction camp which in in a village called Sokol. Its about 30km north of Yuzhno, the capital of Sakhalin. Sokol is a non-descript village with absolutely nothing going for it. The camp is here because ii's approximately geographically in the middle of the 200km section of pipeline we are installing. Sokol is out in farm lands, so its nice and green and away from the hustle of Yuzhno, but still close enough if I crave that hustle and need a night out on the town or a descent meal.

The camp is pretty big, but split into two sections. There is a section with the client offices and accommodation and the contractors offices. This is a small section of about 50 people and is quite nice. The rest of the camp is for the sub contractor, and holds about 800 people. Its not so nice.



We have some pretty nice accommodation, well luxury for far east Siberia standards. It aint the Hilton, but I must say it's comfortable. I have my own bedroom, bathroom, satellite TV and a borrowed DVD player. Its warm, cleaned daily, and fairly bright. There is a recreation room, with pool table, wide screen TV, lounges and see's nightly games of pool, backgammon or a few drinks around the lounge. We also have a small gym, which I have managed to drag my lazy ass to a few times when I get a rush of energy in the evening, and a sauna which I've never used.

The next building over is the office, where I spend 90% of my time if I'm not on site. The main reason is that its the only way to burst through the iron curtain and make contact with the outside world. Its pleasant enough, but an office, so enough said I think.

Then there is the kitchen, we get 3 solid meals a day, but not all of them go down so easy. Whilst the caterer attempts to recreate "western-syle" food, on many occasions its very disappointing as they quality (and freshness) of food here is not so good. Most evenings I resort to the safe bet of ordering a steak (which is as thin as a sheet of paper) or fish. The fish actually is very good. There is plenty of it here, and its the only thing I've found that the Russian do really well. Most other foods are doused in oil and fat, not fresh, or simply just "ain't right?!". They do however cook at wicked fish, and so consequently I'm getting loads of omega-3 vitamins. Hooray for me.

So that's about it, this is my home away from home , away from home.

Comrade Steve