Nota Bene

A walk through the Yarlu River valley is an absolute must if you ever find yourself at Lake Akkem. The valley is unique in two ways: first, there’s some kind of crazy underground magnetism/energy here (which I mentioned in yesterday’s post), which makes you feel just great. Second, the colors of the mountains here are sublimely beautiful – just fantastic:

The valley is approximately three kilometers (along the trail) from the Akkem River and Lake Akkem – here:

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Having arrived at the start-point of our hiking-rafting adventure it was time we got this show on the road path. The mission for the day: climb up to the ridge we’ll be hiking along the top of. The weather was perfect, which meant the views up top promised to be simply magical…

No need to hurry – the distance this day was pretty short, so we had a leisurely breakfast. Then we crossed the bridge over the Akkem and set off on the hiking part of our route.

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All right folks – here we go: finally, my series of posts on our Altai summer vacation begins!…

Now, as everyone knows only too well, backpacking across mountains and valleys is always a good idea. But to do so far away from civilization over five days (or even a week or two) isn’t just good, it’s exceedingly good – especially if the route is surrounded by OMG-beautiful views and assorted unusualnesses. I once even compiled a short list of such amazing best-in-the-world mountain-and-valley treks – here. Well that list needs a +1 for sure – and it’s well overdue: the tracks/paths across the Altai Mountains…

I’ve hiked around here on two routes: between Tyungur village and Akkem Lake (in 2016), and between Belyashi and the same Akkem Lake along the Argut river  (in the summer of covid-stricken 2020). The latter was wonderful; but since it rained for several days in 2016 and we didn’t get to see any beautiful views on that route whatsoever, we decided to do a second pass this year – and we don’t regret it at all!…

You can get to Akkem Lake via different routes; we chose not the shortest but probably the most contemplative (in good weather). In total we walked around 45km, but with ups and downs of more than two thousand meters. We completed it in go-slow mode over four days. It’s generally not the most difficult of treks, but office plankton does need to put in at least some pre-training beforehand.

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Ladies and gents!

Today’s topic is going to be unexpected and a little out of the ordinary…

I know this won’t be of much interest to all my dear readers, but for some of you, it might bring on a wave of nostalgia – and maybe even a tear to a wrinkled (or, on the contrary, smooth and soft) cheek.

Here’s the thing: today marks the 50^th anniversary of the release of the album Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd!

 // Photo by Jim Geuther, from here.

But first, here’s my “view from the Soviet Union” regarding this classic album and the era in which it was released…

Back in the late ’70s and early ’80s, foreign vinyl records on the black market would run you a hundred rubles or more – which, for perspective, was around a month’s salary for an engineer! So a record back then was pure, rare luxury. Music lovers would borrow them from their lucky friends – or rent them for a handful of rubles from acquaintances – to make reel-to-reel tape copies of them. And Pink Floyd records were especially prized. When I was in ninth or tenth grade at the math and physics school of Moscow State University, I got my hands on some such records and tapes. And Wish You Were Here is one I remember most. Still to this day I consider this musical masterpiece (and I’m not afraid to call it that) to be one of my favorite albums of all time.

Also, back in school, I learned English by listening to Pink Floyd (also The Beatles), since in lessons we were taught either German or “mathematical” English – which is a whole other story :-). Still, even today there are turns of phrase in their lyrics that I still can’t grasp – including lines from this album. For example: “you wore out your welcome with random precision”. I guess that’s something flowery about how Syd Barrett (see below) drove everyone to their limits. Or is it? Maybe muzo-philologists could explain it better?!

Anyway. If you listened to this masterpiece a long time ago but may have forgotten about it – go and refresh your memory. Or, if you’ve never heard of it – give it a shot: you might be surprised. There’s a real chance you’ll love it. I know folks who’ve discovered Pink Floyd as adults and love the band just as much as those who got into them in their youth…

Now, a few words about why this is a masterpiece – and why, curiously, it’s still relevant today…

First, there’s the album’s theme: Wish You Were Here is dedicated to the band’s former front man, Syd Barrett – a genius experimenter who, alas, lost his grip on reality not long after Pink Floyd made it big due to drugs causing a nervous breakdown. The album cover, with its handshake and the man on fire, has become almost a symbol for “burnout” – something widely discussed today; for, alas, mental health issues have hardly lessened over the last half-century (and instead seem to have only gotten worse).

Second, it’s a protest against the alienation and cynicism of the music industry (and really of everything else too). Welcome to the Machine is about a system that chews people up. And it feels like in the past 50 years, this “machine” has only gotten worse. So, if you ever get annoyed by the homogenous stream of today’s music, go have a listen to Wish You Were Here: an album with zero bowing to labels, trends, or recommendation algorithms. If Roger, David, Richard and Nick fancied doing eight minutes of melancholy instrumental – that’s what they recorded. And the result: awesome!

And finally, third: if you miss someone, or want to be with them but just can’t, the album Wish You Were Here (especially the eponymous track) is simply a waterfall of missing-you emotions.

So, come on – check it out! And happy anniversary – 50 years today! – to this legendary… musical monument. This album, especially on this day, needs to be celebrated – and listened to!…

Hi folks!

Krasnoyarsk Krai industrial-site tour series of posts: done.

Coming up – my Altai summer vacation series of posts…

But in-between – here’s a long post that’s kept being put on the back-burner for this (perhaps its length) or that (I’m always so busy?!) reason, the title to which is introductorily self-explanatory.

First – a fuller explanation…

While waiting for our luggage at La Paz Airport (Bolivia) at the end of our January (2025) trip around Latin America, one of my fellow travelers suggested I share my experiences of the most unusual hotels and lodgings I’ve stayed overnight in. And yes – “lodgings” (mesta obitaniya in Russian) is often the right word here, for many of the places I’ve stayed overnight can hardly be called hotels: some rather strange and hard-to-reach spots simply defy traditional categorization.

And I thought – what a great idea! Although I’ve long lost track of quite how many such (unusual, etc.) lodgings I’ve stayed at down the years, memory vividly brings back the ones that are impossible to forget – for all kinds of reasons: unusual decor, stunning surroundings, remoteness, etc. But if the old memory does need a helping hand – handily, I’ve been taking notes on my overnight stays on my blog – since… let me see now… yes – since 2010!…

I’ll immediately set aside for now such overnight stays as those in Japanese onsens and African lodges, and at camping-glamping sites and guest houses in mountains, forests, and tundra. Historically interesting hotels and tropical paradises are also out (also for now) – even though some of those can be quite extraordinary too. Why? Well, such categories are indeed unusual for visitors to such places/lodgings, but they’re abundant enough to be interesting only as a “type of tourist accommodation” rather than in terms of uniqueness or memorability.

Anyway, enough chit-chat – time for some pretty intro-pics. This one’s from Singapore – the view from one of the many hotels I’ve stayed at overlooking Marina Bay ->

Read on…

Elephant in the room alert!…

Did you notice how at the Nazarovsky open-pit mine we saw zero… coal? Like, we visited this massive coal-mining operation, but didn’t see a single chunk of the black stuff?! What?!

Here’s the deal. The insanely massive mechanism that moves sandy rock from one spot to another was the main attraction – by far. So much so that that’s where all our tour time went – gawping at it, mouths agape! But not to worry, for next up was another open-pit mine – Beryozovsky – where we finally got up close and personal with actual coal ->

The mining here works a bit differently because the layer of non-coal-containing rock (called “overburden”) is thinner – plus there’s way more coal: the coal seam here is up to 60 meters thick:

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Still back in July, still back in Krasnoyarsk Krai, next up on our tour of our dear heavy-industrial customers’ operations (after the Vostochny Gold Mine, the Boguchany Aluminum Smelting Plant, and the Boguchany Dam) – another two industrial giants – the Nazárovsky and Beryózovsky coal mines, which both belong to Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK). And just like at the other industrial facilities in Krasnoyarsk Krai, the way we were welcomed was as if we were royalty!

// I say royalty – but only… tee-totaling royalty! At every industrial site in Russia that I’ve visited over the past 10–15 years, a no-alcohol rule is strictly enforced – even for visitors. At every entrance (and exit (!)), employees/ workers/ miners all take a breathalyzer test; if the result‘s positive – immediate dismissal. Apparently, way back when this rule first came in (some time in last century), there was initial resistance: “Come on, how can we work without Alexey? He’s a drunkard, sure – but he’s still a master of his trade”. But no: other – sober – Alexeys were found to replace drunk Alexeys. So yes, back to our welcome: it was grand, but there was nothing stronger than fruit juice on the tables!

But enough of the industrial-site sobriety – let me show you the photos. They’re mixed in from both mines. Just to whet your appetite…

Photo 1, Nazarovsky:

Photo 2, Beryozovsky:

Here we go!…

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In yesterday’s post, I told you all about the operations at the Boguchany Aluminum Plant and its herculean appetite for electricity. I mentioned hydroelectric power in passing yesterday too – and not without good reason: for it’s this that satisfies this appetite at the aluminum plant. So off we popped, next door, to the Boguchany (hydroelectric) Dam…

And here she is – the beaut:

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Ok – you’ve had the gold post. Now for a post about another metal. But first – let me back up on the gold topic before segueing to today’s metal…

Two questions…

1. How much gold has humanity extracted in all of history?

2. How much gold‘s left in the Earth’s crust?

I’ll answer :)…

1. If we trust this source, the total amount of gold ever mined in the world is about 216,000 tons (with two-thirds of it mined after 1950!). All of it would fit into a cube measuring 22x22x22 meters. Basically, that’s about the size of a skinny six or seven-story cube-shaped building. Not that much really. And if you rolled all that precious metal into a ball, you’d get a sphere with a diameter of over 26 meters.

2. As for what remains, the numbers vary wildly. From 40,000 to 80,000 tons could still be dug up. But what happens after that? Well, obviously, we’d have to start bringing gold from the Moon, Mars, and Venus – if that’s even possible. But can you imagine how much that would cost?

So that’s the deal with gold. There’s not much left, and the price just keeps going up. Time to move on to another metal – and the industrial systems used to make it…

Here’s a 90%-automated industrial system, where, under the constant watch of digital telemetry and automatic “iron hands”, rectangular containers filled with gray liquid metal move along a conveyor belt. The liquid solidifies, the solidified bars are shaken out, stacked, and packaged by those same iron hands. And you could watch this process forever. So – what’s the metal?…

…Aluminum!

// Thus – we’ve jumped from box 79 (gold: Au) to 13 (aluminum: Al). in the periodic table.

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Ok, no messing about: let’s get stuck straight in with Karl Bryullóv‘s most famous painting:

Yes, that’s my photo of the original masterpiece – taken at Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery, where I was on Monday checking out the Bryullov exhibition with some colleagues to boost our collective cultural knowledge fund )…

Read on…