First weekend in Yuzhno!

What the?: First weekend around Yuzhno city

Where : Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia

When: September 2008

The first weekend in Yuzhno, it was definitely time to do what most tourists would do, visit the "tourisy" sites such as the museum or parks. That's just exactly what happened. It was a beautiful bright and cool autumn day. It was about 15 degrees and filled with a gentle cool breeze. First up, was a visit to Yuzhno's famous musuem pictured above.

One of Yuzhno's inhabitants, the grizzly bear. Picture here on display at the museum. You would not want to be uplose with one especially in this position!

Next to the museum was a display of russian war vehicles. There was a stripped down MIG and some armoured units like the BMP1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMP_1) shown above.

Famous christian orthordox church in Yuzhno. Situated close to Gagarin Park.

Local shopping center, Dom Turguvli situated not far from the museum, right in the center of Yuzhno city.

The best way to finish up your day, is a walk in Gagarin Park and enjoy a dish of Shashlik (Pork barbequed kebab). Not forgetting to wash down with a cool russian beer of course! Pictured here, a 500ml bottle of Baltika 7.

Transiting Japan

What the? : Transiting Japan, on the way to russia
Where: Narita, Tokyo, Japan
When: September 2008


One of the way to get to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia is through Narita Airport in Tokyo. The journey starts with an 8 hour flight from KLIA to Narita. After that, a 2 hour charter flight on Vladisvostok Air from Narita to Yuzhno.

As usual, captured some pictures while descending to Narita. The flight was a pleasant experience, pleasant because of MH business class!


The business class seat onboard Boeing 777 is really nice especially when the seat can fully recline. This makes catching some sleep on an overnight flight possible. It also has a back massager which helps relax the back muscles.



Narita is a fully modern and equipped airport. Make sure to visit the information booth soon after passing customs to get the english map guide of terminal 1 and 2. Depending on your flight, you may need to switch terminals which can be easily done via a shuttle bus. A charter flight might not always be on the flights display in the airport. Best to check with the friendly staff at the information counter to know where to catch the bus and your flight.

The charter flight from VA is usually situated at the other end of Narita airport. After going past the boarding gate, passengers are gathered into a bus to be driven to the other side. Passengers typically makes up of travelling expats in the oil industry. Hardly any tourist heads to Yuzhno especially on a charter flight! I boarded a Tupolev 154 tri-engined plane which looked like a cold war relic! I couldn't snap any photos of it due to security concerns, but it looks really old to me. Paint were stripping of from the plane's body and I had doubts if the plane would fly! The russian aircrew appeared confident and that was somewhat reassurring as we boarded the plane and prepared for take off. I heared a better route with much better planes would be to take Asiana via Seoul. That would take a little longer, 3 hours flight to be exact. But, i think it would be a much better experience flying in a much more modern and comfortable Boeing 737. I will definitely opt for that if I ever go to Yuzhno again!