A fine present for a real traveller is a journey to the end of the earth – to Sakhalin and the Kuril islands. The fuming volcanoes, bizarre shapes of the rocks, grand waterfalls, noisy bird colonies, abundant bamboo side by side with fir trees and magnolias, Far East crab and the surprising fusion of the Russian and Japanese culture make a trip to Sakhalin and the Kurils an amazing discovery.
Alexander Gordon wrote about this part of the world: “I envy you – you will be lucky to discover another world! Like in the childhood… With all its exuberance and austerity, incredible and threatening beauty, the nature is childlike here. Like in the dream or in the aquarelle forgotten under the rain is the ocean – the real ocean with whales and immense ribbons of sea cabbage, so delightfully edible. The mountains are all breathing with fire, aligned in a row as heaps in the sandbox – there is a volcano wherever you go. Fir tree are side by side with tropical magnolias. The grass is higher than a human, which immediately changes your size and age. Hot baths with soft towels are possible in taiga forest and on the seashore. The bears – should you misbehave! – could eat you. If you behave yourself, you will taste a kilogram of the red caviar, or a sea , or a crab…
It is difficult to be a bad person on the islands. Difficult, silly, and disadvantageous. All people are at home and belong here. You will not have time to start belonging here, but I would like to advise you being yourself – and the best of yourself. Be delighted in a sincere and childish way by the landscapes and aromas, be horrified by the local stories of tsunami and earthquakes – and I swear that you will see how some severe ranger or an officer emergency situations will give you an absolutely childish smile.”
