what's up with this place. an island just north of Japan. Anyone know anything about it? I just landed a Shell contract, and they asked me to go. hmmmm Maybe I could meet up with Davo, Smeggy and all the still-patriated, *real* Yao-only fans in Tokyo or sumpin. <font size="1"><b>pasox2</b>: you know the rules, right.</font>
How long is the contract? Are they paying you wheelbarrows full of $$$?? And what's up with it? Uh, well it's east of Siberia, so it's pretty far "up". My understanding is that it used to be very hush-hush there during the Cold War. And I thought I read somewhere that after the Cold War ended things there went to hell in a hand-basket. Of course, that may be just for the locals. I think the locals are getting things like coal/heating oil and fresh food sporadically. I hope it's a short trip. And check on the prevailing winds... just in case things get nasty in Korea. Mango is the guy to ask, imo.
Depends on how much they're paying you, imo. Yuzhno/Sakhalinsk is supposed to have some of the biggest oil reserves around. If you do go, get ready for some major culture shock.
I assume the company would fly you out and pay the hotel and everything? Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Please elaborate. You think I shy away from cultural shock. forget contract money...I just want to know whether people would live there or vacation there. Is it a frozen wasteland. Did the USSR do major Nuclear Bomb testing there...what?
Try this site for starters... lots of links. Looks like they have a bowling alley, a casino, and a Chinese place on Karl Marx Street. http://www.sakhalin.ru/Engl/
Most of eastern Russia is rustic, to say the least (although I've never been there, but I know people who have). Magadan and Petroplavsk have notorious heating shortages in the winter, which is not a good thing in a place where 50 below zero is common. But looking at the pictures rimrocker posted, it probably doesn't get that cold there--the trees are too big. If you do it, I think it'd be a great adventure.
