Russia Expedition 2018
- Date: 20th January – 27th January 2018
- No of participants: 25
- Drive on frozen lakes
- Experience Russian bathhouse
- Dive in ice holes
Ask anyone about Russia and the first few words that comes to their mind is usually Vodka, largest country, military, Moscow, cold war, nuclear weapons and St. Petersburg.
But for us, it is more than concrete buildings and a past full of war and terror. For us, Russia is one of the most beautiful destinations in the world.
We fell in love with this winter wonderland and how! After successfully completing Russia expedition back in 2017, we were all geared up to do it again. So with a group of 27 people in tow, we landed in the beautiful city of Moscow that welcomed us all with bitter cold. But hey, we aren’t complaining. In fact it had a reverse effect on us all and made everyone even more excited to begin our Snow Drive in Russia!
Soon after landing in Moscow and being greeted by the bitter cold temperatures in this land full of snow all around, we got down to exploring Russia’s cosmopolitan capital. From Ice staking rinks to Ice sculptures and snow parades, there was a lot to see and we couldn’t pack it all in.
The next day, all the participants were introduced to their UAZ Patriot Vehicles, which was apt for the extreme driving conditions we were going to face in the following days. Under the watchful eyes of a professional instructor, we all tested our snow driving abilities, before continuing our drive on snow covered roads to reach Sergiev Posad, also known as the “Russian Vatican”. We visited some beautiful churches where we even got to hear the wonderful choir singing.
The following morning, after a hearty breakfast, we continued driving deeper into the country side on our way to Uglich, which is also a part of the Golden Ring, a popular destination for Russian tourists. The Golden Ring is a collection of historic Russian cities, northeast of Moscow and is perfect for anyone who wants to enjoy the quiet and peaceful life in the Russian province, beautiful countryside views, and ancient architecture.
After exploring this fascinating city and driving on ice-covered rivers en route, we continued our drive towards Rybinsk to get some good night’s rest.
Next day was a long driving day, with approx. 563 km of driving distance. But what makes a long drives such easy are the various stop over amongst beautiful countryside. We stopped for a quick breakfast at Cherepovets, located on the shores of the Rybinsk Reservoir, before continuing our drive. On our way to Valday, we crossed and stopped at many small Russian villages to meet locals and pose in front of stunning architecture covered in a blanket of snow. We even stopped at Borovichi which is a beautiful town located next to the Mtsa river for Lunch before continuing our drive to our destination for the day i.e. Valday.
Before hitting the road next day, we decided to explore Valday and took our time to visit some strikingly beautiful places, like the ensemble of ValdayIversky Monastery, the Presentation Church and the Valdaysky District Museum. In the afternoon, we continued our drive towards Veliky Novgorod, where we spent the night.
After a relaxed sleep, we took out some time to do sightseeing in Veliky Novgorod. Apart from visiting some tourist sites like St. Sophia Cathedral and Novgorod Kremlin, we got to experience horse sledding as well. Snow, sleds, and horse… we couldn’t have asked for a better experience.
After some fun filled time, we got behind the wheels and drove to our final destination i.e. St. Petersburg.
Between our drive from Moscow to St. Petersburg, we covered many remote villages, enjoyed multiple cups of coffee/tea and soups, tried caviar, pelted each other with snow balls, built our own snowman, and took dozens of snowy pictures. And if all this wasn’t enough, we had a bunch of boys who braved the frosty weather and went topless on a frozen lake. Now that definitely takes some courage!
But what truly takes the cherry on the cake was our Republic Day celebrations!
They say “You can take an Indian out of India, but you can never take India out of an Indian” and this indeed holds true. With great pride, we celebrated our Republic Day on a frozen lake, holding our flag and singing national anthem together. The feeling of patriotism filled our hearts as we all got together as Indians in a foreign country, joined in by British and Russian citizens in the celebration of such a special day together.
Not to miss the ride in the SHERP ATV, which was no less of an adventure. Honestly, Sherp ATVs are what dreams are made of. It will just go anywhere, over water, on ice, on really rough and almost impossible terrains. Experiencing a bumpy ride in these monster trucks is something that all of us would remember for years to come.
We can go on and on and on about the food, the snow drive in UAZ Patriot Vehicle, the cultural experience, the picturesque landscape and more.
A winter drive in Russia was not just ravishingly beautiful, it was exhilarating!
| Name – Priti Jignesh Shah |
| City – Mumbai, India |
| Profession – Business |
| 3 Travel essentials – Music, Husband And Water |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – Athens, Alaska, Egypt, South Africa, New Zealand |
| Fav Music – Bollywood |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – Ranbir Kapoor |
| Name – Jignesh C Shah |
| City – Mumbai, India |
| Profession – Business |
| 3 Travel essentials – Navigator, AC and Gas |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – Iceland, Alaska, New Zealand, Mt. Everest, African Safari |
| Fav Music – All |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – Priyanka Chopra |
| Name – Rahul Yadav |
| City – Rajasthan, India |
| Profession – Ethics Officer |
| 3 Travel essentials – Good Friends |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – India, Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Russia |
| Fav Music – Songs With Mild Music |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – Dalai Lama or Sadhguru Founder of Isha Foundation |
| Name – Nitesh Goyal |
| City – Delhi, India |
| Profession – Business of Scientific Instruments |
| Ever been on a Road Trip – Scotland to London |
| 3 Travel essentials – GPS and Mobile Phone, Music, Toffee/Chocolate/Car Mobile Charger/Credit Card or Money/My DL |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – Almost seen all… ..May be next 5 – Collarado, Seychelles, Hawai, Northen Lights, Greece |
| Fav Music – Rock, 80’s Hits, Then Hindi Soft Numbers- Arijit Singh, Sometime Techno, DJ Remix, Bollywood Top 50, International top 20, Ghazal, Meditation and Instrumental- Almost All |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – Mr. Narender Modi |
| Name – Nishita Sarvaiya |
| City – Mumbai, India |
| Profession – Self Employed |
| 3 Travel essentials – Money, Water, Sunglasses |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – Jordan, USA, Spain, Italy, Turkey |
| Fav Music – All kinds …. |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – Akshay Kumar |
| Name – Shalin Sarvaiya |
| City – Mumbai, India |
| Profession – Self Employed |
| 3 Travel essentials – Most of the things depends on the terrain and where you travelling to, but definitely I cant do with my Camera. |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – South Pole, Every corner of Africa, Himalayas, North Pole |
| Fav Music – Bollywood all and Gazals, Rock, English 80s/90s |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – I am already going with one, thats my wife. – we celebrate our anniversary (17 jan) every year with such trips. |
| Name – Shona Walton |
| City – London, United Kingdom |
| Profession – Educationalist |
| Ever been on a Road Trip – Africa |
| 3 Travel essentials – 1 Adrian – My Husband, 2 My iPad to write my Travel Diary, 3 Binoculars |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – Pantanal, Angkor Wat, Skellig Islands |
| Fav Music – Classical European, Rock. |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – My husband. Every time. |
| Name – Adrian Berry |
| City – London, United Kingdom |
| Profession – Chartered Engineer |
| Ever been on a Road Trip – Africa |
| 3 Travel essentials – My personal toolkit, developed over thirty years, Camera, iPad |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – Anywhere with my wife |
| Fav Music – Rock, Modern Classical |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – I don’t watch TV so I don’t know any |
| Name – Vishnu Vardhan |
| City – Hyderabad, India |
| Profession – Engineer |
| Ever been on a Road Trip – Hyderabad to Warangal |
| 3 Travel essentials – Music |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – Travel to the US, Drive down Europe, Latin America, South Africa, Do the drive from India to London |
| Fav Music – Groovy Music, English, Hindi and Telugu |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – Ranveer Singh |
| Name – Amit Dhanuka |
| City – Delhi, India |
| Profession – CEO, Kejriwal Bee Care India Private Limited |
| Ever been on a Road Trip – East & West USA |
| 3 Travel essentials – Plenty of food, Good vehicle & Few close ones |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – Iceland, New Zealand, Scotland, South America & African Forests |
| Fav Music – Kishore Kumar & English from 80’s |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – My Kids |
| Name – Rohan Mittal |
| City – Mumbai, India |
| Profession – Strategy/M&A |
| Ever been on a Road Trip – Baghdad to Aqaba |
| 3 Travel essentials – Map, Water, Music |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – Amazon, Winter Spiti, Antarctica, Congo, Outer Space |
| Fav Music – Any music at conversation volume |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – Any one who is relaxed and willing to push the car if stuck! |
| Name – Nainesh Nandu |
| City – Pune, India |
| Profession – Construction, Malls, Real Estate, Furniture, Imports-indents |
| Ever been on a Road Trip – Pune – Leh (Upto Turtuk [Pakistan Border]) – Pune |
| 3 Travel essentials – A well maintained car with proper navigation, full gas and loads of Music, A nice single malt after the long drive in the evening. Good Company of friends or close people who i can bore them with my yak-yak |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – England – Scotland, South France, Vietnam – Cambodia, Czech – Austria – Hungary – Austria and the neighboring countries, Antartica |
| Fav Music – Romantic / Remix Latest Bollywood |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – Tushar Agarwal for sure |
| Name – Dilpreet Singh Bindra |
| City – Delhi, India |
| Profession – Hotelier |
| First Road Trip – Around India , 15000 kms in 30 days – 2009 |
| Longest Road Trip – Delhi to Bangkok – 2015 |
| Most thrilling experience – “Many but closest to my heart is my Peace drive post 26/11 in 2009 which was one of its kind. Covering 15000 kms , 35 days , 60 cities that was a drive with a purpose, truly an enriching experience. Driving to Leh ladhak, Spiti valley is full of surprises and extreme adventure, can do this again and again. My first cross border Delhi to Bangkok was fun and exciting.” |
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| 3 Travel Essentials – Carry your smile always, camera and travel buddies | |
| 5 Places in your Bucket list – Iceland, Alaska and Jungles of Africa | |
| Fav Music – Soulful sufi | |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – Prefer common man | |
| Name – Venu Yadavalli |
| City – Gurgaon, India |
| Profession – Finance and General Manager |
| Ever been on a Road Trip – Charlotte to Denver |
| 3 Travel essentials – Good shoes, Good car and Sun glasses |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – Petra, Ankurwat, Drive in Austria/Switzerland, New Zealand and Camp in Sahara |
| Fav Music – Local Music |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – My Family |
| Name – Zakkir Kalarikkal |
| City – Mumbai, India |
| Profession – Business |
| Ever been on a Road Trip – Bombay to Nainital & back |
| 3 Travel essentials – Credit card – iPhone & iPod |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – Morocco – Greece – Hawaii – Chile – Brazil |
| Fav Music – Retro of 70’s & 80’s English & Hindi |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – Juha Kankkunen |
| Name – Jayshri Shah |
| City – Mumbai, India |
| Profession – Designer and Housewife |
| Ever been on a Road Trip – Leh Ladakh |
| 3 Travel essentials – Passion, Good Companion, Health Fitness |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Canada |
| Fav Music – Romantic Bollywood |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – Shahrukh Khan |
| Name – Rohit Shah |
| City – Mumbai, India |
| Profession – |
| Ever been on a Road Trip – Leh Ladakh |
| 3 Travel essentials – Passion, Good Companion, Health Fitness |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Canada |
| Fav Music – Romantic Bollywood |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – Shahrukh Khan |
| Name – Murtaza Shabbir Golawala |
| City – Sharjah, United Arab Emirates |
| Profession – Business |
| Ever been on a Road Trip – US |
| 3 Travel essentials – Good food, Good friends, Good cars |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – Australia, Caribbean Islands, Namibia, Iceland, Brazil |
| Fav Music – Soothing Instrumental |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – My wife!!! |
| Name – Mustafa Moiz Lokhandwala |
| City – Dubai, United Arab Emirates |
| Profession – Business |
| Ever been on a Road Trip – South Africa |
| 3 Travel essentials – Music, Good company, Snacks to munch/Coffee |
| 5 Places in your Bucket List – Iceland, New Zealand (again), Fiji island, South India, Kashmir |
| Fav Music – New Hindi Music |
| Celebrity Travel Partner – My Wife |
| Name – Rajesh Dembla |
| Location – Banglore, India |
| Name – Mustafa Bakir |
| Location – Muscat, Oman |
| Name – Sawpneil Willingdon |
| Location – Baroda, India |
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| Location – Mumbai, India |
| Name – Neeta Samat |
| Location – Mumbai, India |
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| Location – Gujarat, India |
