Banished...(again)

July 1, 2005

Left Nome and headed west to Anadyr, my favorite city in Russia. We did the same old thing carrying our luggage up the three flights of stairs to the Border Patrol. I was third in line when I met the same lady I had problems with coming out 2 weeks ago. This time when I stepped into the cattle herding area she looked at me and started laughing with out even looking at my passport. When I did hand her my passport she again got an alarm and called her supervisor. He looked at me then the passport laughed handed it back to her and a few minutes later I was stamped and on my way.
The next problem was the weather, it was closing in and we needed to get airborne. As we were about to exit the building our flight was delayed. Since we were traveling with the big wigs of BEMA, they knew where and how to get the beer. Right next store to the holding tank is a private bar. We bought the first beer for 60 rubles ($2.30) and were half way through it when our flight was called. Damn! Half a beer left on the table, run to our luggage and wait. You guessed - it flight delayed again. We ran back to get the beer and it was gone. Sitting in the holding area again the big wigs threw us some money and off we were to the bar.
Half way through THIS beer, they announce our flight again. No one moved. We just sat and drank. This time, several people said we had a small window to get out and a 757 was leaving. Little did we know all the people waiting in the hall were for the 757 and we were holding up the line to the scanner. Man, were there the nasty looks as we put the beers down in front of them and walked in front of them to get to the scanner and leave.
The flight took us to Kemperveem where we had our first confrontation with the Russian mosquito. Confrontation is too light, battle would be closer. There is no way I can explain the mosquito infestation that you would believe except to tell you it was 65 degrees out, no wind and everyone had winter clothes on with hoods covering their heads. As we entered the airport lounge, the person behind you would brush the mosquitos off. There were a minimum of 50 on you at any one time. Because they have no bathrooms in the airport, several of us stepped out to use the fence line urinal and decided after we attempted to use the urinal that it wasn’t worth the effort to brush mosquito’s and do the deed. No telling where they might bit us. Ouch!!!
Becky, you owe me 25 dollars because that’s what I lost playing poker with the cards you bought me. But since we didn’t want to gamble using real dollars, not knowing what the laws are, we ventured out to the parking lot for stones to use. (4 stones to the dollar)
Three hours later our helicopter from Kupol still hadn’t arrived to pick us up and take us back. We weren’t flying to the site today. So it was off to Bilibino and the Bema corporate apartments for the night.
I’ll finish this tomorrow. Oh, wait. It’s already tomorrow! I have to get to the office to email this.