Back when Siberia was the land of dispossessed white Russians, the little towns did not offer much. It did offer space and quiet. Some day you could hear your watch ticking at high noon on main street. Life was so dull, that anyone receiving a telegram was expected to circulate it as reading material for the entire town.
How much has changed in this mostly misunderstood part of the world? I tried to find out. If you sent me a telegram, I would see if someone else would like to read it. I suspect the answer will be that nobody cares.
When I was growing up, as a young boy in the great San Joaquin Valley farmland of California, I often wondered how life would be on the opposite side of the world. Now, my chance is here. Yet it turns out the EXACT opposite side of the world is in the middle of the Indian Ocean, southwest of Madagascar, not Siberia, as I was always told my parents, teachers, and those in authority.
However, if I choose one of my major stops on my trip, Lake Baikal, the exact opposite is a place I have been, called Punta Arenas, Chile. Mostly, the exact opposite of the world from where most of us live in California is in the middle of the Indian Ocean! So much for the ‘romance” of standing in the exact opposite part of the world.
Find out for yourself. Just google “map tunneling tool” and you will have the surprise of your life.
All I can say to you for reading, commenting, and enduring is “spa-SEE-ba” or thank you in Russian!
