- In this episode of the TransSibChallenge,
we arrive in Vladivostok,
our last destination, (folk music)
to receive a welcome to remember and explore Primorsky Krai.
(inspiring music)
(train roaring)
Hey, how's it going?
We're about 50, five zero, hours into an 80 hour train ride.
This is where I've been holed up for the past,
most of the time, actually,
when I'm not sleeping or eating.
I've built this little nest.
We have some tea, we have some edits happening,
some water, some food, a phone, a Kindle.
And I thought, now that we have a little break,
I'd show you a little bit of what's in the train.
Let's go, let's do a little cribs tour of third class
on the Trans-Siberian Railway.
(peaceful music)
Okay, so we're in a third-class cabin,
and to go anywhere, you have to go through no man's land.
These series of doors, you have to press buttons.
They're like air locks.
Like airlocks in space, it's airlocks between trains.
You press the buttons and the doors open.
Just watch your step, all right.
Next, we have another third-class cabin,
so you kind of have to dodge some feet as you come through.
There's beds, four on the right, two on the left.
There's lots of people, as you can tell right now.
Next, we have a second-class train,
which means each bunk has four beds
and they're all completely blocked off by doors.
In here, we have the dining car, the oasis from the storm.
(clock ticking)
All right, the journey of 80 hours,
it ends in Vladivostok, (folk music)
and we hear music.
(woman singing in foreign language)
All right.
(band singing in foreign language)
It's really early.
We're dressed for the party.
I'm not finished yet.
Oh, the hat goes off?
(woman singing in foreign language)
Okay, and I get a headband?
Thank you.
- Opa! - Opa!
(laughing) (cheering)
All right!
- [Cameraman] Look at this, you get a sword.
(woman speaking in foreign language)
(cheering)
- It's the final leg.
We're in Vladivostok and it's a party.
(band singing in foreign language)
(waves crashing)
We made it.
Saint Petersburg, all the way to Vladivostok.
(peaceful music) (laughing)
9,500, whatever, something like that, kilometers later.
We are at the Pacific Ocean
and it's a beautiful thing to see.
I lost my microphone along the way.
That's why you're enjoying these waves noises
a bit louder than usual.
I can't believe it's over.
That 80-hour train journey was our last leg on the train.
Now, all that's left is to soak it all in,
relax on the beach for a few days,
and then we're all heading home.
I remember, on the first day,
thinking that the journey that lied ahead was a long one,
but it's funny how time works when you travel.
Things go by very, very fast but very, very slow.
Things feel like yesterday
but also like last year at the same time.
On one of those lonely hours on the train,
one of the guys asked, "Where are you most happy?"
In the mountains, in the forest, at the ocean.
I said the jungle, but I've spent a lot of my life
next to the ocean, and coming here and seeing this,
feeling the cold water on my feet, sitting on these rocks,
realizing these rocks have been around much longer
than I have and will continue to be here much longer
after I leave, continually pounded by the waves,
second after second, minute after minute,
millennia after millennia.
There is something magical about the ocean.
We put the cameras down last night when we arrived.
Took the night just to relax.
I think we deserved it, and today,
also some relaxing and some hiking,
so I'm gonna put the camera down again right now,
get some hiking boots on,
and show you part of this beautiful slice of Russia
you've probably never seen before.
Let's go.
(relaxing music)
Barefoot always, barefoot, well, not always.
I just like the squish between my toes, you know?
Look, this feeling right here, this feeling.
Aw, yes, aw, yeah.
The hard thing about being the drone guy of the group is,
sometimes, you get left behind, which is 100% my fault,
and actually, I don't mind it at all
because being alone in the far east of Russia,
about 20 kilometers from North Korea,
with the ocean on my left and lakes on my right,
giant stone pillars, crickets, frogs,
it's not a bad spot to be alone.
Look at this beautiful thing.
Not Yaro, well, actually Yaro too, but behind Yaro.
That is an abandoned Soviet military barracks
and that might have our name on it.
(exciting music)
- For travelers like us, this is the most epic way to die,
via snake on a border with China,
Russia, and North Korea, epic.
- [Mike] What do you think, Gareth?
- I disagree.
- He disagrees, all right.
The crew is kitted up.
We've got our pants, we've got our socks on,
we've got flashlights, water bottles, and our cameras
because this adventure was not on the itinerary.
We saw it flirting with us in the horizon
and we've changed the plan
and decided to go explore these abandoned Soviet barracks.
The crew will continue the hike.
For us, a hike's not particularly interesting for content.
These days, a drone can pretty much get better shots
than I can handheld with a camera from a viewpoint,
so we decided to do this while they complete the hike.
If the day goes perfectly, though,
we'll meet them later and go fishing for our supper.
As we were saying goodbye, Alexey handed me these vials,
saying watch out for snakes,
and we did a bit of research about the poisonous snakes
in the area and it's the common viper,
the common northern viper.
That should be fine.
It says adults weighing over 60 kilograms
don't generally die,
as well as the fangs are just about four millimeters long,
which don't pierce much clothing.
Also, the viper emits a loud hiss
within three or four meters,
and it says it's almost impossible
not to hear it when you're approaching them,
so we feel pretty good,
but we're gonna be careful and we also have
the very strong antihistamines that Alexey give us.
It's not antivenom, it won't cure the bite,
but it'll definitely help a lot in this case.
But hey, when you're exploring new frontiers,
you gotta do it safely.
There's always a little bit of a risk.
Are you over 130 pounds?
(tense music)
- Man, 210 pounds of antivenom is speaking.
I'll turn you into a pair of boots if you come at me, boy.
- Snake-fighting, fang-breaking, pure steel sex appeal.
- [Gareth] Come on now, come on.
Oh, it's right there.
- Oh, we found a...
(laughing)
Oh, all right, so.
- [Gareth] I see it's dry right there.
- Is it dry?
Good, they found out it's dry over there, it's dry.
It's dry over there?
- [Gareth] All right, come this way.
- Great.
What's up, guys?
When I fell back in the grass,
the antihistamine fell out of my pocket
and we went back to look for it
and all we found were the syringes,
which is not the important part unfortunately,
so we're gonna give a veto on the building here
and go to the far building,
but it sucks to let down the group a little bit
and it sucks to make it a little bit
more dangerous than it has to be.
I'm hoping it's not a big problem.
We made it, boys.
So, the Soviet Union fell in 1991,
and the rumors are this building's been abandoned
for longer than that, or at least it looks that way,
because it's falling to pieces.
One of my favorite things, though,
about first encountering abandoned buildings
is seeing them with no graffiti
and there's no graffiti on this one.
(inspiring music)
Oh wow, this is crazy.
All right, when you walk in, there is some graffiti.
1985, 1985, that's the year I was born.
This place is completely overgrown.
(inspiring music)
There's really not much left of it.
Just a busted out old concrete skeleton,
but old Soviet building.
You can tell, between the floors,
they had used some kind of granite
or different kind of stone, also some bricks.
Nature's completely filled these old ruins
with vines and different plants.
(inspiring music)
Places like this have a special kind of beauty to me.
Being reclaimed by nature, I think...
Something about it fascinates me
because we all get reclaimed by nature at some point.
I think it's a symbol of that.
No matter what happens, everything on this planet
eventually turns back into earth, back to dust.
Here, you can see where they used to
run the old wooden rafters between floors.
That's why there's no floors left
because the floors were made out of wood.
What are your thoughts and impressions?
- No wonder reason why the Soviets fell.
They all had wooden floors.
- For me, the most interesting thing
is the idea that here was an SP area
in North Korea and China during the Soviet Union.
I imagine historical things happened here,
but for the rest, just an abandoned building.
Ruben is right.
We're next to North Korea, we're next to China.
This must have been a pretty important place at one point.
(inspiring music)
(laughing)
Boys. - We have venom-proof.
- [Mike] Futures.
- Our futures are safe.
- Guys, we are safe, we are safe.
- [Mike] Boys, back in action, back in action.
- We are back.
- Don't tell Alexey.
All right, after a wild afternoon, a wild and wet afternoon,
we are thrashed by this mud and water.
We found our antihistamines,
which means we are now snake-proof again,
and we're headed back to camp
where the boys should be returning back home
with their catch of raw seafood from the ocean.
Alexey's an expert and that's what's on the menu tonight.
We're back at camp.
We see one man there, crouched next to the ocean,
and another small dot with a mask and a snorkel,
catching our dinner.
All right, we got a GoPro, we got the swimming shorts,
and we got maybe half an hour before the sunset.
Let's go join Alexey and see what we can find
in this giant, beautiful, ooh, cold, swimming pool.
Let's go!
All right.
Alexey's gifted me his mask, snorkel, and fins.
I'm gonna give it a shot.
So what am I looking for underwater?
- You look for some two small eyes under the sand.
It's like this, I don't know how to explain.
From this part, they're breathing
and trying to filter and catch food from the water.
- All right, cool, clam hunting time.
(relaxing music)
All right, whew, found some treasures.
Let's get dinner started.
All right, guys, a couple more for the pot.
- [Alexey] Yeah, thanks.
- [Mike] We've gotta clean this one off
with a knife first, right?
- Yeah, yeah.
- So mussels attach themselves
to the substrate at the ocean floor
with these little tiny small fibers,
and when you buy them in a store,
they've shaved all of that off
because you can't really eat it.
This here, this pink, see that?
Is actually a coral, a coralline algae.
It's like a hard, crusty pink,
and it's not your typical coral you'd see in a coral reef,
but it is still very much a coral, all right.
So, Yaro here, cracking them open sideways.
- [Alexey] And just try to find the orange caviar.
- [Mike] The orange caviar is what we eat,
and you can eat it raw, correct?
- Yeah, then we will clean it,
so half of this, we will use in seafood pasta,
and half, we'll eat it just raw.
- [Mike] We're having seafood pasta tonight?
- Yep.
- Ooh, we're eating too well out here in the wilderness.
Guys, we got wine, we got fresh seafood.
This is not camping, this is luxury.
Alexey, my man, explain to me what you've created.
- [Alexey] We have just pasta.
It's pasta and some mussels plus this stuff.
I don't know how it's called in English.
- [Mike] Clams, yeah.
- [Alexey] Yeah, clams,
special clams who live under the sand.
That is a small one inside the big one, like this.
- [Mike] Wow.
- [Alexey] In a perfect condition,
it would be plus oyster plus scallop,
but right now we have only this.
- [Mike] Well, we don't have oysters,
we don't have scallops, but we have an amazing chef,
who's created--
- Yeah, but it's not me, it's not me.
- [Mike] It's definitely, look at this.
This is a gourmet meal, man.
- [Alexey] Really?
- [Mike] Fresh seafood pasta, caught from the ocean.
Socks and shoes roasting by the open fire.
We got friends, we got some brandy, we got some vodka,
and we got a great cap on an amazing day.
Cheers, to our chef! (whistling)
- [Yaro] To the chef!
- [Gareth] Our hunter and chef!
Thank you very much.
- [Mike] Cheers, man.
- [Gareth] To Yaro, for setting this whole thing up.
(peaceful music)
- [Mike] In the next and final episode
of the TransSibChallenge,
we explore an abandoned gun battery
on the coast of Primorsky Krai,
and we finally say good-bye.
If anyone's looking for employment, we're the only ones.
- [Group] Cheers.
(relaxing music)