I renamed my English club, “Better Than Your Average Conversation in Irkutsk”  :D

About a dozen people showed up to our discussion last night, including 4 new guys that had never heard of the Venus Project, TROM or the ideas behind a resource based economy. Most people were Russian, but there was also one guy from Tajikistan, one from Uzbekistan and one from Nigeria. Awesome mix of very friendly people :)  Most of them found my discussion club because I posted it as an event on couchsurfing.com

Last night we watched and discussed this TROM video on the educational system:

Almost everyone in our meeting agreed that today’s educational system is outdated and inadequate in most countries across the globe. Apparently in Tajikistan, kids get overloaded with subjects to the point that they can’t focus and take in any useful information from school. Sound familiar to anyone? :)

Another problem in Tajikistan is that the minimum salary is about $50/month, but it takes about $150/month to survive there. That’s why so many Tajiks come to Russia to work crappy jobs for pennies, just like Latino Americans do in the US.

What an unfair world we live in. You’re born on planet Earth. You didn’t choose where you were born, but if you happen to come out of a woman living in a poor Tajik village, you are brought up with circumstances that give you very few options for survival, let alone for a decent living. You get a crappy education because that’s all that’s available to you, maybe you’ll drop out of school to help your family survive. You struggle with work because you are not educated well; you get paid a minimum salary for hard labor, and this is not enough for you to survive. So you illegally immigrate to a richer country, where you earn a few more pennies for survival, and maybe send some of these pennies back home. You’re treated like shit and spat on because you have a crappy job, your culture is different, you’re still not educated and you may not know the local language. Is this really your fault? Do you deserve to be treated like this?

Tell me, what does it take to get people to wake up and at least try to understand each other?

I mentioned last night that one major issue with education is that the current system doesn’t teach kids how to bridge differences or understand each other.

But there’s a reason for this: “If you educate people to think, you can’t control them. So you’re educated not to think in school. You’re programmed to uphold existing institutions” -Jacque Fresco

They want patriot sheeple! Maybe that’s why our educational system sucks.

Notes from our online discussion:

The current educational system is inadequate for the fast changing (and chaotic) environment that we currently live in.

First of all, school generally bores the hell out of kids. Nowadays kids live in such a fast-paced rapidly changing environment, with tons of information coming at them from all angles, yet they are forced to sit in a classroom and listen to boring lectures that prepare them to pass tests. They are mostly taught to follow by rules and memorize facts, rather than to question everything and use critical thinking and the scientific method to arrive at decisions. In general, learning can be a lot more interactive and should not focus on passing tests or memorizing facts. It is more important to know how to find and analyze facts than it is to have these facts memorized. There are already many organizations, institutions, and even countries that are improving the methods used in education. Finland is a great example:

This is interesting as well: “Philosophy for Children”- teaching kids how to think, rather than what to think. I haven’t delved too deeply into this organization yet, but you can check it out if you wish :).

Another very important point is that children (well, actually, all people) need to learn about what is actually relevant- how the world works. How global and international institutions, global politics, business, etc., affect your local life. Where do you get your clothes from? How does the dairy industry work? Where do people get their values? How can you communicate properly with others? Where do the minerals in your gadgets come from? How are these gadgets assembled, marketed and brought to you? Why do you have to work to get these gadgets? What is money? Where does it come from? Planned obsolescence, deforestation, climate change, the collapse of ecosystems across the globe- this is clearly all relevant since human beings do depend on the Earth for survival. Some schools and universities are starting to put together “international and global studies” courses that attempt to analyze the current global environment, however, I have yet to see a school or university offer a course on a resource based economy. If it exists, please let me know :). If not, let’s make it happen guys!

Education is key for our future.

For anyone interested in discussing these topics, you can join our online chats.

Since Maks, the couchsurfer who’s hitching across Russia with only $100, was crashing my couch for a few days, I thought I should use this opportunity to explore Olkhon Island for free. I’ve hitchhiked in many different countries before, but never in Russia. I’m still not sure if I would hitch in Russia alone, but with another person- no problemo ;).

So this was the plan: hitch to the island (about 300km)- camp- hike – film some video clips- camp- hitch back.

I borrowed a tent and an extra sleeping bag from my friend Dima, who assured me that we would not freeze to death during these brisky April nights. Then I bought some oats, nuts, berries, bread, canned fish, and 4 liters of water (less than $15 worth of stuff). We set off for the road at 11am last Tuesday.

We took a bus to the other side of Irkutsk, then caught 4 lifts to Harat’s Pub- a strange place about 6 km from where the ferry takes off to the island. Harat’s is an “Irish pub” chain you can find in Russia. Here, it’s considered to be kind of “classy,” cool and out of the ordinary. To me, it’s just the same as any other dirty old Irish pub you find anywhere in the western world. So that’s why I think it’s strange. It’s expensive and looks very out of place in a small Russian village :D.  Nevertheless, this one made great pozy (local Siberian dumplings) and a good borsch. I was tempted to get a Guinness but resisted this temptation thinking back to this blog and my current “barely-employed” situation.

We finished the dumplings and set off for the road again. It was about 5pm, there were no cars in sight, but we were close enough now that we could walk to the island.

The people we hitched rides with told us that the official ice road had been closed for about a month and most of them weren’t sure if the ice was thick enough to safely walk over, but one man assured us that it would be no problem.

We walked down the road for 3-4 km then caught another lift to the dock. Looking out at the lake, we were still uncertain about whether we should walk to the island or not.

As we contemplated, a local fisherman gave us a big spiel about how falling into the frozen lake was no big deal. He told us that his record for falling in the lake was 11 times in one spring. He said that if you fall in, you should just turn around and climb back up where you came in, then take off all your clothes and put on dry ones. No biggie.

Oh and by the way, there are no ferries in April. Right now, the only way to get to Olkhon Island is by a fascinating apparatus called a “podushka,” which translates to “pillow” (or hovercraft :)). It basically is a big rubber pillow that glides across the ice. If the ice breaks, it swims on the water.

A ride on the podushka costs 350 rubles ($5) but we decided to save some money and take the little risk by walking over the ice. We thought that maybe we could hitch a free ride on the podushka if we tried to stop it somewhere further down the ice road.

The ice was thick and sturdy at the start. Maks walked in front, I followed.

The further we walked, the more confidence we lost. About half way to the island, the ice started cracking underneath our feet. The sound wasn’t the same big drum n bass “boom” that I had heard when we hiked on Lake Baikal in March, this time it was more of a crackle, accompanied by the sound of swishing water. A bit unsettling.

We noticed a big “puddle” of open water far off the the left of us. Then I looked ahead at Maks and all of the sudden saw the ice bending beneath his body. Each step he took caused the ice to move up and down like a wave.

Crackling and bending- not the best conditions for hiking on top of the world’s deepest lake.

I was just about to suggest turning around when the podushka came racing towards us! I was overjoyed that we were going to be saved by the podushka! I told Maks to stick out his thumb to make sure we got a ride on it (and to take a picture :D). He seemed a bit agitated and said something like, “this is not the time for games.” I didn’t get what he was so worried about until I noticed that the podushka was creating massive ice waves as it raced directly at us at an extremely fast speed. So now we had 2 things to worry about:

1. Being run over by the podushka.

2. Drowning/ freezing to death in Lake Baikal as a result of the podushka breaking the ice beneath our feet.

Luckily, the podushka driver noticed us, stopped, and let us on as he shook his head in disapproval. When the podushka stopped, it created a massive “puddle” of water all around it. It was scary to think about the depth of that puddle.

The driver didn’t ask us for any money, so now we actually can say that we hitched a ride on the podushka :D

Success!!!

When we got across to Olkhon Island, we stepped off the podushka and climbed to the south-eastern most point of the island. I knew there was a beach we could camp on from looking at a map, but couldn’t resist climbing to the top of the rocky cliffside before searching for it. The view was incredible.

The sun went down soon after we finished climbing the southern ridge. We ended up searching for the way down to the beach in the dark, on a very steep and rocky slope. The stupid(ist) part may have been that we both forget flashlights. We did have light from our smartphones… until the batteries died.

We climbed around under starlight for an hour or so until we found a fairly flat surface on top of the hillside. We decided to sleep there for the night and give up on beach camping. I set up the tent in complete darkness while Maks looked for firewood.

The tent was an easy set up (except for the top cover.. I kind of gave up on it and tied it whichever way I could :)).  The fire was lit with the last flame of our lighter. That was pretty lucky since it was about 3 degrees at night. We warmed up by the fire, ate a can of fish and some bread for dinner, then admired the stars and the shadows of rolling hills on the edges of Baikal’s icy surface.

Our equipment held up well. It was cold and windy outside, but fairly warm inside the tent.

In the morning, we had no more lighter fluid to start a fire, so we settled for muesli mixed with cold water. After breakfast we got up and walked down to the beach, up a dirt road, then off the beaten path. We walked through tall dried up grass for 5 or 6 hours; up and down yellow hills, over thick frozen crystal bays and to the most precious views of Lake Baikal.

I just love it off the beaten path.

Maks wasn’t having it though. He was bothered by the strong wind and wanted to head to Olkhon’s village, Khuzhir. I convinced him to hike a bit longer.

At around 17:00 we noticed the first tick. It was red and brown, stripy, about 5mm long. Maks flung it off his pants. We started heading back to the dirt road and noticed two more. One on Maks’ jacket, one on my backpack. It took us an hour or so to reach the main road, during which time we flung another 3 or 4 ticks off our clothes. Once we reached the road we thoroughly checked ourselves for ticks and discovered another 4 or 5. Luckily none of them had bitten us.

We walked for another hour or two before the first car came into sight. Luckily it picked us up. The driver told us it was a bad idea to walk around those grassy hills, “plenty of ticks over there! Plenty!”

The sun set as we reached Khuzhir. It got a bit chilly in the dark and the only restaurant I knew of that had an indoor bathroom was closed. Every other place I knew of had outhouses- not the best place to get undressed to check for ticks. We tried for a popular hotel called Nikita’s. We told the guy at reception the whole story and he was nice enough to let us use his indoor bathroom.

We seemed to be clear of ticks at that point, so I was ready to go down to the beach in Khuzhir to camp one more night. But since the thought of ticks was still lingering, I thought I had to at least give Maks the option of sleeping indoors. I knew a nice babushka with a couple of dorm rooms for 500 rubles (~$8) / night each. Maks was relieved at the thought of taking a shower and not having to camp, so we called up Babushka Nina and arrived at her doorstep in less than a half hour.

Nina greeted us warmly and even brought us some homemade bread, a bowl of delicious pickled bell peppers and a pot of borsch! She remembered me from last time I was in Khuzhir :) We washed up, ate the food and laughed at ourselves. Then Maks told me that this was his first time –ever– camping!

That was something I did not expect from a long distance hitch-hiker! ‘Wow,’ I thought, ‘I should really learn to take it easy on people. The poor guy… first time ever camping- in Siberia, in April, with a crazy motherf**** like me! He’ll probably never want to camp again!’

Thank goodness for Babushka Nina, at least :).

We slept well. Woke up around 10:00, packed our bags and headed for Shamanka Rock. On our way out, I thanked and said goodbye to Nina, and gave her 1000 rubles for the room. After we walked out on the road, Nina came running back towards us, and then firmly handed me back 500 rubles.

What a kind person :).

Shamanka was as amazing as always. Just so incredibly beautiful. We stood on the cliffside and overlooked meter thick cracks that ran parallel with the shoreline for several kilometers.  I think Maks was revived there. He said that he had seen videos of this place before but had no idea that this was here on Olkhon Island. He seemed a bit touched by the majesty of the ancient rock, the cliffs and the distant lookout over the lake.

Perhaps the journey to get to Samanka played a role. It’s one thing if you pay for a tour where you’re driven to pretty places, you step out of the tour bus for a few moments and take some photos of the nice view. But you get an entirely different feeling from such a place when you’ve gone through a great journey to get there. All the people you meet along the way- the Buryat locals who threw coins out of the window of their truck for luck, the friendly bus driver who gave us a free lift, the fisherman who fell through Baikal’s ice 11 times in one spring, the toothless podushka driver who happens to be a photographer; Nina. All of these people play a role in your life.

So hitching is not only valuable for saving money. The true value of hitchhiking lies in the experiences, moments and relationships you stumble upon along your journey. You get one ride to bond with an absolute stranger, a person you would most likely never socialize with given a different situation. You never know what you can learn from such people.

And the adventure- big rolling waves of crackling ice, stumbling on black rocky cliffsides, sleeping on the ground by a fire. The stars! The hills, the grass, the frozen lake, the ticks! Okay we could have gone without the ticks, but we’re safe from them now :).

The point is, your prize is much more valuable when you’ve worked to get it.

After Shamanka, we walked for about a half hour, then hitched 2 rides to the podushka. The podushka driver recognized us and gave us a free lift to the other side of the lake. Then we walked for another 20 minutes or so and hitched a lift with a minibus all the way back to Irkutsk.

The entire trip to Olkhon Island (food, transport, accommodation, everything)- cost about 1000 rubles each (about 16USD).

So that’s how you travel around the world with almost no money ;)

(Except you should always bring a flashlight and lighter, and maybe think twice before crossing a frozen lake) :D.

Oh and one more thing! This was the video we were filming:

Last Friday, we talked about these two clips in my English Club:   1   2

The first one is just an introduction to the next part of the TROM documentary, which is all about analyzing the monetary system. The second one is Yuval Noah Harari’s Ted talk, “Why Humans Run the World,” which is one of my favorites :). Harari also has a book called “Sapiens” that I can recommend.

Check it out for yourself.

One important point Harari makes is that money is valuable only because we all believe in it. Money is not an objective reality. It’s just something we created to help us control the trade of goods and services, but it really only exists because of our imagination.

I have a friend who didn’t come face to face with money until he was past his teenage years. He grew up in the jungles of Papua New Guinea and the Torres Strait Islands, shooting animals and picking fruit when he was hungry, collecting water when he was thirsty. He had a very hard time trying to fit into society when he eventually came to Australia. Imagine how difficult it was for him to grasp the concept that you have to do some kind of job to get some paper with which you can then go to a store to buy food that’s already caught, killed and prepared for you. For him, this was a whole new horizon to imagination.

I’ll tell you more about Manu later :)

I think that if you understand that money’s not an objective reality, this can give you more freedom to play with life. I try to explain through my blog that the reason I travel so much is really because I don’t have much money (because I don’t work very often :)).

The guys that came to my meeting mentioned that I had a huge advantage over them because I have a US passport. Which is true, I know that I can’t make a third of the money that I made working in a restaurant in the US, by doing the same thing in Russia. Plus, I don’t need visas for a lot of countries. But that doesn’t mean that that’s the end of the deal! Right now, I’m hosting an awesome couchsurfer who’s hitchhiking across Russia- from Moscow to Khabarovsk- with only about 6,000 rubles. That’s about $100. Since he only has a Russian passport, has no job, and not much money, but is traveling across the biggest country in the world- he kind of proved my point way better than I could myself :). And elaborated on the topic.

When the other guys asked him what he did for money, he just replied with, “that’s not important. When I need money, I find a way to get it. That’s all.”

So we can’t escape the money game completely, but if we understand that money’s not that important (and that it only exists because of our imagination), we can think of our way of life as a little game. We can follow the general rules, but we don’t have to get trapped in the game. We don’t have to revolve our entire lives around money. We can just get some money and manage it well enough to do what we want in life. That’s all.

Again, check out this book :)

We’re having an online talk about the same topics on Monday at 13:00UTC. I will put a link to the online chat on my Facebook page. Anyone is welcome to join.

I’m a bit late, but today I found out that a friend I worked with on Hawaii fell 400 ft from the top of the Olomana mountainside- one of my favorite hikes on Oahu. He walked off the trail to fetch back his friend’s hat, which had blown away. Then he slipped on mud and fell to his death.

He was a really beautiful person, only 24 years old, kind, genuine, hardworking, and just had the best smile :)

At least it was a quick death (I hope). You’re here, and all of the sudden you’re not. Your death is not sad for your own self because you’re no longer conscious- you can’t feel sadness. It’s sad for everyone that loved you. It’s sad that you can no longer contribute to their lives. My deepest sympathy goes out to Nate’s family and friends.

Such an unexpected death from an experienced hiker reminds me to watch my step. I feel very lucky to still be alive after all the stupid stuff I’ve done in life. Some of the “illegal” treks I’ve hiked were much more dangerous than the Olomana Trail.

I won’t stop living on the edge when the edge is astounding, but I will think twice about where I put my feet. My fellow hiking guide, Dima, once scolded me for running back to the train station to find my mittens 5 minutes before our train departed. He said, “I hate stupid moments like this. You’re so concerned about your mittens that you’re not careful while you run. What if you get hit by a car because you’re rushing for those mittens? For what? 300 rubles?”

It’s true. Your life is not worth a pair of mittens, a hat, a Ferrari, a 5-bedroom mansion, or any other “thing”.

And don’t forget this quote: “When you buy something, you’re not paying money for it. You’re paying with the hours of life you had to spend earning that money” -Jose Mujica

Don’t forget that life can slip at any moment. So, what do you live for?

We had an awesome meet up with my new English club on Friday night :) We watched and discussed this TROM video:

This video does a fabulous job in demonstrating how ridiculous and primitive our culture is. It also demonstrates why it’s difficult for us to see our own culture as primitive and ridiculous :) We have been brought up to believe that the way we live is normal. -So how can normal be ridiculous? And primitive? But we have iPhones! :D

How can consumerism not be ridiculous when you live in a system based on the consumption of an infinite amount of resources, yet your survival as a species depends on the finite resources that exist on our planet?

So many people tell me that they wish they could travel like me, but they can’t because they don’t have enough money. I’ll tell you over and over again that it’s not the money that’s the problem, it’s the mindset. “Consumerism” is one of the key factors in the difference between the mindset of a traveler and that of a “normal” person. See this page for more on this topic.

I think the most important thing to take away from this TROM video, however, is the fact that a person’s environment is what determines that person’s beliefs and behaviors. Genes do play some role in determining “who you are” but it is primarily your environment that determines how and what you think, and how you behave. Your environment causes you to become a racist, a Nazi, a Buddhist, a swimmer, whatever. Some people may be genetically more fit to swim well, they can become a champion if they practice swimming! But if they never get in the water, they’ll never be a good swimmer. Some people are more prone to alcoholism, but if they never drink alcohol, they will never be an alcoholic. Some people may be more prone to aggression, but if they grow up in a nice family where most of their needs are provided, they will have no reason to become a psycho-killer. You might have qualities that make you a great leader- but its your environment that determines whether you become a great leader of Nazi Germany or a great leader of a pacifist peace walk.

Genes have no mechanism for judging “good and bad” in fact, there is no such thing as “good” or “bad,” there is just behavior. Check out this awesome ebook :)

And this lecture on behavior:

I think this bit’s important (28:29):

First, we all think we know and understand behavior. I have a PhD in psychology. I have 3 degrees in psychology. I’ve published experimental work with nonhumans, with kids, with adults. I’ve written theoretical articles in a variety of different journals, I published 3 books, I’m invited to talk all over the world. I’m not bragging, I’m telling you that, when I am in a conversation with somebody about human behavior and they ask my opinion, it is an educated opinion. They frequently go, “well, I don’t agree with you.” Or, “that’s your opinion.”

Now imagine if I were an astrophysicist, and someone asked me about the recent discovery of gravitational waves predicted by Einstein’s theory. And I told them and they said “Oh well that’s cool, that’s your opinion, I don’t think that’s what really happened.” Nobody would do that. But, when you’re an expert on human behavior, ‘everybody’s equal’. Everybody’s a psychologist. I’m sure you all know this. I don’t even have to tell people what I do, to hear about this. Why is that? Because nobody pretends to be an expert in chemistry, physics or biology.  We all pretend to be experts in, maybe the thing that’s more complicated. First, we all behave. We seem to have intimate and personal knowledge of our own behavior. If you ask somebody why he or she did something, she can sort of introspect and look at what she was thinking or whatever and tell you that. Also, we’ve been told things about behavior ever since we could talk. The culture teaches us through our parents, about behavior. One of those things is that we have free will. We’ve been told that we are responsible for our own behavior and can make our own decisions. Obviously, since I’m telling you this, it means I disagree. Behavior science is a natural science, just like chemistry, physics and biology…

-Schlinger. Listen to the lecture for more!

Fresco-

So, having an understanding that behavior is caused by our environment has BIG implications! You see, it’s not humans themselves that are the cause of environmental degradation, poverty, war, etc. etc., it is their behavior. But their behavior is caused by their environment!

So long as we live in an environment where we are forced to compete for scarce (or artificially scarce) resources, we will not be able to solve the majority of the big problems in our world. -Because this environment causes the bad behaviors, which cause the big problems. In order to solve such problems, we have to deal with their root cause, not just the symptoms (symptoms meaning war, inequality, pollution, etc. etc).

This little book explains in very simple terms that this root cause is, in fact, trade –

Picture of our discussion group :)

* I will start having these same sessions online about one week from now. Anybody is welcome to join. Please see our TROM Discussions page for details.

I was invited to speak with a group of teachers at an English school today. I was expecting to meet a bunch of boring middle-aged men and women, but since this is Russia, they all ended up being gorgeous young women :) All very nice as well! I talked to them about traveling, TROM and TVP- my three favorite Ts :). I challenged a number of their cherished beliefs about the world, one particular conversation that stood out to me was the concept of having children.

I don’t want to have children for many reasons, but in particular:
1. I want to travel around the world, have fun and not have to take care of anyone else.
2. Overpopulation is a problem.
3. After many years of studying how our world actually works, I do not see a bright future on our planet.

One young woman brought up the idea that having children is an “instinctual feeling”- we’re animals, we have to reproduce for our species to survive, that’s why we want children- and we can’t get rid of this feeling.

But after having traveled so much, I can’t help but wonder how much of this “desire to have children” is actually biological, and how much of it is pushed upon us by the culture we are exposed to.

In Russia, having kids is a BIG thing. This is like everybody’s goal– university, work, marriage, KIDS. Once you have kids, it’s like you succeeded in life- you did your duty, good job. If you don’t have kids, there is probably something wrong with you, or you’re just not cool enough to succeed in life :D

Everybody talks about having kids on a daily basis here! We took a group of college kids (age 17-20) hiking once, and they sat around the table talking about what names they will choose for their children.
I couldn’t imagine seeing this kind of cultural behavior in Australia. When I went to university in Sydney, the idea of having children was very rarely talked about, and when it was, it was usually in a negative way. Likewise in Hawaii and New York. Of course, people still have children in Sydney, Hawaii and New York, but in those places “having children” is not treated as a concept- a test as to whether you have succeeded in life or not. There is much less cultural pressure placed upon having children.

In Russia, this idea of having children is pushed so far by the culture that my 9 and 11-year-old sisters were talking about how they wanted to have children!! Since my sisters have not hit puberty yet, this clearly shows that the desire to have kids is not just an “instinctual feeling,” but very much pushed by culture.

“Now comes the next problem: overcrowding due to culture. It is extremely dangerous because the system is perpetuating the idea that family is the goal of every man’s life and children are part of this idea.” TROM

I particularly enjoyed Peter Joseph’s spiel in this video :)

“I’m not having children. Why? First of all, I wouldn’t feel good. I would feel utterly negligent and irresponsible at this point in time, to bring in another human being. Most people, when they give birth to children, it’s a traditionalized self-serving, established notion where, “We are going to have kids and a family. To hell with the carrying capacity of the Earth, to hell with the fact that we might be impoverished.” […] For me to bring in a child, is for me to actually say, “I believe the world will be in good shape for the duration of my child’s life.” And then it becomes, “What if my child has a grandchild?” Should the world have the integrity to maintain stability for that child as well?” This is the question. This is what all parents out there should be asking themselves. They shouldn’t be having children for their own self-serving needs. […] Humanity has to start thinking about its relationship to the Earth. Until it does so, we’re fucking doomed. We have created an economic structure, a religious-philosophical structure, that is absolutely de-coupled from anything tangible and real, and these ideologies are what will destroy the human species and destroy the planet.”

One more fun fact for you- the concept of an engagement ring was created by De Beers diamond company.

I started “Big World Small Sasha” to demonstrate that it’s not a whole lot of money that you need in order to travel around the world, but a bit of a different mentality, lifestyle and set of values.

Since a lot has happened with me recently, I will quickly explain what I’m actually doing today.

I came to Russia last summer. I wanted to live in Russia for a bit because I became a point of contact for the Russian speaking Venus Project team and I have not lived in Russia since I was a child. I didn’t know where in Russia I wanted to live. Most of my family is in Moscow, but I am not a huge fan of such big overcrowded cities. A Costa Rican friend of mine, Maricruz, planned on taking the railway through Russia in August, so I decided to join her.

This was great for her as well because I ended up being her personal translator, plus we got to stay with my family in two different cities. We took the railway from Moscow to Kazan, Leninogorsk, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Irkutsk. Maricruz then flew from Irkutsk to India. I stayed and went to a festival on Lake Baikal, in a small town just before an island called Olkhon. When I saw Lake Baikal from this little village and from Olkhon Island, I decided that I needn’t look any further for my final (temporary) destination to live in.

I had to see Lake Baikal frozen over in winter! I didn’t want to settle in that village itself because I’ve been living in small towns for the past few years and I needed a bit of a change from small town minded people. No offense to anybody but I hope you know what I mean. In Russia, the only thing people living in small villages care about is having a boring full-time job, getting married and having kids. They don’t think much outside the box. In cities, you can find many more open-minded people.

So I went back to Irkutsk, stayed in a hostel for another week or so and looked for an apartment. I found a one-bedroom apartment in the historical part of the city center, right next to a beautiful park alongside Angara River, for about $250/month. The apartment was super old and had cockroaches in the kitchen that I couldn’t get rid of no-matter how hard I tried, but it was worth it for me to live in that location. Plus, since I had lived in Australia, Indonesia and Hawaii for so long, I was not so bothered by these tiny creatures. The ones in Aus are in almost every house and they’re so big that a friend of mine once confused a roach with a mouse!

After I moved into this apartment last fall, I started my site and blog. I basically did nothing else but this and Venus Project stuff until I noticed Syberia Top on Instagram. I saw pictures of their awesome hikes and decided to pay for one 3-day trek to Chersky Peak. I’m usually not a big fan of paying for hikes, but since I didn’t know anything about hiking in Siberia, and there was already snow in the mountains (with temperatures of up to -20°C) I decided to pay for this organized trek. The hike was amazing. The people were super friendly and the Siberian wilderness was spectacular.

After the hike, I sent a text message to the organizers saying that I had lots of free time to help them out, in case they needed anything. Two weeks later they offered me a job! At that time, they were quite a new organization and only had 3 guides on their team. So the timing of my text message worked out perfectly because this happened to be the only weekend that Syberia Top was organizing two separate hikes and needed one extra guide. After this, they ended up taking me along on all of their weekend hikes, even though they didn’t really need me. Oftentimes, we were 4 guides and 10-12 clients :). And no, they didn’t do this because they wanted to get into my pants (as one TVP supporter recently implied); the main 2 organizers are a couple, and the 3rd one has a gorgeous girlfriend. They did this because I play ukulele :D And because they’re awesome :). I really didn’t do all that much on these hikes. I helped out a little bit with making food, but that’s really easy; apart from that, I just told some travel stories and played ukulele for everyone. So I told these guys that they didn’t have to pay me- I didn’t need their money, I was just stoked to go hiking with them! But they ignored that and gave me a bit of money for each trip anyway :).

I hiked with Syberia Top every weekend until the end of December. In December, I went to Tatarstan by railway to see my dad and grandma, then went back to Moscow with my dad. I spent all of January with my family, then took a train back to Irkutsk in February, stopping in Chelyabinsk on the way. It takes 4 days to get from Moscow to Irkutsk by train, but it costs less than $100. So this trip was very cheap!

I came back to Siberia and the guys at Syberia Top took me straight back to hiking! Now they’re getting busier and busier, doing two or more hikes each weekend, so now I actually get to help! (and not just play ukulele :))

I’ve been hiking every weekend since February and on the weekdays I’ve been having way too much fun with ice :D.

Since Lake Baikal froze over, I took the opportunity to go ice diving, hiking and 4WDing on the lake. I figured out the cheapest ways to do all of these things, so I still have not spent over $500/month on all living expenses while being here.

I had to move out of the cockroachie flat last month because the owner sold it, but I found a beautiful studio apartment in the same area, with a huge balcony, a view of the river and no roaches for about $300/month. I’m still mostly living off of my savings, but I just came up with a new idea that might help sustain my living situation here in Siberia for a bit longer.

This is it- “Siberian Adventures” :)

I want to start doing all inclusive adventure tours- hiking with Syberia Top + diving Lake Baikal and 4WDing on Olkhon Island. If it works, that will be awesome- I can make a few bucks doing what I love to do. If it doesn’t work, no big deal. I’ll live here until I get down to my last $1000 or so and then buy a flight to a rich country (probably Australia) and work for 3-4 months in a bar or something, save, quit, and then go back to doing what I like doing.

Life can be very simple, you see.

You just have to understand that it’s all a game, it really is. When you die none of this will matter at all. So what do you really have? Just life, that’s all. SO LIVE IT!

And try to understand the game.

One more thing that I decided to do while in Irkutsk is to host weekly English speaking discussion sessions. We will be discussing “The Reality Of Me” TROM :). So I’m kind of tricking people into listening to me :D. These people mostly just want to meet to practice English, but I will try to load them up with all sorts of important subjects :) We’ll be watching one or two videos per week from tromsite.com and then we will be discussing them. I made a VK group for these discussions, where I will be posting videos and other relevant material, and I posted this event on couchsurfing to attempt to find attendees. Last Tuesday was our first meeting and 11 people showed up! Half were my friends, half were couchsurfers :).

I am also considering hosting weekly online sessions about the same topics, in case more people around the world want to get together to chat about global problems and realistic solutions. I can connect with anyone in the world (that has internet) through jitsi. If you are interested in this, let me know and I will try to get it going.

And, of course, below are some more photos of ‘fun with ice’ :D

Today marks one year since the last time I quit the “job game” and I still have a bit under half of my savings left. That means if I play it right, I can live on Earth for one more year and do what I want before I have to worry about fleeing to some rich country in search for more money.

I will celebrate this day by sharing my ice diving experience with you :)

The main reason I decided to stay in Siberia for a little while was to see Lake Baikal in all of its magnificent beauty.  So what better way to see it than under its own ice? :D

Since I speak Russian, it wasn’t hard to find the best price for an ice dive. The price was 6,000 rubles (about $100) but they gave me a discount (-1000 rub) maybe because I’m a divemaster, or maybe because I’m a “kinda local.”

Discount, shot of vodka, and a ride back to the city with the instructors. Great to be a “local” everywhere you go :).

I arrived 40 minutes late because I am… small Sasha… so I had to wait for 3 Chinese people to do intro dives. I had no idea that that could even be a “thing”… diving for your first time ever, under ice! Not sure how many international dive rules that breaks but the Chinese tourists sure were stoked about it. The intro-divers basically just circled around the ice hole one-on-one with an instructor for 10-15 minutes and then were dragged out and forced to drink vodka.

Love mother Russia.

I set up my equipment and tested the gear. The alternate air source (2nd breathing tube in case your primary one fails) didn’t work properly. I told them and they just said, “you don’t need that one, don’t you know that?” :D Then they said something about the regulators malfunctioning in cold conditions.

I thought, “Geeze, lucky I went through some pretty intense training back on Gili T when I did my divemaster internship, hopefully I can remember everything under ice.”

The water temperature was 0.8°C, air temp was -13°C. Dry suit held up well this time. Last time I dove with these guys in October it leaked and I was freezing, although the water was 4°. This time my dive mask leaked a little because I was smiling too much, but I was too excited to feel the cold water swishing around my head and leaking into my ears. Regretting that a bit right now. Strong advice: don’t smile while ice diving!  :D

The ice was about a meter thick, pretty smooth and covered in big bubbles of air from scuba divers. I was surprised how much light seeped through the snow-covered ice. The visibility was pretty clear but the only life we saw was a school of tiny fish and some small yellow shrimp crawling on the ground.

I’ve never taken a dry suite course, but while we were underwater, my instructor showed me how to blow up my suite so that air flows to your feet and you can “stand” upside down on top of the ice.
I got this on video, don’t worry ;).

I will share the videos with you later!

I recently took the railway from Moscow to Siberia, stopping in Chelyabinsk on the way. While in Chelyabinsk, a friend arranged for me to do my first ever presentation :)
It was a very casual presentation at an English club, so I apologize for the quality of the video.

I hate to break it to you, but you will never be free. Freedom and free will are two bullshit concepts fed to you by a system of modern day slavery.

If you don’t believe me then ask yourself, what is freedom, exactly? What does it mean to be free?

You’re free, so you can do what you want? What if you want to shoot the guy next door? Are you free to do that? How about to fly a helicopter- are you free to fly a helicopter? Or get the kind of healthcare and education that you would like to get? Is everybody free to go to the university that they would like to attend?

You’re free to a limited extent. Your environment defines that extent. Your freedom is limited by laws, infrastructure, available resources, money and more. In the world we live in today, you have as much freedom as your dollar can buy.

What you might not realize, however, is that the biggest restriction to your freedom may just be your own mentality! Which is also not in your control if you really think about it.

Where do you get your mentality from? It doesn’t just spring out of nowhere. You had no control over where you were born or who raised you, yet the people that raised you brought you up to have a particular mentality, value system and way of living. If you are born in Korea, you would adapt the value system of a Korean person. If you are born in a poor African village, you would behave like someone who was born in a poor African village. You wouldn’t have the choice to behave like a rich Swedish kid because your environment didn’t expose you to the factors that would cause you to behave like a rich Swedish kid. This fact continues into adulthood. A poor African adult cannot behave like a rich Swedish adult without exposure to an environment that causes him to behave that way.

You get it? You cannot exceed your environment.

Think about events, behavior and free will from a mechanistic point of view. A house does not fall down during an earth quake. The movement of the ground causes instability in the material that make up the walls of the building, causing it to loosen up. Gravity causes the loosened material to fall to the ground.

A baby does not just cry. Something bothers the baby and causes it to have a reaction in the brain which causes the baby to cry.

A KKK member does not just kill a black man. The environment that he was raised in causes him to become racist, join the KKK, and go after black people.

People often tell me that they wish they could travel like me, but then come up with a million excuses about why they can’t. If they talk to me for long enough they usually understand that what’s really stopping them is not money or whatever other excuse they came up with, but their own mentality. This is not anybody’s fault, because as I explained earlier, you are a product of your own environment and you do not have free will. Most “normal people” are brought up in an environment that teaches them that they have to finish school, go to university, get a job, get married, buy a house, have kids, then retire. They think that they need a consistent full-time job because that’s what they’ve been conditioned to believe they need to survive. Traveling the way that I do is scary to many people because it is difficult for “normal people” to change their mentality and let go of these beliefs.

If freedom existed then having no job would not be scary to anybody. If free will existed then people would not be afraid to break away from societal pressures and expectations.

I know that I don’t have free will. Every choice that I make in life is a direct result of my influences, my environment and everything else in my surroundings.  The plus side to all of this is that that you can use this understanding to benefit yourself by exposing yourself to an environment that will influence you in a positive way.

I like to travel so that I can expose myself to a variety of very different environments. This allows me to expand my horizons to be influenced by many different factors. Although my “freedom” is still highly restricted by what my few dollars can buy, the “freedom” of my mentality is continuously expanding as I study new material and expose myself to new environments; and that’s worth a million bucks ;)