Opinion
The world’s biggest country is off-limits. Here’s where to go instead
Ben Groundwater
Travel writerWe all know the Winston Churchill quote, describing Russia: a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
And I have to admit that I don’t have the solution to the riddle, or the key to the enigma. I don’t understand Russia any more than Churchill did; in fact, some might even say I have less of a clue.
Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square, Moscow. Visiting the world’s largest country is not an option right now.Credit: iStock
Russia has always seemed baffling to me, a place of deep contradictions and hefty cultural barriers that I as a bumbling visitor have no hope of breaking down. I don’t understand what I’m seeing. I know that I, too, am bizarre to so many people I meet.
However, Russia is baffling in a way that I’ve enjoyed visiting to try to unravel. This is the country of Tchaikovsky and Baryshnikov, but also Putin and Stalin. There’s such beauty in Moscow and St Petersburg, but such drudgery in their outer suburbs. Russia is European but also Asian. It’s one country but with 21 semi-autonomous republics.
It’s fascinating. It’s one of my favourite places in the world to travel, so vast and unknowable, with some of the best tourism experiences and most memorable sights you could ever hope to find.
And yet, right now I don’t want to go to Russia. The country is rated by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as red, “Do not travel”, which means even if you do decide to chance it with a holiday there, you wouldn’t be covered by travel insurance, and you would have a hard time getting any sort of consular assistance if you got into trouble. It’s also waging a war many of us see as criminally unjust, which is reason enough to stay away.
Astana, Kazakhstan, features some of the world’s most amazing architecture.Credit: iStock
So where do you go instead? Fortunately, if you enjoy the riddle of Russia, there are similarly baffling and yet brilliant destinations to visit. And almost all are in Central Asia, among former members of the Soviet Union.
Begin in Kazakhstan. You want vast and unknowable? Try the ninth-largest country in the world, a sprawling, sometimes desolate nation whose capital city has had its name changed five times in the last 60 years (it was Akmolinsk, then Tselinograd, then Akmola, then Astana, then Nur-Sultan, then, two years ago, it went back to Astana).
In the city of Almaty, in the south of Kazakhstan, you have all of the grandeur and natural beauty of St Petersburg; in Astana you have works of modern architecture to rival any in Dubai or Shanghai. And then there’s the culture of the ethnic Kazakhs, nomadic people who still live traditional lives.
Though, perhaps you’re keen on train travel. Russia did - and will once again - offer the ultimate experience for train enthusiasts and for anyone who wants to see a huge chunk of the world with their own eyes, aboard the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Mongolian railways.
But how about travelling the Silk Route by train? This is a proper adventure, and it’s very much achievable. Begin in the north-west of Uzbekistan, in Khiva, and travel by high-speed train to Bukhara, Samarkand and then Tashkent. From there you can go by rail to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, on to Almaty in Kazakhstan, then Urumqi in China, and on from there to Beijing.
Maybe, though, you want to experience a sense of faded glory, to visit the seat of former empires, proud places who count their histories in hundreds or even thousands of years, rather than mere decades.
Try Uzbekistan. Samarkand is the final resting place of Timur, a fierce warrior, founder of the vast Timurid Empire, who died in 1405. The city was also an important stop on the Silk Route, and its palaces and madrassas are nothing short of stunning.
Samarkand is stunning.Credit: iStock
Bukhara, too, is deeply historic and movingly beautiful, with historic bath houses as memorable as any Russian banya. Tashkent has the feel of a classic Russian city, with its apartment blocks and brutalist architecture sprinkled with classic beauty.
Some of the great experiences of Russia, too, are the people you meet along the way, those you think you know from the news stories and the stereotypes, but who turn out to be so different.
You will have those same experiences in Central Asia. You will find yourself drinking entire bottles of vodka with strangers over lunch and dissecting the world’s ills. You will share food with kind people whose plane of existence couldn’t be any more disparate to your own.
I would love to go back to Russia one day. I want to stand in Red Square again and feel the history. I want to walk the banks of the Neva River in St Petersburg. I want to drink vodka and eat herring in tiny, dingy bars. I want to attempt to unravel the riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
Right now though, I will settle for Russia’s equally confusing and amazing neighbours.
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