The Russia that Palin saw

This is the airport for the Eastern tip of Russia, across from Alaska. It’s also a vivid memory for me.

We had run out of fuel, and had to make an unscheduled landing at what appeared to be a military base near Anadyr.

The landing was so rough that the plane bounced back into the air twice from hitting breaks in the unlevel concrete blocks. Seasoned travelers told me that the Alaskan Airlines planes flying in this region have special ruggedized landing gear.

They opened the front door, and this is the photo I took looking back toward Alaska.

I came to understand why Alaskan Airlines has an engineer on each flight, seen here in the white jacket negotiating a makeshift tow.

Then, this huge black-smoke-belching truck towed us off the dirt patch and up and over a grassy hill to get to a refueling station.

Our Alaskan Airlines flight went off-roading !!!

We passed by two Sukhoi Su-37 Terminators, painted bright white. They are capable of a “cobra head” stop mid-air to shake Top Gun off their tail (video example).

Below, I’ll share some photos of human resourcefulness farther into the Russian Far East… I remember the common use of an abacus (lacking cash registers), an abandoned chemical plant turned into a sauna, and a technical university turned into an auto repair shop.