“Korsakov is the port entry of the Yazhno-Sakhalinsk area and all the beauty and ancient culture of Sakhalin Island. Having been the centre of a tug-of-war between Russian and Japan it is filled with the history of many people and is become a major world oil boomtown while preserving its natural heritage”… according to the brochure.

   
 
The actuality, however, was somewhat different. Have you ever seen Eurotrip? You know the bit where Scotty and his friends, end up in Bratislava? Well that was us in Korsokov. Everything here looks like it is falling apart and holding steadfastly together at the same time – that is, buildings, vehicles, and ships all have that run down, dilapidated look about them and you can’t really tell if it is time, (the city is about 160 years old), or if it was war, (the city was fairly flattened in WWII), or if it is just the wear that extreme weather leaves behind, (with usual summer highs of 8C, it sounds like their winters are pretty brutal).

Firstly, getting there was quite the trial, the Russian immigration procedures are pretty strict, and we were only allowed ashore on organised tours – escorted by members of the ships’ company. Which meant a USD$29 per person walking tour was the only way to go to Korsakov… that was USD$120 for the four of us, and it gained us a ten minute bus ride and a partially English speaking crew member from the Philippines with no local knowledge and then access to a local Russian tour guide for about 25 minutes. 

Our tour guide was interesting, she spoken well enough English to impart information about the town and its highlights, but not well enough to answer any questions, so I think she must have learned her script well.

   
    Our first stop was a monument of some sort… it looked like a giant pair of tweezers high on a lookout over the port. No one knew what the monument was supposed to be marking, no one could read the Russian inscription beside it, and not event he local Russian tour guide could tell us what it was for, but every man and their dog from our ship seemed to want to have their photo taken with the strange thing??? Go figure. Had to wait about five minutes for a ‘shutter chance’ (Japanese for ‘photo op’) with no one in the way.

 So anyway, our walking tour started at one end of a pedestrian street which led to Victory Square and the Square of Glory. On the way our guide told us that Korsakov is a ‘very typical looking Russian city’ – it has very high unemployment, nearly all the people in Korsakov work in the port, or live in Korsakov and travel to Yazhno for work and there is little to do. People choose to live in Korsakov because the cost of housing is about 1/3 that of Yazhno – 6,000,000 roubles compared to 2,000,000 for a similar type flat in Korsakov. Much to be desired are apparently second floor flats, which become first floor flats in the winter time. Apparently if you live on the first floor you will spend a great deal of your winter digging your way out through the snow, whereas the people on the second floor can walk straight outside.

 Our guide also told us that people like to hang out in Victory Square because there is ‘nothing to do here – no entertainment, no restaurant, no theatre, no cinema’. Wow, great way to talk the place up! And we did see what appeared to be a lot of townsfolk out and about and seemingly doing very little, just hanging around the Square talking to one another and pushing prams. Primary pastimes apparently include fishing, though mostly for the old people, and snow sports, for all ages.

We were shown the WWII memorial, commemorating all the people who died in WWII, and then Lenin Square, where there is a towering symbol of Soviet Russia still looking down on the Square… and THAT is all our guide had to tell us about that. No details, no information, no history, no nothing. We were then led over to a handicrafts centre where a lot of stuff made by local children was on display and available for purchase – bless their cotton socks but their work showed a great deal of enthusiasm and very little talent, as such the price tags they were sporting were completely unwarranted. Here we were also filed past some souvenir stalls selling matryoshka dolls, souvenir t-shirts with Putin on them, shawls, and other typically Russian type ‘stuff’.  

 In the next room was a large theatre where we were able to go sit and watch what appeared to be either a Russian musical or Russian opera (not sure which) with some lovely people in traditional costume singing. They appeared to be enacting a scene where people were buying shoes and scarves?! Looked lovely, but couldn’t understand any of it and had no idea what it was all about.

  And then we were looking at our watches and we had barely 20 minutes before we had to be back on our bus or risk the ire of Russian immigration! No time to look around at all – even though according to the aforementioned brochure, the Sakhalin Regional Museum is a ‘must see’, and has an impressive collection of historical exhibits of the decorative arts, history and archaeological persuasion. Oh and the Church of St Nicholas is supposed to be one of the oldest types of wooden churches in the world, but no time. Back on the bus. Bugger.

   
    What else can I say about Korsakov… I learned that one shouldn’t buy the caviar at this time of year, as the caviar season is autumn, and quite literally anything you buy at the moment is from last year’s harvest. And that’s it really. Korsakov in a nutshell. Port. Monuments. Square. Handicrafts. GTFO.

Helpful things our onboard shore expert should have told us – 1) the few retailers we were able to get to in the short time we were there, were happy to accept Russian Roubles, Japanese Yen or USD and that we needn’t have exchanged already exchanged Yen for Roubles, 2) that we wouldn’t have time to actually go and see any of the cool stuff listed in the Port Guide brochure so we should just ignore all that and 3) our tour guides were not really going to guide us at all or offer any substantial information and that we would dumped unceremoniously at the end of the pedestrian mall at the handicrafts centre and that she would just bugger off without a word! Considering how carefully we were being head counted at every step, so carefully, it was weird that we were just dumped at the end. 

Overall, a rather weird and interesting day. Glad to have a look around, but I definitely wouldn’t waste the time, energy and money to go back again.   Anyway, tally ho!  Back to the Diamond Princess!