Vladivostok Practicalities

Vladivostok Practicalities

by Kevin McCaughey
 

Internet Resources & Web Access.

Free Wi-Fi Access: WonderFood Cafe. Free wi-fi (wireless internet) from Yandex.
Address: Oktyabrskaya, #12 (Pokrovsky Park stop, opposite Far East State University law faculty). Telephone (4232) 45-77-88. Opened 8.00 until 22.00

Café Iguana. Open round the clock for internet.
Address: Svetlanskaya 23. Telephone (4232) 48-13-67. web: www.iguana.vl.ru

Telecommunications Office. On the corner of Okeansky and Fontannaya, this place is open from 8:00 to 20:00, daily. Hourly rate of 42 rubles ($1.5) for internet. You can also telephone and fax here.
Address: Okeansky Prospect 24.

Central Post Office, Business Center. Just across from the train station, it’s the building with the electronic advertising screen. Go toward the concrete steps. On the ground floor are a few computers with net, on the second floor seven more. To get to the second floor go outside and up the concrete stairs.
Address: Verkhne-Portovaya 2.

Bigger Business Center. For those with more money than time, this is a good place to use the web. The five computers have high-speed connections; they cost more (70 rubles - $2.5 an hour), but there’s always one available. The girls who work here are not rude at all.
Address: Posyetskaya 23. Pretty much directly behind Lenin’s back, and across the street. Telephone: (4232) 51-40-51

Consulates in Vladivostok.

China: This newly opened consulate is currently in the Hotel Gavan. Krygina 3. Telephone: (4232) 495-037

Germany: Svetlanskaya 10, Office 214 (In the Hotel Versailles building). Telephone: (4232) 411-853

India: Aleutskaya 14, Telephone: (4232) 413-920

Japan: Verkhne-Portovaya, 46. Telephone: (4232) 267-481

Korea: Polovaya street, 19. Telephone: (4232) 227-729

USA: Pushkinskaya 32. Telephone: (4232) 300-070

Vietnam: Pushkinskaya 107/1. Telephone: (4232) 226-948

Recommended Web Sources about Vladivostok

Professor Maria Lebedko’s Historic Walking Tour. Professor Lebedko of Far Eastern National Univesity has a superb English language guide of the historical buildings of Vladivostok, complete with photos. http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/Vladivostok/

Another Far Eastern National University professor, Zoya Proshina, has put together a hotlist, a collection of useful links about Vladivostok. http://www.kn.pacbell/wired/fil/pages/listvladivoszo.html

Vladivostok News (www.vladivostoknews.com) is an English language site with a searchable archive. There are some interesting op ed pieces by Americans. However, it is predominantly news, and since it is news, many articles deal with crime and troubles, fewer about the positive aspects of the city. Don’t let that discourage you from visiting the city.

Learning Russian in Vladivostok

The Russian School and Russian University at FENU (Far Eastern National Univeristity) offers a variety of courses for foreigners, with accommodation options in the adjoining dormitory. Rooms are simple (and occasionally without hot water—but, alas, this is Vladivostok), and not cheap at $270 US a month. But that’s the price of 4 nights at a Vlad hotel.
A stay at the Russian school is not a bad way of seeing Vladivostok for 2 weeks, 1 month, or for a longer period. It may be the only pace on earth, in fact, where North Koreans, South Koreans, and Americans study together and live next door to each other.
The teachers and staff are generally of the wonderful variety. There is also a distance-learning option. They will arrange visas. To check costs http://www.dvgu.ru/dip/RC/Index.htm
 
 

Mobile Netwoks in Vladivostok

For mobile phone hook-ups try NTK. They have a large, busy office on the ground floor of the Hyundai Hotel at 9 Semyonovskaya.

Health & Safety in Vladivostok

Locals will tell you not to walk the streets at night. And this advice is not just for visitors; they follow it themselves. Even on a Friday or Saturday, you’ll see few folk on the streets. But Vladivostok doesn’t feel dangerous, especially for a port city. This is home for many Russian sailors, and they are well behaved. However, basic traveler safety rules apply: Don’t drink with strangers. Stay well clear of drunks. Watch your bags and pockets on public transport. Try not to look incontrovertibly foreign or rich.
Probably the greatest danger in Vladivostok is crossing streets. Drivers have a lot more respect for their expensive Japanese cars than they do for your cheap little body. In some areas there are underground passages below the streets. Some of these are ink black, filled with holes, and function largely as urinals, so watch the locals to see if they are using them or crossing on the surface.
Emergency Medical Help: dial 03

Shopping in Vladivostok

The last few years has seen the opening of many supermarkets, the kind where you can touch items yourself without having to ask the clerk to fetch them. The big “V-Lazer” complex at the Dalpress bus stop on Okeansky Prospekt has a 24-hour grocery story, snack bar, coffee bar, and more.
Near the waterfront and hotel area, at Svetlanskaya St. 1 / 2, is Prestizh, a little supermarket, also open 24 hours.

Handy for those staying handy for those staying at the Primorye or Chaika hotels is the Sphere Supermarket on Admiral Zakharov Street. It’s the road down from and parellel to Pervaya Morskaya.

Between the central PO and the statue of Lenin, under the pyramid-shaped eatery Stolovaya No. 1, is a good-sized market, the compartmentalized kind where you have to go to different counters to ask for drinks, cheese, meat, and so on. At least you don’t have to pay at a separate kassa (cashier) for each purchase.

The big market for clothes and things is called the Chinese market (Kitaisky Rynok). To get there, take a bus or tram from the main square (Ploshad Bortsov Revolutsii) eastward. Almost all stop at Lugovaya. The market is near the stadium.