July 14, 2006

The travelers

The Villages residents Marcel and Patricia Cohen-Hadria travel
from Beijing to Paris on a trans-Siberian railway journey

By Diego Abeloos
Editor

For Patricia and Marcel Cohen-Hadria, going on vacation generally doesn’t mean a daytrip by bus to Reno for some gambling.

Marcel and Patricia Cohen-Hadria standing in front of a Ger they stayed in on a stop in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. A Ger a wooden and felt tent used by Mongolian nomads.

Instead, the couple, who are residents of the Villages, prefers more adventurous journeys that take them to little seen places by your average tourist.

That was certainly the case with their latest jaunt, when the couple, joined by friends Bill and Judy Brown, set out for a nearly month-long trip that took them all the way from Beijing to Paris by train, while making several stops in Mongolia and the outer reaches Russia. Their trans-Siberian railway journey concluded with quick pit stops in Poland, Germany and Belgium before reaching their final destination in Paris.

Adventure travel is nothing new to the couple either. They celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary 12 years ago by traveling to Mount Kilimanjaro. The couple also enjoyed another adventurous vacation once by backpacking across Spain, a 500-mile trek that took 28 days. In addition, the couple has made trips to the Himalayas, as well as the Andes in Chile.

“We’ve done quite a lot of adventure travel in the past,” said Patricia, who coordinated the trans-Siberian journey by train. “We’re always looking for something a little different. I personally don’t like tours, and I don’t think Marcel does either.”

The couple set out for their journey on May 4, leaving the United States and arriving in Beijing for some sightseeing, before leaving by train on May 9 for Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

A photo of a the Russian winter palace, in St. Petersburg, Russia.

There the couple spent two days living like Mongolian nomads in tents and getting to know some of the locals before spending another two days in a hotel.

“We often also mix journeys and live like locals, and then we may end up finishing a trip on a cruise and have an easy life after that,” said Marcel. “We mix the comfortable life with the rough one.”

From there, the couple ventured by train to Ulan-Ude, Russia, where they stayed in a local woman’s apartment for two days before traveling to a small village named Listvyanka, near Lake Baikal, where they stayed in a log cabin. While in Listvyanka, the couple saw an old relic of Russia’s communist days in the form of the Soviet-era hammer and sickle symbol, perched atop a local factory’s chimney. It was one of several they found throughout their journey through Russia, said the couple.

“We were surprised,” Patricia said of seeing the Soviet-era relic on their journey. “We asked the Russians how things were going economically and politically, and we got the feeling that the older people missed the communist times, because everything was done for them and they were taken care of. Now they had to fend for themselves. The young people just don’t see going back at all.”

After a one-night stay in Irkutsk, north of Lake Baikal, the couple traveled on to Ekaterinburg for a two-night stay in a hotel, before traveling on to Moscow for a three-day stay. Once in Moscow, the couple spent their time sightseeing, including paying a visit to Red Square, among other things.

Marcel said one of the most interesting aspects of Moscow were the subways, which, unlike typical American subways, were decorated with mosaics, chandeliers, and other artistic renderings. Marcel said the subways were “like a museum.”

This Soviet-era hammer and sickle symbol was found on a factory chimney during Marcel and Patricia Cohen-Hadria’s stop in Listvyanka, Russia.

The couple then made their final stop in Russia, traveling overnight to St. Petersburg, where the couple visited the State Hermitage Museum, which holds over three million works of art.

“Russia was a bit different,” said Marcel. “Russia was less friendlier (than Mongolia), but there were a lot of interesting monuments and structures. But it’s certainly a thing to do.”

From there, the couple’s adventurous journey wound slowly to a close, taking the train into Vilnius, Lithuania for a daytrip, before stopping in Berlin for another small visit during the day. After quick stopovers in Cologne and Brussels, the couple found themselves at their final stop, Paris, on June 2.

The couple then spent several more days in Europe, traveling this time by plane to Geneva and London before finally returning to the United States on June 15.

Patricia said she had the idea of taking the long journey, which covered over 10,000 kilometers, for quite a while.
“I think I’ve had it for several years, but it didn’t sort of come to me seriously until about a year ago,” Patricia said of the idea of taking a trans-Siberian railway trip. “I was thinking, ‘what shall we do?’”

Patricia said the best part of the journey, in her opinion, was when she and her husband attended a concert in Ulaanbaatar that was coordinated by the Mongolian government, showcasing talent from the Korean Methodist Ministries from New Jersey, as well as Methodist singers from Mongolia, a Mongolian orchestra, and Opera singers from Florida.

“They played instruments a little bit like a violin, but only with two strings,” Patricia said of the Mongolian orchestra, referring to the Morin Khuur, a Mongolian upright string instrument. “That was beautiful. They were dressed in national costumes. It was one of the highlights.”

For Marcel, the highlight of the journey was spending a few days living like Mongolian nomads in a wooden and felt tent referred to locally as a Ger.

A photo of Red Square, in Moscow. Marcel and Patricia Cohen-Hadria found the Russian subways particularly interesting, as they were decorated with chandeliers and mosaics.

“It was quite interesting,” Marcel said of living with Mongolian nomads for two days, where the couple rode horses and shot bows and arrows, among other local activities. “It was very unusual. …It was interesting to see how people live and to do the same thing that they do.”

And while the couple can check off the trans-Siberian railway journey on their to-do list, they certainly aren’t done with their traveling adventures. One of the next adventure ideas the couple hopes to undertake is walking the Pacific Crest, from Mexico to Canada, a six-month journey. In addition, Patricia said she’d also like to work in an orphanage in India for a few weeks.

Nevertheless, wherever there’s an interesting and unusual place to go, Marcel and Patricia will undoubtedly have thought of going there.

“There’s still a lot to see in the U.S. too,” said Marcel. “But we’ll reserve that for when we’re sick and tired of making long trips by plane, and so forth. …We do have an RV that’s rarely been used.”