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Continued from the first article:

After Moscow, we boarded a river cruise ship ( very similar to the French waterway ship we travelled in June ). But the Russian ship is actually twice as big and well equipped. For reasons never explained, the ship does not provide Internet service. Thus, I was more or less cut off from the world for several days until the boat reached St Petersburg.

The Russian imperial Waterway is a series of locks, lakes, and canals linking  the city of Moscow  with St Petersburg via the Volga and Neva rivers.  Along the way we visited the towns and villages of Uglish, Yarslav, Gorisky where is the largest  Monastery ( St Cyril on the White Lake) of Russia. And the picturesque island of Kizhi (world heritage site with population of 90. ) One also get a sense of the Russian countryside and the culture of the Russian people that foreigners do not usually see in movies and documentaries.

Perhaps it is just me. Somehow I sense a kind of tension between Russia and China that does not exist between USA and China. Sure the US and China are engaged in economic competition and influence the world over. But whatever the conflict, they were more or less in the open and freely discussed. But the tension between Russia and China is unstated and below the surface, more dark and dangerous. Just one example, in museums we visited, there we see exhibits of relationships of Russia with other countries and cultures. But there are Iittle of the same with China despite sharing thousands of miles of border with each other. In 1973, we were often mis-identified as North Vietnamese. In 2012, people avoid talking to us  about China.

We had a most interesting lecture on modern Russian history on board by our tour guide who was also an historian. In particular, she analyzed the three major leaders of the Russian political and social reform from Gorbachev to Yeltsin to Putin - their successes and  mistakes. The analysis and insights are specially meaningful to me when viewed in the parallel reforms in China for the past thirty years in the three persons of Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zhiming, and Hu Jintao. By hindsight it can be argued that the "Beijing model" was the right choice. What was also notable is the fact that the tour guide was able to openly criticize the  errors of the current leader Putin in front of an American audience - something would be considered as "crossing the red line" in China.

The next to last stop on our cruise is the artist village of Mandrogi where many hand made art objects - paintings, carvings, jewelry, and ceramics are made for sale.

Photos taken during the cruise below

One of the 18 locks on the Imperial waterway systems