In the Land of Oil and Snow: From Pakistan to Siberia

Last updated on June 6, 2023

Most of us travel for obvious reasons and some (not so obvious) reasons, especially from Pakistan To Siberia

I was born and raised near the desert and from my childhood, I used to hear one line whenever we were enjoying a cool breeze

“yeh Siberia ke hawa hai aur Quetta sa aa rahie hai”…

The word Siberia stuck in my mind since childhood and I always wanted to visit this place.

This goes hand in hand with the saying of everything happens for a reason. I got married a few years ago and interestingly my wife (now ex) was born in Siberia but they moved to another country when she was young. So I decided let’s give it a shot. In 2018, I started my journey from my hometown Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab to my wife’s hometown Nizhnevartovsk, West Siberia.

The main objective was to reach Siberia and find my wife’s family apartment, take photos of their apartment in Nizhnevartovsk city, and share it with my in-laws because they left the city 30 years ago and never visited again.

First I went to Almaty, Kazakhstan, took a train ride to Astana, took a flight to Omsk, Russia then a long train trip to Nizhnevartovsk, West Siberia

In short, I reached Siberia with zero knowledge of the Russian language but local people help me a lot and I found the apartment with just the number of the building and old pics of my in-laws 🙂

Everyone in the train and hostel was surprised to meet a Pakistani in a city that is the center of the West Siberian oil-producing region and one of the wealthiest cities in the country but not a tourist destination.

Will love to go there again in winter to enjoy…

“Siberia ke thandi hawayein”