Omsk
Since this QOTW is starting to resemble a guide book, here is my top tip for accommodation in Siberia.

First, don't write off a bus in car crash that is your fault (well, your co-driver's fault). This is time consuming and you will have to wait about four hours for the Russian police to arrive. They will laugh at you and ask for money. This will all be done in Russian (obviously). Smile and nod. Give it to them along with every bit of paperwork you own, some of which should be that insurance you bought at the border from the dodgy man in a high viz vest. Then help the bus driver push his wrecked vehicle off the road before pulling out the dent in your wheel arch and driving off.

Next, try every single hotel in the guidebook, including those that don't actually exist as they are still being built. Mentally compose a lambasting letter to Lonely Planet on their inadequate coverage of Siberian cities.

Since it is now dark and cold it is time to befriend some locals. It helps if they can phone their parents who will also get in on the hotel-locating. Accept their offer of an army barracks: why the hell not?

Once at the army barracks/Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pay your $4 per person and follow the man in camouflage with his pointy stick who is marching you across the car park. Befriend the lovely housekeeper. Walk past the passed-out squaddies on the sofas, get an eyeful of the group sex with hookers going on next door, find a dorm with beetles crawling up the walls and a cold shower, cook noodles on a camping stove on the floor, and be very, very pleased you're not in jail for writing off a bus.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Mon 21 Jan 2008, 15:17, Reply)