Travels in Siberia - 2

by Ian Frazier

The concluding half of Frazier's travelogue into Siberia is as good as the first. As he moves deeper into the vast region, through places where there are still no roads, he paints a portrait of a space over-looked and ignored by much of the modern world.

This article is at its best when it describes the difficulty of travel - the clouds of mosquitoes, the treacherous roads, the garbage-strewn campsites. It is hard to imagine people making much of a life here, as evidenced by the villages without young people.

What confuses me most about this article though, is why it is being published now. At the very end, it is revealed that this journey took place in 2001; it calls into question some of the topicality of its information, especially with regards to relations along the border of China.