Departures (2008–…): Season 3, Episode 2 - Russia: The Bull of Winter - full transcript

(film reel clicking)

(upbeat music)

- [Scott] Thanks to our friend Bogdan,

we've had the ability
to see and experience

European Russia, the
western side of Russia,

big life, big money, big cities.

We've now switched continents,

but stayed in the same country.

We're about to embark on a
completely different adventure,

that's gonna seem nothing like
the country that we just saw.

We are pushing further north.



Our main goal is to hit the Pole Of Cold.

(gentle music)

Every step of this world trip has taken us

further away from home, to
places we never expected to see.

Two years ago, I would
never have understood

how much this journey would change me.

This is why we traveled.

This is the reason that we're out here.

(upbeat music)

We flew seven hours from
Moscow out to Ulan-Ude.

After having seen a lot of Western Russia

from St. Petersburg and Moscow,

we got a good flavor of European Russia.

We wanted to see what the
other side of Russia was like,



what the Asian side was like.

We're traveling around with
a Russian named Bogdan,

a connection we got from the
Russian base in Antarctica.

- This is where the
adventure kind of begins,

the long trek into Siberia.

- It is the Trans-Siberian,
and that kind of marks

the beginning of the rest of our journey.

Even though we're only taking it

at a very small portion of its entire run,

we're gonna backtrack a little bit

towards Lake Baikal and to
Yakutsk, and then from there,

it's the gateway to the
rest of Northern Siberia.

- I'm just kind of glad that we actually

had a chance to rest,
because I think we need it,

because the next couple days
are going to be pretty intense,

and we need a lot of energy.

(gentle music)

- We finally reached Lake Baikal,

and it looks like hitting the ocean,

except that it's right now
one huge frozen block of ice.

We're gonna get on a hovercraft.

- I'm geared up.

There's no way I can get any
warmer than I am right now,

unless I was standing in a fire.

(engine whirring)

(gentle upbeat music)

(man laughing)

- I'm trying to convince the driver

to let me drive just for a little bit,

so I'm working on him.

I'm not sure about Bogdan.

- Coming to the very end of winter,

there are spots up near the coast

that starts to thaw first.

The thick ice that we're on right now

is totally safe to stand on.

- What's the chances of
me driving this thing?

- Tell me, have you been
drinking since morning?

- You've gotta work
some magic for me, dude.

Just like five minutes.

(upbeat music)

Hook a brother up, man.

You hooked a brother up.

- Let's get in, not waste time.

- Oh my, oh my.

- No, don't touch the
pedal, only the wheel,

the steering wheel.

(upbeat music)

You ever been driving in snow, right,

and your car gets out of control,

and you gotta get a fish tail,
that's how it is. (laughs)

Can I turn a little bit?

(speaking in foreign language)

- Just a little bit.

♪ Never thought I'd be the one ♪

♪ Baby to tell you ♪

♪ Never thought I'd see
the sun set in your eyes ♪

♪ I always thought I'd be the one ♪

♪ Baby to lose you ♪

♪ Never thought I'd be the
one to get a surprise ♪

♪ So on the back of a postcard, baby ♪

♪ Tell me that you love
me, send it today ♪

- Ask him how I did, how did I do?

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Bogdan] For the first
timers, like normal.

- Okay.

- There's never any compliments.

It's always "How did I do?"

He's like "For the first
time, that's normal".

- It was not great in the fan, so.

If you did touch the fan,

maybe it would just screw it up.

- If you fell into the ice,

and you were drowning and I saved you,

you probably wouldn't say thank you,

you would say "That was
satisfactory". (laughs)

(gentle upbeat music)

- [Scott] To get an idea of just how big

Lake Baikal was, we were able to travel

about half way across.

- First I got to drive a hover craft,

now I get to bomb around
on a snowmobile all day.

Yeah I think I'm living the
hard life here, you know?

- [Scott] Perfect ending to
our first taste of Siberia.

From here, it only gets tougher.

There's a place a few
hundred kilometers northeast

of Yakutsk, and it's
known as the Pole of Cold,

and they call it this for obvious reasons.

It's the coldest inhabited place Earth,

outside of Antarctica.

- [Bogdan] What do you think of that?

- [Justin] Wow.

- [Andre] Justin's favorite.

- This is for you, man.

There you go.

Let us toast for Lake Baikal.

- For Lake Baikal.

- Yeah, 'cause we're
just in the middle of it

and drinking vodka.

This is the best experience
I've had in this area.

- Cheers.

- And to my now frozen hand.

(Scott laughing)

Frozen hand.

- [Scott] So what kind of fish is this?

- [Bogdan] This is omul
that we smoke out there.

- [Scott] Omul.

- Just like 200 meters under us,

that's what they say.

- Wow.

- So they're using nets
for getting this fish.

- Don't even, don't even ask.

- All right.

(laughs) This is like
half frozen. (laughs)

This is the fish eggs of the omul.

Essentially, a Lake Baikal caviar.

(laughs) Justin's just wandered off.

I think it's the sight of this stuff.

- So this is the place where we left.

We're definitely in the middle of Baikal.

We got the depth measurements right here.

1310 meters, so it's one
kilometer and 310 meters down.

- Almost a kilometer and
a half to the bottom.

- [Bogdan] Almost a kilometer
and a half to the bottom.

- The sixth of the world's
fresh water is from here.

- [Bogdan] Definitely.

- There is more fresh
water in what I'm standing

on right now than in
all of the Great Lakes

of North America combined.

(gentle music)

(engines whirring)

- Just bombing around
on snowmobiles all day,

bombing around on hovercrafts.

Bogdan's got this place locked down.

Scott, do we have to do this?

Look how cold that looks.

You're never sure what's gonna happen,

even when you think you
have something planned,

he throws a curve ball at you.

- [Bogdan] Okay, so you grab your hats.

The hats are needed not to get overheated.

- [Justin] All right?

- Right.

- Shall we do it then?

Let's get this--

- We'll go.
- Punishment going.

- It's not a punishment.

(Justin laughing)

Thank you, sir.

- [Justin] That's a tough Russian.

This is relaxation.

- [Bogdan] See the dry grass?

- You just sit on the grass?

- Yeah, just like this.

Actually, you're supposed to be naked.

Who's gonna be the first?

- For what?

- Legs should be there,

and you just grab a seat over there.

- You can sit and watch.

- [Justin] Oh wow.

- You can sit and watch.

One man beating each other.

- Face down, ass up.

- On the ground.

(leaves rattling)

- Below the waste line.

(singing in foreign language)

- I think we're really bonding.

- That's the worst part of it.

(water splashing)

- Feels so good.

(water splashing)

- You want more?

- No thanks.

All right.

Oh yeah, that feels good.

- It's no surprise that the
camera's fogging up, because--

- [Bogdan] Turn around.

- It's like a sauna in here.

(gentle upbeat music)

All right, let's do it.

(dramatic music)

Hurry it up.

(Justin screaming)

(Justin yelling)

- Oh my God!

(Justin yelling)

(Justin groaning)

(Scott yelling)

- You gotta do that too.

- Oh shit!

(Andre panting)

- We're gonna fly all the way up north

to the time of Yakutsk,
and the goal from there

is to drive by a road,
and hopefully make it

to the Pole of Cold.

It's kind of mayhem right here

in this little building,
trying to get our baggage.

- As they say, this is the
most unpleasant place on Earth.

- This is where the
adventure really starts off,

and this is where it's
gonna get really cold.

Already, the temperature
was really, really cold,

soon as they showed up.

- This is our guide, Simone.

Nice to meet you.

(speaking in foreign language)

- This is how he got noticed.

There's us.

(gentle upbeat music)

This is our vehicle that
we drive around Siberia.

We've already noticed there's a couple

of custom things to it,
like a insulated bumper.

All the windows, it's
taped all the way around

to keep the heat in.

(gentle upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

- We have a full day in Yakutsk,

and it's not the most tourist friendly

place in the whole world,
but one of the few things

we can do today, go check out
the Institute of Permafrost.

- Get geared up, boys.

Nice how you get the men's jacket,

and we get these women's jackets.

- Some people would pay a lot of money.

Yeah, exactly.

It's just a rapper's jacket.

- Yo, yo, yo, what's up, man?

(Justin howling)

- Just need some gold teeth now.

- Yo, yo, yo, check it out.

Boom, 12 meters down near to the ground,

it's gonna be the craziest thing.

It's gonna get out of hand, ah!

- It's an actual mammoth's tusk.

- This would be a nice
grill for my jacket.

- [Scott] I was gonna say--

- Got a mammoth grill.

- [Scott] You are gonna need crunk

if you try to bite through that.

We're about 12 meters
under the ground right now,

and this is the entrance to a tunnel

that they've drilled down and in.

It took about four years to dig this hole.

- This is where I keep all my diamonds.

Got a diamond house.

- And this is permafrost.

That's concrete.

- There's a lot of challenges that

the people of the city of
Yakutsk have to deal with,

not just above the ground,
and the cold of the winter,

but then below the ground as well,

dealing with frozen ground, frozen sand,

(Justin beatboxing)

moisture in the sand.

Thanks bud.

Thanks for getting me through that.

- When you're rolling thug life,

you're on the bling, and most people

have wooden panels in their
basement, stuff like that.

I'm rolling diamonds.

(dramatic music)

(upbeat music)

Is this seriously the circus?

There's actually a circus this far north.

- The furthest north of any circus.

- We just walked in the doors

of this permanent circus here in Yakutsk.

It's apparently really well known.

- Security!

(security guard laughing)

We got security, they're goofing around.

- If I'm not mistaken, they started it all

without any financial support.

(upbeat string music)

- Feeling in love,
that's what it feels like

right there, seriously.

You're just floating around,
just you and your girl,

and nothing else matters,
that's love, man.

Okay.

- This should be interesting. (laughs)

- Now slip it down.

- Okay, like this.

(upbeat music)

(crowd cheering)

(crowd laughing)

(crowd laughing)

(crowd applauding)

(crowd applauding)

- This lady is just bringing us

right backstage at this circus.

We went right through the ring,

and now we're backstage.

I don't know where we're going.

It's amazing, you know,
you get to roll around

like VIPs sometimes
when you have a camera.

- I love horses.

Happens sometimes that
horses don't love me.

This is not a pony.

- What's this?

- Is that the X-ray machine
from the airport here?

(Justin laughing)

You show up in a small place like this

that's isolated, doesn't
get a lot of visitors,

let alone visitors with a TV camera.

At the circus, we got approached,

and now we find ourselves at
a bit of a press conference.

- I'm psyched because they've got cookies.

- Oh really?

- This is a very special
part of the world.

I don't think too many
people get to see it.

Remarkable to see people live

under some of the most
horrendous climates.

- I think there was a
lot of interest for us

to come to the northern parts of Siberia,

and to come into the Yakutsk region,

and be able to get out
to some of the coldest

areas on Earth, and just experience them.

(speaking in foreign language)

It was really cook to see how much effort

everybody's put into
this, coming from a place

like Moscow, to come all the way out here

and realize that this is the same country.

Believe me, if you want
a far flung adventure,

come out here and you'll
be treated like royalty.

(upbeat music)

(gentle music)

- Bad idea.

- We are just finishing
up the packing process

of our minivan, which is gonna take us

out to the Pole of Cold.

- We gonna be like over 1000 kilometers

with no road, completely.

- This is where the real fun begins.

- I'm just hoping we survive this one,

'cause if we get into any car accidents,

or anything like that,
or come into any trouble,

we are in the middle of Siberia,

and there's no one to come save us.

- Let's get in.

Let's not waste time.

- [Scott] It should be
an interesting drive.

We're gonna be driving
down a large section

of the Road of Bones.

- This guy in front of me
is Nisha, he's our driver.

He's the guy who owns this van.

- Simone here behind me,
he's actually from Oymyakon,

which is the Pole of Cold.

(car horn honking)

An accident.

- Wow.

First accident of the trip,

and we've only been on
the road for maybe--

- 10 minutes.

- 10 minutes.

Yeah, no more pavement.

Pavement lasts a whole 15 minutes,

now we are on gravel road for the next 12.

- Off to Oymyakon.

- Oymyakon!

Oy, oy, Oymyakon!

(gentle music)

- [Scott] We've been traveling
along the Road of Bones,

aptly named because of the terrible

amount of pain, suffering
and death that happened.

So many of the people who were prisoners

in the Gulag, building this road,

would freeze to death,
and instead of giving

them proper graves, they were
simply steam-rolled over.

- [Justin] They say on
average, every 50 meters,

a body is buried in that road.

If they died, there was
no ceremony for them,

they just put them in the road.

- Welcome to beautiful Chatanga.

- It has as much charm as the inside

of a dead man's lung.

- It's not like Yakutsk is the most

picturesque city on Earth,
but the further away

you get from it, the
more you appreciate it,

because you roll into a
town like this. (groans)

But there's work to be done here,

apparently, and people choose to do it,

so for us, we choose to
stay here for a night,

in beautiful Chatanga.

- Tada!

(Justin laughing)

- Outside it looks rather bleak,

but inside, it's cozy.

- Smokey.

- Smokey board.

I guess we were here first.

Boggy gets the old chariot.

- Yeah, this is just a chair

that's been converted into a bed.

- [Scott] We clearly marked out territory.

- [Justin] I called him, I said couch,

I said couch, and you said.

- Okay, so here's the
deal, for now I have to go

grab some food for us,
because it is really

a bad idea to visit a cafe.

- [Scott] Why, why do you think

it's a bad idea to visit a cafe?

- Can you imagine young
guys living in this area,

how curious they might be
of a bunch of Canadian guys.

- Like foo-foo curious, or
like beat us up curious?

- Curious, it depends.

Curiosity depends on their
level of alcohol in blood.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

- (laughs) Curious like
we're gonna get you, curious.

- Well.

(Scott groaning)

Morning.

That wasn't the best night in my life.

So now you can feel how cold it is here.

- I like this kind of temperature.

When the wind starts to pick up,

if the wind starts to pick up,

this kind of temperature
can get really miserable,

but right now with the sun out,

really still air, it's nice.

- We're making our way
closer to the Pole of Cold,

and we have another 10
hours of driving today,

and 10 hours of driving for
us is like going the mall.

(gentle music)

The last day and a half,
it's been the same scenery,

flat almost like tundra, and finally,

as you start getting
close to the mountains,

and you start getting really close,

it just opens up, and
you just start seeing

these beautiful mountains everywhere.

(gentle music)

- Occasionally you see some of these

rickety old bridges that
are built out of logs,

that are remnants of
those original bridges

that the Gulag prisoners
built for the Road of Bones.

Such a weird, sad irony
that the most wide open,

vast, unpopulated area of the world

became one of the most
notoriously cruel prisons.

And this is a bit more
of what I envisioned

Northern Siberia to be like.

(gentle music)

We're very close to the center

of the Pole of Cold now,
and this whole region

really celebrates that together.

One of those villages is
the village of Tomtor,

where we're gonna spend the night,

and we arrived the day before

their biggest festivals of
the year, Festival of Cold.

He's at number four, number four.

- They turned the TV on for us,

and the first that came up

was reindeer drag racing.

- It's mayhem, mayhem, mayhem,

this Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.

Reindeer racing.

- It took us all this time to
get the satellite connection.

The thing is, I think it's
more than minus 30 outside.

- [Justin] We got the
satellite connection,

look, right here.

This is all you need.

- Perfect, but there's no satellite

connection for the phone.

- Why would you need a
phone in a moment like this,

when there's great
television on right now?

- Yeah, I understand.

Really need to say to my
wife that I'm cool for now,

because she is like on fourth month

of her pregnancy, so she keeps
worried about everything.

- Just the plain outside of the road

that we had to deal
with on the way up here.

This is as fancy as it gets.

Now, is there a men's or a women's?

Wow, there's even a light in here.

- It's nice, these home stays,

because they're actually the closest

thing we have to an actual home.

If you notice where everybody's sleeping.

I can sleep beside the nice warm pipe,

and Scott's like, "What bed do you want,

"the big one or the small one?"

I'm like, looked around, I'm like,

the small one's right by the heater.

I'm like, you know what buddy,

I'll take the small bed,

you can take the big bed, with no heater.

(gentle music)

(upbeat music)

- The ending of winter, now that the days

are getting longer, and it's
coming on towards spring,

and the fact that daytime
highs are in the neighborhood

of minus 20, and that's a celebration.

That's a cause for celebration.

- I got heat warmers in my hands,

got these negative 20
boots, you know what I mean?

And I see these kids running
around like in jeans.

- This is cool, this is
like the opening ceremonies

of the absolute far north
eastern Siberian Olympic Games,

and so they have their signs representing

each little district or village.

(upbeat music)

(crowd cheering and applauding)

It's so cold out, it's taken a while

to get the old Olympic
torch up and running.

It's smoking now.

(singing in foreign language)

(upbeat music)

(speaking in foreign language)

- Apparently I've gotta give a speech

to this whole crowd here,

and everybody's taking pictures of us.

- At this point, I'd like to point out

that it's not just called
the Festival of Cold,

or the Festival of the Pole of Cold,

it is the Tourism Festival, okay?

The Tourism Festival.

There are five tourists in
attendance right now, okay?

There is Andre, there is
myself, there is Justin,

there is Bogdan, and there is our driver.

The driver is the fifth tourist,

because he's from Yakutsk.

- He's waving.

They're excited to see us.

Hey!

(speaking in foreign language)

Thank you everybody for letting us

come out here to see the festival.

We've come from far away to come here.

It's been a long trek, and we are looking

forward to the festival.

(crowd cheering and applauding)

- We just wanted to thank you

for letting us come out here

and be a part of your festival,

and thank you very much
for the warm welcome.

(Justin cheering)

- [Andre] He did it!

I knew you had it in you.

- Wow!

(upbeat music)

That's pretty cute. (laughs)

Just like the real Olympics,

it just turns into three
hours of interpretive dance.

(bear growling)

- I feel bad for that bear.

- For the Pole of Cold,

this is one of the best events I've seen.

- When are you gonna start dancing?

- At the same time you will.

(speaking in foreign language)

The further north we go, we seem to gather

more and more attention,
so we're just gonna

have a little interview
here, and give the people

what they want, more Scott and Justin.

- [Bogdan] And a little bit of me.

- [Scott] A sprinkling of Bogdan.

- As the translator, only.

You know what, you screwed it up,

so just translate exactly
what we were just saying.

- You think so?

- I--

- We are popular because of my speech,

because thank you for warm
welcome, that's it, that's it.

I told them about our route.

(speaking in foreign language)

How do you know about
this place of Oymyakon?

- I think just traveling
this far north in Siberia

is an adventure for all of us,

and having the chance to
push ourselves further,

further in Siberia to
see what exists out here,

that's the real treat for us.

(speaking in foreign language)

Not only are we doing
a television interview,

we're doing a newspaper interview.

- If you ever wanna feel
like a movie star for a day,

just fly all the way up to Yakutsk,

and then drive 20 plus hours from there

to a little place called Tomtor,

and you will be greeted

like you've never been greeted before.

- Do I look Hollywood?

I want to look Hollywood
for this shot here.

Do I look it?

Hey, what's up?

Welcome to Hollywood.

I'm gonna be on Hollywood
Squares next week,

come check it out.

(upbeat music)

(crowd yelling)

- Go, go, go, go, go!

Pull, pull, go, go, go, go, go, go.

(crowd cheering)

The white team wins.

- So who's it gonna be, me against you,

and the winner versus Boggy.

- I'm not gonna do that.

- Oh you have to do that.
- Just because he doesn't

want to do it, we should make him do it.

- I'm not.

- I'll tell you what,
it'll be you versus me,

and the winner will have
to go against Bogdan.

- I'm definitely not doing this.

- It's Canada versus Russia,

that's what we've gotta be thinking about.

- [Scott] Yeah I know.

- I'm not doing this because--

- [Scott] You have to, Bogdan.

- I'm not doing this, I'm not doing this.

- [Scott] Go!

- [Andre] Get low, get low.

(crowd yelling)

You got it.

He's getting tired, don't worry.

Dig, dig, dig.

- [Woman] Dig.

Yes!

- Russia versus Canada.

- Now we're totally setting ourselves

up for a huge failure, because
we've burnt ourselves out.

(crowd yelling)

- [Man] Go!

- [Andre] Come on Bogdan, dig, dig.

- You are not gonna do it.

- [Andre] Yeah, dig Bogdan.

(Bogdan yelling)

♪ Oh Canada ♪

(everyone yelling)

(upbeat music)

(speaking in foreign language)

(upbeat music)

- Because of our fame and popularity,

since we've come into this town,

we have been asked to be judges,

and judges for a beauty contest.

- I'm figuring out this--

- [Scott] Categories.

- Categories, this table.

So what we have here is,

they're gonna show us a scene,

then we're having original costume.

The third goes to like for plastic.

- You better translate
that a little better,

because where we come from,
plastic means surgery.

What kind of surgery have
they had done to them?

- It's in Russian, actually plastic.

Plastic is like how you act--

- [Scott] Your like flexibility.

- Right, flexibility, yeah.

("What Are You Going To
Do With Me" by Paper Moon)

(speaking in foreign language)

♪ There's something I've
been meaning to ask you ♪

♪ For at least over a
month and a half now ♪

♪ But I have to say I'm a little bit shy ♪

♪ Just a little bit shy ♪

♪ There's something I've
been wanting to question ♪

♪ But I'm mostly too scared to mention ♪

♪ I can give you a clue
if you give me a try ♪

♪ What are you gonna do with me ♪

♪ What are you gonna do with me ♪

(speaking in foreign language)

(mouth harp music)

- I think we've got four front runners.

- All year they've been
waiting for this moment,

and to put it in our hands is crazy.

♪ There's something I've
been meaning to ask you ♪

♪ For at least over a
month and a half now ♪

♪ But I have to say I'm a little bit shy ♪

♪ Just a little bit shy ♪

♪ What are you gonna do with me ♪

♪ What are you gonna do with me ♪

♪ What are you gonna do with me ♪

- We're just totalling
up the final scores here.

It was actually a big change, I think,

maybe some crucial changes
in the final round.

- I never, ever wanna do this ever again.

This is the hardest thing I've ever done.

- Okay, 17, plus 16.

- It's not just something
you just kind of breeze in,

like okay, watch it, and kind of like oh,

she's the cutest, blah, blah, blah.

It's like you've gotta
judge on everything,

and the categories got pretty
tough there for a while.

- We've got our winner.

So this is silver crown that goes

from the queen to another queen.

This is the first prize,
real diamonds and real gold.

- They actually want us to present it,

but we didn't want to do it,

because if we screwed up the girl's name,

and put the wrong girl upon stage,

we'd feel pretty bad.

- Because we can't speak Russian.

- True story.

- We're not actually
dressed for being on stage,

that's the thing.

Something's happening
with the music out here.

(speaking in foreign language)

(upbeat music)

- Too much stress, too
much of people's work

in the palms of our hands.

- I officially retire from
judging from here on in.

- On two conditions, the first condition,

I'm gonna be head of
the judge, that's true,

and the second condition,
I'm picking my own judge.

It's gonna be like, if
it is a beauty contest,

there should be like
young men who can choose.

- Spoken in true communism.

(upbeat music)

- We spent enough time inside the van,

two solid days basically of driving

along the Road of Bones is about

enough for us for now, so we're gonna get

out of the van, we're gonna take

a different means of transport.

- We're just waiting here.

We have some reindeer
that are on their way up

right now to visit us.

- We're gonna take some
of these reindeer out

to one of the winter
camps, deep in the forest,

and hopefully spend the night there,

before making our way
back to the Road of Bones

and continuing on our trek.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Scott] Scott, nice to meet you.

- Justin.

These animals are so friendly.

They're all just sitting
here patiently waiting.

(dog barking)

Right here, they're so bushy.

- [Andre] He's ticklish there.

- [Justin] He's ticklish.

Tickle tickle.

- I'm a little bit nervous about

staying in the cold overnight,

but I think these people
will take care of us.

- This is my sled.

I can't get over how all of these sleds

are just handmade.

- Come up here, come up
here, come up, come up.

Come here, yeah, you come with me,

you come with me, yeah.

(gentle upbeat music)

We're going down, hold on! (laughs)

(Justin yelling)

(Scott laughing)

- [Andre] How is it?

- We're off to a bit of a rough start.

- We're not even like
two minutes into this,

and my reindeer had an
accident and lost a horn.

We came out of the, as soon as
we started coming out right--

- [Bogdan] Right, I've seen that.

- We were by that wood
pile, there's a post there,

well he smoke his head, well,

smoke his antler on the
post, and it fell off.

I grabbed it, I'm like.

It's dripping, it's
dripping stuff. (groans)

Is it possible to keep
this, as a souvenir?

(speaking in foreign language)

Getting through customs is gonna be

real fun with this thing.

(gentle music)

- I don't know if this is the world's

best rollercoaster, or the
world's worst rollercoaster.

- Here we go!

(Justin laughing)

(upbeat music)

(deer panting)

I can't believe it.

I thought this would be so peaceful.

This is not peaceful at all.

It's fun.

♪ Giddy up, giddy up, giddy up, let's go ♪

♪ Let's go and play in the snow ♪

- Whoa!

- Oh, look out.

(upbeat music)

- [Scott] We've been riding
for a couple of hours now.

We've come to this patch of woods,

that we're going to set up camp at.

Well, we need water for tonight.

That's what you call fresh water.

- Ice, ice baby.

(gentle upbeat music)

- We spent the better part
of a day to get to here.

Where here is, only
these guys really know.

They're kind of shoveling
out a patch of snow,

and they're gonna start constructing

what's gonna be our tent for tonight.

My major concern for tonight

is how warm are we gonna be.

These guys, they're used to it,

right, so it's not a big deal for them.

It's possibly gonna get
down to negative 30,

and for us, that's pretty cold.

(ax rattling)

(gentle upbeat music)

- I feel myself as a Gulag prisoner,

searching for dry wood here.

- [Scott] When we started
this trip, we wanted to get

to the middle of nowhere.

The middle of nowhere is still
somewhere, for some people.

People choose to live up here.

People choose to make a life up here.

- Come here, buddy.

- Give me some of those noodles.

(Justin cheering)

- [Bogdan] Here.

- That's what you call
country cooking right there.

- This is gonna go down really nice.

There's a nice big piece
of reindeer in there.

You know, we're just cozying up in here,

getting our sleeping bags out.

It's a lot warmer in
here than it is outside,

if you walk away from the fire.

- How do you make a good pillow?

Here's a tip for you.

Take whatever your sleeping
bag was sitting in,

fill it with a jacket
you were sleeping in.

Never mind your wallet, coins, all that,

doesn't matter, that adds to it.

- It's the perfect end to
a perfect Siberian day.

(gentle upbeat music)

This is Oymyakon.

This is what we set out to do,

thousands of kilometers away in Baikal.

This is it.

We have reached the center
of the Pole of Cold.

There's not much here.

- The cradle of civilization
stands right in front of me.

- So this is Rustam Goriovich,

he is the mayor of this place.

- [Scott] The mayor of Oymyakon.

- Right.

- At a certain date, which
I'm about to find out,

it dropped to negative 71 degrees Celsius.

- [Bogdan] Even more.

- [Justin] Point two.

- I can't possibly imagine what it would

be like to live out, not just one day,

but averaging over two months,

minus 50, minus 55.

- Let us try to drink
for the bull of winter,

for his horns, and his head.

- From one side of Russia to the other.

- From one part of Russia to the other.

- You know, sometimes it's not about

the destination, it's just getting to it.

Little stops like this,
it's like these little stops

make the trip memorable.

For Bogdan, for the great
adventure across Russia.

- Okay.

- Let's shake on that,
thank you very much.

It's about getting together
with these guys again

in five years, 10 years.

- Has he ever experienced
where if you spit,

it'll be frozen before it hits the ground?

(speaking in foreign language)

- Over minus 65.

- [Scott] It's about going
home with memories of Oymyakon.

It's about going home with
memories of the whole trip,

talking about this trek we did

through Siberia in the winter.

- So it's Russia versus Canada.

Our goal is two rocks,
traditional Russian style,

theirs is two empty vodka bottles.

We really wanted to push
towards getting out here,

and what that was, we really didn't know.

(all yelling)

Our country's gonna hate us.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Scott] The three days of driving

along the Road of Bones,
and ways of living

in the most brutal temperatures

you could possibly imagine.

The fact that we chose that
adventure, and lived it out.

A lot of that is because of Bogdan.

Bogdan made this all possible.

These bigger adventures,
and these bigger quests,

but some of the things
that we did with him

were a first for him as well,

so his eyes get that glimmer,

the same glimmer that we get,
when we see something new,

and that's the best part.

♪ The tourist steps aside and savors ♪

♪ The sprawling vista, foreign flavors ♪

♪ And he should know by now the danger ♪

- [Scott] We couldn't be getting

any further away from Russia
and Siberia if we tried,

where we're flying our way all the way

down to the Indian ocean,
to the small island country

of Sri Lanka, where we're gonna see

a lot more sun and palm trees

and beech than we could ever imagine.

Despite the fact that Sri Lanka's

been battered by a civil war

that's been ongoing for over 25 years,

we know that there's a
lot more to countries

than just what makes the news,

and that's what's drawing us there.