Other roads, marked as those of «local significance’, can be more problematic.
Hitch-hiker’s speed and success will depend on the direction he is headed in. Biggest traffic, best road conditions, and most successful hitch-hiking happens on the roads leading to (or away from) Moscow. Even 2,000km (or 1,240mi) away from the capital, you can feel the pull of the metropolis. It is also quite convenient to travel to and from St. Petersburg, or any other larger urban area such as Chelyabinsk: big cities «draw in» vehicles from hundreds of kilometres away.
Usually, «capitals» (or centres) of first-level administrative divisions (some called oblasts, some krais, some «autonomous republics» in the mind-boggling Russian nomenclature) draw in cars from the entire region. Second-level divisions, the rayons, also have their «capitals» which attract cars from the periphery and eject them in the direction of the regional capital. There are fewer cars in areas near intra-divisional borders than around capitals of divisions.
Major and smaller urban areas act as «magnets,» drawing in cars from surrounding areas. The bigger the «magnet» and the greater the distance from the nearest other «magnet» – the stronger its attraction becomes. Success lies in moving along those «field lines,» whereas trying to cross one of them will be difficult. And where there’s no «force field» at all, i.e., in between the magnets (where borders of divisions, or countries, meet), traffic is the lightest and waiting time the longest, but chances are that when you finally get picked up you will be taken a long way.
It is advisable that everyone should have a road atlas, showing the entire territory of ex-USSR. A great variety of them became available recently, and most typical errors appearing in those published before 2000 have been corrected. But remember that no road atlas is guaranteed to be error-free! There may be a new road, not shown on your map, and drawing traffic away from the one you’ve used before; or you can find that a road or a bridge marked on your map doesn’t actually exist. Ask drivers and hitch-hikers about your planned route and avoid missing an important piece of the puzzle.
In the northernmost part of our country, some roads marked on maps are actually «winter roads,» only functioning from January to March and impassable at any other time.
Travelling abroad, keep it in mind that moving from one country to another can only be done through officially designated border crossings, and this also applies to ex-Soviet (now independent) republics. Some heavy-trafficked roads connecting countries like Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan can pass through a border crossing which is only open to citizens of those respective countries and not to any third-country nationals; a Russian (or Western, or Chinese, etc.) traveller trying to cross there will be commanded out of the car and instructed to go look for another way. Or take the Russia – Mongolia crossing near Mondy, convenient for accessing the lake Khuvsgul, where citizens of the Ukraine or Byelorussia will have to make a 2,000-km detour to another crossing at Kyakhta. Some pairs of neighbouring countries in Asia and Africa don’t have any mutual border crossings at all because their rulers are at odds with each other. All such facts need to be found out before you set out on a cross-border journey.
Many border crossings close at night; some close for weekends. Arriving to such a crossing on Friday evening, you may find yourself waiting until Monday morning!
Drivers picking you up in frontier areas are commonly more likely to expect payment for the lift, so take extra care.
Spots On The Road
Spot is a key concept in hitch-hiking – and your success will largely depend on your ability to find good ones. A driver spotting you occupying a good spot will find it easy and comfortable to pick you up, and it’ll happen soon. But if your spot is bad, you may have to wait for several hours and see hundreds of cars pass by and not a single one stop for you.
Good spots can be few and far between, so even a couple of kilometres’ walk can be worthwhile if it takes you to the spot where you won’t have to wait for long. Sometimes it’s worthwhile to get off ten or twenty km ahead of your current vehicle’s final destination, because then the good spot will advance you a hundred or two kilometres, and soon.
The worst places to be at for a hitch-hiker are: bridges, tunnels, overpasses, «No stopping» signs, steep slopes, and inhabited localities. Choosing to hitch-hike in any of these places, you dramatically reduce the percentage of vehicles willing to stop for you. Neither is it advisable to hitch-hike at a bus stop, because the drivers may mistake you for a waiting commuter.
Narrow portions of the road with heavy traffic are bad for safety reasons. When you hit one of those, better walk ahead and look for a clearing, even if it means standing at a bus stop.
Now let’s talk about good spots. Roads have features, i.e., places where drivers will slow down and be more cautious than usual. These include: 1) traffic control stations, international borders, and customs control; 2) junctions; 3) railway crossings; 4) major road defects (such as a gravel patch interrupting regular bedding); 5) traffic lights; and some others.
Such features are vital for you. Standing ahead of one is non-productive: the driver’s attention is concentrated on the trouble ahead, not on the hitch-hiker, so practically nobody will stop to pick you up ahead of a traffic police station, for example. And almost no one will pick you up right ahead of a junction, because they won’t understand which way you want to go.
However, standing past such places, your chances to flag something down increase dramatically. Therefore, you should choose a spot some twenty or thirty metres past the feature (police station, railway crossing, junction, gravel patch…), not walk any further and wait for your hitch-hiking success. If you see a sequence of features, walk past all of them. If you’re in a hilly area, which happens a lot, then choose one hill and stand on top of it – that will make you visible from afar and the speed of passing vehicles will be minimal. Standing in between two hills or on a slope – not a good idea!
It’s also good to stand on a curve where drivers have to slow down, especially on a mild left-hand curve (where a hitch-hiker is seen from far away; whereas on a right-hand curve he will be seen abruptly, as if pouncing on you from around the corner). For safety reasons, though, it is a bad idea to flag down vehicles on road curves in winter, when there can be ice on the road.
(In countries with left-side driving, of course, the right-hand curve possesses above-described beneficial qualities. By the way, use your left hand to hitch-hike there!)
When I try to get a lift, with not too much traffic around and general situation looking normal, and see there’s no reaction and no vehicles stop for me – it means I’ve chosen the wrong spot. Then it makes sense to take a break, walk a kilometre or two, or three; there could be a junction or police station ahead.
At a good spot, the driver: 1) can see you from far away; 2) is not distracted or frightened by anything else (police, peddlers, other hitch-hikers); 3) can pull over and not be in the way of other vehicles.
Many European countries prohibit hitch-hiking on expressways. Go to a petrol station or toll booth and wait for a car; or talk directly with the drivers. This practice does not apply in ex-USSR because there are (almost) no proper expressways yet.
If you hitch-hike at night and don’t have a torch, you need a well-lit spot. In dark clothes and with no lights around, you might not be run over by a car, but won’t achieve hitch-hiking success either.
Hailing Technique
Waving down a car involves more than just standing there thumbing it until you get your lift – what it really is is a sequence of exchanges between the hitch-hiker and the passing drivers, using gestures only. First of all, concentrate on one vehicle in the traffic, even if you alone know you’re doing it, and address that particular driver. Look the driver in the face – don’t look at your boots or your handkerchief.
You have several gestures to choose from: 1) arm extended parallel to the road, thumb sticking out – common in Europe and vigorously promulgated by Valery Shanin in Russia; 2) arm bent, open palm facing the traffic (this is how long-distance lorry drivers greet each other on the road); 3) arm simply extended parallel to the road, «blocking» it like a boom barrier.
But it isn’t what gesture you make that matters; what matters is, it must be done vigorously and appeal specifically to the driver you’re addressing. It must look compelling and not like begging (as if whining, «pick me up, ple-e-a-a-se!»).
Beggar gesturing; Traveller gesturing; Western Traveller gesturing
Make whatever gesture you like. But avoid half-facing or not facing the driver. Never raise your hand thinking something like, «oh boy, this one won’t stop, I don’t know why I’m doing it.» Don’t let your mind wander: do it with belief you’ll succeed. If you don’t believe you’ll succeed, better let a vehicle or two pass, and eat a candy.
Don’t freeze with your hand raised – don’t try to blend in with the other lamp-posts in the landscape (that’ll soon make your shoulder tired, too).
Many drivers don’t stop but try to justify their behaviour in gestures. Some will draw a line across their throat, indicating that the car is so full you won’t fit in. Some will point their finger sideways, showing they’re about to take a turn. Others still will make more gestures to the effect that, you know, would love to pick you up, mate, but, sorry, can’t do it, mate, not me! Finally, no reaction from the driver means that the hitch-hiker is doing something wrong.
There are ways to urge the driver to change his mind. If he cites not enough space, show with your hands you’ll make yourself small. If the driver indicates he’s about to turn, you can point in the same direction and nod (maybe your current spot is bad and you want to escape anywhere, even if it’s until the next junction) – or gesture that you want to be taken far. If you can tell by the number plates where the vehicle hails from and that’s also your destination, point to the plates. If you see the cargo area’s empty, indicate you want to get in there, etc. – so, do all you can fit in those five to seven seconds that you have to communicate with the driver. And if he doesn’t pull over anyway, don’t be upset, stay where you are and pick up another vehicle. At first, only one vehicle in thirty or fifty will stop for you – but that doesn’t mean hitch-hiking doesn’t work, it means your skills have room for improvement.
Don’t wave down cars while walking, because when you walk, you are facing forward, and when a car appears, it does so from behind, and it’s uncomfortable to wave to it facing backward – you’ll end up turning back and forward all the time. So, if you choose to walk, walk, if you choose to stand and wait, stand and wait (and don’t forget to wave), but doing both is not productive. Most of the time, your destination will be hard to reach by walking and you will hardly at all gain by trying.
With considerable traffic present (say, three or four vehicles every minute), quickly occupy a decent spot, don’t waste time and start waving. When the traffic is lighter (say, one in five minutes), choose the spot more carefully and get ready to become a fixture. Of course, when the traffic is close to zero (like one in an hour) and a curve or an inhabited locality lies ahead (along with the possibility of more vehicles), then walk, pricking your ears for surprises coming from behind.
Signs. Some Europeans use signs with the destination written on them. Don’t do it in Russia. Remember that: 1) a sign is worth less than a good spot, because nobody will bother reading it while driving fast; and 2) if you wave a sign mentioning Irkutsk or some other faraway locality, you will «filter out» vehicles headed to closer destinations which might turn out very quick and useful. Hitch-hiking sages almost never use signs.
Western hitchhikers
How long will a typical wait take?
There is no fit-all answer. Waiting time depends on your experience, equipment, spot quality, traffic, time of the day, season, region, country… and some randomness thrown in. Experienced hitch-hikers have got stuck for two or three hours in the daytime, at good spots; beginners have escaped from bad spots quickly. Don’t think about waiting time; thing about average speed. It is quite predictable and should be about 600 or 700km (370—440mi) per twelve hours spent on a well-paved highway in Russia.
How To Behave In The Car
To get the car to stop is just half the work; what remains to be done is to get it moving with you inside – and make the driver happy with his decision. Many beginners want to know: what to say to the driver? Here is one option:
«Good morning, can you give me a lift down this road?»
You will usually hear: «Get in» – or: «Where you wanna go?» I usually name my final destination: «Well actually I want to go to Moscow, but any place in that direction is okay.» The faraway place you name usually arouses interest and can become the subject of your conversation. Or you can say: «Could you take me some distance in the direction of Moscow?» The driver will drawl, expressing doubt: «To Moscow? I’m only going to Tuymazy» – or refer to any other obscure, nearby locality. You accept, and the conversation goes on with more incredulous drawling: «Moscow? Ain’t that takin’ you, like, forever?» – and so on.
If I know that the nearest good spot is ahead of the city N, I say:
«Good morning, could you give me a lift to the city N?»
When you are in a city, or in the Caucasus, or in Central Asia, or in some foreign countries, or anywhere else where you worry the driver might be a cabby in disguise (which is how we call those who ask for money after giving you a lift), you say:
«Good morning! Could you give me a lift down the road? I’ve nothing to pay with.»
Or, after finding out where the driver is headed, say:
«Can I go with you? No money!» (Or: «For free!»)
And they will say, with a funny accent: «What money, schmoney, what’re you talking about! Get right in, my friend!»
Or you can say: «Good morning! Are you headed straight? Can I go with you? – I’m a hitch-hiker!» – or: «Good morning! Could you take a hitch-hiker in the direction of Chernyshevsk?»
«Who’s a hitch-hiker?» – the driver will possibly say. You explain, and there you are.
Many people want to know what else to talk about with the driver.
Avoid extremities. Some hitch-hikers will talk their heads off, spouting jokes and funny stories, some act out Silent Bob. But the true wisdom lies in getting the driver to do the talking. Sage hitch-hikers will calmly digest incoming information and ask questions, letting the driver go on and on and be happy to have struck upon such an interesting conversationalist (you).
Conversation subjects can be different. Ask the driver where he is going, and then say you want to know more about the place. What’s worth seeing? Is it a historic place? How’s life for the locals? What are the living expenses? How long will it take to get there? If you’re talking to a lorry driver, ask if he’s been to the places you are interested in recently. And how long has he been hauling stuff around? And where was he employed before that? Let him tell you at length how spectacularly that particular Soviet industry collapsed (doesn’t apply to the younger ones any more).