Into Russia by Ferry from South Korea: Neil’s Far East Chronicle

Neil lives in Glasgow and this was already one of seven trips he has made to Russia in the past two years, so he knew exactly what he was doing. What makes his story different is how he got in and how he got out: he entered through the port of Vladivostok on a ferry from South Korea, and he left on a fifteen-minute boat ride across the Amur river into China. In between, in July and August 2026, he flew around the Russian Far East on a regular tourist visa: Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Magadan, Khabarovsk and Blagoveshchensk. If this side of the country interests you, you may also enjoy Rajendra and Jayshree’s month from Moscow to Vladivostok.

What follows is Neil’s own account, with his tips and his own photos. He wrote it on his phone while sitting in a Chinese train station and asked me to tidy up the spelling, so that is all I have done. Thank you, Neil.

Approximate route of Neil’s trip across the Russian Far East. The dashed lines are the two boat crossings, in from South Korea and out to China; the solid line is the journey inside Russia.

Starting with half the battle already won

First of all, this was not my first trip to Russia. That means I already had a Sberbank account with money in it and a Megafon SIM card with my Russian number, even though it had been deactivated. That is half the battle right there. On top of that I had installed an eSIM from a company called Yesim (Swiss based, I believe) before heading for Russia.

Entering Russia by ferry from South Korea

I entered Russia through the port of Vladivostok. I took a ferry from Donghae, in South Korea. The ship is called the Eastern Dream and the operating company is DuWon Shipping. I realise this is not a normal way to enter Russia, but it is something I had wanted to do since I found out about it a couple of years ago. I wasn’t sure the route had started again after covid and the travel sanctions, but it was working fine. It wasn’t cheap at £266 one way in an economy berth, but I paid for the experience rather than for the convenience.

Once the ship started skirting the coast of Russia the eSIM began picking up a signal. I got an SMS from both Tele2 and Beeline telling me to complete the captcha so that mobile data would be unlocked immediately, which it was. So I arrived in Vladivostok with working internet, without having to sit through the 24-hour block that now applies to foreign SIM cards.

Three hours at immigration in Vladivostok

Immigration at Vladivostok was the first time in seven trips to Russia in the past two years that I had been held for so long and had all my devices taken, phone and laptop. I was given a questionnaire and interviewed by three different guys. All in all it was almost three hours. If you want to know how common this is and what the rules actually say about border guards checking your phone, it is worth reading up before you travel.

Getting my Russian number back: Megafon, Yota and biometrics

I needed my Megafon SIM card to work, because it carries my Russian number and I need that for Yandex services and banking services, among other things. So I went to a Megafon Yota shop, got a new SIM with the same number, went to Sberbank to do the biometrics, and then waited. After 24 hours I got an SMS from Megafon saying that my number was now active again, after the 24-hour block they had put on it.

From then on I switched between the two, because the eSIM worked with my Express VPN and the Megafon SIM did not.

Money: pristine notes and an old bank card

I have been caught out before with banknotes that were less than pristine, so this time I made sure my US dollars were in very good condition. I almost had to go home at the start of one trip because every exchange office I went to in St Petersburg rejected my cash. It is worth knowing what the rules are for bringing cash into Russia and how fussy the exchange offices can be about the state of the notes.

As I said earlier, I already had money in a Russian bank account, and my card worked fine at ATMs to withdraw cash despite not having been used in over a year. What I did not have was a way of topping it up from abroad, and later on that turned out to matter. If you are starting from zero, this is the part to plan carefully: how to send money to Russia is a whole subject in itself.

Accommodation: Soviet blocks and one cancelled room

I stayed in basic apartments for the most part. Communist-era apartment blocks, some of them all to myself, others with a shared bathroom. Not particularly cheap at 3,000 rubles a night, but again I did it for the experience, not for the comfort. If you prefer to have everything booked and paid for in advance with a foreign card, that is perfectly possible too.

I even ended up in a shared dorm room at 600 rubles a night in Magadan, because the room I had booked was cancelled when I turned up on the doorstep. I want to believe it was a coincidence, but part of me thinks they got a call telling them to refuse me so that I would turn around and leave Magadan straight away.

Getting around: three flights with Aurora

I took three flights, all of them with Aurora. I travel with one backpack roughly within hand luggage dimensions, although the weight is definitely way over, and I have only been asked to weigh my hand luggage once, on S7. One thing to keep in mind: you can have all the apps you want, but you still need a printed boarding pass to get into the secure area of the airport. That is a bit annoying when the machine at the local airport is on the blink. Booking the flights themselves is straightforward enough if you know how to pay for them with a foreign card.

No problems travelling by air or by train, other than one episode. Flying from Kamchatka to Magadan, someone was waiting for me at Magadan airport to ask me a lot of questions. That someone was either police or local FSB; I never found out which. I guess Brits are not too common in Magadan.

The Far East is expensive

Where I was travelling I was surprised at the expense. It is much more expensive than normal Russia. Yandex taxis were almost double the price in Kamchatka compared with Khabarovsk, and a kilo of tomatoes cost 900 rubles in Magadan. That will not be a problem for many people, but I did notice a general price increase compared with my previous visit.

The internet, more restricted than ever

The internet was more restricted than ever. Even YouTube and Telegram now need a VPN. If you are going soon, get one installed and tested before you arrive, and read up on the restrictions that now apply to mobile data, because it is not the same on wifi as on a Russian SIM.

Leaving Russia by boat to China

I left a bit earlier than my visa was valid for, because the expenses in the remote east mounted up and I had no way of getting hold of more rubles. And I left the way I came in: on a ferry. This time a fifteen-minute river crossing of the Amur, between Blagoveshchensk and Heihe, in China. Again I held up the line for a significant amount of time while they decided whether to stamp me out or not. I could feel the other passengers’ stares boring into the back of my head. If you are considering an unusual way in or out, the overview of Russia’s borders is the place to start.

One last thing: the weather

So that was that. One thing to bear in mind: the weather was pretty bad in that area for the majority of the time. I had comparatively few nice days, with a lot of fog, mist and drizzle to contend with. Not good when you make the effort to go and see volcanoes in Kamchatka and don’t get any kind of view.

I’d like to say thanks to you personally for making the Russiable guide. I followed it to the letter to get my first tourist visa and it went perfectly.

Have you travelled to Russia recently and would you like to share your experience? Tell me about your trip here and I will publish it in this section, with your name or anonymously, whichever you prefer. Accounts like Neil’s are the ones that really help the people who are planning their own trip.