Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky

Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky (Russian: Алекса́ндровск-Сахали́нский, ah-leek-SAHND-ruvsk suh-khah-LEEN-skee) is a port town on the northwest coast of Sakhalin, on the shores of the Tatar Strait.

Understand
The first settlement on the island, Alexandrovsk was known as Akō (亜港) during the Japanese occupation between 1918 and 1925. For its first 30 or so years, it was the administrative center of Russian Sakhalin. But it is most famous for once being the short-term home of Anton Chekhov, where he wrote The Sakhalin Island. The penal colony that so horrified the famous author no longer exists, but the town retains its other two roles as a coal mining center and an important port on the island, home to about 12,000.

Get in
There is one daily bus between Tymovsk and Alexandrovsk (leaving 08:00), connecting with the daily overnight train between Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Nogliki which arrives at 07:51; any of the other departures on the railway would require you to overnight in Tymovsk. In the opposite direction there is a daily bus from Alexandrovsk at 17:00, allowing you to return south with the Nogliki – Yuzno-Sakhalinsk train at 21:10. Remember to double check all this before heading out, since schedules change.
 * Bus company (Александровское ПАТП) +7 (42434) 2-1060

Get around
Use your feet, it will do you good, and the town is not that big.

See
The sightseeing capital of the Far East this is not, but there are a few things even beyond the requisite Chekhov Museum. Look for the Three Brothers (Три брата), a set of three monolithic rocks jutting out of the water about 3 km west of the town, and the port's lighthouse, just south of the rocks, overlooking the green cliffs.

Other sights include:



Do
If you are resourceful, you might also get a local to direct you to the network of tunnels dug by prisoners at the katorga&mdash;a major 19th-century penal camp on the island.