Nogliki

Nogliki (Russian: Но́глики NOH-glee-kee) is a city in on the island of Sakhalin in Russian Far East, roughly 2/3 up the island. The name is a canny reference to the booming oil business here as it's derived from the indigenous Nivkh word noghl-vo which means 'smelling-village'. Around 10,000 people live here, and as the intro might suggest - it's one of the main population centers for the Nivkh tribe.

Get in

 * Nogliki Airport (Аэропорт Ноглики,ICAO:UHSN) for years a rough airstrip, now has a 1750-m paved runway and a fancy terminal building - made possible by a multi-million dollar investment from the oil industry. Chartered flights with a Dash-8 to Yuzno-Sakhalinsk and occasionally Khabarovsk for the oil companies,  may allow you to secure a spot on the 5-10 seats usually left for regular passengers.
 * Nogliki Railway station (Ноглики вокзал) 613 kilometers north of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk has a daily nighttrain arriving from Yuzhno at 10:45, returning south again at 18:20, the journey takes just over 13 hours, and stops in Tymovsk on the way for bus connections to Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky. A 6-wheeled bus connects with the train to take you 250 km up a grueling dirt road to Okha in the far north of the island.

Get around
Both the airport and the station are located a few kilometers southwest of the main city in a suburb like area. Marshrutkys shuttle passengers there regularly for a few rubles.

Buy
There is a central market near the local school on Shkolny Lane, where you buy fresh produce and other stuff, and the central part of Sovetskaya street are lined with shops, mainly groceries and hardware stores

Eat
There are a number of cafes which are equally ready to serve a bite as a drink. If that is all a bit too adventurous for you, you are probably in the wrong place. But fortunately there is a restaurant inside 'Hotel Nogliki' with an English menu.

Go next

 * Goryachie Kluchi (Горячие Ключи) is a volcanic mountain mountain area, and a village, on a tough dirt road north of town, it has a hot spring to boot.