Local children play on an ice slide in Yakutsk. View Slideshow 
Jamaican reggae singer Lenky Roy is traveling in Russia to promote his new album, Siberia.
Part cultural exchange, part promotional tour, the trip culminates in a grueling trans-Siberian motor rally – the annual Pole to the Cold road race, which ends at the coldest inhabited place on Earth.
Roy and his crew, which includes a documentary film team, have just arrived in Siberia. Below are excerpts from filmmaker Jim Hall's travelogue and a [– video clip](https://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2003/03/javascript:popChild().
(Previous excerpts from the travelogue can be read here: Day 1.)
Day 2: Sunday, March 2
Yakutsk, Republic of Sakha
A bus drives us down the aisle of jetliners parked at a tangent to the runway. They look more like snowmobiles – short, but wide, with larger-than-normal, rear-mounted turbines. We board and immediately sense a big change. The passengers are much more rugged looking, bigger – and now an Asian/Eskimo look is becoming clear. I feel like I am on a wagon train headed for gold country.
Our Russian-built aircraft is different in subtle ways. Old-fashioned seat belts, a galley for food prep right in the middle of the plane, a bathroom that doubles as a smoking lounge. Some of the hardware components, like the seat-mounted LCD displays, have a distinctly homemade Soyuz spacecraft look to them.
Video[
](https://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2003/03/javascript:popChild()
After several days of travel, [Lenky and crew arrive in Siberia](https://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2003/03/javascript:popChild().
We are in the air for eight hours, speeding northeast. At 2 a.m. Moscow time, the sun rises above the horizon. Looking down we see land for the first time – a bizarre looking tangle of ice and water. As we draw closer to our destination, I find it impossible to believe there can be an airport, much less a major city, waiting for us.
The captain has just announced the final approach: Light winds from the north and minus 32 degrees Celsius. The crew does not seem to mind my computer turned on, or my tray table out and seat reclined for that matter. The approach is all ice and bare trees. Coming in low, I see no sign of life at all: not a single road, a smokestack ... nothing. At 300 feet, I spot some vehicle tracks in the snow and now plowed rectangles of land. This is not harvest time.
Finally I see a real road ... now a lone warehouse swamped by snow ... 200 feet and still nothing. We are hitting the tarmac and now in front of the plane are many industrial structures. Large drilling platforms are visible ahead in the distance. Plumes of steam rise from anything that moves, mechanical or living.
Trucks and cars pull right up to the plane alongside the stair vehicle. There are no terminals here, and we step out onto the runway and quickly into our escort's van. We are not dressed properly, but David and I venture outside while the group waits for the luggage to be unloaded. Within minutes we are frozen solid and have to return to the heated van. We are warned to breathe only through our noses and never be without our heads covered. Apparently the cold air can damage the throat and your head can swell from the cold causing brain damage. We had heard these warnings, but really didn't think they were serious. Now it's clear to us – the cold is not to be messed with.
Listen up:
[Hear Lenky Roy's single, "Siberia"](https://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2003/03/javascript:popChild()
For This Jamaican, Reggae on Ice
Day 1: From Russia With Gloves
