Vasili

A taxi driver from Kalmykia who drove Harry and Leon the seven or eight hours from Elista across Dagestan to Grozny, for 18,000 rubles. Harry’s verdict, delivered straight to camera at the end of the ride: one of the nicest taxi drivers he has ever met, and if you come to Kalmykia you must find this man.

He speaks no English and the whole journey runs on hand signals, a few words and a translate app with no signal. It works.

What he actually does with the drive is the reason he’s here. He turns a toilet stop into an expedition — putting Harry on the back of a stranger’s motorbike and sending them across open country to see camels. He detours through his own home town. And on finding a broken-down Chechen driver at the roadside, he stops unprompted and tows him 200 kilometres to a town with a repair shop, which happens to be on the way.

Two details Harry keeps returning to: Vasili drank no water and stopped for no toilet break across the entire drive, running on two energy drinks; and when offered a tip at the end, he didn’t understand what it was for and tried to refuse it.

Obs: Harry says on camera he’ll put Vasili’s number in the description. It isn’t there, so no contact details are recorded here.

Appears in

• I Went to the Most Feared Place in Russia - Chechnya 🇷🇺 — the drive from Elista to Grozny.