I Am Sure We Have All Seen Pictures,

of towns painted in bright colours, 

like Kampung Pelangi, which we featured in May this year, but what happens if your town instead of being in the tropics is in Siberia, well that is not a problem for the town of Ust-Yansk, the nearest sizeable town (Deputatsky, pop. 2,983) lies 302 miles (486 kilometres) to the southeast, Ust-Yansk itself boasts a population of just 317 (as of 2010, down from 341 in 2002), both towns are located in Russia’s Sakha Republic, a sprawling Siberian territory slightly smaller than India but with just a thousandth of the latter’s population, the photo above shows Ust-Yansk from the distance of about 1 kilometre or about 6/10th of a mile, it is worth noting that the nearest hotel is listed as being 1,000 kilometres away!

 so to contrast with the white of winter and snow, the residents decided to paint the roofs and sides of their homes,

 photographer blogger Basov-Chukotka took a look at the town,  

 and took these colourful pictures,

 snow falls early and often in Ust-Yansk, and when it falls it stays,

 like most tundra towns built on the permafrost, Ust-Yansk’s buildings rest on stilts to prevent heat from melting the frozen ground beneath, this type of construction can be expensive, and everything as to be transported in over huge distances, after the turn of the century rising oil prices flooded Russia’s coffers with roubles and towns like Ust-Yansk began to reap the benefits and it shows, if you fancy a trip have a look at the weather for the town here, (place your cursor over the lines on the graph to see the readings), it seems like now is a nice time to go, but mind you do not get snowed in!