Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky

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.

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

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

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:

• Chekhov and Sakhalin Museum (Историко-литературный музей «Чехов и Сахалин»), ul. Chekova, 19, ☏ +7 424340 7-1245. M-F 09:00-17:00. A small collection of materials relevant to Chekhov's time in Sakhalin, in the house where he lived while on the island collecting materials for Sakhalin Island. Foreigners: 5 руб. 
• Church of the Protection of the Mother of God (Храм Покрова Пресвятой Богородицы), ul. Sovetskaya, ☏ +7 424340 0-2176. A large traditional Siberian wooden church with six small, deep blue onion domes, the largest of which contain the a bell taken from the city's lighthouse and contains the inscription, "Alexei Mikhailovich, Grand Prince of all Russia, gave this bell to the Sinozersky Monastery in the presence of Moses, monk of the black cloth in 1651." How exactly it wound up on the opposite, far eastern edge of the empire from Vologda Oblast remains a mystery. 
• Former Treasury Building (Здание бывшего казначейства). Built in 1880, this wooden log building is nothing short of the oldest on Sakhalin, and now houses various creative workshops. 

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

• Minimarket "Sem' Zvezd" (Минимаркет "Семь Звезд"), ul. Kondrashkina 3, ☏ +7 424 244-20-07. A place to load up on cheese and sausages and stuff since dining options might be rather hit or miss around here. 

• Bakery (Хлебокомбинат), ul Kirov 59, ☏ +7 424340 4-2548. 

• Hotel Three Brothers (гостиница 'Три брата'), Ulitsa Dzerzhinskogo, 13a, ☏ +7 42434 4-2518. The only hotel in town, at the south end of the main square, offers a bed in a double room. 1370 руб. 

• Post office (Почта России), ul. Sovetskaya 26, ☏ +7 42434 4-2240.