Trans Siberian to Khabarovsk

The fast train to Khabarovsk was essentially a commuter train that goes from Vladivosktok over night. It's fairly new and sports comfy bunks in the economy 4-bunk per room class. We tried leaving our bikes in the hall but soon enough the snacks lady came down with her cart and it was clear that it wasn't to be. The provodnik (male carriage attendant) came up with a plan to tie them up at the end of the car...worked like a charm. One of our bunk-mates, Anna was fairly flabbergasted that there were foreigners on the train. She said she'd never seen any before. Of course, some do take the train, but I guess it's not nearly as often as we would think. As morning came we started passing through the suburbs of Khabarovsk...grey, drizzly, and a definite exposition of some hard living. That "oh shit, what are we doing" feeling was starting to grow as we contemplated what to do in Khabarovsk. We packed up onto the bikes at the station and rode into town to explore and find a place to stay (camping, at least for the time being, was out of the question in a big city). After some exploring we found that hotels were a bit of a scarcity...or at least rooms inside them. We did settle on a place and checked in...only to be told our bikes would need to stay outside. Darn! A little sleep deprived, a little scared, everyone doesn't smile and stares(glares?) at us, all the media says that all Russians are bad guys, the Russians we've talked to said that they're all thieves...and we're supposed to leave our bikes OUTSIDE?? Ok, it wasn't so bad...but emotions sometime lead to exasperation. The bikes were going into the parking lot that had guards watching...fair enough. I made sure to befriend the guard, Sasha, who seemed like a really nice old fellow. Khabarovsk ended up being fairly nice and we only had positive interactions with people, notably a pair of young bmxer named Igor and Daniel. Eager Igor as B named him. He was curious about bike parts and establishing communication links to the outside world. Considering we only saw about 3 cyclists in Khabarovsk it was nice to interact with a couple. It was also nice to feel the tiredness and apprehension fade away. Khabarovsk was a potential launch point to go to Kamchatka, something I've wanted to do for a while, but the pocketbooks protested so it'll need to wait for another day. When I went to get the bikes Sasha wasn't there but a fellow name Vladimir was, and he even knew my name and his reception was warm enough that a passerby would think he was my long lost uncle. Mental note: continue to get along with guards and continue giving them chocolate!





A distant(spooky?) skyline in Khabarovsk



The end of the line at Vladivosktok!