The final frontier

Going beyond Siberia onto the Far Eastern Territories, I kept enjoying Russia, Russians, train life, and discovered a gem of a city in the middle of nowhere.

Day 21: The last Siberian stretch

My last day in Ulan-Ude was really short. I woke up, had breakfast, prepared my bags, took full advantage of the hotel's "business lunch" - 300 roubles for a three course meal, drink included - and rushed to the station. There I bought my last ticket (for the Khabarovsk-Vladivostok stretch), grabbed some money from the bankomat, and boarded the Rossiya, the train that serves the single longest connection between two cities in the world: Moscow-Vladivostok!

A sort of freak event took place when I was about to board the train. A man obviously too drunk to even be standing, was trying to climb aboard, but lost his balance and fell on the tracks, obviously hurting himself. His friend tried to help him, but being a bit too drunk himself, was having a hard time. Everyone around just ignored them. I took off my backpacks and scrambled to help them; they obviously never acknowledged my help, instead apologising to the frowning provodnitsa (it's forbidden to board a train drunk) - she ended up letting them aboard, but gave me a really disapproving look while checking my ticket.

I wasn't lucky with my kupe company this time - much different from the usual warm reception. I was greeted with a "great, another foreigner, that's all I'm getting this trip", from a lonely woman in her late 40s. She looked a bit shocked when I answered "как жалко".

Thankfully, there was Alesia, a young woman also travelling in the same kupe, who was more than happy to chat with me, and Pavel, an old man from the next kupe. We chatted until 2am in the corridor (so as not to disturb "grumpy"), watching the wonderful Siberian landscape roll by.

Day 22: Life aboard the Rossiya

I had a great night's sleep - there's something about sleeping in a train that's just so soothing. A bit of excitement happened during this day - grumpy came to get me, to translate some of her complaining to a young Belgian travelling in our carriage, Kristin. The situation was solved quickly, and Kristin was really glad to have someone who finally could understand her - and I was also happy to chat in English and share travel adventures. She was doing a rather different kind of travel (all tickets pre-booked, stopping in Moscow, Irkutsk and Vladivostok only, with local guides waiting for her at those stops), but given that she spoke no Russian, she was doing really well with her phrasebook, having full conversations with her kupe companion, Olga.

Sick of noodles every day, and with my stock of choriço and smoked meat gone, I splashed out on the restaurant wagon, and had a solid meal for a change. The rest of the day was really quiet; with Alesia gone, it was just me and grumpy in the kupe, so I read a lot, and even watched a film, occasionally coming out for a chat with Pavel or Kristin.


We stopped in a few places along the way, some really weird. Ерофей Павлович was one of those. Lost somewhere on the border of the Zabaykalsky krai and Amur oblast regions, it's a tiny town (5000 people), named after one of the great Russian East colonisers, Yerofey Khabarov. The train station has to be seen to be believed:

We stopped there for a few minutes, and I felt lucky and chanced it to the local shop. When I came back, the stairs of my wagon were retreated already (there are no raised platforms in Russia, apart from main city stations); I tried to climb through another wagon, but was stopped by its provodnitsa - "this is not your wagon!". I ended up doing a bit of gymnastics and climbing back into my wagon just as the train was about to leave. Madness!

Day 23: Arrival to Khabarovsk

This was yet another peaceful day in the train, mostly keeping to myself, enjoying the fantastic scenery, and occasionally chatting with Pavel and Kristin.

Towards the end of the day, we finally arrived to Khabarovsk. We had by then formed a nice chatting group, and took a few snaps together (grumpy kindly refused).

Kristin, Olga and me

Pavel, me and the Khabarovsk wind!

I set out searching for a hotel (impossible to find a hostel around), and after a few tries, ended up in a really old, Soviet style hotel, slightly overpriced, but full of that old USSR charisma that I had set out to seek in this travel. Really small bedrooms, but a grand old ballroom, finely decorate, that now serves as the restaurant. I checked in, hardly having the time to unpack, and then set out to enjoy the city, bathed with the warm light of the setting sun. Khabarovsk is a gorgeous city!, it was a really nice surprise.

I walked all the way to the river side beach, just in time to witness the sunset over the Amur (is that a romantic name for a river or what!). Then I wandered back, and ended up having some plemeni in a communal canteen (really cheap and filling). I still wandered for a while, slowing making my way to the hotel, enjoying the city lights, really happy to have made it to this beautiful yet isolated city.

Day 24: More Khabarovsk

Say what?!?

I had a really full day in Khabarovsk. Had my first shower in three days, went for breakfast, checked out, and hiked to the train station, to store my bag in the storage room. The queue for it was enormous, however, so after a bit of looking around, I found some automatic lockers. It was a bit tricky to understand how to make them work, and apparently not only for me, as Russian people came asking for my help after I finally managed. I also met Olga there, turns out she works in the train station and spotted me as she was coming to work; what a nice coincidence.

The train station

I ventured a journey in a city bus, back to the city centre, and went to the Military Museum, which I really enjoyed: stayed there for over one hour, even though all labels were in Russian only, of course. The MIG-17 in the outside courtyard was seriously cool! Next was the gift-shop of the Art Museum, where I spent so much money, that by the time I got to the regional museum, I didn't have enough roubles to pay for my inflated price "tourist" ticket.

One of the rooms of the military museum; notice the babushka coming after me to check if I had the required photo permission (which I did)

I then went back to the river front, where I had a lovely walk by the beach (unfortunately seriously littered). The weather was gorgeous (although a bit cold already), and I had a great time. This was followed by a hike uphill, to see the impressive Glory Square, with the WW2 victory monument and the Transfiguration Cathedral, before finally coming back downtown and having a really late lunch.

 

The beautiful Transfiguration Cathedral

After some food shopping (noodles for my last train dinner, and a bottle of vodka, hoping I'd find some company to drink it with in the train), I made my way back to the train station, to catch the "Ocean", the train service connecting Khabarovsk to Vladivostok. My last train!

I wasn't lucky with my first kupe companion, rude and drunk, who thankfully chose to ignore me; as I was readying my noodles and a book to read, two new kupe companions boarded the train at the last minute, and before I could even take a look at them, introduced themselves: Alexei and Igor, on their way to Vladivostok to pick up an imported Lexus from America. Both being cage fighters, their appearance was intimidating, to say the least; however, I had noticed by then that Russian people tend to be pretty honest about how they feel about you (whether they like you or not, they'll show that in a pretty obvious way). It was therefore with great pleasure that I accepted their invitation to go for dinner in the restaurant wagon, where we were joined by a third cage fighter, Danil, proudly displaying his broken finger, from his latest fight with Alexei. Ouch.

Russians love knives

We were hardly sitting, and Igor had already ordered a bottle of vodka; I quickly ordered a ton of food, anticipating what was to come. It was a fantastic evening. Despite my limited Russian, we had a great laugh, and a second bottle of vodka was drunk in a dangerously short amount of time. And as I was readying my wallet, I discovered that they had paid for everything, as I was their "guest". The generosity of Russian people never ceases to amaze me.

Back in the kupe, and upon discovering that it was my birthday, Danil was sent in a mission to find drink (they had by then convinced the original kupe companion to swap places). Thankfully, I remembered my small bottle of vodka and kolbassa, and that we ate and drank, amidst belly-aching laughter, a game of cards, and a seriously out-of-tune "Happi Beursdai". We finally collapsed in bed at 2am (arriving to Vladivostok at 6am), and I fell asleep with a big smile in my lips!