On to Khabarovsk

From Vladivostok we took train number 5 to Khabarovsk. This was an overnight journey still within Russia's Far East.

I should give some stats about the Trans-siberian - firstly, it is not a single train journey (although you can do it back to back if you like - Vladivostok to Moscow would take about 6 days). The classic trip is the Trans-mongolian where people start from Moscow, perhaps with a stop or two in Russia (the area around Lake Baikal being one of the most stops, as well as places like Vladimir close to Moscow which are famed for their beautiful churches) before heading through Mongolia and ending up in Beijing.

Our decision to cross Russia from the Far East to St Petersburg in the North-West was governed particularly by my desire to avoid tourists and go the opposite way; as well as an aspiration to cross the whole of the largest country in the world by train. This journey is around 9,300km! A huge distance and we probably amassed over 10,000km by the time we eventually go to St Petersburg.

There is a vast number of train companies which travel across Russia (ranging from train nos 1 - 900+). The highest train number we took was 55 (the higher the train no. the slower the train!). So, we travelled with different train companies along the way. There are, however, a few common features:

- samovar - the samovar or 'hot water urn' is the life-blood of the train. It provides you with constant hot water no matter how long each trip lasts. There are no cooking facilities, so this becomes the focal point of every carriage enabling you to have hot drinks as well as pot noodles, pasta, cup-a-soups etc!

- provodnitsas - or train attendants - most train carriages are managed by two attendants. They check your tickets, keep the samovar topped up, keep the carriage clean and let you know when it's time to get off. They are in control of the carriage and can be really pleasant or complete bastards as we discovered, but you definitely don't want to piss them off!!

- Train times - all train times are advertised in Moscow time. Vladivostok is 7 hours ahead of Moscow time and you gradually get closer to Moscow time as you travel further west. However, we had to make sure that we knew the time of all our trains in Moscow and local time.

- Carriages - there are 1st, 2nd and third class seats - we opted for 2nd class for all our journeys. In 2nd class carriages there are 4-berth cabins. Each cabin has four beds (odd nos are bottoms and even no seats are on the top). Each cabin has storage space beneath the down beds and above the top bunks. There is also a small table for eating from. The down bunks are coveted and consequently more expensive. Luckily we had down bunks for all our trips.

We left Vladivostok at 2.30pm Moscow time (9.30pm local time). We shared our berth with Irina, a young mother of one, living and working in Vladivostok who was travelling to Khabarovsk for a presentation (she is a business consultant). Irina spoke very little English so we communicated for about an hour using pictures and through mime. From this I gleaned that she was born in Khabarovsk but much prefers Vladivostok because it is busier with more prospects than sleepy Khabarovsk, has less bugs than Khabarovsk in the summer and is warmer in winter (it really is all relative - in Vladivostok it can get as cold as -25oc in winter and the sea freezes over, but that's nothing compared to Khabarovsk which gets down to -35oc!!).

Our overnight hop to Khabarovsk was short but sweet and we arrived at 8am on a Saturday morning. We immediately warmed to the place; the sun was shining, it was leafy and relaxed and the streets were in the European-boulevard style.

After checking into a French-style hotel we walked down to the banks of the River Amur. Families were strolling in the early morning sunshine and terrace cafes were beginning to open up. Just 1.5 hours south down the River Amur is China and the vast Manchurian plains.

We wandered all around the pretty city enjoying the sunshine and feeling charmed after the damp, Soviet austerity in Vladivostok. It grew hotter and we sought shade in the city park catching sight of three weddings in the main square (a formidable statue of Lenin watched over the square; a sight that became all too familiar to us by the end of the trip); today was Saturday and Friday and Saturdays are the most popular days for weddings. Frighteningly young newly wed couples drive through the streets in brash cavalcades, music blasting from car stereos. It is traditional for couples to enscribe their names on locks and attach these on bridges before throwing away the key into the river; two names forever entwined with one another.

Lunch was spartan to say the least. The menu was unintelligible but we managed to order potatoes, so we feasted on tiny baked potatoes and crisps. I was lucky enough to be given pork scratchings with my potatoes!

We came across a market in the afternoon and decided we must have mugs for future train journeys (as I mentioned each carriage has a hot water urn, however, it is not much use without your own mug). We were really chuffed with our reinforced plastic mug purchases. These mugs proved their worth as the kilometres accumulated.

We had an early morning train to Ulan-Ude, so we stocked up with food at one of the local supermarkets before bedding down early in Hotel Versailles.