Train to Khabarovsk
9 January 2015
On the 9th I took the train to Khabarovsk, an eleven hour train ride. These trains are comfortable, relaxing and they are not expensive, I paid 40 euro for 800 kilometers. I shared a cabin with three other passengers. Some spoke a little English. Each wagon has an attendant that makes sure we have blankets and coffee and tea. There is a hot water machine in each wagon, an impressive piece of equipment.
The trains stops at major cities, but there are not that many on the 800 kilometer line, we stopped maybe six times in total. Everything over 20.000 inhabitants is major.
Some passengers speak English. For sure there are more Russians that speak English, than there are Europeans that speak Russian. Unless you add the Russians that are in Europe because there are more Russians in Europe than there are Europeans in Russia. Read that again.
Some railway stations have platforms, others don’t so you use a small ladder to get in and out of the train. At most stations the train halts for about five minutes and everybody gets out, smokes a cigarette, and then we go again.
Khabarovsk has 580.000 inhabitants. It is on the Amur river, which is also the border with China. The river was frozen so technically you could walk to China. I walked around a bit in the city center, visited a few churches, shopping centers, and then one museum which is unusual for me because one thing I always try to avoid is musea. Dead stuff on display, not for me.
Fortunately the war museum that I wanted to visit was closed. That is, the door was open, but when I entered there were six women inside telling me they were closed. I wanted to walk out already but then they changed their minds, on second thought I could come in, no problem. They had a display of knights armor, copies of weapons used, pictures of great battles, portraits of generals, that kind of stuff.
I stayed one day with a family that I had never met before, and then I spent another two days with relatives of this family in Kiinsk, which is a small village close to the Chinese border.
There is nothing in Kiinsk, except cold air. One night it was -35º Celcius and I wanted to go to the toilet which was outside at the end of the yard, maybe forty meters. First I tried to get there in my underwear, but after five meters I remembered there was a guard dog that maybe wouldn’t recognize me in my underware, for sure that would be a deadly mistake. Also -35º Celcius is just too cold, even if you make it to the toilet you will have nothing left to pee with. I went back inside and I spent a good fifteen minutes getting dressed. That was another moment when I thought this whole bike trip was maybe not a good plan.
Inside the Kindergarten, shoes on the heating pipe. The pipe rund inside the building and not in the wall which makes sense: no energy loss