Khabarovsk to Chita

The city of Khabarovsk.

          After Vladivostok, we took an overnight train to Khabarovsk. We were both surprised at what a beautiful city it was. We especially enjoyed the boardwalk on the river Amur. There was one snag though, when we arrived in the morning to Khabarovsk, we had no accommodations. I had looked for hotel rooms beforehand, but everything was booked. I figured we could find an apartment to rent for a few nights without a problem, but the woman at the apartment desk didn't think she could rent to us because we were foreigners. She was nice enough to call a hotel for us and got us a place to stay. Thinking it wasn't too far, we decided to walk. It ended up being over a mile of walking with our really heavy backpacks. 

View of the River Amur in Khabarovsk.

         We arrived at our new resting place sweaty and tired.  After resting and showering, we took a walk around the city. There was the River Amur, and some beautiful churches and old buildings. We found the Harley Davidson bar, and while we were snapping some photos in front of it, we heard a lot of commotion. A group of Communists marched by, with signs for the return of communism. It was interesting to see such an open display of opposition to the current government.

         The next day we walked around the city some more, saw the bazaar, and went to the regional museum. The museum was a pleasant surprise with many old photos of life in the area, a sizeable collection of WWII artifacts, and numerous sections displaying different periods of the region's history. There were geological pieces, flora and fauna and even a woolly mammoth tusk that was found in the 1950s.

          The next morning we got up early and caught a taxi ride to the train station. Initially, we wanted to go to a city called Birobidzhan, but time did not allow. Birobidzhan is the main city in the Jewish Autonomous region in Russia. During the Stalin era, this region was designated for all of the Jews in Russia to move to. Nowadays, the population is about 11% Jewish and the train station sign is in Hebrew and Russian. Unfortunately, the bus schedule to this town and our train schedule didn't match up, so we didn't get to go there. We did change trains there, but didn't have enough time to snap a photo of the sign. 

           Our train from Khabarovsk to Chita began one of the most memorable parts of our trip thus far. We went kupe this round, so we had two beds in a four bed compartment. We had only one bunkmate who was an Uzbek national, who spoke very little Russian. He had a friend who was in another compartment who was also Uzbek, but spoke good Russian. His name was Sasha and he became our best friend for the next 42 hours to Chita. Sasha acted as a roving ambassador on the train and we never knew what collection of passengers Sasha was going to bring to our compartment next to open and finish a bottle of vodka. He passed the day drinking and telling others that there were Americans on the train. In the middle of the night, we were joined by Fyodor, dad's railroad colleague and our traveling guide. He drives passenger trains here in Russia and he and Dad had much to talk about with me acting as translator. He was on his way to Lake Baikal to enjoy some fishing with an Army buddy. Our train companions were mostly male, and in this part of the world, men talk with other men so Dad was a celebrity and I was much in demand only to serve as his translator. It seemed as though every 5 minutes someone was asking me to tell my father this, or to translate something for Dean. 

Dad, Sasha. Roma. Fyodor and Mischa in our party kupe.

        Several hours before our departure from the train, we had a party of 8 people in our 4 person compartment, and a few others out in the hallway. The party was in full swing, and even though we were not drinking, there was plenty of vodka and beer being passed around. Our new friends knew that we would depart the train in Chita at 3 AM. They insisted on staying awake to see us off. They carried our bags out of the train, there were hugs and handshakes, and a few photos were taken as well. They were worried that we would be bored on the rest of our trip without them, and we worried that they might be right! 

Marchabara (our Uzbek compartment-mate), Fyodor, Sasha and Dad.

        One of our train friends, Mischa, said good-bye to us at about midnight because he was tired and wanted to go to bed. An hour later, he was back in the hallway with a beer, ready to see us off. In a calmer moment, we exchanged autographed money from each of our countries. He has a dollar with our signatures and we have a 50 ruble note with his and Fyodor's signatures. A nice memory of our run in with celebrity status on the Trans-Siberian.

         Once in Chita, we spent a day orienting ourselves to the city. We got a late start, due to our 3 AM arrival that morning. Chita is not an overly beautiful city, but it has some architectural gems, a grand orthodox church and even a Subway sandwich shop! The next day we wanted to see some Buddhist complexes, called Datsyns, with temples, a monk's training school and other buildings of the local Buryat people. We had to take a 2 hour van ride out to a village called Aginskoe. The terrain out to the village offered some spectacular views of mountains lined with birch and pine trees and many grass covered valleys.

Our celebrity status as Americans continued on the van ride to Aginskoe. Two more Russian railroad colleagues of Dad's were in the seats behind us. It was about 9 AM, which was not too early for them to be drinking beer. Once again, my role was relegated to translator for my father. Frequent shoulder taps were followed by requests to translate questions or anecdotes for my father. At one point I took the liberty of answering a question without translating to my dad, and was quickly told that the question was not for me, but for my father. 

Aginskoe Datsan

          In Aginskoe, we found a taxi driver to take us to the datsan, who would wait there while we poked around. It was really beautiful and unlike other architecture in the area. We saw a few Buddhist monks and heard the prayer bells. Once back in the village proper, we went to the village museum, and were given a personal tour of the upstairs. We learned about the Buryat people, and saw pictures from 1991 when the Dalai Lama came to visit the village. Caught the van back to the city, and found a nice Georgian restaurant and ate some tasty eggplant dish for dinner.

Gate to one of the Datsans.

\\The log church in Chita built in 1771.  It also houses the Decemberist Museum.

          

          Spent our last day in Chita at the bazaar, art museum, log church, and the Decemberist museum. We leave on the train tonight to Ulan Ude, where we plan to take in more sights on our way to Lake Baikal.  That's all for now, and I'll try to keep you posted of my travels as translator for Dean's celebrity tour of Eastern Russia.