in khabarovsk

i'm now in another russia city abt 800km away from vladivostok. it's called khabarovsk and it's pretty near the north of china. the weather here is surprisingly HOT. it's almost as hot as home, n the stupid sun just wouldn't go down, so it's gonna stay bright and hot for a long long while.

i should b happy that it isn't freezing. there's finally some sun shine and short sleeves during this summer trip.

we did the city tour today and i thought our guide was quite good - informative and entertaining. n i entered a russian orthodox church for the 1st time today. their churches are GORGEOUS - much much prettier, ornate nd intricate than either the catholic or protestants ones. many beautiful paitings of icons are all over the place and the hall's much more opulant. and the churches don't have benches - worship is done sitted on the floor.

the city is cleaner and more organised than vladivostok. i think i prefer it here.

anyway, the train ride was fine yesterday, though i didn't sleep very well...

this cute russian guy was supposed to share our compartment with us, but the carriage attendant had shown him another compartment, so he wouldn't feel so uncomfortable with the 3 of us. *shrugs* just lost an opportunity to get to know the locals better...

oops. the internet centre lady's closing up and she's chasing me away. will blog more tomorrow!

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in retrospect in photos...

khabarovsk train station. one of the best natural history museums in the russian far east, this non-descript red brick building exhibits not only the natural richness of the russian far east, including plant and animal specimens (n many exotic ones), but also documents the anthropological and cultural diversity of indigenous tribesmen and migrant russians, while not forgetting the influential historical development of the last couple of centuries, including the civil wars and world war 2.

our first time entering an orthodox church. our first of many 'lenin squares' in russia. many cities have lavish squares in their centres for their soviet military parades.

i found khabarovsk particularly pleasant because of its riverside promenades that give it a very relaxed feel. many families would bring their children out for an evening stroll, while youths would engage in a multitude of sports from soccer to (beach)volleyball to blading along the riverside.

all aboard!

i'm gonna go onto the 1st leg of my journey on the train in abt an hour's time. we'll b travelling from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk. the journey will take abt 12 hours - the shortest of all of our train journeys.

today was basically spent wasting our time away. we did go visit this underground fort which i think is really cool. it puts any of the british forts in singapore, underground or otherwise, to shame.

we tried sending things back to singapore at the post office. i really hope they'll reach singapore though. i sent kailiang's birthday card too. haha. i'm giving the card a 3 week allowance to make its way back to singapore.

bleh. i think i'm a little tired.

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in retrospect in photos...

the imperial insignia above the word 'vladivostok' at the train station.
a map of russia showing the route of the railway, starting in moscow and ending in vladivostok...
with an obelisk to commemorate the end of the world's longest railway after 9288km.farewell to vladivostok and our guide anna, as we board train #1, 'the rossiya'.
the russian post postoffice in vladivostok, right across the street from the train station. 'twas quite an experience sending off our 1st postcard in russia, where hopefully someone would know where singapore is.

sigh

we went off to this extremely ulu place right at the edge of lake khanka, which straddles across the border of both russia and china. it's sooo ulu, the guide hasn't been there b4, n we sort of got lost along the way; we had to keep asking for directions. and even many of the locals don't know the way there.

the place has no running water (their drinking water comes from a well n is sort of sandy) and has toilets reminiscent of that in yunnan when i visited the place with tchs in 2002. haha. the toilets sure brought back fond memories of yunnan. o yes, n the wind was howling all the time and it was very cold. but it was a very pretty place, nestled within the woods.

the owner has a 4 dogs - a dalmation, a blakc medium sized one, and 2 little brown ones. n i think they r so cute! the dogs would frolick around the place and prance among the trees, and they seemed so happy. bleh. i suppose i've got a soft spot for dogs.

anyway, we had goen to the lake to go bird watching. but apparently, there were some administative cock ups, and we can't go onto the lake, which is a protected nature reserve. so we travlled hundreds of kilometres for naught. bleh. i feel so cheated by the agency.

i felt very sad and disappointed leaving the place, not jsut becuz i didn't see the birds, but becuz i'm missing the nice quiet environment and the dogs already. i think i would have a pack of dogs if i were to have a big enough piece of land.

somehow i've been rather troubled, worried and a tad depressed today. don't really know y. my parents are surprisinglu optimistic and jolly, which isn't that bad.

joshua passed his driving with 12 points today and he smsed to let me know. i'm glad for him, but the thought of driving's accentuating my sucky mood.

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in retrospect in photos...

we were freezing our butt off right at the edge of lake khanka with its unobstructed howling winds. the environment was very peaceful though - forested and pleasant.we had one of my best meals ever. we had koi right from the lake, flame-grilled with tomatoes, onions and sourcream. plus other misc russian country stuff.we had also gone to see a siberian tiger (or amur tiger, as the locals call it) reproductive farm, run by this esteem zoologist. really pleasant man, and really majestic (and cuddly looking) tigers.

BAD NEWS!

here i m in vladivostok in the russian far east, freezing my but off. it's supposed to be summer and pretty warm. well, it's around 10 degrees in the day. and it's been raining, with the wind n all. the pple here think 25 degrees is very hot already.

freezing my but off isn't exactly the worst of news. the worst thing is that there's some stupid mistake in my visa and i won't be able to visit st petersburg and complete my russian extravaganza. the russians are very very strict abt their visa, and the stupid embassy messed up my departure date. so now i'm supposed to leave russia on the 16th like my parents. and there's almost completely no posisbility of extending the visa.

sigh. i'm really very sad. i was looking forward most to st pete. esp when i'm on my own. no more hermitage. no more peter n paul fortresses. no more marinski. no more hanky panky with cute russian guys/gals! boo hoo!

*shrugs* i'll b heading to finland though. which means i'll have abt 1 week + to tour finland now. which means i've got to do some emergency planning asap. maybe i'll be able to have some hanky panky with cute blonde scandinavian guys/ gals. but they seem so much more tamed than the russian! no fun.

well, at least now i don't need to worry abt getting drugged and my organs sold - finland's supposed to b even safer than singapore.

sigh. it's really all my own fault - i've got only myself to blame for not checking the visa correctly, which is really quite a surprise given the thoroughness i thought i had subjected everything in the trip to. i really did check the visa. and it just didn't sound off my alarm then.

really too bad too sad. i'll go sleep over it.

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in retrospect in photos...

nothing screams more vladivostok than vladivostok itself spelt in cyrillic and splashed onto the port building of this proud pacific port city. up till the collaspe of the soviet union, vladivostok was these secret navy base of the mighty russian pacific fleet. it's less of a secret now, but still an important naval defence asset and more importantly now, the leading importer of 2nd hand cars from japan in russia.

riddled with forts and defence formations, vladivostok still retains many of its military traditions (one of the earliest defence points for the russian far east was set up here), and still fires a cannon shot every day at 12 noon.

before planes came into fashion, the only other way to get from the rest of russia to vladivostok was by train, at the very end of the trans siberian railway. with so much distance to cover, much of it impassable and unbelievably harsh, railway was the only way to keep the empire together. and here i m at the historical vladivostok, at the start of my trip.

fly fly away

yay! i'm leaving for the airport in a few minute's time :)

we'll head to bangkok on budget 1st, before flying to vladivostok in the russian far east. if all goes well, we should be in vladivostok by tomorrow afternoon.

boy, m i starting to miss home already!

20 hours and counting down

hello!
welcome to my trans siberian blog :)

joshua's afraid that i may be kidnapped during the trip.
n my parents are afraid that i may be drugged and my organs sold.
n my sister's paranoid abt talking to strangers n taking candy from them.

so to allay everyone's fear, as suggested by jon tay, i shall b starting a blog to record my activities, when i do come online.

i shall of course, still post a complete account of my trip on my opendiary blog, but only after i've returned home and settled down.

i'm now 20 hours away from departure and m counting down.