This was a big trip and one I spent with Sergei and Alexi, some kind of mountain range army troops. As is usual with Russian train hospitality, I was offered Omul, a dried version of the fish which is only present in Lake Baikal, along with some ‘special vodka’ which came out of a brown, un-marked bottle. From what I could gather, it was brewed (or distilled) by one of their dads, but after much discussion, we established the secret ingredient was nuts. From that point onwards, the drink was referred to as ‘nuts’. Sergei and Alexi didn’t speak with very good English, but with the help of the Russian phrase book, we managed to talk about music, cars and a potential business opportunity, where Alexi was to send me 100 Kg of honey, which I was then to sell to the British consumer for double the price. It was all very tongue-in-cheek, but I declined the offer this time.

After getting to Khabarovsk, I exited the train station to find that the city looks like a Soviet playground, exactly what you’d imagine if I told you to think about a Russian city from the communist period. It’s amazing. The sun was rising over Khabarovsk the next day and I managed to get a few photos from the hotel restaurant, which was on the 9th floor. One problem with Khabarovsk is the lack of hostels. There are none. After a masterpiece of navigation, making my way to Ploshad Lenina, I got turned away from the cheapest hotel and managed to find a place at a £50-a-night hotel, slightly closer to the station. This was actually relatively cheap, but is in fact the most expensive place that I have stayed in since the trip began.

I didn’t do much in Khabarovsk other than wander around and take photos. There was no tourist information service and no map of the city, so I used the guide book the best I could and made my own itinerary up. This included going to the fish aquarium and wandering around the water-front, getting back with enough time to sit in the train station and attempt a blog update. I was relatively sleep-deprived at that point, so didn’t publish what I had written and got on the train anyway.