Anything.

It was 20 below zero every day. 

A few different things intrigued me about the place. Had some frequent flyer miles, got to know somebody that lives there and decided to take the plunge. It was an incredible experience, and is a strikingly beautiful place. In more ways than one. But it is very cold this time of year. 

The residents seem to take it in stride. You see a lot of fur. The whole time I was there I never saw liquid water outdoors. It's an ice box.

The name of the city is Khabarovsk. It's in the far east of Siberia. I was there for 10 days.

Wigwam socks work great. )

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I got in last night, after 10 days in this place.

I walked outside this morning in a t shirt and warm up pants and it was 33 degrees.

It felt literally balmy to me.

I'm thinking about going back this summer. 

They say it gets really hot.

And from what I saw.. I believe 'em. 

My hotel was not far from the University.

I stood on the main street in this place, and in 15 minutes saw more smoking hot chicks walk by than I've seen here in 20 years.

I got whiplash.  

It's the kind I like.

The Cycle Path wrote on 12/17/14 at 4:07pm:


I agree with you.

But Siberia isn't in Europe.

It's in Asia. Northern Asia to be specific.

They are 15 hours ahead of us. It took me two days to get there.

On the way back I left on December 16th, and arrived back in Charlotte on December 16th.  

My flight itinerary was:

Charlotte to Chicago
Chicago to Hong Kong
Hong Kong to Khabarosvk.

On the way back:

Khabarovsk to Tokyo
Tokyo to San Diego
San Diego to Charlotte

From Chicago the plane flies north, clipping the arctic circle then flying down through northern Siberia approaching China from the north. On the way up to Khabarovsk from Hong Kong, I flew over North Korea. 

I flew JAL 787 from Tokyo to San Diego. Nice plane. Very smooth. The engines are so large and powerful and the plane so light that taking off is almost effortless. I kept looking out at the wings, which are made partially of carbon fiber. 

I flew US Airways (A321), Cathay Pacific (777), JAL (787), and S7 airlines (Siberian airlines) (A320). Japan Airlines was the best (I flew business class). It was a riot watching the cute, young and very attractive Japanese flight attendants bow before entering the gated area. Tons of smiles and very polite. They also spoke very good English.

S7 airlines was very relaxed. The aisle looked like romper room for much of the flight.  

Cathay Pacific wasn't bad either. But they are still flying 777's, and the seat layout isn't as good. Although not as rich as JAL, the food was very good. The food on JAL although very good, was a little rich for my tastes. It was served on fine china. 

Tokyo was the best oversees airport. Hong Kong was a mixed bag. Khabarovsk is still stuck in the 1960's.  

Yeah man, I like fur... 

And I like beautiful foreign places. 

Yep, I'm going to try to get back there this summer. And I'm going to teach a class at the University. It's not an accredited course. 

Thanks for the heads up.

That reminds me.

Need to get a shot. Immunization for Japanese encephalitis.

Locomoto wrote on 12/18/14 at 3:40pm:


What a great question.

I don't speak Russian, except for Da, Nyet, Krasavitsa (beautiful), and coffee. Which is almost the same pronunciation in English.

Let me start by saying that English is now a standard language taught in Russian schools so you will come in contact with people who speak some English. Especially young people. But rare is the person that speaks good English. Around hotels and tourist destinations there will be some English speakers. And usually at least one that speaks what I will call conversational English. I behaved as if the onus was on me to communicate with them. After all, it is there country and I don't speak their language. My method for communicating with those that didn't speak English was simple. Be overly animated and keep trying different things until they get the picture. Some time it worked, sometimes it didn't.

Having communicated with non-English speakers before I didn't think I would have a problem. Boy did I. It seems since the languages are so different and Russian uses the cyrillic alphabet, even the thought processes are different. I had many communication problems with average folks. What I mean is, even if you and I couldn't talk, what would seem obvious to me or you in the form of a question, completely stumps them. That is the only theory I can come up with. 

I kept pondering in my mind that part of the reason for the frequent political misunderstandings over the years is partially due to the language differences. With the English speakers I held nothing back. I talked about anything and everything. Even the sanctions, the Ukraine and foreign policy. They took it all in stride and are remarkably well informed. They pay attention to this stuff. And if you've paid attention to their economy of late you understand why. The ruble was 35 to $1 in September. By the time I left on December 4th its value had dropped to about 50 rubles to $1. Now it's almost 60. Their economy is in danger of falling off a cliff at any moment.

One thing that amazed me was the relative safety the average person feels here. Everybody walks around with seemingly few security concerns. Compared to any U.S. city of similar size, it seems to be a very safe city with a very low crime rate. Police were abundant downtown. I was virtually ignored. One even saw an occasional Russian soldier with a tool chopping ice off the sidewalks.

The translator on my phone came in handy. I used two different ones. S translator and translate. They were invaluable when they worked, since much of my communication with my acquaintances is by email, their English is not perfect, and I frequently have to translate into Russian. The translators are not perfect, but are adequate for basic communication. Now to the caveat. When they work. Make sure you download the offline language packs, so you're not constantly depending upon data transfer to do your translation. The data package from Verizon was $25 for 100 MB, and you will eat through that in no time without wifi. Calls were expensive. Something in the neighborhood of $3.99 a minute for the Global Russian plan.

I only saw one other American while I was there. His name was Richard and he travels there on rotation for business. Probably some kind of engineering or product support, but he didn't mention what it was. I was told they don't get many American tourists. 

I rented a car while I was there. It was a 4x4 Nissan Xterra from Avis. I went through 3 different ones during my 10 days. They kept freezing at night. They would start, but that was it. I was told it was a computer condensation problem with this model in the cold. Even though it's cold, they don't seem to follow any special proceedures in regards to taking care of their cars. No plugging in, etc.. 

Driving is an interesting experience with the snowy and icy roads. And the city is compact. Traffic was a nightmare at times. There's alot of aggressive driving, alot of public buses, pedestrians and people generally ignore and walk over each other out in public. Sure, there are exceptions. Remarkably, even though the road conditions were not great and the driving is aggressive I didn't see many accidents. The rules of the road are very similar as to here. They use normal traffic signals and drive on the right side of the road. You need an international drivers license in addition to your U.S. state issued drivers license. You can get one for $25 from AAA or the American Auto Club. One thing. The traffic lights are not over head in the middle of the intersection. They are on the corners on poles. With all the public transportation it makes seeing them sometimes difficult.

Yes, I'm familiar with Vladivostok from my acquaintances. It's about 11 hours or so by bus SE of Khabarovsk on the coast. From the pics they sent me and my own research, I've started calling it little San Francisco. You should pass directly through Khabarovsk. My, what an epic journey that would be.

Here's a piece of trivia for you. Just in case anyone doesn't realize how immense Russia is. It is farther from Moscow to Khabarovsk, than it is from Moscow to Washington D.C.

If you go in winter, take hand warmers. I packed a bunch and they quickly became one of the most popular items I had. I don't care how hardy you are. In late fall and winter, being cold is par for the course in this place. They had a record snowfall a week before I arrived. And the temperatures were unusually cold for early December. They told me they were more like January temps, and I believe them.

What's nice though is the temperature of the buildings. It may be -20 outside. But they keep the inside of the buildings a toasty temperature of seemingly 80 degrees. You can literally walk around naked and be completely comfortable indoors. Most of the buildings are heated with boilers and circulating hot water radiators. I literally had to open a window in my hotel room to cool it down. Being used to heat pumps and 40 degree outdoor temperatures that seems almost too cool on the inside.

Detached housing or buildings like we have here is less common for obvious reasons. There are tons of large apartment buildings, and many people live in these buildings.

I have plenty more pictures, and will upload some more to photobucket tonight, and transfer them over here. 

This is the sidewalk built with pavers. No fancy warm weather shrubbery here. 

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The frozen, snowcovered Amur river.

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The local Medical University. Lots of fun wandering around this place. Bring your bike with studded tires, because nobody stands in one place very long.

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This is a wall hanging from the hotel of what the downtown area near the river looks like in the summertime.

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Hong Kong looking out of international terminal.

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