The final few days have been about getting to Vladivostok. A late start (due to tiredness) from Belogorsk, after the hotel breakfast of porridge and pizza (seriously - who thought that was a solid breakfast combination), resulted in a late arrival in Khabarovsk. Fortunately the shipping details had firmed up which allowed an extra day in the city which was most welcome.
Dinner in an Azerbaijani restaurant (beef and prunes!) and an easy day in the sunshine walking around Lenin square and down to the waterfront. Khabarovsk is very close to China and there were plenty of chinese day trippers. Some of the restaurants and shops advertise themselves as China friendly to cater for this market.
After a restful day and early start was required for the final 480miles to Vladivostok. The countryside on the road was stunning - but no tigers were spotted. (The peninsular is home to the Siberian / Amur tiger - occasionally they stray onto the road). Once again Russian hospitality came to fore, with me chatting to a group of travelling actors at one point, being given mineral water (a couple of times) from people stopped and gas stationed and also one guy cleaning up parts of my motorcycle (filthy, encrusted with flies headlight).
I arrived on the Saturday evening ready for Tiger day in Vladivostok on the Sunday - a family day with lots of face painting, shows, parades etc... Vladivostok is on the same latitude of Monte Carlo and so after the bitter cold of the steppe it was back to balmy evenings by the sea eating candy floss!
I am staying at a capsule hotel next to the waterfront. While I was there I bumped into a Japanese guy who has toured the "stans" on an ancient Honda cub - top speed 35mph! The shipping company said that all Japanese are crazy!
But all good things come to an end and so the bike has packed into a container and I have to wait the 30 or 40 days for it to make its way across to Canada.
I had planned to catch the ferry to South Korea but decided in the end to fly back from Vladivostok. This turned out to be a reasonable decision as there is a typhoon between Korea and Japan at the moment and if I get delayed leaving then this will cause significant issues with my visa.
So the travelling takes a break for a few weeks.....
My russian is pretty poor but pretty certain that says "I love Vladivostok".
Basically if you see a B it's pronounced V, see a H it's pronounced N, Z is a backwards 3 unless it's an X with a line down the midde...... You get used to it after a while.
Hi there Ed! Been catching up on all the posts and it seems you had a great adventure crossing Russia and made it ahead of winter! I hope the break from riding isn’t too hard on you and I can’t wait to hear about the next leg when you arrive in Canada - I hope you’ve packed your thermals...!
All the best,
Roy.