From Chita, Russian Federation to Khabarovsk, Russian Federation - August, 2002

We managed to get the bike onto a train in Chita. We saw the Zilov Gap. So here is a brain-dump......

First the road from Ulan Ude is good, and took us about 10 hours riding - 2 easy days.

Next the Zilov Gap. As the aussie in Ulaan Bataar said, the road right across russia is now complete. We saw loads of imported Japanese cars coming through from Chita to Ulan Ude - all covered in dust with mud splashed up their sides - testiment to the state of the new road. We met a travel agent in Vladivostok who said that the road had been completed (in gravel form) last month and he had already arranged for a guide to take a group of swiss guys on bikes through. The road is complete but can be difficult to find - you have to know where it is. Having said that, we saw sections of it from the train and it looked doable at about 20-35mph.

But...... from the train the countryside looked dead boring and the 1000 to 1200 miles from Chita to Khabarovsk looked as dull as ditchwater - we were glad to avoid 6 days of shit and mosquitoes by doing 2 days on the train.

Next - getting on the train at Chita / Ulan Ude. As we told you in the last mail, the people in Ulan Ude were pretty clueless about putting the bike on the train. But when we got to Chita, the same procedure seemed to apply. That is - the bike goes on a separate baggage train while the people go on the normal passenger train. We got the number 002 train - Rossiya - the Transiberian!. The bikes had to go in the special 904 train. We travelled to Chita because we believed that we'd go on the same train as the bike - but as it turned out we could have saved ourselves 2 days ride and got on at Ulan Ude. There are several pitfalls in the procedure. The first is that tickets for both trains are only avalable on the day - and they don't tell you that the baggage train leaves at 3.30 whereas the passenger train leaves at 21.30 (both local time in Chita)- so you have to get to the station and do all the bike-baggage bit around lunchtime, and then hang around until the evening to get a train yourself. Then there is some miserable bitch who get shouting about draining the benzine from the bikes - I gave her 100roubles and she shut up. Then theres no ramp to get the bike on or off the train so all the porters have to lift the bike onto the train, and then want a tip, and get affronted if you only offer them 100roubles - the main guy wanted 400, (and the bike cost 800 to ship - so he ended up with nothing!!). At the chita end we managed to befriend a bloke collecting a load of pallets from the train so he craned the bike off for nowt!

But it was worth it - 1,300roubles for each person and 800 for the bike. Get into Khabarovsk at 5pm or 8pm if delayed like us. The baggage train rolls in just after the passenger train. Khabarovsk is pretty cool modern place - nice people and ok hotels.