Day Ten:

Speaking to Paula in Korea via an internet connection:

"How DID Nabokov end things for Lolita and her man?"

"Ah, probably a place in the suburbs and a couple of brats."

I'm back on the train. Twenty-nine hours and I'll be in Tynda. The Russian far east is so empty - I'll be on this train for almost thirty hours, and I'll only end of in a city of 39,000 souls. I could go south for 13 hours to get to Vladivostok, but travelling west? It would take 65 hours to get to the closest major city.

It's clear that the Soviets and the Tsar both tried so hard to turn this wasteland into something. Both regimes built so many cities from the ground-up. The Tsar built this awesome railroad, and the Soviets constructed so many "purpose-built" shack-towns to harvest the resources of the region. The Tsar fought a war with Japan over essentially barren islands and territory. With a headquarters a world away, they fought (albeit unsuccessfully) the big, bad Japanese army, for a place described by Russians as "the gateway to hell."

Moscow and St. Petersburg are so European in character, I have been told, but this place is something else entirely. My friends from yesterday described Khabarovsk as "an Asian city."

It sort of confuses. Why go to all of this effort? Well, yeah, empire building is obviously desirable. But, the Far East is so removed from the dynastic intrigue of Europe... what connection does the settlement have to the European world? Or what lasting influence does Chinggis (Gengis) Khan leave on this territory? This was all part of the Mongol's "Golden Horde." I guess the adverse question is possible - what influence did the Mongols have on the shape of the European world? It's fun to note that just as the Roman Empire endured and influenced Europe in some form until the fall of Trebizond in 1461, the last of the Mongolian empire kicked around until the 1783 destruction of the Crimean Khanate.

Oh, anyhow: Today was pleasant. Khavorosk is a great city. While Vladivostok was sort of old and dirty, Khavarosk is rather clean and youthful. The main streets have a certain energy about them; children do skateboard tricks in Lenin square while a woman with a nosering busks American pop-songs on her saxaphone to earn spare Roubles. Sitting in that square to take it all in is quite a pleasant experience.

And, duly, I had tea with my new friends. I professed a desire to stay a few days with them, and while that was the truth at the time, I'm not sure how long I could endure them. Giggly teenages make me feel pretty damn old.

After tea and a lesson in Russian curse words, I said goodbye and got on the train. Second class, this time. Much more comfortable.

9:45 pm, on the train