Discovering Chita

Day 103 Wednesday 13^th July 2011 

This was going to be a day to remember.

We went for breakfast and had fried eggs. This time, unlike the Hotel Vostok in Birobidzhan, the eggs were cooked to order and piping hot which together with the frankfurter type sausage was as close as we will get I think to having an English breakfast in Russia.

We set about getting our bits and pieces in order, answering emails, getting blogs updated and in no time it was 2pm and Dmitri and Yuri were at the hotel knocking at our door. We left with them and met Juliana, Dmitri’s girlfriend who speaks good English and who we had met briefly last night. We set off in two cars to a viewpoint above the city and saw the impressive layout of old versus new with modern high buildings in one section and the low one storey wooden houses akin to a sight from the 1870’s Klondike – and remember Chita is home to both gold and uranium so there is some similarity.

Viewpoint overlooking Chita - Dmitri, Juliana, Me and Yuri

Back in the cars we went to a market to get some meat but the butcher was closed and then on to the church........

....then to the main shopping street in Chita where we went into some shops (don't know why but we did). Dmitri asked us what we would like and I just happened to ask if there was anywhere to buy stickers for the bike panniers and expecting a negative answer it appeared that only two shops down was a friend, Alexander, who is a director of a graphics studio making signs. We told him what we were after and in no time at all he had some proofs made and they were fantastic – exclusive stickers for our bikes. We sat down and had coffee and cakes with Lydia in his office and waited for the artwork to be completed. Once finished we had to drive to the printing factory to pick up the finished article which had been sent there electronically and there we were – stickers for our bikes made just for us at zero cost - I just cannot imagine this happening in England – what great people they are.

Waiting in Alexander's office for the stickers with Lydia

We then went to a museum of stuffed animals of the region - it was closing as we got there but they opened especially for us and we had a look round at the bears, elks, tigers, wolves and other wiuld beasties that live, or have lived, in the Chita Oblast. Outside the museum we met some Chinese  students who found out that we were from England. They crowded around excitedly and wanted to practice their English speaking skills. There were around 30 students  and they all wanted their pictures taken with us - one girl was shaking with excitement at the prospect and it was like we were film stars turning up for a premiere.

Stuffed animals in the museum

Time was moving on. We decided to go for food and Dmitri suggested some rustic Russian food and so we went to a Russian village cafe for typical fare of mutton stew and potatoes, dumplings and a sort of beetroot salad – all very nice although Mark wasn’t able to come to terms with his stew and left it out of his meal. The food , although stodgy, was amazingly cheap at around 300 roubles for the four of us although halfway through Alexander turned up on his DR 250 and helped us reduce the pile of dumplings that were still on the plate.

Dmitri, Juliana, Yuri, Mark, Alexander and Me

The company was excellent and we tried as best we could to explain English life over the meal. We took the decision to stay an extra day because the guiys would like to take us to the Banya tomorrow for wash and sauna then kebabs at Yuri's house (very big house). It is a bit like a scene from Long Way Round - we cannot get over how helpful and nice these people have been.

When he dropped us back at the hotel time was getting on for around 10pm. Dmitri said something about tea and said good bye. What he had meant was that he was coming back with some China tea and so he re-appeared at around 11pm and stayed for an hour or two whilst we drank tea and showed him pictures from England, our families and our trips to other countries. He seemed fascinated and it was nice to be able to give him an insight into how we live back home.