Today we discovered that we had made a really dumb mistake when we left our hotel in Vladivostok, but I will tell you about that below. We also found and fixed another apparent problem with the camper. Best of all with the aid of our digital map from the Open Street Map project we navigated our way through the city of Khabarovsk to a hotel.

On waking this morning I noticed that the heater had not fired up during the night. This was unexpected and unwelcome as it had been a somewhat cold night; below freezing and with some light snow. I also determined after a little experimentation that the engine block heater also would not fire and moreover gave no error codes to hint at the cause of the problem. However the generator started after a few tries and we managed to heat the camper with a small electric radiator. So with this perplexing problem hanging over our heads we started driving with the goal of being in Khabarovsk early afternoon.

An hour down the road I decided to act on a theory proposed by Nina regarding the heater problem. She reasoned that the only thing we had done recently that could (in her mind) impact the heater was to try and prevent hot coolant from entering the hot water tanks heat exchanger and hence that was possibly the problem. Well it took all of two minutes to open the faucets that supply hot coolant to the hot water tank and almost immediately the heater (both camper and engine block) were functioning again. Put one down to Nina

Along the road from Vladivostok we have often seen people collecting water at community wells or community faucets; but as we approached Khabarovsk we saw a spectacular example of this practice. A group of people had congregated around a huge ice mound in the middle of which was a flowing water pipe. With large water bottles in hand people where trying to climb the ice mound to get their bottles filled at the flowing pipe. Nina got out and took a picture or two. She was not sure whether her presence, and the camera, was welcome or not as no one acknowledged her presence.

After a quick stop and single picture at the monument marking the start of the city we set about navigating our way to a hotel (the Guru) we had selected for our stay in Khabarovsk. We had decided on a hotel in order to get internet and a shower (given the problems with the camper water system) in addition to parking. Khabarovsk is a large and complicated city but with the aid of our new Garmin GPS (a Montana) and digital maps of Russia downloaded from the Open Street Map project we found our way with little problem.

While the navigation might have been without a problem the checkin at the hotel was not. To cut a long story short it turns out that we had neglected to finalize the registration of our visas when we left the hotel in Vladivostok and as a result the Guru could not allow us to register as guests. Fortunately they directed us to a near by hotel (the Abrikol) that does not require visa registration. While we have no idea why some hotels require registration and some do not we were pleased to have a place to shower and connect. It is worth noting that we would not have managed our way through this complex situation without the help of Sergey a contact name we had been given by Sallie in La Junta, CO. as no one at either hotel spoke any English. There is more to come on this topic as while we might have a hotel for a night or two we are now technically illegal and may have problems exiting Russia.

Not to be put off by a simple immigration problem we went for a tour of the downtown section of the city with Sergey after we had checked in. From the top of the main street we got a good view of the Amur River, and just across it's wide expanse of ice (yes it is still frozen) a glimpse of China. We saw a number of churches with their characteristic onion domes (cupolas) and a large war memorial.

Khabarovsk is the governmental center for the whole of Far Eastern Russia (an area over half the size of the United States) and as a result a lot of Federal funds are being invested to make the place a show case. Sergey named a large number of buildings that had either been substantially renovated or newly constructed since 2000 and as a result the city has (and is being) transformed.

As you will see from the photos above the level of fashion consciousness is high among Russian women. Our stroll down Khabarovsk's main street gave Nina a chance to capture of few of the more noticeably chic young ladies.