Try getting that song out of your head... Ok so you haven't heard from us for a while. Germany and Austria kept us busy but we are trying to catch up. This will be interesting in internet starved Cuba... Stay tuned. After a long wait the Moscow blog is yours to enjoy. Moscow greeted us with a massive rainfall which literally flooded the streets. At one stage we were concerned that our taxi would get stuck in the floods. The unfortunate side effect of this was that the toilet in our hotel overflowed. Nice welcome Moscow! Moscow made up for it though. What a city! We spent most of our time in Moscow on foot exploring the city. According to my phone we did 14 km on the first day and we have come close to ... read more

Again greetings from the trans Siberian train. This time we are on our way from Irkutsk to Novosibirsk but more of that in the next blog. The train The last time I wrote we were on our first of four legs on the trans Mongolian/Siberian train heading from Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia towards Irkutsk in Russia. Mongolia can be surprisingly hot and we were sweating in our non aircon compartments. You are mistaken if you think this was due to me wanting to save some $$$. There just was no aircon carriage in sight. Then again I wouldn't have booked it to save $$ anyway :) The trains are of an older rolling stock with a lovely 70s interior but are kept in pristine condition by the Provodnitsas who are ticket inspectors, carriage attendants, cleaning ladies, provider ... read more

Sometimes places are not what I expect them to be. I didn't know that ... in Mongolia ... it can be 36 degrees hot ... they have a full on amusement park with roller coaster ... there is no litter in the streets ... there are no dogs or cats to be seen ... they have loads of coffee shops ... they (mostly) obey the traffic laws, no honking ... there are supermarkets that sell everything from motorbikes, boats, generators, german crisps, chocolate and german beer ... After our long flight and once we picked up our travel companion Kathy in Beijing, we finally arrived in Ulaanbataar. As usual Dillon survived the flight better than any of the adults. After we checked into our guest house (which had forgotten about my bed. so I slept on ... read more

It has been over 7 years since you last heard from us through this travel blog.... Its time to use it again We have decided to throw it in again and are off travelling. We are leaving on 1 July 2016 to be back late January 2017 just in time for Dillon to start school. The current plan is to fly up to Mongolia, travel on the Trans-Siberian to Moscow and St Petersburg, fly to Germany, then onwards to Cuba and then Central America (Panama to Mexico). ... read more

After a crueling 12 hour bus journey using three different busses we finally arrived in Georgetown in Malaysia. Georgetown is one of those famous cities which once we the powerhouses of the world and now have sunk back to obscurity again. The former glory can be seen in some of the houses the local merchants build here and most impressively in the Easter and Oriental hotel. The E&O was build and owned by the same brothers which later opened the Raffles hotel in Singapore. I was excited like a little kid when I saw in our guidebook that they have Tiffin on every Saturday. That all despite the fact that I, until this day, have no idea what Tiffin is but I want it anyway. To my disgust and disappointment Tiffin had been cancelled which caused ... read more