Believe the hype of the Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant in Beijing - it offers fantastic duck at reasonable prices and excellent service in a comfortable restaurant. But don't fall for the 'Quanjude Group' scam (like we did) and get carted off to a second rate restaurant that tries to push you into parting with exhorbitant wedges of cash for a few average tasting slithers of duck. it was our last night of our trip to Beijing and for one reason or another we had not yet got round to having the famous roast duck that is the usual first culinary stop [View Full Entry]

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A trip to the Bolshoi circus was a memorable highlight of Moscow, as much for getting there and getting a ticket as the spectacle of the performance itself. With new found confidence on the Metro, we managed to arrive at the 'Univerisitet' stop which was right by the circus, but on the way we took a tour of some of the more famous Metro stations , which proved to be an architectural highlight in Moscow. One station featured beautiful stained glass windows depicting classic proleteriat scenes - one window would be a peasant woman working the fields and the next a [View Full Entry]

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The League of Cheesy Rock Song {Artist} <Points> Hotel California {The Eagles} <333> Various {Bob Marley} <318> Various {The Kathmandu Cover Bands} <292> Aqua/Camelman {Barbie-Girl} <291> Buddhist Chanters {Om Mane Padme Om} <98> The Power of Love [View Full Entry]

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'It is vital to spend the few hours it takes to master the Cyrillic alphabet before you go, otherwise you'll have trouble deciphering the names of streets, metro stations and most importantly the names of stations along the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Mongolian routes.' I read this sentence in the Trans-Siberain Handook as we departed from Warsaw on a twenty hour train journey that took us to Moscow. I scan quickly down the neatly presented Cyrillic alphabet, with its Roman alphabet equivalent listed alongside. Cyrillic is derived from Greek, so everything is recognisable, but not quite the same, [View Full Entry]

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Currently enjoying the blue skies of Ulaan Bataar in Mongolia! Moscow was interesting - saw the usual stuff - the Kremlin, Red Square, took a trip round the Moscow metro - no we haven't turned into train spotters - the stations are pretty special... one had marble pillars and chandeliers, one had amazing mosaics on the ceiling and one had a whole atrium of stained glass windows! Seeing Lenin was pretty eery - the mausoleum is down a very dark staircase lined with stern looking men in military uniform and the room with Lenin is black and red with him kinda [View Full Entry]

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(This delayed entry comes after a hectic few weeks of tying up loose ends and setting off on our travels!) So we tied the knot at Colchester registry office on Friday 7 September 2007!... It was a lovely day - just a few friends and family joined us at the registry office for the brief ceremony. We went from there for a lovely meal at The Bakehouse in Wivenhoe followed by a 'Back to Bob's' where we were joined by some more friendly faces from Wivenhoe. Then we headed for Brightlingsea to stay in the yurt and make final preparations on [View Full Entry]

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Really brief update of our journey so far!... We left Wivenhoe on Monday 24 September and got the train Wivenhoe -> London; London -> Brussels; Brussels -> Cologne; Cologne -> Poznan (sleeper train); Poznan -> Gdynia; Gydinia -> Puck! Arrived late afternoon on Tuesday - epic train journey number 1 complete! We treated ourselves to a honeymoon of four nights at a plush hotel in a castle on the north coast - fantastic food, beautiful romantic setting and lots of chilling. Now we're back to the real world of our travels.. hostels and cheap food!.. Had 3 nights in Wars [View Full Entry]

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Only a month to go til we get on the road! Just gotta get married, pack the house and find a home for the cats first!!! We now have a Just Giving page set up so please support us if you can - the money you donate to The Good Foundation will be used to support The Russ Foundation in India where we will volunteer for a couple of months once we arrive in India http://www.justgiving.com/sarahandbobindia The Russ Foundation project initially formed to provide a home for children who were parentless or disadvantaged. It has grown immensely si [View Full Entry]

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The PlanNot left Wivenhoe yet, but this site looks really useful for detailing our trips and sharing our photos so as not to fill-up the inboxes of our friends with yet more 'ooh look i'm not at work' commentary. In the meantime here is some pictures of the Yurt that we have just built... [View Full Entry]

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