Burnley Mike

ST PETERSBURG, THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION - (Aug/ Sept 2007) - (Thursday 30th August to Monday 3rd September) - Thurs 30th Aug - Mon 3rd Sept - (St Petersburg) The more I read about Russia and learnt about the country, the more interested I became in it and the more places I wanted to visit. However, Russia is such a vast country and my time in the country was limited, so unfortunately on this occasion, I decided that I would restrict my journey to the western European part of the country. Siberia and the far north and east sounded absolutely fascinating albeit a long way away, so unfortunately, those places would have to be left to another time. Therefore, on my return to Moscow from the Golden Ring cities I decided to head straight up to St ... read more

MOSCOW, THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION - (August 2007) - (Wednesday 22nd to Wednesday 29th August) - (Moscow) The train pulled into Kazansky train station in central Moscow during the mid-afternoon of Wednesday 22nd August - (Whilst I think it was Kazansky Station, after all this time I can’t be certain as Moscow has a number of train stations which serve Russia, the former Soviet Republics and the rest of Europe, and beyond). It was a relief to finally get off the train. However, I was slightly apprehensive about what lay in front of me in this unfamiliar city. This feeling wasn’t helped by all the stories I’d heard about Russia being very unfriendly and bureaucratic. As with all nationalities, I’d heard my fair share of stereotypes about Russians being very sullen and stand-off’ish and generally, just being ... read more

THE UZBEKISTAN DESERT - (August 2007) - Introduction - I’m now writing this blog well over two years after getting back home to England. I had good intensions at the time to complete all the ‘blogs’ while I was on the road visiting all these places. And when that didn’t happen, I intended to complete all my ‘missing’ blogs as soon as possible after I got back home to England. That also didn’t happen, and now it’s January 2010 and I’m still struggling to find the time to complete them all. Therefore in the interest of completing the story of my return to England from Australia ‘overland’, or should I say ‘overland as much as possible’ - all the ‘blogs’ from herein will be brief and hopefully to the point. Which is probably for the best ... read more

TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN - (July / August 2007) - (Wednesday 25th July to Friday 3rd August) - (Tashkent) The trip across the border from Khojand in Tajikistan into Uzbekistan went without a hitch. Everything was straight forward enough. Once in Uzbekistan, I immediately managed to get a taxi to the capital Tashkent without caring too much whether I was paying over the odds for the ride or not. I’d had enough of messing around haggling over transport costs so I just got in the first taxi I came to and accepted the driver’s first price. It was good to be in Uzbekistan finally, the very reason why I had come to Central Asia in the first place. I was now within touching distance of seeing all those legendary Silk Road Cities I’d read about for so long ... read more

TAJIKISTAN - (July 2007) Thurs 12th - Wed 17th July - (The Pamir Highway) I'd been undecided (me? - never!) about whether to go to Tajikistan since planning this trip. It sounded like a wonderfully scenic country and would be the nearest I would probably get to being in Afghanistan without actually going to Afghanistan itself. On the other hand, I wasn't sure whether I had the time or inclination to go, especially as it seemed to be hard going and difficult to get around once in the country as there is supposedly very little public transport. Furthermore, the country was still supposedly subject to archaic rules and regulations left over from Soviet times which apparently didn’t make travelling in the country easy. However, after reading more about the country and meeting other travellers who were ... read more