http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/DarSch/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from DarSch en-us Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:23:59 +0000 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:23:59 +0000 Woke up with barely a hint of a hangover. I left the train and was at the back of the group when I realised I left my shoes on board. I ran back on and off just before it pulled out job done but I lost the group and guess what yep noone realised I was gone until it was to late and I was left and the train station on my own with no hotel name. Another phone call to Jerry and exactly the same ro http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-274675.html Today was water town day basically a chinese Venice I tried to find it in Lonely Planet but there is no reference to it it was called Zhouzhuang. It was absolutely jammed with Chinese tourists and tourist tat but once you looked past that it was quite pretty. I ended up buying some scrolls with pictures of plants bamboo etc on them for 150 yuan probably to expensive but not to bad and it was http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Suzhou/blog-274674.html Things have gone wrong. I was woken up by the guide shaking me and saying that we were about to leave. Shit....I hadn't even packed.I decided to have and 2 min shower and headed down I couldn't have been more than 15mins but the group had already left double shit. I asked reception if there were any messages nope nothing. Now I wasn't that stressed I knew the name of the town I was going to an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-274671.html Woke up full of beans today met the rest of the group and headed off to a 'traditional' area of Shanghai they call it the tourist market and although it is based on an area which was a traditional market area they do now call it tourist market for a reason hey maybe the simple labelling of things in China does have a benefit to it. After fighting through the crowds we made it to a kind of city http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-274670.html After a fairly good nights sleep I had a quick chat with the Chinese guy before we arrived in Shanghai the train was quite fast so in 12hrs we had covered 1463km taking my total to 11954km. Shanghai was cold well coldish and raining I was worried about finding the hotel as I only had an address in english which is no good. Anyway I found a taxi and they rang up the hotel and got the addre http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-274669.html Bad idea going out last night and staying up so late I was woken by a knock at the door and then a phone call. I had missed check out. I had a quick shower packed and headed down to reception I had to pay a small charge 4 for late check out. I was really hungover so I headed to the local chinese restaurant and had a nice long lunch with 3 cokes and two waters. I then had a nice 4 hours wait f http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-266980.html Well I got my first view of China today and it looks nice we were handed meal vouchers for breakfast and lunch so the Norwegian guy and I headed of the restaurant car there were a lot of english speakers on the train and a surprising amount of middle aged ones. Breakfast consisted of two boiled eggs two slices of bread jam butter and tea. As I hadn't eaten anything but 6 biscuits for 36 hours http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-266979.html This morning I had to catch my train to Beijing as I mentioned last night I got home at 4am and as my train was at 7.30am I decided to give sleep a miss and sleep on the train. There were a few others catching the train so we got a lift for a small charge from the owner of the hostel. As soon as I got on the train I slept for the next 5 hours I was sharing with a Chinese woman and a Norwegian http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-266978.html I decided that today I was going to see the sights of UB I have only seen a few of the streets and the State Department Store. My first stop was the Gandantegchinlen Khiid it's a monastery which covers about a sqkm most of the buildings were crap but there was two I liked and one had a 26.5m standing Buddha no photos though as this was 5 extra you can see the photo of the outside of the bui http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-266976.html Woke up early again due to the group I mentioned last night leaving today was a talk to Kasia day. I went to the same internet cafe as a few days ago but this time I was armed with my own microphone and earphones did it help did it fk. Luckily I had left 40 mins before I was due to call Kate so I had enough time to find another internet cafe that did have working Skype.We had a nice long cha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-266975.html After a fairly restless nights sleep nothing new there then it was time for a quick breakfast and a last walk around much warmer than yesterday and then to be picked up to be taken back to UB. Virtually the whole host family came outside to say goodbye or shake my hand very nice touch even though I said no more than 50 words to them made me like the people even more and made me wish I made m http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Terelj/blog-266972.html Up again early this morning as I was being picked up to go to the national park the hostel was really quiet i didn't figure it out until I was packed and waiting in the lounge ready to go the girl on duty asked if she could help and I said that I was waiting to be picked up at 9 then she said 'but it's not even 8'. Doh. My watch had been wrong for the last day no wonder there were still people http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-265294.html Woke up at 6.30am and about 1 hour before our scheduled arrival time in Ulaan Bator UB the scene had changed again to 'hilly desert and ger tents and litter' or poubelle wrong spelling I think as the Swiss Guy said. I even saw horses about 60 just wondering about. It must of still been cold outside though as the various lakes we saw were frozen and had people walking on them.About 2 hours http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-265292.html Well after updating this blog last night and packing I didn't get to sleep until 1.30 so it was only 3 hours sleep before I had to get up again. The time difference between the UK and where I am is now 8 hours luckily it doesn't change much in the next 10 weeks so I suspect my normal sleeping patterns will return.I was a little worried about getting a cab this early in the morning but it proved http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-265291.html Again another lyein at this rate I am never going to see this effin lake. The owner came to my rescue though he offered to take me on a personal tour for 1500 roubles about 30 quid at first I said no but then I thought what the hell it makes it easier it was expensive but he offered me the same tour for 2500 when I arrived I think he wasn't doing much. It is expensive being on your own so http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Siberia/Lake-Baikal/blog-265289.html My few hours kip didnrsquot happen you would thing that being on a train for 5 days and doing nothing but sleeping reading and eating I would be wide awake and raring to go. No I was knackered I did set the alarm but slept through it and 1030 there was a knock on the door but I had to make my excuses. Looks like my complaints about the mattress were totally unfounded as I went straight back http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Siberia/Irkutsk/blog-265288.html Another day of tea noodles and reading I didnrsquot say much to my compartment companions but they was nice enough to offer me food and invite me to join a game of cards. There was a couple of stops during the day so I decided to stretch my legs and buy a bottle of coke fed up with tea now.I managed to finish lsquoAfter they killed my fatherrsquo and had run out of reading material so I http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Siberia/Irkutsk/blog-265287.html Next morning I had a bit of lyein and was pleasantly surprised that find that Sergei was gone and luckily my gear wasnrsquot. He had been replaced by middle aged lady number 2 who again was perfectly nice I think they must produce them in factories here as they are all very similar.I finished yet another book and basically chilled out listening to my ipod eating noodles and having tea and bi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/blog-265284.html Woke up with a moderate hangover and noticed that someone else had joined our compartment he was another Russian what a surprise and was fairly quiet Sergei was on the beer and vodka again at about 8am and within about an hour had knocked another beer over and was passed out by about 1pm after finishing my vodka git I decided that I was going to have a quiet one so spent most of my time r http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/blog-265283.html Up early this morning I have to check out at 1200 I headed for the shower luckily empty again and had a breakfast of yogurt. I was basically bumming around and two American Lesbians came to the hostel sorry they were actually Scottish and English non lesbians and very nice itrsquos just because they were wearing practical walking boots rather than 5inch heals so the Russians thought th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Moscow/blog-265282.html