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 more of an effort to talk to them. Back in the hostel I managed to get a single room in the same [View Full Entry]

---

---

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 coming into the pub last night when I thought it was about to close. I think [View Full Entry]

---

---

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 later and one hour behind schedule we arrived at Ulaan Bator, there were loads of hostel/guest house touts meeting us on the platform which was useful [View Full Entry]

---

---

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 to be no problem as there was a 24h cafe near the hostel which cab drivers frequent, this time I paid [View Full Entry]

---

---

Again another lye-in, 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 sometimes. Anyway we drove the 60km to Listvyanka village (which in itself sucks arse) but I must admit the lake [View Full Entry]

---

---

My few hours kip didn’t 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 10:30 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 to it and slept for another 3 hours. I had my first shower in 5 days and it was Tony ( the Tiger [View Full Entry]

---

---

Another day of tea, noodles and reading, I didn’t 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 ‘After they killed my father’ and had run out of reading material so I started reading my Lonely Planet Trans-Siberian book from cover to cover, it starting to look a little dog-eared now. I ate in the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Next morning I had a bit of lye-in and was pleasantly surprised that find that Sergei was gone and luckily my gear wasn’t. 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 biscuits. I was much more relaxed now that Sergei had gone. I also started the book I was looking the most forward to, it’s called ‘After they killed my [View Full Entry]

---

---

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 reading. I bought some noodles, tea and soup previously so that kept me going, at around 6pm Sergei asked me if I wanted to [View Full Entry]

---

---

Up early this morning, I have to check out at 12:00, 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 - it’s just because they were wearing practical walking boots rather than 5inch heals so the Russians thought they were lesbians - and I know they are reading this). There room wasn’t ready so I started chatting with them, they were spending a 2 week backpacking holiday in Russia starting [View Full Entry]

---

---