So after an overnight train from Beijing with a carriage full of american college kids and the familar no sleep routine I finally stroll into Hong Kong - I have made it fully intact and with no problems so Vladim will be happy to read that his lucky token did the trick. Hong Kong is rainy and warm and I am met by my great friend kam at the station in Kowloon and I am really looking forward to some great food - particularly some dim sum which I have not had since last year - and a good bed to sleep in. Kam is amazed at how much stupid stuff that I am carrying with me and helps me to collect my things before we head out to Tsing Yi which will be base camp ... read more

So after a good nights sleep and a shower I get out around the city again. I spend alot of time at the observatory which as with many things in China has a troubled history that starts with discovery on a global scale and then descends into rape and pillage when the foreigners turn up. The observatory has been put back together after being ransacked by various superpowers and tells an interesting story of chinese sciences and the influence that european science took from the Chinese. It is another hot day and the desert areas to the north of Beijing provide a dusty atmosphere that brings a yellow tinge to the sky. After the observatory I get around a few of the thousands of malls that have invaded Beijing's modern grid pattern and get some more ... read more

So I make train 20 - the Trans-Manchurian and I start with a full carriage to myself. There is some confusion when the train arrives as there is no carriage twenty for me to board - but I quickly realise that they will add further carriages at each stop and when I board it is empty apart from the usual dour russian provodnik and me! I am also at the back of the train so I can easily get some shots of the view from the back which will be nice. Later I am joined by Walter a Beijinger who is super friendly and inquisitive compared to my last compatriot but He does not speak english and so our conversations use the manadarin phrasebook and take hours to determine do i have children? - no - ... read more

My final full day on Olkhon! I will miss it as for me it has been the best of russia - beautiful places and I know I want to come back in the winter and summer to spend time here. But we wander around the island one last time and spend some time trying to figure out how to get the world service to check the football as it is the last day of the premiership. We look at a radio in a shop but the lady tells us (I think in my broken russian) that there is no reception on the island - bad times - but they have restocked the beer for us - good times. So we wander around the boatyard and head home and eat another great meal and then hit the ... read more

Today we took our first excursion to the north of Olkhon Island whixh was a great journey. We ploghed through the dirt tracks in the russian version of a vw camper for most of the day to see the coastline around the north and east sides of the island where the ice is now completely gone. We stopped at the site of the gulag on the island and were told that there was one lady who still lived on the island aho had spent time in the gulag but she did not want visitors. Even on a beautiful island it was not a pleasent place although most of it had been broken up. At lunchtime our driver suddenly produced a cooking set snd made us a good fish lunch although the food is nearly all fish ... read more