Well, they let us in!!! After 7 or 8 hours at the border, first on the Mongolian side at Sukhbaatar and then on the Russian side at Naushki, we were finally accepted (along with the rest of the train) as being worthy of leaving Mongolia and entering Russian territory. Very generous of them ;-) It was a long few hours, waiting in sweltering heat, as the Russian guards told us that we must have our windows closed for the entire process - despite the fact that we had no fan or other means of circulating air in the 30 degree heat [View Full Entry]

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Today was quite disastrous. Poor Carly had dramas trying to pick up our train tickets to Ulaanbaatar and the rest of us got worried when she didn’t turn up at our meeting spot (the bus station) for ages. When she arrived, still without the tickets, she and Chrisy decided to skip the Wall in order to sort out the ticket issues while Hero and I went on ahead. So Hero and I ventured out on our own, having decided to travel there independently rather than with a tour. Naturally, we had picked an obscure section of the Wall to visit rather [View Full Entry]

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We had a late start this morning, taking our time to recover from the process of making our way from Vietnam, and relishing in the comfort of our first real bed in a couple of days. We headed out at about 11, into central Beijing to the main shopping strip. We visited a really flash (and absolutely massive!) shopping centre on Wangfujing St (the best part was definitely finding a Transformers Display where I could have my photo taken next to a big cardboard cut-out of Optimus Prime), then we went outside and walked along the street, when we stumbled across [View Full Entry]

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Getting the cheapest flights to Beijing from Vietnam meant having to make a few more stops along the way - the overnight at Singapore and then another domestic flight within China… three flights all up to travel only about 7 hours! The result of this process meant that we spent most of the last 36 hours in airports… today we have been hanging out at Guangzhou airport mostly… we had a long wait until we had to catch our next flight to Beijing. We left Singapore this morning, about an hour before the embargo was lifted and the final book of [View Full Entry]

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We’re currently in Singapore Airport (Changi) - we arrived this afternoon at 3:45pm and fly out tomorrow morning at 6:20am, headed for Beijing via Guangzhou. Given the short time between flights, we’ve decided to hang out at the airport for the night… it’s cheaper than paying for accommodation and transfers, and at least we know we’ll definitely get to our flight on time! Unfortunately, Tiger Airways flies out of the “Budget Terminal,” which is decidedly lacklustre… so we’ve made our way to the main airport as we figured it would have [View Full Entry]

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We left Australia not-quite-organised for recording our adventures and, as yet, haven’t caught up on our blogging for the early part of our trip. So, for now, we have only pictures of Vietnam to share - and a promise that we will complete our Vietnam blog as soon as we get the chance. And there’s probably a lot to write as we both loved Vietnam and left it wishing that we could have stayed longer… Enjoy the photos and stay tuned! For pics check out our Flickr Site NB: This is a back dated and [View Full Entry]

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One week before we set off on our long-awaited journey overseas, we enjoyed an 8-day adventure in the Snowy Mountains with my (Hero's) mother, Deborah, good friend Kirsty and her son Ethan... and it was a beautiful way to say au revoir to our gorgeous home country. Throughout our time in the Snowy Mountains, we had two magnificent days of fresh snow that provided a wonderful (and fast) foundation for our toboggans to race across, and a much-cherished source of hydration for us all. I don't think anything tastes better than fresh snow... especially when it is topped with maple [View Full Entry]

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