http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/JoelStern/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from JoelStern en-us Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:14:13 +0000 Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:14:13 +0000 The latest...... http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/blog-92027.html Wow Thats really all I can say. Wow Wow Wow Wow WowI can't believe we made it. We have seen and done so much over the past 20 weeks. We have had some amazing experiences and some very trying ones. We have come through some excellent times and some difficult times. We have always been there for each other.Some words about Adam I know he won't bother reading this so I can say what I want. It http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-82080.html Last stop Shanghai. We made itAfter arriving at 2230 we took a taxi from the central station this time avoiding getting ripped off there's a first and arrived at the Astor House Hotel mentioned in the guidebook. We walked in the doors of the hotel and were shocked. How on earth could this be a budget hotel WIth marble floors and bellboys I have never seen a hostel like this before. I we http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-84042.html We arrived into Xi'An at 0800 with runny noses and dry throats from the aircon in the train compartment. On exiting the station we were suprised at the sheer number of people who had turned out to welcome us we wanted this to be a quiet affair We managed to spot the guy who had a board with our names on it and he escorted us to a waiting car while saying Show me the money continuously and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi--an/blog-82094.html Beijing China's capital. With a municipality the size of Beligiumm over 15million inhabitants numerous cars bicycles and construction sites it is an absolute immensity of heat humid and heavy pollution.We arrived into Beijing at 0500 and jumped into the first taxi we found. Stupidly. Once again you can spend all your time trying to prevent yourself from pickpockets and other scammers but http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-82079.html Having arrived back from Khatgal after a torturous 24 hour journey the first thing I did was shower. Having not had the opportunity to ablute for 6 days this was a welcome relief and made me feel almost human again. In the evening we went out for a few beers with the new recruits from the hostel. The follwoing day I was up again at 0600 to call home and then spent the morning laying on the sup http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-79377.html Adam Debbie and I met up first thing on saturday morning and went down to the train station to buy our tickets for the night train north to Erdenet after which Adam sorted out tent and equipment hire while Debbie and I went food shopping to buy supplies for the next 7 days. We returned laden with bags of rice pasta instant noodles and Haribo which we sorted out and packed up with the tents a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/blog-78688.html The highlight of the Mongolian year is the Naadam Festival held anually between the 1113th July. It consists of the 3 'manly' sports Archery Wrestling and Horse racing although the popular AnkleBoning has been added to the roster in recent years. Although we had never actually planned to be in Mongolia for this event it just so happened that we were and what a bit of luck that turned out to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-78200.html An early start at 0700 and some mongolian cornflakes soaked in yak's milk before our guide Baysaa came to pick us up from the hostel. we went by car to the Golden Gobi to meet Jason Madeleine Morritz and our driver Dugreh before heading off in our fullypacked furgon old russian van. After about 30 minutes of driving we came off the tarmac and onto a dirt track and that would be the last we w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Gobi-Desert/blog-77647.html We pulled into Ulaan Baatar fondly known as UB at 800 and walked a couple of kilometres to Zaya's Guesthouse where we were told to leave our bags and come back at 1300. We left our packs and went out to find somewhere for breakfast. We found a Mongolian fastfood eaterie close to the hostel where I had sausage stirfry which actually wasn't too bad. We spent the next few hours checking out a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Mongolia/Ulaanbaatar/blog-73726.html We arrived at the Russian border in the early evening and after hearing numerous horror stories about Russian border guards were suprised when they let us pass without even looking in our bags. The only grief we encountered was that as foreigners ours were the only passports taken away for inspection and when the train began to shunt around we did get worried that we would never see them again. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Siberia/Irkutsk/blog-73712.html The train ride to Semey provided us with yet another incidence of suberb Kazakh hospitality. We ended up in a compartment with 3 very dizzy and probably slightly drunk Kazakh ladies who were making the same journey as we were. Tired from staying up late the previous night and getting up early to finish tidying up in the flat we tried our best not to get involved in conversation with them but alas http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/blog-68944.html Saturday 10th June and we arrive into Almaty at 5am tired and filthy after not being able to shower for 6 days One of the ladies on our bus who spoke english was coming to Almaty for work and kindly offered us a lift to a hotel we had earmarked in the guidebook. Apparently rooms were 10 pounds a night. On arrival though we found that once again Lonely Planet was out of date and that Hotel Almat http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/blog-68091.html We pulled into Aralsk under the cloak of darkness disembarked the train took a taxi to the only hotel in town and fell asleep immediately.We woke up about 1400 and were slightly confused as to our whereabouts. I could remember falling asleep on the train but our disembarkation and getting to the hotel all seemed like a distant memory. I got up and went down to the reception to ask where the sho http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/blog-65998.html ChenkuiWe finally arrived into Aktau on the Caspian shore of Kazakhstan at 1500 and after a 3 hour wait to get through passport control we headed into Aktau. We hoped to get away immediately but soon found that we had missed the one train a day. we ended up in the Atai Hotel a series of refurbished apartments which overlook a huge scale model of a MIG warplane in the central square. We spent t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Kazakhstan/blog-65997.html Tuesday 23rd May 2006Joel ''Ah Baku How long shall we spend here''Adam ''Well we'll get our visas sorted and then see when the ferry goes. Hopefully just a couple of days''Joel ''Aye hopefully just a couple of days. I don't think theres that much to see here anyway''We arrived into Baku in the baking heat. Clear blue skies and a slight mugginess in the air. We had decided to walk to the hote http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Azerbaijan/blog-62963.html After crossing the border we were hounded by taxis looking for our custom to drive us the 12 km to the nearest town of Batumi. Tired and with an aching back we checked into Hotel Boni where for 20 Pounds we were treated to a spacious room with balcony TV and BATH We watched the end of a Spanish football game drank some of the contents of the minibar and fell asleep.We woke up to the alarm http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Georgia/blog-60211.html The sun began to rise and I woke from my light bussleep. I stared out of the window in a fairly comatose state after only a few hours of very uncomfortable sleep to see that the scenery had changed dramatically. We had arrived in Capadocia right in the heart of Turkey and were surrounded by strange rock formations and tall fallusshaped stone towers protruding from the ground like giant mushro http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Central-Anatolia/Cappadocia/blog-60198.html We begrudgingly left our boat behind at the small port of Demre and were shuttled off by minibus to Olympos. The road for a long stretch runs parallel to the coastline and is a stunning drive as you weave in and out of the mountains and around small bays with pebble beaches. Nearing Olympos we came off the main road and drove down what amounted to no more than a country lane for half an hour sna http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Mediterranean/Olympos/blog-58620.html We arrived into Fettiyeh after dark and it took us a while to work out where our hotel was. We had prebooked in Istanbul so we knew what it was called just none of the locals did. We finally found it after a good hour of searching and checked in before heading out for a quick meal before bed. Fettiyeh is a typical beach resort town and as such attracts tourists from all over the place includi http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Fethiye/blog-58100.html