The latest...... [View Full Entry]

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Wow! Thats really all I can say. Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! I 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). Its always a test travelling with someone else. During our time in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan we spent about 2 months together, 24 hours [View Full Entry]

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Last stop - Shanghai. We made it! After arriving at 22:30, 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 bell-boys I have never seen a hostel like this before. I went to the reception desk to make sure we had the right place and despite the fact that the Astor House is a 4-star hotel, I was [View Full Entry]

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We arrived into Xi'An at 08:00 with runny noses and dry throats from the air-con 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 laughing about it. Strange! We got to the Shuyuan Hostel and checked in before relaxing in our deliciously cold air-conditioned room for [View Full Entry]

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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 05:00 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 the taxi drivers always get you. We paid well over the odds for our taxi, but arrived at the Far East International Youth Hostel fairly quickly, checked into our dorm room and went straight to sle [View Full Entry]

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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 06:00 to call home and then spent the morning laying on the super-comfy sofas in the Golden Gobi. the staff here have all made us feel so welcome and when we found out that, due to [View Full Entry]

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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 and other camping equipment organised by Adam before we took a taxi to the station and boarded our 20:55 train for Erdenet. Having spent many, many [View Full Entry]

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The highlight of the Mongolian year is the Naadam Festival held anually between the 11-13th July. It consists of the 3 'manly' sports; Archery, Wrestling and Horse racing, although the popular Ankle-Boning 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 be! Having arrived back from the Gobi the previous evening, I managed about 4 hours sleep before waking up at 05:00 to call home and let everyone know that I [View Full Entry]

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An early start at 07:00 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 fully-packed 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 would see of civilisation for the next 8 days. We continued for about 5 hours until we came to a tiny village consisting of a few [View Full Entry]

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We pulled into Ulaan Baatar, fondly known as UB at 8:00 and walked a couple of kilometres to Zaya's Guesthouse, where we were told to leave our bags and come back at 13:00. We left our packs and went out to find somewhere for breakfast. We found a Mongolian fast-food eaterie close to the hostel, where I had sausage stir-fry which actually wasn't too bad. We spent the next few hours checking out a number of tour operators trying to find a reasonable price for a tour to the Gobi desert and eventually stumbled accross the Golden Gobi Guesthouse, who if [View Full Entry]

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