The Giant Pandas in Chengdu were so cute so we took lots of photos & a couple of videos. Figured they deserved their own blog. Enjoy! [View Full Entry]

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The Baltika Index - BI Definition : the price at which 500ml of locally produced beer of 5% abv strength can be purchased from a shop or hostel in a given location, expressed as a decimal fraction of the price of 500ml of Baltika 3 lager as purchased from the mini-bar in room 418 of the Hotel Vladamir, Vladamir, Russia in June 2009 (50 rubles or approx £1) I have this theory that the relative expense of town can pretty much be determined by looking at the price of a pint of lager, that's certainly been my experience in the UK [View Full Entry]

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Getting There 24 hour train journey, 12 hours at 2 border towns and 12 hours moving. First Impressions We instantly liked Mongolia. Russia can be a little tiring at times as people don't smile nearly as much as we are used to and when you don't speak much of the language it can be disheartening - you're never sure if the conversation's going well or badly! However, the Mongolian style of interaction was mucj more open and despite not speaking ANY Mongolian we felt very welcome. We did actually have good intentions of learning a few words and had spent a [View Full Entry]

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Ok ok ok, so it's taken me 3.5 weeks to write an entry, but I've been busy - honest! We got into Beijing yesterday afternoon and, being the urbanites that we are, immediately fell in love with the city's vibe. But enough about China, that can wait for another blog. I guess I'd better fill you in on the rest of Russia. Where were we? Ah yes, we'd just left Yekaterinburg in Kerry's last post. There's a lot to cover then, but stream of conciousness writing was good enough for Kerouac so it should be good enough for me. Here we [View Full Entry]

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Ok so I thought a hostel is a hostel is a hostel. Not too much difference from one to another except the all important LOCATION and friendliness of staff then it's just the little things like with/without free internet, lumpyness of the bed and smellyness of the toilet. Well, now we've stayed in hostels in a few different countries I am starting to appreciate the differences. Here are a couple of categories that I've come up with so far.. "The Home Stay" - e.g. Meeting Point - Yeketerinburg, Russia; GBT Hostel - Ulan Ude, Russia This is actually a small flat/home [View Full Entry]

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Part 1: The train This was our first taste of overnight Russian train travel. We travelled "Kupe" i.e. 2nd class and again were pleasantly surprised to have services included, despite having a bag full of instant noodles, bread & tea at hand to see us through! This time for "services" we were called into the restaurant car and asked what we'd like to eat. This greatly confused us but the patient lady waitress knew a couple of words of English and so we ordered "pork". It actually turned out to be a 2 course fayre of salad followed by pork stew [View Full Entry]

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Before I start, I'd just like to say: I LOVE MY RUCKSACK! I think that one of the last things that some of you heard me say in London was along the lines of "I hate this f-ing bag" but now I'm used to it and have got rid of the extra "day bag" as well as ditching a few things before we left London I am liking my new home very much. Train #1: the 120 from Moscow to Vladimir So, our first trans-siberian train journey was a miniscule 2.5 hours on train number 120 and very pleasant it was [View Full Entry]

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We spent just one night in the capital before starting our trans-siberian train journey. BIG UPS: I would like to take this opportunity to big up 2 very nice ladies for their help on our 1st day away from home and more importantly, our 1st day without the aid of GOOGLE PHONE!!! 1st big ups go to Leigh (Brady) for texting me the address of the hostel when I confessed to Graham that page 2 of the booking confimation didn't actually print and we had no idea where the feck the place was! I knew the name and got the right [View Full Entry]

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