(Day 75 on the road)So I am back in Beijing. The last time I was here I did a lot of the touristy things (Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace), so this time I will try and also see the things that I haven't been to previously. Although I did go back to the Summer Palace, as I only spent about an hour or so there last time, which is definitely not enough for this place. I also went back to the Temple of Heaven, one of the nicest landmarks in Beijing in my opinion. All in all, I spent six days in the city (most of it actually with very nice Anna from Poland whom I had met there), staying at a very cool hostel called Qianmen Hostel, about 400 meters from the Forbidden ... read more

(Day 73 on the road)I am back in Ulaan Baatar after my trip to Gobi, and am taking it very slowly. A bit of leisurely sightseeing, sleeping, chatting to fellow travelers, watching some movies from the extensive DVD collection of the hostel, getting a Japanese Hot-Oil-Massage and body scrub (amazing!), hitting some balls at the golf driving range, partying the night away and so on. It is very nice to slow down a little, and as my train to China left only about a week later, that gave me enough time to catch my breath. The hostel I stayed in was called Golden Gobi Guesthouse, and is in my opinion the best place to stay in Ulaan Baatar. It is well equipped (including two comfy lounges) and family run, and the atmosphere here is just perfect. ... read more

(Day 66 on the road)From Ulaan Baatar, I left on a week-long trip into the heart of the vast Gobi Desert, the largest desert in Asia and the fourth-largest in the world. I set off with two Finnish brothers (Mikka and Mikko) and a German couple (Eva and Daniela). And of course our very cool and competent driver cum mechanic, Mishka. The vehicle of choice in the harsh desert is a very sturdy, Russian-made van, which is 100% mechanic, so no fancy electronics that can boggle up. As many cars in the desert, and certainly all the tourist vans, are actually of the same type, this also means that you can quite easily get spare parts from other drivers. We had a few breakdowns (the first flat tire just 3h after leaving Ulaan Baatar); Mishka fixed ... read more

(Day 55 on the road)The trip to Olkhon Island on Lake Baikal got off to a bad start: After a smooth 4h minibus-ride through some snow-covered roads and forests to the ferry which was supposed to bring us to the island, we found out that the ferry was cancelled due to strong winds. And windy it was - I have never experienced anything like it. We were ten people sitting in the van, and the car was being moved back and forth by the storm. In the end, we waited eight long hours in the bus (it was way too cold and windy to stay outside the bus for any amount of time), before the storm finally settled and the ferry took us across. So what should have been a 4h tour became a 12h torture... ... read more

(Day 49 on the road)Dead-tired after a few rough nights on trains and only two hours of sleep the night before I arrived in Tomsk, a charming university town in the middle of Siberia. I desperately needed a break from my exhausting overnight-hopping, so I decided to stay a while. This was by no means easy: The first four hotels I went to all across town were booked out, so I had to settle for a place well out of my price range. The alternative would have been to press on to Krasnoyarsk, but I really had no energy left for another day of exploring and another night on the train. As it turns out, it was the right decision. I shared a room with a very nice Russian guy working for a local oil company, ... read more