SineadandPhilippeRTW

For many the idea of spending six days cooped up on a train seems ludicrous. For us, it seemed like a cool way to end our trip. What better a way to come to terms with ending our travels, than spending 130 hours inching ever closer to home. The Trans-Siberian train has featured in our travel plan ever since the beginning, so it is nice that we get to see it through. The day before we left Beijing we got word of the forthcoming British Airways strike. They have delightfully chosen to begin their strike on the very day that we are due to fly with them from Moscow to London Heathrow. This triggered a panic attack, and desperate working out of potential plan B, C and D. As it happens we had already been working ... read more

Travelling from Xiamen to Shanghai felt longer than any of our previous trips. This was probably because we slept soon after boarding and then were awake for the length of the next day until we arrived at 11.30pm. You could really get used to travelling in soft sleeper class in this country. The key difference for me is the ability to shut the door for some peace and quiet, and block out the stream of men passing the door hacking up phlegm en route to the sinks. For the first 12hours or so we were joined in our cabin by a Chinese couple, whose only faux pas was to eat smelly fish snacks until well into the night. The next morning we were jolted awake at 7am by the loud radio that was streamed into every ... read more

In South America we discovered the joys of bus travel. In China it has definitely been the turn of the train. If you want to see a lot of country in a short space of time in relative comfort, take the train. I just hope you like pot noodles! In Lhasa train station we were at the head of the queue. Once the signal was given we marched after the main conductor and made our way to the eerily empty platform. The Lhasa train was more modern than the other trains we've been on and these trains are considered to be very prestigious. We even noticed people standing to attention as it passed by. As we settled in for 24 hours in the 6 berth hard sleeper cabin, we awaited the fifth and sixth passenger to ... read more

After being met at the train station in Chengdu we were bundled into a taxi which took us to Mix's Hostel. We were quickly booked in, but informed that our bed wasn't ready yet as the sheets were still in the wash. They were happy however to let us dump our stuff in the room and chill out there. When the cleaner eventually arrived she didn't speak a word of English and had the endearing habit of just speaking her own native language louder in the hope that we would understand her. Needless to say, we didn't, but we left her to it and went downstairs to inquire about a tour to Lhasa. Getting into Tibet is just an expensive thing to do. After lots of research and many questions to the travel agent, we established ... read more

Firstly, thanks to all our followers who were lighting candles, crossing fingers and saying prayers, because we got our Russian visas! Once we found out the good news, we booked the final leg of our travels and will leave Beijing in the middle of May. From now until then we have over a month to discover China. So, armed with our visas, we secured train tickets to Guangzhou (pronounced Gwang-joe) across the border on Mainland China. By all accounts Guangzhou is not a nice place to stay overnight in, so we arranged our tickets so that we could arrive there and leave for Xi'an (Shee-ann) on the same day. Getting to Guangzhou Main Railway Station demanded a sense of humour. We left our hostel in Hong Kong early on Saturday morning. We caught the metro to ... read more