After a lousy night on a 'sleeper' bus to the China/Vietnam border (although they did let us stay on the bus till border opening time) we were pretty much front of the queue to cross the bridge to Lao Cai in Vietnam. Apparently still a bit politically unstable since the 17 day invasion by China in 1979, all seemed peaceful with people literally sprinting between the two countries without a worry in the world other than would they sell their wares on the other side. All queue orderly to get in. Note to anyone who doesn't queue in an orderly fashion [View Full Entry]

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Well, we made a snap decision to leave Wuhan. It was pricey but a flight to Hong Kong got us out of the nuthouse that was the Chinese holiday. Hong Kong is great, everything is in English! Slick, but budget busting, transport from the airport to the centre of HK Island and Jon was there to show us to our appartment. Once he had left us we started to find the fridge was full (including a packet of chocolate caramel digestives!), the bathrooms kitted out with all the toiletries you could ever want, however the hot water had been switched off. [View Full Entry]

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Sitting in Wuhan, the 'city in the middle of China', drinking a Tsingtao .... it's almost possible to forget the imposition Mao Zedong has put on this culture. Then we remember we never wanted to stay in Wuhan, let alone for two days or worse more! While the hassle for us started on the 18th September, the beginning goes back to 1st October 1949 and the creation of the Peoples Republic of China. Without wishing to jeapordise our chances of future visas to China, it would be safe to say that Mao's rise to power and his subsequent Communist teaching and [View Full Entry]

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The Mongol Hordes have changed little apparently...on arrival in Ulaan Baatar (UB as the locals call it) there are plenty of warnings about pickpockets and muggings when strolling about after dark. However, we lived to tell the tale...so here it is. UB is, allegedly, a cosmopolitan city. About as cosmopolitan as Sittingbourne maybe. But then you get out of the city and into the real Mongolian steppe and it's quite easy to see why people in UB think they are cosmopolitan. We headed into Terelj National park for one night...in effect camping. But the tent, or Ger if you prefer to [View Full Entry]

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We've finally made it to proper Russia. Siberia was at it's bleakest when we arrived in Irkutsk...just two degrees, though as a treat, not raining. Irkutsk is the sort of town that you could quite happily chill out in if it wasn't for the fact that it's too chilly. A walk along the riverfront with a brisk north wind was enough to give the proverbials on the brass monkey a lot of movement. And this was a drop in temperature from twenty-five degrees the day before. With a half day sightseeing under our belt, we moved on to Olkhon Island - [View Full Entry]

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Avid followers of the blog will know that I was impressed by the talents of Ozodbek and his compere for the show. Just to give you an idea of how big (not in the physical sense) this guy is, the compere that is, we've attached a picture of him as a cover model. Now why did I drag Nicola to Uzbekistan? A lure of outpost towns in the desert, inhabited by the mainly static Uzbek people with a penchant for hard bargaining with the nomads of the Silk Road. This gave them plenty of money to build fantastic medressas and minarets [View Full Entry]

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As most of the first part of this world tour was supposed to be about trains...a bit about trains. Our first attempt to by tickets (my failure with the auotmatic machine, was just converting an e-ticket, not buying one) was relatively easy, once we fond the office in Bukhara. The Soviet mentality shone through at Bukhara station, everyone on the platform...now wait for the train. Luckily our carriage stopped right in front of us which made life a little easier. As soon as we sat down, the TV was showing the concert of a local favourite, Ozodbek Nazarbekov. Not heard of [View Full Entry]

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Left Moscow, in the rain and cold...par for the Russian summer if the last week is anything to go by. Their weather may be unreliable, but the metro and rail network are as efficient as you could want. And getting a train to the Airport was a doddle compared to the 45 minute frustrations with the automatic machine in St Petersburg. Never got to see blokes dancing round with their Nutcrackers out, the Balshoi was a bit too expensive for our budget (cheap seats had sold out) but did see St. Basil, Lenin (ok, just the outside of the mausoleum - [View Full Entry]

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Venice of the North it may be - but it seems that plenty of the water is in the sky not the canals. Not that that put us off the place, it has stunning architecture that doesn't make you think of Russia at all. Mind you, it was built for a Tsar (seemingly with little expense spared) rather than by Communists, so perhaps the opulence is not surprising. Had a fantastic time looing around the city - and even put up with an hour an a half queue for the Hermitage museum. Then our first train. Arrived at the station - [View Full Entry]

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