Sometimes, having a bad sense of direction is a good thing. This morning, Emily, Max, Luna and I left our hostel at 6 am, ready to catch the pilgrim’s bus at 6. 30 am to the remote Gamden Monastery in the mountains outside Lhasa. After an hour’s drive, we arrived at Gamden when it was still dark. As the monastery is at an altitude of about 4700 m and I hadn’t had breakfast, I felt a bit dizzy and out of breath. The pilgrims and tourists all hurried up the path to the monastery, but I decided to hang on a [View Full Entry]

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I am now in Tibet. I arrived in Lhasa on Sunday night after the most relaxing and luxurious train ride of my life. After the Russian and Chinese trains I had been on, train T 27 from Beijing to Lhasa was simply incredible. I entered a very new, modern train which was gliding smoothly through the rugged Chinese landscape like a jaguar. I shared my plush compartment, complete with private television screen, very comfortable bed with real duvet and oxygen outlet, with an American rock climber called Tree and a vivacious young man from Hong Kong called Chan. We spent the [View Full Entry]

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For some reason, I didn't expect to like China, but actually, I am enjoying my time here immensely. Somehow, I have managed to avoid the crowds by staying away from the major tourist spots, and hence I found being in Beijing really relaxing. Being at the quiet Templeside House Hostel (www.templeside.com) has been a treat as well, as Bobby and his delightful staff have made my stay very special with their hospitality. What really gets me is how friendly the Chinese people are: extremely obliging and helpful, in particular when I get lost (once in a while), and although everyone in [View Full Entry]

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I spent a wild week in Mongolia, so much so that I didn't want to leave at all and was seriously considering changing my ticket. I arrived in Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia, last Sunday, after another overnight train trip from Ulan Ude - this time in the company of a very nice English couple, Tom and Gev, who are on their way to Australia. We spent hours chatting and keeping each other's spirits up as the Russian border officials kept us at the border for over six hours - even I was close to losing my sense of humour as it [View Full Entry]

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I am starting to get the idea that the local deities like their offerings. This afternoon, whilst visiting the Open Air Ethnographic Museum of Transbaikalia Peoples with my local contact, a charming young man called Pavel, I was just about to put a couple of coins onto the bronze age 'little deer' stones, as is custom here, when my beloved Celine sunglasses fell off my head. Before I knew it, I had stepped on them and broken them. Dismayed, I realized they were completely ruined. But Pavel was impressed and indicated that I should lay them on the stones as an [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday Valera took me on an amazing mountain hike around Lake Baikal. It was very hot, and we took a steep and narrow little trail s along the shore. On the cliff, again with breath-taking views, Valera made a fire for our lunch and to boil tea with Siberian herbs he had gathered during our hike (Sheilagh, you would have loved it!). As he was making the fire, I skipped down to the lake and felt an irresistible urge to jump into the clear and fresh water. The beach was deserted, and a bit further along the shore, I found a [View Full Entry]

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I was met on Saturday morning - 7 am Siberian time, 2 am Moscow time, which I was still on - by Valera, my host in Siberia. As luck, or serendipity, would have it, he offered to take me straight to Lake Baikal, the sacred lake about 70 km from Irkutsk. He said he had an apartment there also, about 100 m from the lake, with a view to it from the bedroom window - would I prefer that instead? What a question! I wanted to kiss him! It was just what I needed after all that time in big cities [View Full Entry]

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It's a dreary Tuesday night, and five layers of clothing, a big furry hat and thermal gloves later, I have braved the dark and unwelcoming night of Siberia for you, dear readers, to visit an internet cafe bring you the new installment of my travel adventures - even if it means sitting in a drafty doorway! Last week, I spent four days and three nights on train number 2, also known as 'Rossya', from Moscow to Irkutsk. This time, I shared my compartment with a Vladimir, a lovely retired Siberian surgeon, who wore a short-sleeved T-shirt in all weathers and bought [View Full Entry]

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I've never seen so many uniforms as in Russia, in particular Moscow. This place is packed with policemen. The uniforms are green, black, blue, camouflaged, you name it. They're everywhere, sometimes blowing whistles to let you know you've done something wrong, sometimes canoodling with their girlfriends in dark alleyways, and mostly, just standing around looking serious. Good if you have a fetish for uniforms, I suppose! I arrived in Moscow on Saturday night, after a swift visit to Dostoevsky's grave in St Petersburg with Elena, a new friend, and a 6-hour trip from St Petersburg on a relat [View Full Entry]

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St Petersburg is busy. Very busy. Nevsky Prospect, the main road, is like London's Oxford Circus, just bigger and faster. There are building works everywhere, cars, people, all busily running from A to B. Then there's the magnificence of the city: awesome buildings, churches, galleries, monuments, theatres, parks. It's breath-takingly beautiful, but it's easy to get overwhelmed, overawed, overrun. But it's easy to escape the hustle & bustle of Nevinsky Prospect and drift into the side streets. I am more interested in everyday Russian life - the old Babushkas selling produce from their gar [View Full Entry]

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