We left 'The Johns' air conditioned apartment into the near 40 degree heat of Chongqing along with the other Irish couple and a couple from Quebec. Accompanied by our Chinese guide we headed to the ferry terminal all a little exicted and nervous to see the 'cruise ship' that would be our home for the next while. On arrival at the terminal we were greeted ,surprisingly, with sight of two familiar faces in the form of Mark and Emily; the Montreal couple who we met in Xi'an. We had a few reunion hugs and introduced them to the other couples. Just [View Full Entry]

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Having booked ourselves onto a three night Yangtze River trip (not the luxurious cruise that you may have in mind) in our last hostel, we made our way to Chongqing, a huge city that marks the beginning of our river adventure. We left Xi'an on an overnight hard sleeper from a busy, warm and dirty train station. Having waited for the stampede of Chinese passengers to enter the train we leisurely strolled on. We met a trio of Netherlanders in the hostel who were on the same train and the three of us marveled at the lengths that the passengers went [View Full Entry]

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The overnight train from Qingdao to Xi'an was our first experience of the hard sleeper and I must admit that it wasn't too bad at all. The hard sleeper, a carriage with a series of bunks piled three high with little room in between, makes for a pretty intimate experience with your fellow passengers. Fortunately, the train was air conditioned, the beds were comfortable and, most importantly, the guy underneath me in the middle, significantly longer, bunk swapped with me. In the hard sleeper we got a real sense that this space was treated almost as an extension of the homes [View Full Entry]

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We boarded our, space ship like, bullet train from Beijing to Qingdao (complete with blood stains on front from an unsuspecting railway crossing mammal of some description). If we were to take the Lonely Planet literally, which we did, we would have expected a quaint little seaside retreat which has been described as 'China's Switerzland'. We had pictured Qingdao, a former German settlement, as a little seaside town but, to our surpise, it is a bustling city with a population of Belfast and Dublin combined. We are now starting appreciate the shear scale of China and understand that nowhere [View Full Entry]

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Just a few more photos from our trip to the Great Wall.... [View Full Entry]

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Today is our last full day in China before we head off to the coast for a bit and what better way to end our last full day than with a trip to the Great Wall of China. In Beijing there are a vast array of tours to choose from that will take you to various parts of the wall but after a bit of deliberation we opted to be independent travellers and go it alone. We set our alarms for 6am and set off for Sumatai. Sumatai is a more natural, rugged part of the wall and most importantly it's [View Full Entry]

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After our seven nights on the Trans-Siberian, we arrived in Beijing Central Train Station at 5am to the hustle and bustle of Beijing coming to life while our tired bodies were just grateful that we simply had to drag them across the road to get to our hostel. After catching up on some sleep and trying to make our bodies recognise the fact that we were no longer moving on a train we set out to explore what Beijing had to offer. Over the past five days in Beijing we've visited the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City, the Birds Nest and [View Full Entry]

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Unlike the previous mornings, on our new locomotive home, we awoke after a pretty terrible nights sleep. There may have been a number of contributing factors. It was possible that the inevitable train-lag that we had been anticipating was upon us or perhaps it was our serious lack of physical exertion. It also could have been due to the air conditioning, over which we had no control over, pumping out what felt like sub zero temperatures all night. I stepped out of our cabin to check the kilometer sign posts at the other side of the train and bumped into Claus, [View Full Entry]

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It's Friday, our last day in Moscow, our first day of the Trans-Siberian express and Russian Independence Day. After relaxing in the hostel for a bit, and pushing our noon check out time to the limit, we headed out to enjoy a 'crapdog' for lunch and soak up Russia Day, Moscow style, before catching our train. Just as crapdogs were in hand, Russian officers arrived in their masses; their presence couldn't help but be felt. There where hundreds off them cramed into army style vechiles and coaches, of all shapes and sizes, bringing the already insane Moscow traffic to a virtual [View Full Entry]

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Well we made it and we're in Moscow! To be honest our 16 hour bus trip from Riga to Moscow really wasn't that bad. It certainly was as bad as we had anticipated despite Christopher's broken seat on the bus and the two guys sitting in front of us who clearly hadn't showered in a few days. However, the process of crossing the Russian border, although pretty smooth, was a somewhat nerve wracking experience involving a tearful family being removed from the bus, sniffer dogs and stern looking guards. We managed to get some sleep in bits and pieces. I used [View Full Entry]

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