claire poppett & jim gaffney
claire jim
Jim Gaffney and Claire Poppett's Travel site
UPDATE: Following the server crash in which we lost 8 of our blog entries, we have managed to get back all of the data. Everything is as it was except the dates are screwed up and one or two of the pictures are missing. Sorry about all this!!
Initial Plan was to travel overland to China and then see where the wind took us for the next year or two! After 2 months of travelling we had successfully completed the entire trans-Siberian route!!!! We then went into china: Harbin for the ice lantern festival, Beijing for Chinese New Year, Tibet (followed by a hasty retreat due to altitude sickness!), southern silk route by bus and then the northern silk route by train before flying to shanghai for some home comforts courtesy of Jims parents!!!! At this stage life somehow caught up with us! So..... after a quick month at home to sort out our lives we have another 3-4 months left of "travelling" before we both go home to start PhD's!
We now have less than 1 week of travel left. Boooooooooooo
However the next trip is already booked! Anybody fancy going to Iceland for New Year??!!!!
Lots of love
Claire and Jim
xxx
Travel Blog Posts
July 1st 2007
Well we have definitely learnt our lesson! Due to our time restrictions in Guangxi province we were so tempted to take a tour to the Longji rice terraces, but we didn't and we are very glad!!!!! Rather than take a 3hour tour bus to Longji, we decided instead to take a public bus to Yangshuo 65km south of Guilin. After a pretty early start we managed to arrive in Yangshuo by 9am and so had the full day to explore. As we stepped off the bus limestone karsts filled the horizon in every direction and we couldn't wait to go out and explore! After some dumplings for breakfast we stumbled across a stall renting bicycles (we later realised that there were millions of them so we hadn't really been that skillful!!) and decided to treat ourselves ... read more
May 16th 2007
To complete our 2 week trek in the far west of Mongolia (see previous blog) we decided to head to the westernmost point of Mongolia, and the Tavn Bogd mountains. The passes which allow us to travel to these mountains on foot are still closed by snow at this time of year, and so we arranged to be driven from the end point of our trek, around the closed passes, and to be dropped off within hiking distance of Base camp. The guidebook describes 'Tavn Bogd Uul' as only being interesting to proffessional mountain climbers. In fact 'Tavn Bogd' refers to 5 seperate peaks, of which the westernmost is inaccesible. There are 2 others in Mongolian territory: Hutian, which must be climbed with a guide and ice equipment, and Malchin, which is the peak we were ... read more
May 14th 2007
The whole appeal of coming to Mongolia was the fact that you can basically walk and camp anywhere that you like - well over the past 2 weeks we have certainly done that! From UB we flew to Khovd on a propeller plane where children could sit on parents’ knees for free and the roof leaked when we flew through clouds! As soon as we arrived it Khovd we were greeted by lots of smiling faces and every child saying “hello!” to us! We thought that the Mongolians were friendly, but it seems they are outdone by the Kazaks! Khovd is pretty similar to most other Mongolian aimags - a central square, a theatre, some shops, a few restaurants, and soviet style housing in various states of dilapidation! Despite this, it had an unusually nice feel ... read more
May 13th 2007
So here we are, the second blog of the second part of our trip.... Following the success of our 'Gobi' trip, we decided to go on another of the tours offered by 'UB Guesthjouse'. This time, we headed out on a 10-day trip, heading west out of Ulaan Baator and turning north to one of the most popular tourist attractions, Khovsgol Lake. This is right on the border between Mongolia and Siberia and so we were pretty excited to be heading there - when we left lake baikal (Siberia) all those months ago we said that we really wanted to see it in spring / summer. We hoped that this trip would let us see the siberian scenery when it isnt -20 outside!! The group stayed pretty much the same as the gobi trip, minus Hannah ... read more
May 12th 2007
Mongolia! Wow! The focus of our whole trip and so far all of our expectations have been met and then blown out of the water! Ulaan Bator is not the most inspiring city we have been to - however it has the most amazing museums!!! The highlight so far is the natural history museum which contains about 5 floors of animals which must have been stuffed in the early nineteenth century and so are slightly "worse for wear" but the dinosaur exhibit.... wow! It is pretty difficult to visualise dinosaurs being alive and roaming the earth (without the help of Steven Spielberg!) but a visit to the natural history museum is like a sharp slap in the face! Many fossils have been found in the Gobi desert which is why the museum in Ulaan Bator hosts ... read more
April 8th 2007
Hey Guys!! This is a belated entry for our week in Shanghai. My (Jim) parents came and met us after our 'hard' 4 months of travelling, and so we spent the time in the lap of luxury! We flew from Urumqi to Shanghai as we had backed ourselves into a corner. Not really in keeping with our overland approach to travel but thats all changed now! Just before flying to shanghai I'd decided to fly home for a month to arrange the next stage of my life, so it didnt really spoil our journey. It was great to see my parents, and we can always carry on overland once we get going again! We spent a few days seeing the sights of Shanghai and planning a short trip out of the city (blog coming soon). It ... read more
March 29th 2007
This is just a quick entry so that you guys can see what we have been up to! After our amazing time on the silk road, it was time to turn east again. The train journey lasted just over 24 hours, and completed our loop around the Taklamakan desert. Once we arrived in Urumqi we had travelled along almost the whole length of the silk road in China, both north and south (apart from a section which is closed to tourists). The train ran through some amazing scenery, and for the first time we could open the window and take some pictures!!! The carriage temperature was over 30 degrees during the day, and cold at night, which on its own would have made for an uncomfortable trip! As it was, we were still struggling with the ... read more
Halfway around the world.....and halfway back again!
Published: August 9th 2007Asia » China » Xinjiang » Kashgar
March 20th 2007
So here we are!!! After spending 6 weeks traveling east from home, and 3 weeks travel west from Beijing, we shouldnt be surprised that we have backtracked a good distance towards Europe. Still, we got a shock when we looked at a map and realised we are now on the same longitude as we were 2 months ago (and also, very close to the Afghan border!!). After 2 weeks on the south silk road, we are in Kashgar! Our route from Jiayuguan to Kashgar took in the (apparently) little traveled south silk road. This meant leaving the train behind at Korla, and subjecting ourselves to lots of bus travel (an experience which ranged from absolutley amazing to totally horrific). From Korla we headed south, along the eastern edge of the Taklamakan desert, to Rioqiang. We had ... read more
March 17th 2007
If anybody is reading this blog to gain some advice, listen up : If you are over 5 foot tall, only take sleeper bus if it is the only option; If you are over 6 foot tall and there is no train, put on your walking boots and hike there if you have to but definitely don't take the bus!!!!!! Poor Jim had to just about fold himself in half to fit on the bed which must be built at the same factory where they build beds for kids before they get an adult sized one! And if this isn't enough, they make everybody take off their shoes before you get on the bus - 3 months travelling and our feet aren't the freshest but some of the people on our bus were in a league ... read more
March 11th 2007
Tibet is still regarded as one of the most untouched places you can travel to which is why we were surprised by how touristy it was! All menus were in English, there was a travel service on every street corner, and the market sellers certainly knew what we were about - money! However, despite the amount of tourists Lhasa was still full of pilgrims going about their business as if we weren't there which is understandable given it takes some of them 3 years to reach Lhasa! As a condition of our permit we were required to be accompanied by a guide which at first we weren't too happy about but afterwards we really appreciated him! We learnt so much! On the first day we went to the Jokhang Temple. According to Legend the Jokhang Temple ... read more
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