... so I got on the train and the main differences between a hard sleeper and soft sleeper trains are the fact they squeeze in 6 beds into a cabin and when I say cabin, there isn't really one as there are no doors or walls really. I of course opted for the cheapest ticket and so ended up on the very top bunk. It is truly horrid as there is only about 80cm of space between your bed and the ceiling. This means if you want to move it is a very difficult operation. There is also a squat toilet only which on a bumpy train is a challenge. I tried to sleep as much as I could but it ended up with all the delays taking over 24 hours and there is only so ... read more

Day 20 - Was still not feeling great so chilled out a bit and then decided to go out one last time in Beijing. I went to this really cool park that in the top Pagoda you could see right out over all the city and look down at the forbidden city. It was actually nice and sunny which was nice. I had a stroll round till I got tired again and then wondered back. Parks are never that tranquil in Beijing as they are so well utilise. There were loads of locals there just having fun. I decided to ride home in a tuk tuk thing which was fun but a bit strange. Watched a CSI DVD for the rest of the day after trying briefly to ride a hostel bike for a bit (i ... read more

HI!!! Im in an internet cafe in Ulaan Baatar now in Mongolia. It is all pretty strange here as we haven't come that far but everything has changed since Russia. It's been hard to update this blog as we are constantly on the train and then our days off are packed with doing things. Our Honcho in Irkutsk/Lake Baikal was a bit of an idiot as he was really disorganised, kept lying about really stupid stuff and was very very sexist. All the girls in our group by the end had had enough. Anyway, Ted is long gone now and our new Mongolian Honcho is lovely. The train is pretty cool although it doesn't go as fast as you would think. That is probably because the ice and snow surrounding the tracks is so bad that ... read more

It's nearly 9.30 here and we are leaving on a coach to get to the train today. It's all gone really quickly so far but I am gettng used to things now. I have stopped feeling sick with nerves and I didn't cry once yesterday. For the rest of day 1 I just stayed in and chatted with the new people I have met who are going on the train which was really good. There is a couple called Donna and Rob, a guy called Andy and a guy called Simon. Woke up fairly late yesterday and when I finally figured out that our shower had no hot water and I had to go to another floor it was nearly mid day. Everything takes twice as long here to ge ready as for starters you have ... read more

Well I have survived the first day... just about. I left for the airport this morning at 3.30am and everything went fine and according to plan but it was very emotional leaving. I cried my eyes out on take off once they had removed the snow and ice from the wings (eeeeekkkk!). But once we got going it was great and had a really good view over London before we got above the clouds. I had a whole row to myself on both planes and the change over went fine. Immigration was a bit scary but OK and found my taxi drive straight away. This was when the ride of terror started. It took about 50 minutes in the cab (which had a massive crack all across the windscreen) during which time the driver looked at ... read more