Ed turned 30 today and finally entered his natural decade. Whilst Ed slept off a bit of a hangover Gemma was hard at work around the hotel room putting up banners, blowing up balloons and placing cards on the doormat. Her birthday card appeal was a resounding success and it’s now obvious why our rucksacks had become so heavy, so Thank You to everyone who helped her make it a fun birthday morning in far-flung Siberia by sending messages, not least her mother Sally. There was even a cake with candles! What better way to spend a milestone birthday than [View Full Entry]

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The town for disembarking the train was Irkutsk, which we reached at 5:40am local time or 0:40am Moscow time. Our Russian travel agent was even prepared to phone us to make sure we woke up for it, and had briefed the local guide who was meeting us from the train with orders to board it and find us if we didn’t appear. As it was we were up and ready in good time but at a pitch black Siberian station in a snowstorm we were relieved to see the guide (Sasha) and driver (also Sasha) waiting for us. Because of [View Full Entry]

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If someone could come up with a good use for the zillion upon zillion silver birch trees we have passed, they would be awarded the Order of Siberia. The trees we saw today had less snow around them and were enjoying a beautiful spring day, but the view didn't change all that much. We are looking forward to getting off the train for longer than 15 minutes, although the early-morning departure tomorrow morning isn't that attractive in itself. To prepare ourselves we try to realign our body clocks to the latest timezone which doesn't really work when we're still thinking in [View Full Entry]

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Today was pretty similar to yesterday - life on the train is not very varied like we said. The theme for the day, as it were, was heading up into the Ural mountains which we passed later in the day, the dividing line between European Russia and Asian Russia, and we were expecting an impressive range. Strangely there's nothing to them though and they have got more in common with the South Downs than with the Himalayas. We spent most of the day reading, with Ed heavily into his new book on the lovely man known as Stalin. We visited the [View Full Entry]

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After a very good long nights sleep we were refreshed and ready for the relaxing day ahead. It was fantastic to read, chat and watch the Russian countryside go by. Life aboard the train is not terribly varied, but at the same time there is always something to look at and it's nice just having so much time on our hands. And after crossing countless timezones in the previous few days it was great to be able to sleep whenever we wanted (which was often). Our trip from Moscow to Beijing will be broken by visits to Lake Baikal in Siberia [View Full Entry]

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Today’s weather was glorious and the walk down to the Kremlin, though cold, was fresh and well needed. We had a very informative tour within the Kremlin walls, seeing the buildings, places of interests and the inside of Russian Orthodox churches and cathedrals. The piece de la resistance was the two exhibits of the Diamond exhibit and also the Armoury museum… The Diamond exhibit is two rooms, showing you in the first all the precious and semi-precious stones that can be found in Russia, mainly around the Ural Mountains. A lot of diamonds, gold and platinum. So to show some o [View Full Entry]

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Never asked to produce proof of a departure ticket, funnily enough. Though it was an interesting flight over, with a lady sat next to Gemma on her mobile for most of the flight and then just over the aisle we had two Russians polishing off a bottle of Johnny Walker and clicking to get the attention of the flight attendants, that was well received! Driving through Moscow brought many memories flooding back to Gemma, who has been to Moscow a number of times before due to her father living and working here for about 11 years. It has not changed [View Full Entry]

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After our hearty English breakfast we made our way back to Withyham to repack our bags and sort out things for the next 3 months ahead of us. A different wardrobe this time, catering for -10 to +30 degrees, interesting. It was momentarily very hard to leave the log fire, home cooked food and all the other luxuries we have been thinking a lot about these last 9 months. But we have so much to look forward to from the Trans Siberian express through Russia, Mongolia to Beijing, exploring China to Bhutan and then finishing off with north Thailand, Laos and [View Full Entry]

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Our year away isn't strictly that. Today we woke up in lovely, lovely England, not because we were missing our mums (although we were, a bit) but because Ed's youngest sister Emily was getting married. We had an astonishingly tear-free reunion with Ed's family, who we hadn't seen for over 9 months, and then went for a perfectly proper pub lunch out in the Sussex countryside with Gemma's parents. Then the main event and a lovely church wedding followed by a great reception that gave us a really enjoyable opportunity to catch up with a lot of extended family and [View Full Entry]

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Our busy morning actually went according to plan what with checking out of the guest house, picking up Gemma’s dress and Ed’s shirt we had had made, picking up the screen and meeting the pre-arranged minivan to take us to the airport, leaving just 1hour before our flight. Hong Kong airport is fab, new, convenient, efficient. Neither of us have ever had such a quick and hassle free check in ever. Our checked in luggage weighed in at 46 kilos - we were not charged for the extra 6 kilos, and our hand luggage was never looked at or asked to [View Full Entry]

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