17/11/2007 In Zhongmu we put our feet up and relaxed before getting ready to head across the border into Nepal. It was a chance to refect on what we had seen and experienced in the last few days and of course to toast the happy couple. We had met a German man named Harald that evening and he asked to accompany us. That brought our party to 4 and meant that the trip to Kathmandu would be that much cheaper. Harald it turns out had done the Trans Siberian Express 40 years ago and it was interesting to hear him recall [View Full Entry]

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With our Chinese Visa's running out our minds had been made up for us, we were going to have to head for Nepal, which was no bad thing as it turned out. DAY 1 13/11/2007 We left at 7.00 am, Pete, Anna, Lucia and myself, along with our new mate Dunba, who was going to be our driver and guide for the next few days. He had little or no English but he was a nice jovial sort who had a way of making himself understood. The reason for the early start was so we could catch the sunrise over the [View Full Entry]

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The train journey to Tibet is the highest in the world. They actually have to pump oxygen into the cabin to offset the effects of altitude sickness because it peaks at about 3000 meters. The journey was going to take us about 48 hours so we decided to splurge and get a 4 berth cabin between us. It turned out to be well worth it, 2 days of hocking and spitting would have been tough on the nerves. Even with the preventative measures you could feel the air inside the cabin getting thinner. I woke several times at night gasping for [View Full Entry]

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The train journey here was about a day long. It was our longest trip on a train since the Trans Mongolian. I'd forgotten the joys of cabin fever. We had booked into a place called Sim's Cozy Guesthouse. We had been told that this was the place to go to organise Tibet visa's so we went straight in and took the bull by the horns. This time there was no drama's. It was Saturday however, so the ball would start rolling on Monday. With our minds at rest we decided to go to the Panda Sanctuary the next morning. We'd met [View Full Entry]

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We arrived at Xi'an train station early in the morning. We were met at the station by people from the hostel we were staying at, the Lu Dao. This place doubles as a hotel with the top floor used for the hostel. The Lonely Planet had raved about the place, saying the manager was well in with the PSB, the people who you have to get the Tibet visa off. So first thing we approached the manager and were given a flat "no" on the Tibet visa, that the borders were closed. News to us, but we let it slide, so [View Full Entry]

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The CITS in Datong had booked us into a hostel named Tianyuankui Kezhan, and a representative from there met us at the train station, good start! We were brought to this very nice guest house, very well laid out with all mod cons. We were led then to a room, which was a 2 bed dorm with a private shower, a PC and free internet! This was not your typical backpackers joint and we feared the worst. Turns out that because we'd booked through the CITS we were entitled to a discount, and the room was only 60Y per person, RESULT! [View Full Entry]

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Datong has a population of about 3 million people and is a big coal producing region. It served as the capital around 400 AD and did so for about 70 years. You'd think that a city this steeped in history would have loads to see and do, unfortunately this did not prove to be the case. We took the overnight train from Beijing and arrived in at about 7.00 am. We knew what it was we wanted to see and in hindsight we should have just gone and did it in the one day But we were curious as to what [View Full Entry]

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The train journey to Beijing was one of the more enjoyable ones as the whole troop from Mongolia was on it. The 26 hours flew by. At the Chinese border we had to change the bogie's under the train because the Russian and Mongolian tracks are wider than other parts of the world. We were brought into a shed and the carriages were hoisted up and the new bogie's were slotted underneath. We made it to Beijing around 2.00 in the afternoon. The scenary was pretty special on the way in, lovely mountains and even a few snap shots of the [View Full Entry]

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With a band of 8, Greg, Pippa, Robert, Carla, Anna, Pete, Lucia and myself we started out on our 8 day hike around Mongolia. The trek was to take us west as far as the city of Karkhorin and then back east to Ulaan Baatar and up to a park outside of the city. We had 2 drivers (Sugra and Togo), 2 guides (Tosnoo and Kishgee), and a heap of food and drink so we all bailed into the same trusty Russian Jeeps we'd used in Baikal and took to the road. DAY 1 Well we had something of an unfortunate [View Full Entry]

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We got the train at 5.30AM and headed for Mongolia. The carriage was a bit all over the shop and some Mongolian couple had taken it upon themselves to put their 2 kids in our bunks. What was worse was that they had their 4 berth carraige to themselves while they put the 2 kids in with a complete stranger. They'd also taken up all our storage space and there was a bit of a standoff between us to get him to take his stuff out. This part of the journey should take around 26 hours or so to complete depending [View Full Entry]

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