Hitting the (Rail)Road


Advertisement
Hong Kong's flag
Asia » Hong Kong » Kowloon
October 3rd 2008
Published: October 3rd 2008
Edit Blog Post

Total Distance: 0 miles / 0 kmMouse: 0,0

Our route


Well, we have made it as far as Hong Kong. We arrived on Tuesday evening exhausted from the early morning flight and previous days of getting the house organised for our guests. We had managed only about 4 hours sleep in the previous 48 hours so died when we arrived. We had expected to sleep on the train to Sydney and the plane to HK but our adrenaline levels didn't allow it. We have relaxed more now but still have moments of panic when we wonder what we might have forgotten to do in the house. (You can see photos of the house on the Home Link website. Our ID is AU12538. Password is natuna.)

Hong Kong is hot and humid and, despite being over-packed - as usual - we have had to buy a few light clothes as we had only brought cold-weather gear. There are rumours that a cyclone will hit the island on Sunday but we will be well on our way to Xian by then.

We are meeting our travelling companions this evening (Friday) and start on our rail journey tomorrow morning. A somewhat more detailed itinerary than what I sent in my last email is below. There are some gaps as we still don't know all the details. I will update you as we learn more.

We will update the blog as frequently as we can. If you are desperate to contact us, the best way is either through a private message on this site or to our Optus email addresses which we will monitor frequently even if we can't access the blog. China, in particular, has been known to block this website.

If you have a spam blocker on your email client, please ensure that you make "webmaster@travelblog.org" a trusted address otherwise the blog update notifications may be treated as spam.

Here is our itinerary as we know it at the moment:

4th Oct - Leave at 7:28 for Guangzhou (Canton), China. Tour of city. Leave at 17:40 for Xian.
5th Oct - Arrive Xian 22:28. At Aurum International Hotel.
6th Oct - Visit terracotta warriors. Free afternoon.
7th Oct - Free day. Leave at 20:16 for Beijing.
8th Oct - Arrive Beijing 07:17. Visit Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, Lama Temple, Hutong. Stay at Jianguo Hotel, Qianmen.
9th Oct - Visit Great Wall, Ming Tomb.
10th Oct - Free day.
11th Oct - Leave 07:45 for Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia.
12th Oct - Arrive UB 12:00. Don't know where we will be staying!
13th Oct - Visit Gandan Hiin Monastery. Travel by minibus to Terelj. Stay at Ger camp with mongolian family.
14th Oct - Horse ridine and free time.
15th Oct - Return to UB. Visit city sights Leave 17:50 for Irkutsk, Russia.
16th Oct - On train.
17th Oct - Arrive Irkutsk. Tour of city. Overnight in as yet unknown hotel.
18th Oct - Travel to Lake Baikel. Overnight in Listvyanka.
19th Oct - Return to Irkutsk for 17:30 train to Ekaterinburg.
20th Oct - On train.
21st Oct - Arrive Ekaterinburg. Tour of city. Overenight in unknown hotel.
22nd Oct - Leave 09:30 for Moscow.
23rd OCt - Arrive Moscow.
26th Oct - Leave Moscow in evening for St. Petersburg.
27th Oct - Arrive St. Petersburg. Sightseeing.
30th Oct - Leave 14:30 for Helsinki, Finland.
1st Nov - 14th Nov - Explore Scandanavia.
15th Nov - Ferry from Denmark to Harwich
16th Nov - Overnight in London.
17th Nov - Brighton?

Not enough time to load photos today. Will write again when we get the chance - probably from Beijing.

John & Sylvia





Additional photos below
Photos: 16, Displayed: 16


Advertisement



Tot: 0.122s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 18; qc: 83; dbt: 0.0888s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb