Blogs from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Asia - page 17

After boarding the train to Mongolia in Irkutsk, we bumped into a tour group; some of whom were Irish guys who were on a tour crossing Russia, Mongolia and China. We were all in the same train carriage along with some other people from the hostel we had just stayed in. We ended up sharing our cabin with a Russian woman who had no English and an American guy called Stephen. He was en-route to China for job interviews and was going via Russia and Mongolia for some distraction. Needless to say the atmosphere on this train was very different from that of the previous journey. Everyone was drinking and partying on both nights; and so we too joined in. Luckily Stephen was fluent in Chinese and had been to many parts of China before. He ... read more

Two days prior to departing Nepal I was bestowed an unwanted memento, 'Delhi Belly', aka Montezuma's Revenge or Traveler's Diarrhea - there's an oxymoron for you. To think I survived seven weeks in Nepal without any real GI issues but as I was packing to leave... blammo! A slave to the proximity of a reliable toilet. This is not conducive when you're flight gets canceled unbeknownst to you and you spend three days in transit battling one befuddled snafu after another as the airlines scramble to get you to your next final destination. It was an exhausting 72 hrs of waiting and confusion, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn. 5 star hotels were picked up by the airlines as well as meals both in Kathmandu and in Bangkok as the air companies passed the ... read more

London - Paris: 14th May We arrived in Paris in the afternoon after taking the train through the channel tunnel, which wasnt actually that exciting - we were just travelling through english countryside and it suddenly went dark, and stayed dark for about 20mins, and then suddenly we popped up into the sunshine again presumably in French countryside which looked pretty similar. But Paris was lovely - its an enchanting place to be. We walked around some of the main tourist sites and just enjoyed the ambiance - went to a wine bar in the evening, that sort of thing. Its best to stick to the wine in France as it is so cheap and the beer is so expensive, so when in France...... After a night and a day in Paris we caught the night ... read more

Day 147 This morning we left our key at reception with the lady sleeping behind the counter and headed to the subway for the last time. The subway took us direct to Beijing Railway Station where we found the correct waiting room for our train. We boarded Train K23, carriage 6 at 7am and found our deluxe cabin (berths 9 and 10) which would be home for the next 30 hours. Compared to the trains we have travelled on in China this seemed like luxury. Our wooden cabin had a set of large bunks, an armchair, wardrobe and shared washing facilities with our neighbours. The K23 tourist train left Beijing at 7.45am prompt. The Trans-Mongolian Express is the famous train line that goes from Beijing in China to Siberia in Russia. It then meets up with ... read more

Les quatre jours peinards passés dans la capitale mongole ont achevé de me convaincre que, contrairement a ce que bon nombre de voyageurs m'ont dit, la cité n'est pas forcément le repaire d'infames malandrins guettant le touriste a chaque coin de rue pour le dépouiller de ses biens. Comme presque partout, un minimum de bon sens suffit en général a éviter les embrouilles. Je dirais meme que j'ai trouvé le centre ville plutot plaisant, avec ses boutiques, ses restos bon marché bondés de jeunes fashion victimes, ses espaces de jeux pour les enfants et ses terrasses ensoleillées, ou il fait bon siroter une Ginggis, la biere locale. Le nom du Grand Khan, dont le portrait géant domine la ville depuis le versant de l'une des collines alentours, est partout : des billets de banque a la ... read more