Well, here we are in Mongolia and have nearly had Tony's bag pinched and mine too, the LP wasn't wrong with this place warning you to watch out for pick pocketers, they've got very nimble fingers here!!!! UB the locals’ call it is pretty cool though, it’s got a massive US presence due to its geo-political positioning in that it’s in the middle of of Russia and China. As one of only a handful of truly democratic country in Asia, it receives a lot of donations from the USA and various other NGO's, and all embassy staff is in UB, the UN have a big presence here so thankfully we found an amazing Irish pub to have a long awaited steak and burger. Our first day was pretty much spent in the Irish pub with Ben ... read more

So at 6am we arrived in Ulan Ude. This is the capital of Siberia and Ulan means Red in Buryat. We were staying at Baikal Ethnic Hostel for 1080r for 2 in a private room. It was well out of town but in a really peaceful area. We were staying with the French dudes (Charles, Xavier and Evrard). After a quick power nap we headed into town to sort out our bus for the next day to Mongolia. This turned out to be a nightmare. After 2 hours of trying we came to the conclusion that the direct bus wasn't happening (fully booked) and we would have to get more than one bus. So off we went for a potter around UU. There wasn't actually much to see apart from the massive Lenin Head so we ... read more

Facts about Lake Baikal: Lake Baikal is in southern Siberia and is also known as the "Blue Eye of Siberia". It contains more water than all of the North American Great Lakes combined. At 1,642 meters (5,390 ft), Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world and the largest freshwater lake in the world by volume. Lake Baikal was formed as an ancient rift valley, having the typical long crescent shape with a surface area of (31,722 km2/12,248 sq mi), less than that of Lake Superior or Lake Victoria. Today we were heading to Olkhon Island, 500km from Irkutsk in Lake Baikal. We had heard great reviews of this island so were excited to go. First we had to figure out how to get there, after discovering we couldn't get there from Listvyanaka by boat ... read more

We arrived in Irkutsk in the evening and after we found our hostel we headed out to find food but to no avail, so we ended up purchasing some bread, ham and cheese and of course beers and headed back for an early night. After 3 days on a train doing nothing you'd think we were itching to get out there and see the sights but to be honest we couldn't be bothered so we parked up in a bar with some outside space so we could sit in the sun and drink our way through the day. Tony had read there was a bar called The Liverpool Bar here and was determined to find it, we did and it was pants inside, g had a wine which we reckon had been open for many months ... read more

We awake to the usual low dim of traffic and on T's persistence we get up early for breakfast - with the slight optimism that full English with proper coffee was waiting for him downstairs, we venture down. Yet again we are disappointed breakfast at the Yekaterinburg train station hotel - whose proper name I have forgotten, consisted of a square lump of unscrambled egg, cold sausage, potatoes and weird red additive/radioactive enhanced 'fruit ' juice. We check out and advance down to our pre-booked hostel Hostel Yekaterinburg (this is the correct name) 30 minutes later and still yomping and we mean yomping in 30 odd degree Siberian sun we arrive at home for the next 2 nights and check into the dorm. On arrival we meet up with a couple of Irish lads we shared ... read more