One day to go and I'm hot to trot

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Well team, I'm soon to be off on my epic journey, overland across Russia, Mongolia, China and Cuba.

For those of you I'm useless at keeping updated with, here is a brief plan of action:

Russia
11th April - Fly to St. Petersburg! Over the next month I will be getting the train across Russia, stopping off at
St. Petersburg - Venice of the North.
Moscow - Place where lots of Communist things happened
Ekaterinsburg - Notorious for 2 things: The brutal murder of the Tsar and family, and a bloody Gangland feud in the 1990's. Awesome...
Irkutsk & Lake Baikal - Central Siberian town, and the lake is the deepest lake in the world.

Mongolia
Ulaan Baatur - Capital of Mongolia, An unusual fusion of Soviet and East Asian cultures. Also Genghis Khan came from there. Before he conquered millions and had several thousand children.
I know the standard is to go horse riding in Mongolia, but I see myself as more of a Camel man. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to find a Camel somewhere.

China!
This is much less planned, I have just over a month to get from Beijing to HK. Which is actually a good 2-3,000 miles before you look perplexed...
I plan to say for a good week or more in Beijing, then in no particular order visit:
Xi'an - Terracotta soldiers. Gotta be done.
Tai Shan - The most sacred of the 5 holy Taoist mountains. Worth a climb. Have tea with a monk. Levitate.
Qufu - The birthplace of Confucius, still a hotbed of Zen intellectual thinking. With an Irish pub.
Shanghai - In my mind, its like a giant circus tent. Probably isn't really...
Hong Kong - For all you PwCers out there, I'm planning to crash Julian’s second wedding, and for the KES/Shotteryers, where do the Simons servants live, maybe I can stay with them?

Then on the 27th June I'm back in old blighty for about 14 hours, heading from Heathrow to Gatwick to board a flight to Cuba! Don’t ask about the connection, it was cheaper okay!

Cuba
After a few days in Havana I am heading to the Cuban countryside for a few weeks on volunteer work - that’s right! I'm no lazy bum...
The next month almost will be spent mooching around Cuba as I feel right - Its actually basically the size of the UK incidentally. ally. The world is really surprisingly large when you really get into it...
I plan to head straight to the other end of the Island for the Santiago De Cuba festival, Cuba's biggest and best for a week or two of fun times, then spent the rest of my trip ambling up through Cuba stopping at interesting places. Or alternatively wherever the Cuban public transport network breaks down.

Then hopefully I'll be back to Havana in time for my flight home on the 19th August!

So if you are interested then I will be posting pictures and writing as and when I get the chance. I think you can subscribe to this blog so you get email alerts whenever I post things, or just drop by when you fell the time is right!
And if you're not interested...well, you've probably stopped reading by now. And I hate you. Ha.

So as they say in a variety of languages...

Удачи всем, и я желаю удачи!
大家玩得開心，並祝愿我好運！ - This Chinese might take some getting used too....
Que se diviertan todos, y me deseo suerte!

Luke / люк / ...Damn lack of Chinese characters... / Lucas

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Comments

[eli]

That means I wish myself luck by the way, not wish me luck... Though then again, maybe you are wishing yourself luck. Both options are probable.

[Naomi]

creepy
While reading, I had a shockingly morbid thought. It was about here: "...the deepest lake in the world..." Me: "Ah. Good place to dump a body. Wait - what?!" Maybe my subconscious is trying to tell me something, whatever it is, I'm spooked.