[slideshow] Following a 6am start to catch the 7.15am train from Ulan Bataar to Beijing and an interesting border crossing and bogie change interlude we arrived in Beijing the following day at 2.15pm, with mixed feelings about where we had been and what lay ahead. The last leg of the journey was the plushest train yet…LED…
[slideshow] Travelling from one country to another by train is a strange experience compared to other forms of transport. When you reach a new country via plane, boat or car, it is obvious when you have arrived – you join the endless immigration queue, the signs have changed to a new language and the people often…
[slideshow] Reading through my last couple of posts, I’m not sure I gave Mongolia its dues as a place to visit. Although it is hard to find many people who have travelled here, the handful that have seem to have spent months in Mongolia and found many things to keep them occupied. Plus, a the…
The food came as a bit of a surprise – it wasn’t included in the trip and we were told we didn’t need to bring supplies, so we did pay over the odds for a range of meat and lard dishes in various guises. The descriptively titled first meal of ‘meat noodle soup’ was revolting…
[slideshow] Following a day of sightseeing in Ulanbataar (which is all you really need to get a general feel for the place) and an overnight stay in the comedy hotel, we took a 50km bus trip into the Outer Mongolian countryside to stay at the Terelj National Park Reserve. The scenery was spectacular and for…
After two days travelling on the Trans Mongolian railway from Irkustsk to Mongolia – complete with an eight hour, toilet free customs stop at the border – we rolled into freezing Ulanbaatar very early in the morning. Still dark, we were greeted by our two guides Batar and Bata (pronounced the same but never were…
[slideshow]It shouldn’t have worked…a Lawyer and a Fishmonger from London, a special needs Teacher from Bristol, a trainee Solicitor from Newcastle, a Scottish Care worker and Oil rig assistant from Aberdeen, a Hospitality Manager from Melbourne and a PR Exec from Nottingham…but as it turned out, I couldn’t have asked for a better bunch of…
I’m due to start the big trip during the Russian Winter at around -20 degrees celsius and then travel to Mongolia with temperatures dropping below -30. I’ll be arriving in China at the start of Spring and heading through South East Asia through the warm, yet rainy, season ready to arrive in Australia for the scorchin’…
Well at first it starts with a burning desire and then it snowballs into something that might just, only just, become a possibility. Then you start to dream….you could leave the stressful 9 to 5 (ish), you could never have to deal with that tricky client call ever again, you could visit all the places on…