All you need is love

There are few things in life that could compare with the awe-inspiring scenery, fascinating minority people and weird calmness of the Longji rice terraces, where we spent the last three days of our time on mainland China.

Few things, that is, other than the woman you have been wanting to marry for some time saying "yes" when you ask her, even though the ring you've bought is too bloody big. But that's exactly what happened during our stay, making it - without a doubt - my favourite place in China!

Both before and after Lou and I became engaged, we spent our time here soaking up the magnificence of a region that is impassable by car, with mules carrying all the necessary provisions for the minority folk, from food and drink to bricks and glass windows, up the steep and narrow paths that lead from the road four miles or more below. We ate some of the freshest - and tastiest - food of the trip, and met some of the most amazing people. Even the bottom-clenchingly cold weather, and the presence of a colony of rats in the ceiling of one of the guest houses we stayed in, could not detract from a truly magical experience in a truly magical place.

Personal highlight for me was the performance that six local minority women treated us to, combining song, dance, music and laughter. This was no 'tourist trap', but a way for the community to help keep their traditions alive. They were a joy to watch, and certainly didn't deserve the piss-poor rendition of 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' that we offered in return.

A final, hair-raising bus journey later and I was back in Guilin (Grade A shit hole) for our train journey into the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, armed with a backpack that seemed heavier than ever, some wonderful memories of the mainland... and a fiance. Happy Days indeed.

Stay warm,

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Luke)

River Deep, Mountain High

Yangshou, with its warmer climate and lots of cafes had a somewhat Mediterranean feel to it, a nice change from the hustle and bustle (and smog) of the cities. Yangshou sits alongside side the Li river and in amongst the mountains, and as one of the most beautiful parts of China, it has long been a favourite tourist hot spot and is therefore somewhat an international town in China, with a range of western bars and cafes. Ammy, our loveable local expert, informed us that even George W Bush had visited Yangshou.

We were staying in a hotel called Fawlty Towers, which as Luke pointed out, is a name you can only really get away with if you run a very good hotel indeed. Sadly they didn't, and it wasn't, as Luke constantly reminded me over the course of our three day stay.

Yangshou is also place for outdoors-types and activities, and was where we would spend our last day in the area cycling. Having not ridden a bike since I was 12, I was very scared at this prospect.

Before that, on our first full day in Yangshou, we decided to relax before our day-long bikeathon and go on a bamboo raft trip down the river. You can imagine my delight when we turned up and found out the rafts were only... an hours bike ride away. Despite being called a village Yangshou has a population of about half a million and has the kind of traffic, roundabouts, lorries, etc you would expect in a place of that size. And some tractors, rickshaws, and pedestrians that you wouldn't. Its fair to say that the Chinese don't stick to the highway code quite as rigidly as the Brits do. Still Ammy had some helpful advice. "We don't use bicycle helmets in this country, so you just need to be careful." Despite thinking I was going to die as we went straight across a busy roundabout I lived to tell the tale.

The raft itself was very calm and quiet along the incredible beautiful Li River, or so I thought, but turns out Luke is scared of small boats. (You learn something new about someone everyday.) He maintains he is not scared of boats, per say, just small rafts made of bamboo being punted along by a lunatic who speaks no English, laughs when we tried to put the life jackets on whilst chatting on his mobile phone and crashes after the first five minutes. Turns out the bamboo raft trip is not so romantic when the person next to you is saying "this is dreadful", "we're going to die". Still I took some nice pictures during the hour and a half trip.

Leaving Luke behind for health and safety reasons, I also went caving in Moon Water Cave near Yangshou, which was fantastic. Following a mad and bumpy bus journey, you take a small rickety boat into the caves. Despite having to bend double in the boat to get into the caves, inside they are enormous and fascinating. As well as the excitement of the stalagmites and stalactites, there is a mud pool which you can swim in. The mud is good for your skin and when you lie down you float! I then swam in a cold water pool.

For our last two days in Yangshou we cycled (see the theme developing here?) to a guesthouse called Outside Inn, in the country which was fantastic and did wonderful Chinese food.

And so on our final day we had our day of bike riding. Having cycled out of the "village" on the previous day, the days cycling in the country was very enjoyable. We cycled over and along rocky roads and rivers, to Moon Hill, a hill with a hole in it the shape of the moon, which we climbed, to a local school, and to a farmhouse for lunch.

I managed to only fall off the bike properly once, and that wasn't under a bus, so I think I survived surprisingly well. And apparently the old saying is true - you never forget how to ride a bike.

Luke and Louise

xxx

(Posted by Louise)

I want to see the bright lights tonight

DSC01883, originally uploaded by Louise and Luke.

What. A. Bloody. Brilliant. City.

It wasn't just arriving after the mediocrity of Xi'an that did it. It wasn't the sunnier weather that had us discarding coats and thinking about sun tan lotion (albeit slightly prematurely). It wasn't even the "cake terrorists" (scary men who make money to overthrow the Chinese Government by... er... selling really pretty cakes on the street) that Ammy, our lovely and amusingly Chinese local guide, pointed out to us shortly after our arrival.

No, it was the delicious marriage of daft skyscrapers that look like spaceships with old colonial townhouses, the drinks that cost the earth but were served 88 floors above ground level in the Cloud Nine bar, the fantastic food at Grandma's Kitchen, the parks, the history. It was Shanghai, and the two days we spent in China's second city was nowhere near long enough, such was the wealth of things to do, see, eat, drink and absorb.

On our first night there, we strolled through the Old City shopping area, ignoring offers for knock off Rolex watches and Gucci bags, opting instead to barter furiously for some new shoes for Lou with a local stall holder. Just walking down the street was a joy in a city that felt so alive, vibrant and combustible in a way that made Beijing seem almost sedate in retrospect. We also tasted some of the best food since our time in the Capital at the famous Grandma's Kitchen, something of a Chinese institution. We finished off the night with a few beers at a backstreet bar that, somehow, afforded wonderful views of the city skyline across the Bund as a cool breeze blew across the terrace. It was almost good enough to give up voting for...

We started day two with a personal highlight, namely my successful consumption at breakfast of a an entire, runny fried egg... (drum roll please)... using chopsticks. The fact that the day managed to get better from there on in is a true testament to Shanghai's greatness. We spurned the metro, choosing to traverse much of the city by foot, and in doing so were rewarded with some truly magnificent open spaces such as the massive, magical "People's Park". These places also told a darker story, though, with the occasional statue of former leader and all round murderous shitbag Chairman Mao still standing, and an eerie lack of little brothers or sisters for the steady succession of cute Chinese kids to play with. After a few hours strolling through the glorious former French Concession, including memorable visits to the home of former (and actually quite sound) Communist guru Zhou Enlai and that of democratic trailblazer Sun Yat Sen, we zipped through the very grand though sterile Shanghai Museum.

The undoubted highlight, though, came with our evening visit, along with a few travelling companions, to the New Shanghai Circus. The show contained such feats of contortion, strength, grace and skill that would dazzle any visitor, but the final act, where seven full size motorcycles drive at full pelt round a 360 degrees metal cage-ball has to be seen to be believed. Look on Youtube - it's bound to be on there. Better still, book a flight and go see it for yourself.

We rounded off the night, and our last proper day in Shanghai, with a obscenely expensive cocktail on the 88th floor of Shanghai's second tallest building, but her still tallest bar. Since you ask, we had to use plastic, and mine was a Cyberlady, hers a Mai Tai. And yes, they were worth every bloody penny.

Stay warm,

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Luke)

Seven Nation Army

DSC01710, originally uploaded by Louise and Luke.

After our fantastic Trans Mongolian train trip, including the sumptuously wonderful final First Class leg from Mongolia to Beijing, the 'hard sleeper' trains in China took a bit of getting used to. Still, after telling ourselves that it could be worse and thanking several Gods that there was no livestock in our carriage, we hunkered down and actually ended up quite enjoying the 16 hour trip to Xi'an. The fact that we were travelling overnight probably helped a fair bit, too...

Xi'an itself is a fairly average city with way above average smog problem, even by Chinese standards. The centre has a decent array of shops, and an even more impressive range of beggars and vagrants jostling for your attention. There are some nifty things to do and see, though, with the Muslim Quarter providing some memorable sights, sounds and smells, a fantastic light and water show opposite the Small Goose Pagoda every night and a Bell Tower and Drum Tower that look suitably imposing. Top tip, though, is to jump on a bike and cycle the 17 kilometres (actually can't believe I'm typing this) along the high city wall that still encases old Xi'an. Great fun and great sights, made all the better if you manage to hire a bike with brakes, which is never a given in China. Fun when you get to see the fat Americans crashing, not so much fun when it happens to you...

The main reason for a visit to Xi'an, however, is for its close proximity to the famed Terracotta Army. An hour or so away by bus, they are truly spectacular. Though in varying states of repair thanks to age and Dynastic pillaging (and, one suspects, slightly shit Chinese excavation), they are a wonder to behold, not only fulfilling expectations but exceeding them. The locals refer to them as "the eighth Wonder of the World", and they could have a point. Take a look at the pics to see them in their full glory.

Next up, Shanghai.

Stay Warm,

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Luke)

China in Your Hand

Clearly, we didn't have time to see everything that the Chinese capital had to offer, but we did spend a couple of heavy sight seeing days in Beijing, walking about 30 miles in total!

We visited the utterly magnificent Forbidden City, right in the centre of Beijing, which was the main residence of the Chinese emperors in pre-revoltuion China. As the name suggests, normal people were banned from entering this area of the city. The Emperor lived here alone, aprt from his hareem of concubines and army of advisers and servants, evry one a male, and every one a eunuch. A bit like Thatcher in Number 10, I guess.

Continuing the dynasty theme we also spent a glorious half day at the stunning Temple of Heaven, a series of mini-temples built for the emperor's to pray for good harvests. The buildings were incredibly beautiful in their own right, but set in the beautiful grounds, were quite magical. The grounds are used as a park by local Chinese people who gather there, every morning to dance, sing and practice Tai Chi which inevitably adds to the peaceful atmosphere.

The final stop of the empirical site seeing was the Yonghe Gong (Tibetan Lama Temple) which whilst allowed to survive the religious purges, because of its historical status, is now a practising Buddhist temple again. Along side the throng of tourists, there are practising monks and local people burning incense sticks. Record breaker fans will be delighted to know that not only does the temple have the largest Buddha ever to be carved out of a single piece of wood, it also has a certificate issued by the Guinness Book of Records.

From dynasty to people's republic (but still record breaking) no visit to Beijing is complete without seeing Tiananmen Square, one of the largest squares of its kind in the world. Truly massive in scope, and eery for reasons that the throngs of Chinese touriosts are blissfully unaware of, it has to be seen to be beleieved. Continuing our world tour of ex-communist leaders whose bodies have been kept for all to see, Luke and I were delighted to visit the Mausoleum of the (now deep-frozen) Great Chairman Mao Zedong. This was a strange experience, as the cult of Mao is very much alive in China, and as we joined the throngs of people going into the Mausoleum, many people were laying down flowers and kneeling by his statue. We felt like frauds, albeit of the righteous variety.

Perhaps even stranger, but certainly less creepy, was the number of people who wanted to have their photos taken with us in the square. Many Chinese people were not able to travel until a few years ago and many people now make the trip to Beijing, to see Mao and their and have photo taken with his tomb and portrait. For many people it is a once in a life time trip and, so we've been told it is a big deal to show the folks back home that they've been to the big city and met westerners. You can therefore imagine their excitement when not only did they get to meet two westerners, but one of them was actually twice their height.

To complete our sightseeing in the Chinese capital, we took a metro ride up to the Olympic stadiums. Inevitably it looked pretty much like it did on telly, and the birds nest was just as impressive in real life, and I'm delighted that we got to see it in person (Luke was, however, bitterly disappointed not to see Adrian Chiles). After listening to "One World, One Dream" on a loop for half an hour, the novelty wore off a little and we decided to return to the city centre.

To complete our Beijing experience we went on an over night trip out to the Great Wall of China. The wall is actually three hours out of Beijing so we left at half eight in the morning. Luke, who had been feeling unwell all morning developed some sort of 24 hour fever, on the way to the wall. Whilst I completed the 10 kilometre hike across the Eighth Wonder with the rest of our group, Luke had to be taken back to the hostel to sleep, and woke up in time to get the bus back to Beijing.

The wall was actually better than I could have imagined and more magnificent than it seems in any picture. But, don't tell Luke - I told him it was all a bit overrated!

Then it was back to Beijing station and aboard our first (non First Class!) Chinese sleeper train for a 17 hour trip to Xi'an...

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Louise)

xxx

xx

One World, One Dream

I'm starting to wonder if I've spent to much time in Wales, as my first reaction to every city we get to seems to be marvelling at how big everything is! And Beijing is no different - it is a very,very, very big city.

Arriving on the train into Beijing's main station Luke and I had prepared ourselves for the culture shock of a lifetime, so we were quite surprised to find that the city had been "olympified" to quite the extent that it had. The biggest shock was not the culture difference, but how overtly capitalist this red city appears to be. There is a McDonalds, Starbucks or KFC on every corner. The main shopping street did lights, opulence and glitz up there with any city in the west and you could buy any designer label you wanted.

It is difficult to know how much of Beijing has been cleaned up/changed/improved/removed for the Olympics, but I think its fair to say that there has been a huge amount of upheaval in this city over the last few years. There are a vast number of brand new buildings, the streets are incredibly clean from litter, road signs and information is all in English as well as Chinese characters and all pubic toilets now have one 'western style toilet'. Even the famous smog isn't as thick as it is in other cities in China (although it is still there). There is also an excellent transport system from the electric buses to the metro system, most of the lines on which hadn't been built when our 2005 guide book was written. One of the first things we noticed about Beijing (arriving from Ulan Bator) is that it appears remarkably safe, there is very little visible crime (I won't comment on why) and you feel at ease walking around town at any time of night.

Clearly a fast changing city, it is still an historic and fascinating place to be. There is so much to see and do in Beijing, we could have stayed there for a month and not been bored. It is not just the sights that you can see (which I will come back to), you could spend a lifetime walking through all the markets, parks and hutongs. Hutongs are hidden back alleys with literally hundreds of homes, stalls, shops and cafes, which you can get lost in for hours. Chinese parks (one of which we spent a lovely sunny morning in) are not quite like British parks. Stunningly beautiful they have streams, little bridges and (in the case of the park we went to) lakes. Local people go there to practice Tai Chi, play Mah Jung and swim, whatever the weather! We both enjoyed the atmosphere and feel of Beijing, and it has been one of my favourite places so far - I personally could have spent a month there just eating.

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Louise)

xx

Out of Nothing

Following the runaway success of Russia by numbers, here's our stab at Mongolia. For obvious reasons, it's shorter...

When in Mongolia, you should try...

1. Spending a night in a yurt.

2. Horse ridding through Terjeli park.

3. Taking in the unbelievable Mongolian scenary

4. Drinking in the night sky -I've never seen so many stars!

5. Warming to a country so excited and proud of their emerging democracy Also the history museum, the purge's museum, the beatles statue, etc, etc

Things you get a lot of in Mongolia:

1. Mutton

2. Yurts

3. Mad, mad traffic

4. Children running wild on the streets of Ulan Bator

5. Aloe Vera Juice

Food and Mongolia is an uneasy marriage. Here's five reasons why:

1. Mutton

2. Mongolian Beer

3. Mutton, cabbage and noodles

4. Cinnamon Flavoured Biscuits

5. Mutton

Right, what's next? China!

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Louise)

Ulaanbaatar, You Better, You Bet

Hello, hello and apologies to our army of readers (last count - four parents in total) for not writing anything for ages, and being at least one country behind. Still, them's the breaks...

Having unexpectedly fallen in love with the land mass of madness that is Russia, and already in a state of excited panic about China, we'd both sort of forgotten about Mongolia and our five day stay there on the penultimate stop of our Trans Mongolian odyssey. So when we arrived in the capital Ulaanbaatar with our two new travelling pals (Swedish) Anna and (Dutch) David at 7.30am on October 28th, we were not quite sure what to expect. Truth be told, we felt lucky to be there at all, after a four-hour border crossing leaving Russia, where our passports were taken away for a three hour inspection, and the validity of mine questioned by a twitching border guard with a gun and a whip. Still, arrive we did, and we were soon being driven - along with a fellow Brit couple - through the city streets by Zaya, owner of the erstwhile hostel that was to be our home for the next five days.

In a nutshell, Ulaanbaatar is utterly and indescribably mad, and not really in a good way. Still a relatively small city in size, it houses about half of the entire Mongolian population (unofficially) of about 1.3 million people. Simple things - like crossing the road - are a very real hazard, as pedestrians have no rights whatsoever. Traffic Wardens shout and wave flags at those daft enough to walk, while even the green man has an evil glint in his eye. Pick pocketing and theft is also rife, as are the gangs of street kids who work in packs, attaching themselves to passing foreigners with varying degrees of menace, violence and effectiveness. The one that got us in a busy street in broad daylight nearly throttled Lou with her own scarf, and helped me decide that I really didn't like the place much at all.

There are, however, a few things to recommend it. The Museum to the Victims of Persecution, opened by the daughter of this magnificent guy, is a chilling, moving and fitting testament to the horrors perpetrated by a Communist regime every bit as vile as that of Uncle Joe's.

The national museum is a hidden gem, and like the Parliament building is a fittingly upbeat reminder of the new-found democracy that the Mongolian people are rightly proud of.

But the underlying sense of danger, coupled with a dearth of things to really see or do, makes Ulaanbataar a bit... erm... shit.

The one thing that makes a visit to the capital worth it, however, is the wondrous beauty of the rest of the country that surrounds it. During our overnight stay with a nomadic family in the huge, mountainous countryside, I ran out of superlatives for the beauty of the place within an hour of arriving.

We spent two days and a night living in the most awe-inspiring, beautiful place I have ever been in my life, with some of the kindest people. The Yert we stayed in was warm (when the fire was going) and brightly coloured, and when we weren't walking in snowy mountains or horse riding, sans helmets and training, along rivers and ridges, we just sat, ate mutton stew and excitedly talked of things we had seen that day. Things like camels, silver tress, packs of horses, other-worldly rock formations, paths and raveens that led everywhere and nowhere.... I also made friends with a dog called Fang, which was pretty damn cool. It was just wonderful. And even worth visiting Ulaanbataar for.

Stay warm,

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Luke)

From Russia with Love

DSC00809, originally uploaded by Louise and Luke.

For anyone who has been bored by the length of our blog entries so far (but is strangely still reading the blog), anyone who has only just started reading the blog (eg my parents), or anyone who just likes facts and numbers, we have put together a summary of our time in Russia.

Russia by Numbers

During our 26 days in Russia we:
Slept in 10 beds
Made 9 Metro Journeys
Took 5 long distance Mashrutki (a minibus) journeys
Made 4 long distance train journeys
Travelled just over 4400 miles
Spent 116 hours in transit
Spent about 20 hours in train stations (not including all 7 hours at the border crossing)
Went to 22 churches
Visited 11 museums
Saw 11 statues of Lenin
Walked down 4 different Ul Leninas (Main streets called Lenin)
Crossed 2 continents
Saw the deepest lake in the world
And visited Asia for the first time.

Our Top 10 Russian Experiences
1. Taking a Russia Banya.
2. Seeing the spectacular views and watching the sunset over Lake Baikal.
3. The Trans Siberian train journeys.
4. Standing in Red Square.
5. Visiting Dvortsovoya Square and the Hermitage.
6. Spending Saturday night in Food Master in Tomsk.
7. Taking a boat ride through St Petersburg.
8. Seeing Siberian snow.
9. Eating Russian Food. Seeing the beautiful architecture of Russian Railway and Metro Stations.
10. Meeting lovely, generous Russian people who looked after us, fed us and entertained us!

Our Top 10 Food Experiences

Whilst we spent a lot of our time eating noodles, soviet bread and two litre bottles of Russian beer that cost a quid. We also just about managed to eat out a few times throughout our time in Russia, and these were our favourite culinary experiences:

1. Eating baked Omul, a fish unique to Lake Baikal
2. Going to Stollie Pies in St Petersburg for the best pie we've ever eaten.
3. Having Russian Borsch Soup with sour cream.
4. Enjoying Beef Stroganoff on our first night in Russia.
5. Eating fish, bread and tomatoes with beer with Olga on the train.
6. Food Master's Chicken Pot, a dish of chicken, cream, cheese, onions and carrots in a pot.
7. Fried potatoes with onions and mushrooms every where we went.
8. Breakfast at Mu Mu's - two eggs, a toasted sandwich and real coffee for R99.
9. Stuffed cow's tongue and red caviar on potato pancakes in Terema's in Krestovka.
10. Eating Fried chicken and mashed potato in Napolean Hostel.

As we spent most of our time in Russian supermarkets, not being able to speak Russian, here are our best (and worst) food discoveries:

1. Strawberry flavoured chocolate and strawberry flavoured biscuits (not honey flavoured -they are horrible).
2. Ekra - A paste made from mashed fried aubergines.
3. Mushroom flavoured Lays (crisps that actually tasted of Mushrooms).
4. Baltika 3 and 7.
5. Cabbage baked in bread.

And finally the 10 things you just couldn't seem to get enough of in Russia:

1. Mashrutki buses - crowded and cheap minibuses going everywhere and anywhere
2. Russian Euro pop - played everywhere from trains to restaurants and always bad
3. Police - on every corner looking scary
4. Knee high boots - despite the snow, ice, cobbled streets and bad pavements Russian women don't go anywhere without there knee high boots
5. People drinking beer - despite suposedly being a nation of vodka drinkers everyone seemed to be drinking beer, young and old, night and day.
6. Stray dogs - the further east we went the more stray dogs there were.
7. Ugly Grey Soviet Buildings - every town has at least 10.
8. Lenin -from statues, streets, a giant head or his actual body, he was everywhere.
9. The smell of cababage - everywhere we stayed seemed to have a stairwell that smelt of cabbage.
10. Beaurcracy - why fill in one form when you can fill in three.

Then it was off to Mongolia for us....

Stay warm,

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Louise)

To the Dogs or Whoever

DSC00893, originally uploaded by Louise and Luke.

Lake Baikal is not, apparently, the biggest lake in the world but it is certainly the biggest lake I’ve ever seen. This is not surprising as the lake is three times the length of Wales.

Surrounded by forest and snowed toped hills, the whole area is incredibly beautiful and scenic. The lake water is amazingly clear, and unusually clean for Russian water. A sign in the village informed us this is because the Russian government limits how much pollution is allowed to be pumped into the lake. Although, considering the lake water supplies all of the tap water in the area, unfiltered, and holds 20% of the worlds fresh water I would personally have preferred that they just didn’t pollute it at all…

We stayed just up the road from the village of Litvyanka in Krestovka valley, a tiny hamlet made up of traditional Siberian wooden houses, right on the lake. Being afraid of stray dogs, Luke was delighted to discover upon arrival that Krestovka is some kind of dog haven. Being the region’s centre for dog sledding every house seemed to have at least one dog and every road and path had at least one stray dog wandering about. At night all you could hear for miles around was the sound of barking and howling. I was just glad that I would never have to doorknock this area.

Aside from the dogs Lake Baikal was very peaceful. The guide book warned us that there wasn’t much in Litvyanka, and it was true to its word. Besides the port the highlight was a post office which didn’t sell stamps, but did – intriguingly - sell three types of tinned spam. However, far from being disappointing, our Siberian retreat was the perfect place to finish our Russian experience.

And one experience you can’t leave Russia without is a Russian banya. Similar to a Swedish sauna, except that after sitting in the sauna for 10 minutes or so you thrash each other with birch sticks and jump in an ice cold pool. We had a traditional banya in a wooden log cabin, at the lovely Terama just opposite where we were staying. It was here that we also had delicious Omul, the famous Baikal fish, which only exists in Lake Baikal.

Despite the glorious sunny weather it was still around -10C in Listvyanka, so we didn’t swim in the lake, which is supposed to bring you good health. We did however spend many hours enjoying the scenery which was unbelievably stunning. The hour trek up to the viewing point, above the Baikal Hotel and the view was worth every second. Our amateur photography does not do it justice, but feel free to take a look on Flickr anyway. Next stop Irkutsk - again.

Louise and Luke

xx

(Posted by Louise)

Remember you're a Womble

As well (possibly most famously) being one of these, Tomsk is also a quietly splendid Siberian university town, and proved to be a rather splendid place to while away a few days as we snaked our way across Russia on our great Trans-Mongolian train adventure. After the European feel of St. Petersburg, and the madness that was Moscow, Tomsk gave us a great chance to relax a little, while also providing a peek at what Russian life is like in a town away from main tourist-train drag.

Possibly the most memorable moment of our entire stay in Tomsk occurred a few hours after we arrived. We were sat in the living room of the flat we'd rented in a Soviet-style apartment block, taking in the full weirdness of what would be our home for the next week, when Nadia (whose flat it was) burst in from an adjoining room and loudly asked me, apropos of nothing, "Hey! Do you like sex?" I was - most unusually - utterly lost for words, as was Louise who simply stared at me dumbfounded. There had been no mention of this on the website. We were saved from what might well have been the most bizarre menage a trois ever when Nadia asked me again, this time with helpful hand signals, if I liked "sax... you know, Kenny G?" In ordinary circumstances, I like the curly-permed king of cod jazz as much as rampant toothache, but at the moment in time, I was his biggest fan, and never more delighted to hear his flaccid riffs.

While we never quite reached these dizzying heights of excitement for the rest of week there, we had a fab time nonetheless. The architecture really was amazing, the people welcoming and warm, the parks and public gardens a wonderful place to stroll, chat and soak up Russia, and their obligatory Lenin statue was a real corker. We spent whole days just meandering through the backstreets of wooden houses, across rivers and up wooden viewing towers, all the while feeling very, very Russian. It was in Tomsk that we started living on our ten quid a day budget, finding ever moire creative meals to cook with tomatoes, Russian bread, eggs and noodles. We also grew very fond of some Russian biscuits, until we (thought we) realised that they were made with liver, but that's another story.

And all too soon, our week in Tomsk (which we thought might have been too long a stop to begin with) was nearly over. We celebrated by going out for a slap-up meal, complete with dirt cheap Russian Champagne (that really is what it said on the label). Lou looked gorgeous, and the night was made perfect when the piss-poor 'artiste' who had been singing to us in Russian all night delivered a truly hilarious version of "I Just Called to Say I Love You" in English. As we walked home, snow began to fall around us in a picture-postcard fashion, dusting the benches and lampposts in a way that you normally only see in movies.

And that was it. The next morning, the lovely Nadia walked us - again in the snow - back to the bus station, telling us along the way of her fascinating life as a lecturer and economic adviser to Russia's national bank, before hugging us goodbye. Another great stop in Russia, another fantastic Russian host. We had, against the odds, started to feel at home in this vast place.

Stay Warm,

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Luke)

Back in the USSR

Well, I had to use it at some point, am just surprised it took so long.

Apologies for relative silence - we've been wonderfully web-free for a week!

We have less than a day to go in Russia, as we depart for Mongolia early tomorrow morning. When we've arrived at the hotel, having avoided the bag slashers and pickpockets at the train station, we'll both let you know how Tomsk was (in great detail, Matt), why Olga is so lovely, how spectacular Lake Baikal is, how seedy - or otherwise - Irkutsk might be, and why Russians prefer their dogs running free.

'Til then, stay warm,

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Luke)

Across the Great Divide

One of our best mates from home, Sue Macmillan, is Queen of the Interweb for the lovely Labour Party. She commented in a recent email - in a way that only Sue could - that posts on this blog could, just maybe, be a little long. I'm sure that you will be as shocked as I was at the very suggestion that I could ever be long winded, talk too much, or use one five words when one would do. However, after some thought, I reckon she might have a point. So here goes - leaner, meaner and... er... shorter.

After the crazy, sometimes scary, but never boring fun and games in Moscow, we headed on the first leg of our Trans Mongolian trip from the capital to Novosibirsk, our jumping off point for Tomsk. We shared our four-berth sleeper with a lovely Russian man and woman (work friends, they were keen to stress, not partners, though Lou and I agreed they were clearly soft on each other), who were kind to us in every way. The journey itself was everything I had hoped it would be, and then some. The bunks - me on top, Lou below - were comfortable, and the carriages warm and cosy. The fabled 'samovar' kept us all in coffee, noodles and instant mashed potato, while the hawkers that roamed every platform stop sold everythingfrom smoked fish to giant cuddly toys. We played the occasional game of cards and chess, and read from time to time, but the gentle rock of the train really does lull you into a gentle peace somewhere in between sleep and waking, as Siberian forests roll by, morphing into farmland then back again. Wonderful.

When we arrived in Novosibirsk, the stop from which we were to travel on to Tomsk, we had no accommodation booked and it was 1.30am. Our very sweet Russian friend got dressed and led us from the train to the station hotel (another example of unexpected kindness), but as he walked away back to the train, it became apparent that we would not be spending the night there, as all the rooms were full. So, overcome with strange bravery - and desire not to look like a big wimp in front of Lou - we cwtched together in the grand Soviet waiting room, next to a group of Mongolian Labourers and a man who had taken off both his false legs to sleep. Really.

Five hours later, we found our way to a rickety minibus and set of on a very bumpy three hour ride to Tomsk, the fantastic, relaxed and very beautiful University town where we would spend the next six days, in a very weird and very Soviet apartment. More of which next time, which could be a while, as we set off for Irkutsk - and Lake Baikal - at 10.30pm tomorrow, and I have no idea when I'll be able to blog next. Which should please Sue no end...

Stay warm,

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Luke)

The post about Moscow (that doesn't use a song title just to annoy Luke)

DSC00520, originally uploaded by Louise and Luke.

We had been warned by several people that whilst St Petersburg is a very European city, Moscow would be a big culture shock. It is known for being a very big, very impressive, very busy and very unfriendly city. On most levels, it didn't disappoint.

We took the overnight train from St Petersburg and arrived into Leninskaya station in Moscow at 7:30am, the start of rush hour. As we walked out of the station in the rain, past what Luke would no doubt describe as 'vagrants and criminals' asking us for money, and into a heaving underground station full of unfriendly commuters (approximately 10 million people go through the metro in Moscow before 10am everyday), far from feeling the culture shock I was reminded of London. It was at this point I realised that to go on the underground in London in rush hour carrying half your own weight in a rucksack whilst not being able to speak any English or read a tube map or have any idea where your going would be a very stupid thing to do.

We did manage to get out of the metro station (having taken only three or four wrong trains) and get to our youth hostel - Napolean Hostel - with surprising ease. Luke however seemed panicked by the whole experience, looking around I realised that most of the roads in Moscow have more lanes than the M4 (for anyone not from Wales that is the largest road in Wales), all the buildings are massive and there are police on every corner. I tried to comfort Luke by taking him for breakfast in what ended up being our favourite cafe in Moscow, Moo Moo (or My My in Russian), where we vowed to learn a few more words in Russian after breakfasting on sweet pancakes with chicken. The coffee was great, though.

After breakfast we walked down to Red Square in the centre of Moscow, which is as colourful and vast as you would imagine, and being there made all the hassle of the metro worth it. At one end stands the renowned and fantastically colourful St Basil's Cathedral. To the left of the cathedral running all the way along the west side is the red wall of the Kremlin. About half way down is the heavily guarded, soviet style Lenin's Mausoleum. Running along the opposite side of the square is a very elaborate shopping centre, GUM. Twenty years ago this was the state department store, but has now been transformed under the market economy to hold well over 1000 expensive and flashy shops (I'm sure Lenin would be delighted).

At the far end of the square next to the impressive building holding the State Museum stands 17th Century Resurrection Gate and the small 17th Century Kazan Cathedral, which was the first building we went into. Despite its historic feel, we discovered were actually rebuilt (as exact replicas) in the 1990s having been knocked down in the 1930s because they got in the way of the Communist Workers' parades.

We queued up first thing on Thursday (well, after breakfast in Moo Moos) to visit the must see attraction that is Lenin himself. Russia as a slightly different way of keeping an orderly than in Britain. There was no barriers or fence stopping you from skipping the queue, the left baggage and metal detectors and walking straight into the tomb. There were, however, several armed police standing outside the building and by the queue - needless to say no one tried to push in!

I'm not really sure how to describe the slightly odd Lenin experience, other than to say he looked waxy, although pretty good to say he's been there 80 years. Its a definite must see experience. As you leave the tomb, you walk past the guarded burial places of all the communist leaders and big wigs, including Stalin.

Perhaps understandably, Moscow has the feel of a city not entirely at ease with its history. Incongruously, ten minutes down the road from Red Square, towards our hostel, on Lubyanska Square there is a Memorial to the Victims of Totalitarianism. Also on the square stands the foreboding and overpowering Lubyanka Prison, the old KGB building, which is now used by the FSB. Stranger still was our visit to the sculpture park in the South of the city. This was the place where a lot of the unwanted Soviet statues were dumped after 1991, and is now an attraction of its own with lots of contemporary art as been added to the old sculptures.

We completed our stay in Moscow on the Friday with the all important visit to the Kremlin. A lot of the state buildings you can't go into, including the palace where Stalin lived, but Cathedral Square is beautiful, and we visited all four of the cathedrals, each of which was very ornate and impressive. Bell lovers will also be pleased to hear that we saw the biggest bell in the world.

Eating and drinking highlights of our time in Moscow included Propaganda. supposedly the oldest club in Russia it opened just after the fall of communism and has a very chilled atmosphere and surprisingly well priced beer.

Our favourite bar in Moscow, however, as to be Kruzhka, a bar we happened upon on our first night and went back to twice more in threes days and we were clearly a bit of a novelty - on our first visit the waiter disappeared for ages returning looking triumphant with a copy of the menu (clearly unused) printed in English. On our first couple of visits we thought it was a quiet small bar, but it turned out, when we went for a quiet drink on the Friday night that it was in fact a huge club, staffed by four members staff.

The staff were very helpful and friendly, and the three course lunch special for only 169R (about four pounds) was fantastic. Highlights also included watching a drunken policeman handcuff a waiter to the bar and pretend to spank him with his truncheon, and being terrified on the Friday night that we realised that two large security men were stopping people from leaving. When finally got the courage to leave we found out that they were asking for some sort of proof that we had paid. Fortunately, being the only group of non Russians in the vast bar the waiter remembered us and explained that we had paid and we were allowed out!

I said at the start that Russia was known for being a very big, very impressive, very busy and very unfriendly city. It was certainly the first three things, but unfriendly? Not so much. After a difficult start, three dyas in, I felt strangely sad to be leaving the city. But leave we had to...

Luke will pick up with the tale with the first leg of our Trans Mongolian train journey soon, as well as our time in Tomsk!

Love

Louise and Luke

xx

(Posted by Louise)

Stranger in Moscow

Two posts in, and already the "using a song lyric for every post" plan starts to fall apart as we are reduced to post-Thriller Michael Jackson. Still, such is life. Louise will be posting the Moscow experience in full, along with the gory details of the first leg of our Trans Siberian train trip, when we arrive in Tomsk, something that will no doubt please Matt Greenough Esquire no end. Suffice to say, it's been a blast, albeit one that began at 7am at a train station festooned with aggressive beggars and pissed taxi drivers.

We'll "be doing the Kremlin" tomorrow (isn't that a phrase to make anyone that utters it sound like an utter tool?), before catching the 11.30pm train to Novosibirsk. We arrive at 1am two days later with nowhere to stay. With that in mind, let me say now that it's been a pleasure knowing you all, and I'd like Mr Tambourine Man played at the funeral. Having said that, our fellow travellers have reliably (i.e. after a few too many Russian beers) informed us that it's "not as bad as the guide books make out", so one of us might live to tell the tale. [Note to Mum - this is a joke.]

Anyway, to bed. As the amount of comma-related punctuation in this post suggests, I am slightly tired, and possibly half cut. Pics should be on Flickr soon, so get yourselves an account and start browsing.

Stay warm,

Luke and Louise

xxx

(Posted by Luke)

I stuck around St Petersburg...

...when I thought it was time for a change. And what a change it was. Massive, beautiful, vibrant and a little bit scary all at the same time, St Petersburg is simply breathtaking, and has proved to be a pretty good place to kick off our year-long jaunt round the world.

We arrived last Tuesday into a drizzly St Petersburg, and no sooner had we landed on Russian soil that I spotted the first celeb of the trip. Somewhat depressingly, the celeb in question was Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen, flouncing the wrong way through immigration. On the plus side, we didn't see him again as we ground our way through the visa check, so perhaps the FSB have him in a cage somewhere as I type, torturing him to shit and back for a lifetime spent annoying BBC viewers and ruining the front rooms of chavs across the UK. But enough of which.

We scored our first small victory on Russian soil by bravely eschewing a pricey taxi into town, instead locating and boarding a deliciously rusty minibus that took us to our destination for next to sod all. Throughout the journey, I hid behind our rucksacks as Lou took on the role of conductor, passing wads of roubles from passengers to the driver. Rock and roll. We arrived at Sasha and Andrey's homestay - our home for the next week - an hour early, but were let in by a kindly, if confused, elderly Canadian couple. Due to a power cut that had brought the city centre to a halt, Lou and I sat in darkness in a strange room for an hour before - out of nowhere - power was restored, jazz suddenly filled the room and lights flickered into action. When Andrey arrived, full of apologies for his late arrival, he looked at once like the perfect Russian host. "Please have a vodka" he announced, before adding proudly "It was once simply vodka, but I added ginger... now it is ginger vodka". With his swept back hair and artist's shirt, he explained that there was "a problem that was not really a problem" - there was no room for us in the apartment, but for us not to worry as they had another, better apartment for us to stay in. And so it proved, as a few moments later, Sasha burst in, replete with bleached hair, and delightfully clipped accent and no more than 5ft2 in height to her name. She loaded us all into their car (Andre, Lou, me and her mother), before depositing us all in apartment number two, even more fantastic than the first, all tiled floors, open fires, battered leather couches and homely chaos. And so while Sasha made up our beds, Andre marked out places to eat, drink and learn on a map lit by a wobbly candelabra. We availed ourselves to our first - and only - meal out that night at the trendy Crocodile, where we were served the best stroganoff I have eaten since a weekend break in Bewdley (a story in itself.) As my dad's pal Phil Tufnell would no doubt say, happy days.

Wednesday brought with it our first full day here, and an obligatory bout of the "what in the name of shit am I doing in Russia?" wobbles from me. Duly calmed by Lou, we set out on a walk around most of the historic heart of the city, and were duly blown away by the sheer scale and beauty of the place. We lunched on the best pies in town at the superb Stolle, then walked ourselves silly taking in from afar the many sites we planned to visit later during our stay. Almost every park, bridge, palace and building shared a common feature - beauty on a truly massive scale. The city really is so vast and so uniformly dazzling, you need to pinch yourself regularly to stop yourself becoming blinded to their many charms. After noodles for tea (a phrase I fear I'll type, write and say far too often over the next year), we crossed over to Vasilevsky Island and watched a late-night water display set to music. A walk back past the Hermitage at night, then to bed.

Thursday brought with it more sun, but also a return of the sodding cold that had lingered before we left the UK. Suitably drugged-up, we walked through the summer gardens, which (somewhat bizarrely) seemed to be at their best in Autumn. Brides had pictures taken while children played in mounds of leaves, while the traffic that clogs the roads around the park seemed to simply disappear. Next was the Blockade Museum, the only narrative (as opposed to memorial) reminder that we could find of the 900 day siege that so scarred what was then Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War. Stalin, on one of his many whims, had closed the original Blockade Museum, which opened months after the siege ended, in the early 1950s. While today's version may be a humbler affair, it is still incredibly moving, even though none of the exhibits have English explanations. Two things stayed with me. One, the solitary sliver of sawdust bread that Petersburgers had to eat each each day throughout the siege. Two, the small group of babushkas who staff the place, almost every one of whom must have lived through the siege. Their bravery in reliving the horrors of sixty years ago so others might learn - and remember - is truly something.

From the ridiculous to the sublime, we headed over to the St Peter and St Paul fortress on foot, stopping en route for some delightful cabbage bread (really.) As we walked, we spotted two Russians hiring out three monkeys dressed as children for snaps with smiling families. No sooner had I cursed the monkeys and their owners, than one of the three chimps started a fight with a stray dog that had attached himself to us. Truly bizarre. All this took place within spitting distance of the city zoo. It would seem that people travel to the zoo from far around to abuse whatever animal they can lay their hands on, be it monkey, dog, horse. More worryingly, a glimpse through the gates suggested that conditions inside were not much better...

Spent almost all of Friday in the Hermitage, which is beautiful, wonderful and vast in such a way that it could only really be housed in this place. It makes the Ufizi look like the Welsh Woolen Museum (which is, for those who haven't visited, massively subsidised and utterly shite.) My highlight? Reading an info board the explained how there were only Michaelangelo canvasses in existence, then realising Lou and I were stood in between two of them. That night, we took a boat cruise on the cities canals and river, all bathed in a sunset that would have graced any room in the Hermitage and held its own. We got home, and spent the night drinking with our flatmate for two nights Martin, a (as it turns out, very well regarded) photographer. A German by birth, he now lives in the United Arab Emirates with his Russian wife. We touched on football, politics, travel, the monarchy (Lou tried the whole "Luke loves the Queen" shtick) and 101 ways to get robbed in Moscow. I recommend anyone with a taste for top-notch photography and / or Russia to check out his book "Roll over, Lenin" - it's ace.

Yesterday was spent, for the largest part, in the Railway Museum. Possibly not on every visitors To Do list when they rock up in Russia's window to the West, it was nevertheless a fascinatingly quirky gem. Lou and I spent a very happy hour or so looking through the replicas and info boards and were just about to leave when one of the (Russian speaking) female staff insisted we join a tour group being led (in Russian) by a mad professor style tutor. When we tried to explain that we only spoke English, he explained - with his arms - that we would be able to see things move if we followed. He was as good as his word, and as we followed the group round, he flicked hidden switches and brought every exhibit to life. He even beckoned me over at one point to explain, again without words, how one exhibit worked after seeing my puzzled expression. Little things, maybe, but strangely moving all the same. Later, we took our first journey on the metro and through a few of the cities historic train stations. They are larger, grander, deeper and simply cooler than anything I have ever travelled on - or waited in - before. And not a single sodding Upper Crust in site. Magic. We ended the day watching the nightly raising of the bridges, drinking brandy coffee and feeling rather Russian.

For our last day here, we caught the Metro out to the Defenders of Leningrad memorial on the edge of the city. Like the surrounding area, it is far more Soviet in style than the rest of the city, but the memorial itself is as gigantic as it is haunting, as overpowering as it is moving. Flames burn in the centre while a huge obelisk towers above, while haunting music draws you underground where simple exhibits tell a story to the soundtrack of a metronome. It was, in many ways, a fitting end to our time here. And, as I have 14 minutes left to finish this thing up, I'll sign off. We catch an overnight train for Moscow tonight, where I think our Russian adventure will really start with a bang. Top tip for St Pete? If you come, take your time, and stay with Sasha and Andrey!

We'll try and post some pics on Flickr soon, so you can actually see what we're doing. Which will be more informative, and less tiresome, than reading this.

Stay warm

Luke and Louise
xx

(Posted by Luke)