Train Travel

Time for a real Russian update - we have been very slack on the blog updates due to laziness, hangovers, tiredness and train travel. Is the excuse good enough? Anyway, onto the story. . . . .

The Trans Siberian Odessy is over. No more train travel for us and we are happy and sad about that. We caught our last train into St Petersburg yesterday. So far our travels in Russia (although short) have revealed a number of things that are alive and well:

- the 80's (love the mullets, keep up the good work team!)
- bad music, may be linked to previous point (heard I Should Be So Lucky on the train the other night - Stephen Winkley requested it)
- huge women
- blokes called Sergei
- unfriendly beauracracy

And we love it!! The accents rock. One point I forgot to mention in our last email is our new found fascination for organised crime - we have watched way too many movies. After our Mission Impossible effort to register our visas we have been very suspicious of. . .well, everything. This was fuelled and encouraged by our Aussie buddy Ben who was also loving it. It got to the point that on returning from dinner with hostel buddies in Irkutsk the three of us lingered in the car park to check out a supicious looking mound - completely convinced it was a body. Too funny, we swore never to speak of the incident again. It wasn't a body by the way.

So our travels through average Siberian cities turned into a finely tuned routine:

- arrive looking like we have gone a few rounds with Kostya Tzyu (spelling??)
- catch a random trolley bus
- get off at a random stop
- check in - sleep
- try and find vegetables to eat
- go to bed
- get up
- look for vegetables (pizza is a vegetable right?)
- catch the train

When we arrived in Novosibirsk we checked into basement hotel with themed rooms. Should have read the warning signs, clearly it was a brothel but we were very happy in our refurbished Egyptian themed room. The spa was pretty fabulous too but of course we couldn't afford it!! We headed into town very hungry and discovered what was soon to be our best friend - Grill Master. Bad Russian fast food chain with really crappy food. We ate very little and then headed off to find sustenance of a liquid variety - this was the beginning of the end! As is the way in the middle of Siberia our location of choice was an Irish Bar with the optional extra of a basement karaoke joint called the Hammer and Sickle. Perfect! The next thing I know I am singing an Elvis song (Bec, you would have been proud!) with my new Russian best friend. It was a slow deterioration but a complete one - we didn't stagger back to the brothel until 1 or 2 am. No disgraceful night is complete without the corresponding hangover - we both had rippers. Travelling reached new lows that morning. We went into a supermarket and bought some bread and coke to save ourselves whilst on our way to Grill Master! We staggered down the street in the pouring icy rain (without rain coats) with cokes and food in hand. It was a pitiful sight. I am surprised that people didn't give us money!!

Main Square - Novosibirsk

Next stop was Yekateringberg - not much to say about this town except that we stayed in a dreadful hotel without showers and shared our floor with the Russian Basketball Team. Really tall dudes . . . that is the best I can do right now!!

Church of the Blood - Yekateringberg

May Day Rally - Yekateringberg

Needless to say we were absolutely stoked to be on the train to Moscow!! We shared our compartment with two Russian fellas who both had moustaches. . .cool. They turned out to be very nice and they shared their fabulous food and vodka with us, bless them. One of them was wearing a leather vest (big fan!) and when he got changed into his tracksuit pants and t-shirt on went the leather vest over the top. We have photos!!!!! Anyway, they were so lovely and they even gave us a large snow globe of Moscow which plays music. We love snow globes . . .

Sasha and Alex on the way to Moscow

Moscow was fantastic, amazing, striking, beautiful, big. We stayed in a pretty good hostel that came with its own kitten!! We met some very cool people there and had a few great nights just sitting around chatting. One of the best things we did while we were there was a tour of the metro stations. They are amazing but we felt like big train watching nerds. However, for $1 AUD each, it is the cheapest fun to be had in Moscow. The stations were like Museums and double as air raid shelters - handy to know. We have put some photos on the blog so you don't think we are absolutely crazy - it really was great.

Scenes of Metro in Moscow

Of course we went to Red Square, the Kremlin and so forth. All were really fantastic, just wandering around the city was great.

St Basils

Adam in Red square

Our second last day in Moscow we tried to get tickets to the Ice Hockey World Champs - too expensive so we went and sulked and watched it in a bar. We met some very cool Russians who started buying us drinks - I think we all know what happened after that. One of them was the Deputy Editor of a big Russian newspaper (The Kommersant) and seemed to have a bit of money to throw around. We ended up going back to his place for more drinks (as if we needed it) and continued the party. Shortly after we got there he pulled out a big black case and with some reverence showed us the contents. A 25 year old, 25th year anniversay, signature Fender electric guitar.

Yes, we all played it... yes it was very cool.

The night ended with Adam and I eating chips and Mars Bars in a gutter somewhere in Moscow. Awesome . . . .

The next day, we had to catch the train to St Petersburg. After the initial panic of having lost our tickets (not permanently - we found them) we also realised that we had lost our Trans Siberian Lonely Planet in the festivities of the night before. We still had passports, cameras etc - lucky. Anyway, we finally arrived in St P. It is really beautiful and we are staying in a cool hostel. More to follow on our adventures here - we have another week to go!

The Bronze Horseman

Adam on The Neva - St Petersburg

Thank you for the emails, they are great. Will send some more emails over the next few days!

Love Meaghan and Adam (The Trans Siberian Veterans - TSVs)

PS - We didn't find a Juke Box - does karaoke count?

Sdrasvuyte Comrades (bloody hell this language is tough!),

Again, it feels like so many things have happened since we emailed last. Our last couple of days in Mongolia were great. We returned from our Gobi trip so excited and on a big high with another seven days to kill. We finally managed to go to Dave's Place which is a popular watering hole for expats, locals and travellers. We caught up with Tim (Stephen's cousin) and had a disgracefully huge night. Dave played host a bit too well and there were plenty of free beers and people to chat to. If you find yourself in the capital, get down to Dave's Place - it is easy to find, introduce yourself to Dave and have a great night in. Thanks Dave, thanks Tim. We met a lot of English teachers which reignited our job hunt a little. . are we too lazy to find jobs? Maybe. . . .

Anyway, we finished at Dave's at about 2am (hostel curfew was 12. . oops). I was not wearing a watch so could not be held responsible under any circumstances. To get back we had to climb a fence and then wake up some poor guy to let us in. Very shameful . . but not as bad as the hangovers!! We were meant to head to Terelj National Park that day but we had to postpone. Anyway, when we finally did get to Terelj it was worth the effort. It is pretty touristy because of its proximity to Ulaan Baatar but very beautiful. We camped (yep, bloody freezing, complete madness, got snowed on, loved it) and went horseriding on very angry Mongolian horses. Great fun and beautiful scenery. Tips for young players - don't camp on frozen ground. It is bad for tent pegs and it is quite chilly.

Terelj Campsite

Visitors at Terelj

Horse Riding

Cold morning

Megs at Terelj

Our feet

We returned to UB spent one more night mentally preparing ourselves for two nights on the train and a ridiculously long border crossing. It all turned out well - the train was not full and we had a cabin to ourselves. Of course this turned into the foreigners party cabin but that was ok. We did get told to stop drinking vodka by one of the scary officials, luckily by that stage we had already polished off the bottle so it was of no consequence.

The border crossing was an epic though. We arrived at the border at about 4 in the morning. Nothing happened. . .at all. . .for six hours. . .we just stayed in bed. At about 10am we did 3 minutes of standard paperwork and left. Then we chugged along for 40 minutes . . .and then stopped for another 5 hours. This is where thousands of women in uniform (scary women in uniform!!) searched all of the train for smuggled goods. Difficult to find though, because those smuggling just redistribute their stores so they don't pay any duty or taxes. Just before the check they were madly rushing around stashing vodka, sandals, fresh produce and everything else you can imagine in other cabins, in the rubbish bin, in the toilets, everywhere. It was hilarious. Adam smuggled some sandals, the evil international man of smuggling mystery. After the search we could get off the train (which was mysteriously only two carriages - we still don't know where the other carriages went!). Our train was joined to two carriages of a prison train - cool. . .we were thinking it might pan out like ConAir or the more popular title "Con Train". Nothing happened.

We arrived in Irkutsk two days later very excited to be in Russia - it was so very different to Mongolia the minute we crossed the border which was great. We felt like we were in Mission Impossible or a James Bond movie . . this is why:

We met our host, Jack, at the train station. He said 'I am Jack, velcome to Siberia. Ve catch the tram'. Then he ignored us on the tram and we thought cool, we are under cover. When we arrived at the poorly signposted pink door of the hostel he said 'You must find Olga. She is at the Angara Hotel. You must see her in the morning. I don't know vat she does. You must pay 200 roubles. Good luck.'

We found Olga, paid her 200 roubles. . .and got our visas registered. Then our message self destructed.

Ok, there are some editorial embellishments in there but that is pretty much how it went. How cool is Russia??

We spent one night in Irkutsk and then headed out to Lake Baikal for two days. It is a beautiful part of the world and it was very exciting to see all of that ice!! As Australians we spent most of our time just looking at the ice, then looking a bit more. After a couple of false starts with the local tourist information agency, we found a winner. We stayed in a really cool little cabin owned by Vasili, who was a cool old Russian bloke who spoke no English. We did some walking and relaxing and took heaps of photos of you guessed it . . .the ice!

Vasili's Place

Lake Baikal

Approaching Storm at Listvyanka - Lake Baikal

Sunshine - same day

Crow on frozen Lake Baikal

Sunset Lake Baikal

We returned to Irkutsk a little tired and maybe a bit hungover (only a little bit) and were thinking that a good sleep would be ideal. But we got talking to a fabulous Aussie fella called Ben who suggested we head out for something to eat. . . .and drink. Next thing we know we are drinking with a couple of locals Vadim and Sergei (Sergei was the dark silent mafia type) and had polished off three quick beers before we knew it. Cured the hangovers that's for sure. Strange place these markets. . .the first time we went there a drunk old bloke stood next to me and after a few suggestive glances and a pat or two on the arm, emptied out his pockets of some serious (but not enough!!) cash hoping to rent or purchase. We moved on pretty quickly.

So ends our Irkutsk adventure. We are heading to Krasnoyarsk, home of Russia's satellite fleet (Adam is a nerd), and a place that Ben informed us is the arse end of the world. Excellent, the time should fly!!!

Greetings Brothers and Sisters (very communist greeting - we love a bit of communism!!)

We have been in China for over a week now and seriously, South East Asia feels like years ago. Everything is so very different including the weather which I believe we have already mentioned once or twice before.

We spent a lovely two days in Yangshuo. It is a haven that feels a little purpose built for backpackers but it was beautiful albeit freezing! We hired bikes and headed out of the city for a day. The scenery was amazing and the road was reasonably challenging - well for me anyway, I don`t have a great track record on bikes!! It was rocky and muddy and potholed which was hilarious. At least our bikes had brakes which turned out to be essential. We reluctantly left Yangshuo to head to the Yangtze River.

When you travel in China we believe it is a rite of passage to do two overnight trains in a row. We caught a bus from Yangshuo to Guilin and then an overnight train to Guiyang. There a few different classes of travel. Apart from the sitting and standing tickets there are soft and hard sleepers. The soft sleepers are in enclosed cabins of four. The hard sleepers are in open compartments of six. Because there were no hard sleepers available we had to rough it in the soft sleepers. It turned out that we had the whole cabin to ourselves . . . And we still couldn`t sleep . . . Go figure!!!

We arrived in Guiyang absolutely exhausted and not ready for the scenes that awaited us. The train station was packed with people waiting in what looked too be random queues. We needed to buy tickets for the next leg but had no idea where to start. We checked our bags into a nice hotel - pity we didn`t check in with them - and went to brave the crowds. It was like a refugee camp quite seriously. We were very freaked out.

After looking useless for quite a while we asked a policemen who then tracked down a dude for us who then proceeded to make us do a queue jump of mammoth proportions. He dragged us past about 200 people and booked us hard sleepers for that night. Nice one . . . . . . We then had about 12 hours to kill in Guiyang which nearly killed us. We spent the whole day trying to find somewhere to sit down and everyone else spent their whole day staring at us. The word for foreigner is Laowai (sounds like Cow Eye). Everyone just yells it out and then points at us. We are going to get T-shirts made up saying I`m with the Laowai. Or Yes, I`m a Laowai, tell your friends!! It started to wear really thin when we were trying to sleep on the train and would wake up intermittently with three of four people just watching us. That`s right team, Laowai`s sleep as well, who would`ve thought? Adam has started yelling to me `Hey look, it`s a Chinese person!`. Because no-one speaks English we feel like we are constantly in the cone of silence. I have embraced this concept more readily than Adam and I say what I like when I like. It is great but will catch us out if we happen to accidently stumble upon an Eyez. Eyez`s are the nickname we have given to Earnest Young English Speakers. Tim Moore (an Australian travel writer) came up with the description and says that they are like Born Again Christians but worship English instead of Jesus. He was so right . . They are always neat, young, well dressed individuals who are incredibly helpful. We met one Eyez called Johanna who actually travelled on the bus with us and walked us to the railway station. We were the first Laowai`s she had ever spoken to.

Anyway, we arrived in Chongqing with a few hours of watched sleep under our belts but in desperate need of showers and beds nonetheless. We arrived in the centre of town looking for somewhere to stay and with taxi drivers stalking us. We had four on the go at one stage and they were nearly running in to each other. So funny. Anyway, the short version of the story is that we found somewhere to stay, tried to find the port to book boat tickets, got hopelessly lost, walked about 10km, found the port, ended up booking tickets through our hotel because it was cheaper, and then finally got a few hours sleep. We headed out for dinner and found a fabulous restaurant with awesome food that only cost us under $2 for both of us too eat. Tried to find a bar but the bar culture that we are looking for is seriously lacking in China.

Anyway, we are hitting the boat tonight and will be on it for three nights arriving in Yi Chang on the 15th. From there we are going to catch another overnight train to Shanghai. Should be a grand adventure for these Laowais!!!

Isn`t It Ironic, Don`t You Think?

Ni Hao Friends, (that is hello in Chinese)

Yep, last email it was all about aircon of the cold variety. It is like the weather gods said `If they want airconditioning we`ll give it to them`. And we got it in bucketloads . . . . of the natural variety. South East China decided to have a cold snap and I can personally vouch for the truth in the weather reports at the moment. It is bloody freezing!!! Does the heating in the room work? Excellent, we`ll take it.

So, we arrived without incident into the land of `Made In`. Everthing is made in China apparently. Point to note, there are Chinese restaurants everywhere and asking where China Town is, is highly unnecessary. We took the slow boat as well . . .

Our last few days in Vietnam were interesting to say the least. Our last bus trip from Hue to Hanoi was again very average. Do not travel with An Phu under any circumstances! The other companies may be just as bad but at least they won`t be worse. We arrived in Hanoi and found what we thought to be a good hotel right in the middle of the old quarter. We then got thrown out of the hotel because we failed to book a to book a tour through them. It was heated, aggressive and very threatening. Another strong recommendation - do not stay at Hanoi Spirit Hotel. We did end up meeting a really nice couple from England though who were also thrown out - we will definitely catch up with them when we get to Europe. We did a trip up to Ha Long Bay which was amazing. The scenery was beautiful even though the weather wasn`t great. Rob, we are chasing up your theory on the naming of Ha Long Bay - we will get back to you!! We really didn`t have enough time in Hanoi, it was a lovely city. Next time perhaps. . . . .

The border crossing into China was uneventful. We sort of followed two older Singaporean men - they were like Waldorf and Staedtler out of the muppets. Hilarious. Waldorf was wearing the most wicked pair of polyester flairs I have seen this side of an Op Shop. They both spoke Mandarin which is pretty handy in China. We were going to share a taxi with them to Nanning but it was too expensive for us. We caught a motorbikey thingamy and then a semi uncomfortable, crowded train. On the train we had a lovely conversation with a Chinese couple. No idea what they said (and vice versa I suspect) but it was a very pleasant exchange nonetheless. We arrived in Nanning quite exhausted. The city was huge, clean and very busy. It was also very cold. . . .I am starting to freak out about Siberia. . . . .

Buying a train ticket to Guilin was hilarious. There are no English signs and everything is very confusing in the train stations. The Lonely Planet proved its worth as we tried to translate the Chinese characters.

`OK, we are looking for a guy with a Christmas tree and two ladies dancing`

`Got it!! Train N804`

We bought our tickets and then ate good two minute noodles for dinner (made in China of course). As we headed to the train the next day we managed to answer the age old question -

What happens if you get to the end of the escalator and there is no room to get off?

A fifty person pile up of course! Hilarious but I don`t wish to repeat the experience. As soon as my ankle gets better it will be back the stairs for us! We managed to get to Guilin and then onto Yangshuo which is a really beautiful place.

Megs in Yangshuo

It is surrounded by very high limestone peaks and is bloody cold. We have a couple more days in Yangshuo and then we are heading to the Yangtze River. It will probably take us a few days to get there. We continue to leave our travels in the hands of the travel gods or up to dumb luck or as the Chinese say -

`Like a hunter waiting for rabbit to kill itself by running into a tree.`

That is only four Chinese characters. Who would have thought??? It is currently our favourite saying.

So far China has been fantastic and vastly different to countries in South East Asia. The food has been great and there are hardly any tourists anywhere. People just openly stare at us - I like to think it is because we are incredibly beautiful but I suspect it is because we are funny looking as well as being giants.

Anyway, that is all from the coldest place in the world.

We are in Kanchanaburi and have been for a couple of days. It is a small country version of Bangkok (kind of like Target Country) but it has been very interesting. We went to the Allied War Cemetary and Death Railway Museum - both of which were incredibly well kept and very interesting. We were quite moved by both experiences which was only topped by the Bridge on the River Kwai and Hellfire Pass today. What can I say? Awesome . . .

We are staying in a guesthouse called Jolly Frog, it probably has a web site - it is really good value and really nice. Apparently it is very close to at least 2 ATMs as well. Unfortunately not spotted by one member of the team when he went to get money. Adam says - "which is just as well, so I don't have to make the 40 minute round trip into town (again)".

Todays trip up to Hellfire pass was a true adventure - we stumbled around town for about an hour trying to work out how to catch the (local) bus. We gave up and asked our newest best friend at the iced coffee shop to do it for us. We had the whole street vendor crew on the corner in our corner (ha ha) helping us flag down a bus. Worth it - only $5 for the 4 hour round trip for both of us.

Keep thinking that we have a pool at the guesthouse but it is only old men walking around in speedos . . .not a pool to be seen. It is a constant source of disappointment, it is really hot here!!

We are off back to Bangkok tomorrow morning, then later on tomorrow afternoon we are overnighting on the train to Chiang Mai. We are there for 5 days then back to Bangkok.