Day 36 - Xi'an

27.08.09

Another visit to the Muslim Quarter and a walk around the Great Mosque. It's an interesting mix of Islamic and Chinese architecture and art and is set out like a Chinese temple, but with an Islamic prayer hall and spires decorated using pagoda style architecture.

I get chatting to a shop keeper outside who at first I think is just trying to sell me something, but it turns out he thought I was Muslim and just wanted to chat. It happens a second time round in the evening and a guy I buy some food from is convinced I am Muslim, after he probes and finds out I went to an Islamic school for a year, he latches on and keeps asking.

At night time the Quarter transforms into a circus of people selling food, artists offering to draw your portrait, people selling kites and other entrepreneurs wanting to cash in on tourist money. The kites are amazing, consisting of many small kites tied to one another in a long string, they must stretch at least 100m into the sky and you could buy 5m sections for around 50p. The best example of money making were the guys with full on telescopes mounted onto the back of motorcycles, who for just under a pound will let you look into the sky at the moon or Jupiter. When I say telescope I don't mean a small hand held thing, but massive white industrial telescopes that have supporting frames and are turned using wheels and gears. I'm not sure how good it is for the optics, being driven around on the back of a motorcycle and being bashed around going up curbs over bumps and I'm sure if any astronomer saw it, they would have a heart attack.

Day 35 - Xi'an

26.08.09

With man flu in tow, I have an activity rate of about -5 for the morning and so do practically nothing, the afternoon however is very interesting. Me and Jenny decide to take a walk around the Muslim Quarter in Xian, which just breaks all stereotypical images you have of religions and how people should look. Compared to the other markets in China it's selling so many different things and is like a toned down version of the market in Marakech, really bizarre for the middle of a massive Chinese city. The women wear hijabs and burkas and the men head caps, with their clothes having a distinctive Arab flair. There is Arabic calligraphy as opposed to Chinese characters on the shops and around the quarter and occasionally people will talk in Arabic.
A walk around the city walls and the parkland that surrounds it, has us land in a traditional Chinese dance performance and singing, which is 'interesting'. Also in the park are the communal exercise bikes and machines which seem to feature in much of China. It's such a good idea and there is the usual collection the older Chinese generation on the machines doing their afternoon routines. We really should adopt this idea in the UK.

Jenny also solves the conundrum of how so many Chinese people can afford to go to the tourist sites today. She says that there is only a small percentage of people in China who are actually rich and can afford to spend money on cameras and gadgets and travel around, while the majority of the country is extremely poor. This very small percentage is smaller than in other countries, but when you have 1.3 billion people it equates to around 97 million people, more than the whole population of the UK, who have enough money to buy what they want, travel around the country and support a huge (and expensive, even by UK standards) domestic tourism industry.

That solves that one then.

Day 34 - Xi'an

25.08.09

Getting off the train at Xi'an feels like breaking out of prison. The station is just outside the north city walls and I decide to walk to the hostel which is at the south gate, once again the Lonely Planet map is way off and an hour and a half later I rock up at Shuyuan Hostel. It's set over three lovely courtyards with a cafe at the back courtyard and a lively bar in the basement underneath it all. It is a lovely place and I'm glad I'm booked in for 5 nights as it will give me time to get over my cold and see the surrounding sights.

After I check in, they tell me my bed isn't ready yet, so give me a free coffee voucher and let me store my luggage, after my first coffee in a month I decide to get the terracotta warriors done as it's still early and make my way to the site about an hour out of town. It's blistering heat and the sun has decided to just be offensive, so the air conditioned air craft hangers the warrior pits are set in are a god send. It's a massive complex and is really impressive, especially inspecting some of the warriors up close and seeing the details on the life size models. I decided to take an audio guide to get some more information, in the pits it's quite interesting, but in the exhibition halls the masses of Chinese tour groups push past you and you can't see anything, also the audio guide gets a bit boring here. I am determined to listen to all 74 tracks, which means I end up sitting down on a bench for about 20 mins just playing them one after the other. I didn't actually listen to them and day dreamed for most of it, but I had to get my monies worth.

Once back at the hostel I crash in a pile of exhaustion through illness, and the sun's barrage of burning rays. I later meet my room mates, Jenny from Germany, Javier from Chile and Alex from the UK who lived in Hong Kong, it's an eclectic bunch and we ending up discussing life, the universe and the Chinese until about 3.30 in the morning.

Day 33 - Pingyao

24.08.09

I really have nothing to do today, I've seen the sights and walked around the walls, been outside the city gates and explored and now am just killing time until my train leaves at 11pm. The only option is to sit back outside the hostel and attempt to learn some more Chinese with my Mandarin recordings and bask in the sun. When that gets boring I break out the Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, which was given to me in Novosibirsk by Sasha. I guess she
knew I would need it at some point.

I'm starting to feel a bit ill today and my throat hurts and I think I have a cold coming along, which is seriously bad timing considering I have an eight hour hard seat journey ahead. It's nothing more than a small cold, but when you're perched on an uncomfortable, reasonably hard seat designed to hold 3, with 4 people on it; the gangways packed with people standing; no air conditioning; it smells and people spit and throw their rubbish onto the floor. It turns out to be a horrific journey and I get about 2 hours intermittent sleep, hugging my rucksack trying to use it as a pillow.
Chinese hard seat trains are definitely for day journeys and not long night ones, but when there are no tickets left it becomes the only option (although it is considerably cheaper, for a reason).

Day 31 - Pingyao

22.08.09

Dodging the onslaught of taxi drivers at the station who literally stalk me as I cannot possibly walk for some reason, I trek around the town's intact 600+ year old outer walls and in the north gate in search of my hostel. It is like walking through some kind of time warp as you enter the town, the buildings all look original and the streets are cobbled and narrow. I can see why it is a Unesco World Heritage Site, the town is really beautiful and to top it off my hostel is located right in the middle of town in a Ming dynasty courtyard house.
Once I've checked in I take a walk around the town and as it approaches 9am, the town starts to pack out with Chinese tour groups and weird electric large scale golf carts. You aren't allowed 'engined' vehicles inside the town, so electric buggies are used instead of taxis or coaches to ferry all the tourists and tour groups around.

My first foray into the world of Chinese hostels and I'm sharing my 3 bed room with one guy called Marcus who is from Italy. He's got some good stories about the places he's been and gives me some tips about where to visit, but says the best place in Asia is North Korea. It's hard to go and costs a bomb to get into, but he says it is an amazing and a fascinating place and makes everywhere else seem boring.

Today I am again stunned by the domestic tourism market and how many people there are in Pingyao on tour groups. Where do they all come from and how can they afford to all go on these expensive tours.

Day 32 - Pingyao

23.08.09

Another day in Pingyao and I'm sure I've already done most of the sights. I get chatting to two people from the hostel, Graham from Newcastle and Kieron from Cork in Ireland. Kieron is in his 40s, but every year since his mid twenties, heads off for a few of months and travels around a different region of the world, then comes back and finds some work so he can make some money to do it all over again. Graham is the same age as me, but didn't finish Uni and then worked for a year before motorbiking it around Europe and camping for several months.

I get chatting to Graham, who tells me that China's death penalty rate is higher than the rest of the world combined and it's normally carried out by local official, using a gun to the back of the head. They are now Implementing 'Death Vans' that will come to your house and do it by lethal injection as it is easier, less traumatic for the official and guarantees a clean 'result'. Also there are apparently forced labour camps which anyone can be sent to, including tourists.
In near enough the same conversation a man who works at the hostel talks about how China is extremely poor and all we see is the tourist side, we will never be allowed to see or go to the the real rural China, away from the cities or tourist areas. It's an interesting conversation and he says that Chinese people might not appear poor as they spend their money on making themselves look comfortable and image is very important. He contrasts it with India, where he says it is more spiritual and people care about within, rather than their external appearance. He says that there has been violence and protests due to the inequality between the rich and the poor and that the government are trying to build temples and increase the spiritual focus of the nation to try and calm people down.
It turns out to be a very interesting few hours and it's quite rare to get people talking about the political state of the country, especially with any kind of negative view. China is definitely not all rosy.

Day 30 - Datong

21.08.09

The Yungang Caves is today's task and it all starts off with a round trip on the bus much like my first Vladivostock adventure. Apparently the bus everyone told me to catch isn't running for some reason, so I have to catch a number 4 and then change for 3-1. I obviously have no idea where to get off and change, but charge on into the journey blind. 45 mins later and I'm back at the train station and asking people again, all of whom tell me to jump on the 4 and change onto the 3-1. The second time round I stand right next to the driver and bother him every few minutes so he doesn't forget me. He eventually tells me where to get off and change to jump on the 3-1 and I end up arriving at the entrance to the caves at about midday.

The Yungang caves are a series of Buddhist caves carved straight out of the cliff face and when you see a 17m high Buddha statue sitting in a cave that's all be carved out of the cliff face over 1500 years ago, it's phenomenal. In contrast I also take a more extensive walk around Datong when I get back and come to the conclusion that it's a bit of a rough city. I jump on my hard sleeper at night and totally paranoid that I will my miss my stop at 6am I wake up ritually every 20 minutes and freak out. Although there was no need as the attendant wakes you up when you get to your stop anyway.

Day 29 - Beijing & Datong

20.08.09

It's hard seat time! On Chinese trains, you essentially have 5 modes of travel, soft sleeper, hard sleeper, soft seat, hard seat and standing. I asked for the cheapest fare to get Datong and she wouldn't sell me standing, so I got a hard seat. I'm at the station nearly two hours early, to make sure I have no chance of missing my train and join a mass of people already waiting. As time ticks on more people arrive and they start queuing to get on the platform about an hour before the train is even leaving, I join in as I've got nothing else to do. The queue gradually turns from a line into a general mass all facing the same direction and then a general free for all once it's a few mins to go, with people pushing to get closer and what was a 50m or so reasonably ordered huddle, immediately condensed into around 15m of concentrated super eager Chinese travelers. When the gates finally open it's just pure chaos, but because I'm roughly 6ft1 which puts me at about 5ft1 taller than everyone else I join right in and make my way to the platform in good time.

Once on the train I get talking to a Chinese school student called Danny who was in Beijing studying English. She's 16, lives in Datong, her name is blatantly not Danny, but everyone seems to have a Chinese name. It's funny how everyone wants to speak to a foreigner to practice their English and when we get to Datong, she insists on helping my buy my next train ticket and then shows me around the city centre, introduces me to her family and gives me some food and tells me how to get to the Buddhist Caves tomorrow. Once again another show of brilliant Chinese friendliness and hospitality and in return all that she asks is that I speak to her and help her improve her English.

Day 28 - Beijing

19.08.09

I occupy my self with the truly epic task of wandering around the forbidden city today. It's absolutely epic and is literally like a small town enclosed in the walls. It's just under a kilometre long and over 700m wide and takes ages to fully explore. I think I hit every room, but it was at a fair pace and I started at 9am. As with everywhere else it was rammed to the brim with Chinese tour groups, I can't work how all these Chinese tourists can afford the entry fees to the sights and the guide fees. It's roughly £6 to get in, which doesn't sound like much, but considering you can get a good meal for about 80p it's an awful lot. The palace has some amazing history behind it and some of the exhibitions are fascinating, especially the one surrounding the last Emperor. He was not allowed to live in most of the palace after the Qing Dynasty was overthrown and then he abdicated, ended up being a Japanese puppet emperor during the war, and ended life married to a nurse and working in the botanical gardens in Beijing.

After the miles of walking around the Forbidden City, I decide more walking is what I need and walk through one of Beijing's main shopping drags. Live scorpions impaled on skewers ready to be grilled or deep fried, massive shopping malls with escalators spanning six floors, chic fashion boutiques, Chinese models in extravagant bridal dresses posing outside Beijing's premier church for photo shoots, it's all part of the scenery.

Day 27 - Beijing

18.08.09

Back to the embassy district early today to pick up my visa, which cost 550Yuan for next day service. It's about £50 which is a bargain, considering I paid over a hundred for my Chinese one to get a three day turnaround. I take a walk to the local embassy park and just as I thought, it was full of people using the exercise machines again, fantastic! There also seems to be an abundance of cafes around all serving coffee and western style cakes, definitely a by product of the embassies.

I get spiritual in the afternoon and visit the Lama temple, which one of the largest Buddhist temples outside of Tibet. It's a massive temple and has a huge Guinness Book of World Records Buddha carved out of a single epic sandalwood tree. The whole complex is full of incense sticks, people praying and the usual mass of tourists. Just down the road is the Confucian Temple and the Imperial College which is one of China's and so civilization's oldest universities/colleges/teaching institutions. China is definitely not short of world famous or
important sights.

Day 26 - Beijing

17.08.09

It's Beijing embassy district time, which also turns out to be the Russian quarter of the city and most shop signs are also in Russian, which is weird.
I need to go to the Vietnamese embassy to get a visa. It's like a small village and every embassy is protected by a Chinese soldier standing to attention at the gates, with more soldiers in groups patrolling around all marching in time with each other. Some embassies are ridiculous: the Thai one looks like a country club; the American like a fortress with extra fencing, walls and a massive satellite dish; although the best of all has to be the British, which just resembles some kind of colonial style country house and looks so stereotypically empirish it's amazing.

I venture to Beijing Xie station to get my onward travel tickets, it's the biggest station in Beijing and I am seriously impressed. It is like a small airport and makes all the other stations seem miniature.
After getting my onward ticket to Datong, which was £3 for a 7 hour train journey (BARGAIN), I explore the narrow alleyways and parks around the station. What's amazing are the daily exercise routines that people do. They walk backwards, clap their hands while walking, swing off trees and use the communal exercise equipment provided in the parks, and the people are all over 60 and still keeping very active. Inspired by the sight of exercise I take a late night trip to the Olympic Park. All that needs to be said is we don't have a hope in hell, it's phenomenal.

Day 25 - Beijing

16.08.09

Living it up like Chinese royalty in the Summer Palace is on the agenda today. I'm following Xiao's instructions and on the number 10 bus, which is a double decked air conditioned affair. Waking up at the crack of dawn I make it to the Palace at about 8.45 and considering the doors open at 8.30, it should be quite quiet. However this is not the case and over the next two hours it goes from being quite busy to absolutely rammed.
It's an amazing place to walk around and the grounds are ridiculously big, the Emperors and Empresses really did live it up back in the day. The only downside is that like most of Beijing there seems to be a low level mist/fog that has engulfed everything and puts visibility down to around 150-200m, after that you can't see a thing. I'm not sure if it is weather based or a by product of the endless building work, cars, factories and general pollution. For the sake of my lungs, I'm hoping it's just the weather.

Xiao and Yu leave today to go back to Shanhaiguan, so I meet up with them to see them off and yet again I'm in amazement at people's generosity and kind hearted spirit. Learning from my mistakes, I book into a hostel in both Xi'an and and Pingyao, so I definitely have places to stay when I arrive. I'm also amazed to find out that online you can get some ridiculous deals and I
basically pay about £1.80 for two nights in a hostel in Pingyao and £15 for five nights in Xi'an, wonderfully cheap. I've come to the conclusion, that if you don't visit the expensive tourist sites, then you can easily live for around £10-12 a day, including money to travel between the cities every couple of days.

Day 24 - Beijing

15.08.09

7.30am is the wake up time for today's tasks. A breakfast with Xiao's girlfriend in the University canteen and we meet a partner in the tour company who picks us up in his minibus. We pick up Yu, a representative from another tour company and drive to the Great Wall section at Mutianyu, about an hour away.

When we arrive we are bought some food by the rep and then head straight on up in a cable car, so far we have avoided paying the entrance charge and the cable car charge. It turns out that the rep is from a company that run's the cable car and maintains that section of the wall and Xiao's company are starting up a similar operation at the wall in Shanhaiguan, it's basically a research day into how it is run at Mutianyu.

While they talk business, Yu and I take a walk up to the top of the wall which consists of walking the wall up a mountain and by the end of it we are both knackered. So what better way to recover than a free res

taurant lunch provided by the Mutianyu wall company. After lunch we all meet the head honcho for the Mutianyu company and he gives me his card and says if I'm ever at the wall and people ask me to pay entrance, just show them the card. Next we head to an ancient unrestored section of the wall which is in a beautiful valley and the scenery is fascinating.

To end the day we head back into town and pick up Xiao's girlfriend and then the partner in Xiao's company takes us all to a massive dinner in this huge buffet style Chinese restaurant. I end up eating all kinds of things including chicken feet, grubs and locusts along with fragrant roasted duck, sushi and steak.

I really can't get over how nice they have all been to me and I haven't paid for a thing all day; they say I am their guest and Xiao now calls me a good friend and I am like

a brother to him.

Day 23 - Shenyang, Shanhaiguan, Beijing

14.08.09

Travels to an ancient walled city are on the cards today where I can visit the start of the Great Wall and see the only stretch where it was built over water. The town of Shanhaiguan is an old walled settlement between Shenyang and Beijing, may D class (which I think stands for 'Damn!' as it's so fast and plush) train arrives there in two air conditioned hours.

Today has to be the hottest day so far and I take a walk through the town walls and up it's main street in search for my hotel. I am immediately pestered by a guy who is trying to get me to stay in his hotel, at this point in time I wish I knew some more aggressive Chinese.

I finally arrive at the point where this guest house should be only to find out it has been bought out by a tour company and is now their headquarters. One guy essentially tells me to leave, but a young man called Li Xiao Yong comes and talks to me. He knows enough English to communicate and walks around town looking for a cheap hotel, but unfortunately all the rooms are booked out. We then drive around the town to the hotels that the tour company has links with, the aim is use their weight to get me a cheap room in what seems like all 4 star hotels, but every one turns out negative.

I mention that if I can't find anything I will just go to Beijing that night and forget about Shanhaiguan, it turns out Xiao and his friend Yu Jie are going to Beijing that night as well and the deal is sealed.

They introduce me to other people who work for the company and feed me and give me water, their hospitality is phenomenal. On the train there are only standing tickets left, so we buy dinner and sit in the restaurant car for the six hour journey.

When we arrive in Beijing Yu goes to his grandmas and me and Xiao head up to the University where his girlfriend has managed to find me a cheap room in University accommodation. It's about £11 a night, right next to a Subway station and I get my own double bed, so not too bad.

I go to bed feeling inspired by their kindness and how they can be so hospitable to an absolute stranger.

Day 22 - Shenyang

13.08.09

The Ming Tombs, the north park and another half marathon of walking await me on this fine Thursday. I catch the bus up to the tombs and it's my first local public transport excursion in China and being able to match the Chinese characters in the guide book with ones at the bus station and then jump on the correct bus fills me an overwhelming sense of joy.

It's amazing how the simple tasks become challenge mountains when you have no means of communication and can't even read the language.

The tombs turn out to be well worth the journey and the

park around them is beautiful, it's full of lakes, rivers, wooded ar

eas, quaint bridges, and pavilions. Old men swim in the lakes and in the roasting heat it looks so inviting, although I know if I so much as touched the green water I would instantly fall ill to some terrible disease.

People are practising Kung Fu and Tai Chi in clearings in the trees while more old men sit around and play cards or mahjong using stone plinths as table tops.

Come night time I take a bus to the South Train Station and tour it's shopping area, which is even more built up and glitzy than Harbin, it's actually quite ridiculous. I also buy some much needed fruit as my diet as consisted solely of fried street food so far, although it's tasty and the ingredients them selves are probably ok, the abundance of oil in the cooking methods can't be doing me any good.

Gorged out on fresh pineapple slices I walk back home and decide that from now on I need to curb the walking as my feet are absolutely aching.

Day 21 - Harbin, Shenyang

12.08.09

Today is my second inter city journey in China and I am off to a place called Shenyang. Again I leave plenty of time to get to the bus station and leave feeling fresh and ready for the journey. I walked from the station on the first day and walked back there to get my tickets, so I figure I can do the same again an

d decide to walk to the station.

Taking the same route as I did before I of course get lost, walk around in circles and end up further away from the station then when I started. I end up taking a taxi, arrive at the bus station as my bus is getting ready to leave and throw all my bags in the hold, which leaves me with a six hour journey with nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs and watch the latest Rambo film dubbe

d over in Chinese on the buses TV screens.

Shenyang turns out to be another massive city with some ingenious architecture around the bus station. I walk for about an hour to get to my hostel and check into a single room for £10 a night, my first choice cheap dorm room was unavailable. I decide to nail a few sights in the afternoo

n and hit the Imperial Palace, which is a small scale Forbidden City and is the second best example of it's type in the country.

I also take a walk to the train station to get my onward train tickets to Shanhaiguan.

I manage to pick them up pretty effortlessly and the queues are a lot less than they were in Harbin.

Day 20 - Harbin

11.08.09

My first full day in a major Chinese City and it is a full on Chinese city experience. Harbin has about 5 million people, busy shopping streets, a train station that is the size of an oil tanker and a Wal Mart right in the middle.

On the main shopping street there are the usual sports sh

ops of Nike and Puma, along with the up market designers like Armani, it's all glitz and glamour and come evening everything lights up in a sea of neon and super large LED screens playing advertisements.

It's like a Chinese version of Times Square or Picadilly Circus. However, if you take a walk a 100m or so behind the main main shops you hit another side to the city. Narrow alleyways and small, dark, unglitzy shops. The disparity between the two sides of the Chinese economy coin is amazing, on one side you have high class fashion boutiques,

massive displays of wealth and wide imposing streets; while on the other there are small basic shack shops, people living well below the poverty line, narrow alleyways and battered roads.

Today I also get my bus ticket to take me to Shenyang. I was going to take the train as it would be cheaper, but when I got to the station I couldn't face the queues and mayhem. Imagine a city only slightly smaller than London, but with one train station serving all destinations in the country. It was ridiculous, the station staff on megaphones herding the thousands of people around and shouting at people if they stood still for too long. On a bad note I find out that my room wasn't £20 for two nights, but was actually one night and so they take more money off me.

Apparently the lady who sold it to me got it wrong in communicating it to me, although I think she just got it wrong as they need to take a different deposit and change my receipts to what they should be. I get a discount of £7 for their mistake, but absolutely annihilate the internet connection in my room in retaliation, downloading about 3.5GB worth of audio for my MP3 player.

I feel smug.

Day 19 - Vladivostok, Sufenhie, Harbin

10.08.09

Today is the day of painful ordeals and it's right from the start.

I wake up slightly later than I wanted to as I snooze through some alarms but I still have over two hours to get my bus and it's about 30mins to the bus station. I wait for a bus to take me to the station, and wait, and wait, and wait. An hour and a half later and one turns up and I am bricking it as I might miss my bus. I get off the bus early so I can run the last bit as it will be faster (Vladivostok buses have a habit of just waiting at stops for 2-3 mins for any passengers that might just amble along to catch the bus).

When I get to the station I make it just in the nick of time but my bus isn't there, after several conflicting directions from staff and passers by and running around the stops like a mad man, a woman tells me to flag down a bus that is currently pulling out of the station. I run in it's path and stop it and the d

river looks confused at my tickets smiles and tells me to get on. It turns out the bus I was booked onto didn't even run, so I'm on another one that takes the same route.

After a bus change and border checks at the Russian and Chinese check points, both of which seem to be perplexed at why I am crossing the border when everyone else is a Chinese tourist going back home, we arrive in Sufenhie. The bus pulls into 'I haven't the slightest idea', I have no Chinese currency on me, don't speak enough Chinese to ask anything and thinking I would be at a major bus station, am in a metaphorical, deep pile of brown matter.

I roam around aimlessly for a while and then a woman says something to me in Chinese to which my blank looks get another question in Russian, eventually after communicating in a language that I have the absolute basics of and what isn't even her first language, she gets her friend to drive me to a bank in his car and then

to the bus station. He puts me on the bus to Harbin and I sit there feeling even more alone and stupid for not preparing better.

The bus doesn't leave for another two hours and people are washing the windows as it's still practically in the depot, but after the day so far and shear fear, I don't move a muscle. When it eventually leaves a five hour journey later and we arrive in the northern city of Harbin.

I get off and the bus driver who has looked after me on the journey asks where I am going and I show him on my guide book map, he points to a taxi but I decide to walk it, so I can get my bearings and see some of the city. I'm sure the map scale is wrong as it's about an hours walk and with at least 20kg on my back from various things I've picked up it seems like it's miles away.

When I reach my hotel it turns out to be about 20 pounds for two nights, the rooms have computers so I can get onto the internet for free and they are big and plush. I have a walk around Harbin at night and finally the day gets better and I feel a lot happier.

If there's anything I have learnt today it's that I should probably put a bit more preparation into things when I enter totally new territory. Also, that no matter what you pack and no matter how much you pack, the most invaluable thing is language and being able to communicate.

Day 18 - Vladivostok

9.08.09

My journey into China is on the cards today. I get in at about 8am to the train station in Vladivostok and decide to try and walk it to the Bus station as it's not that far, after about 10mins I realise I don't have an accurate enough map and I can't read Russian, so jump on a bus.

After asking the driver whether he goes to the bus station I sit down and wait to see this big bustling bus station. An hour later and the bus pulls into a depot, I ask the driver if this is the bus station and he looks at me as if I'm an idiot. Luckily he puts me on another bus and tells the driver to tell me when we get to the station and doesn't charge me a fare. When we get to the station it's hidden behind a market and I would never have spotted it if I wasn't told.

I fail to notice, but it's a Sunday and so the bus service is limited so I have to buy a ticket that leaves at 8.10 tomorrow morning.

After checking into a hotel for the evening I grab some food from the super market and for the first time on the trip feel very very very lonely. I'm on the same longitudinal line as central Australia and it's the furthest I've ever been from home and I am totally alone. I think a combination between lack of sleep and the day not going as planned is making me quite down, but after a nap I feel a lot better and then hit the sack to wake up for my early bus tomorrow.

Day 13 - Day18, Trans Siberian Railway pt.2

4.08.09 - 9.08.09

The train journey of epic proportions, 6000km and 5 nights on the train from Novosibirsk to Vladivostok. I'm going 2nd class this time as there were no bottom tickets available, which means it should be quite comfortable.

I'm on the top bunk and share my cabin with a mother (Alysa), her son (Yigor), her mother (Tatiana) and father (Sergei). They turn out to be going all the way to Vladivostok and we end up sharing food and having basic conversations, Alysa

speaks English and can understand me quite well. As for the rest of the cabin, they seem to be angry all the time and never smile, I can't quite figure it out, but it seems to be a theme on Russian trains. I end up chatting to a student called Irfim who informed me that it was just the Russian way on trains and people don't really smile.

On the journey, we pass by Lake B

aikal, which is absolutely enormous.

As my book tells me, it's the deepest lake in the world, contains more than 20% of the worlds fresh water, over a thousand plants and animals that inhabit the lake can't be found anywhere else and is the oldest lake in the world. As we went past you couldn't see the other side and it stetched out to the horizon in all directions, it was like an ocean and the scenery surrounding it was beautiful. I wish I got off here, but I chickened out when buying my tickets and went for the safe option of getting a ticket all the way to Vladivostok, at least I get to see the southern side of the lake as the railway skirts it for 180km.

Again, being on a train for so long and confined to such a small space is a weird

experience. You have your bed, about 6ft in length by around 3ft width to live in and that's it. You can stand in the corridor of the train if you wish or use the bathroom, but your allocated sp

ace is where you spend most of your time.

Also being thrown in with a family who I don't know for 5 nights and sharing

what is probably smaller than a prison cell between 4 people and a small child puts you in such close contact. I ended up playing with Yigor and making faces with him so much he started to call me dada, which was slightly worrying.

There are other families on the train, lone travellers, business p

eople and a whole host of characters. By the end of the journey I had made friends with the two train attendants, Julia and Marsha and also with a few other people in the carriage, some origami models distributed and eventually people were starting to look a bit happier.

I think in general people on the trains keep them selves to them selves and don't talk to people or interact much, I decided to go against the grain and it seemed to work.

I wouldn't call the trans Siberian a spiritual journey, but you definitely end up learning something along the way about people and social interaction.

Day 13 - Novosibirsk, Berdsk and the train

4.08.09
Tonight is my departure for Vladivostok, so I need to get back reasonably early to pack and prepare my things. We wake up reasonably early in the morning feeling a bit fuzzy and after our bed sharing experience.

Another walk around Novosibirsk centre and a trip to give Sasha back her keys as she is already at work when we rouse from our slumbers. We take a trip towards home on the bus, but make a stop off at the Railway museam, which is an open air camp filled with Russian locomotives. Some of the older steam models are ridiculously big and a comomon theme with Russian trains seem to be that they are about a mile high and sit so far off the ground. The tracks are also a lot wider then any other country and if you travel to or from Russia by train they have to change the wheels at the border to match the track size.

We eventually get home and I have to rapidly pack and grab a shower before leaving for the train station. Igor's dad gives me a old traditional Russian glass from Berdsk old town that is now flooded and a mosquito nead net as I seem to have tasty blood. He also gives me a special gift, a blue and white striped top, which is the trademark clothing that the Russian Airbourne Forces wear and his Russia SAS. It's not an imitation and is one of his own ones, I am so touched and my gifts of chocolate and food that I bought from the supermarket seem to have no value, but I make a promise to myself to send the family something special from my travels.

It's been an eye opening and fantastic week and their hospitability has left a mark.

Onto the train and a 4 day journey awaits.

Day 12 - Novosibirsk Centre

3.08.09
Planning day, I get my route through the north of China sorted to Beijing and decide to risk it at Vladivostok for the adventure and don't book a hotel. I will arrive at about 6.30am, so it will be enough time to jump on a bus to China or if not get a hotel sorted.
In the afternoon we head to Novosibirsk centre to meet Andrey and Anya who are going to show us around.

We take in all the main attractions among which are Lenin square and the opera

house named after him and a small Russian church in the middle of a road. In one of the parks we are joined by Sasha (Alexandria), who studies advertising part time with with Anya.

After Sushi for dinner, we realise that we have missed the last train and bus back to Berdsk and Andrey and Anya have missed their last link to Akamdemgorodok. In this situation there is only one answer, several litres of beer, lots of snacks and we camp out in Sasha's flat for the night.

Me, Igor and Andey sharing a single sofa bed, all in just boxer shorts, it was what can only be described as an intimate male experience.

After speaking to Sasha about what she's up to and her asking about my travels, she gives me the short stories of Ernest Hemingway to read on the train. It's a long journey and she said I will need something to do. Andrey and Anya also give me and Igor small Novosibirsk Crests carved out of wood I make some origami models and give them to everyone as it's the only thing I can give, and am touched by people's generorsity once again.

Day 10,11 - The Dacha

1.09.09 - 2.09.09

A 5 min train journey, a walk down a dirt road that has become a mud pool in some areas with the heavy rain. At the end of the road a blue picket fence surronding a garden/alotment, at one end a small two level building with two bedrooms and a kitchen/living room, at the other end an outhouse and a traditional Russian sauna called a Banya. This is the Dacha, which is roughly Russian for a country house.

Waking up in the morning and picking fresh Raspberries, Gooseberries, Strawberries, Redcurrants and Blueberries; for dinner and lunch having meat skerwers grilled over an open flame called a shashlyk, accompanied by a salad just picked and young potatoes just boiled with a touch of butter, nearlly all the ingredients apart from the bread were grown at the Dacha and picked just before they were eaten.

Walking through the fields to do pier jumps into the River that I have now seen almost day for a variety of activities. We laze on the beach and have another swim, try some fishing from the end of the pier and end up losing more than we take.

Sitting in the Banya, me, Igor, his dad and older brother all stark naked pouring water onto hot stones, the temperature apparently hits 90-95C at it's hottest and at times is an overwhelming burning sensation, but it's not painfull. whipping each other with a Venik, which is the dreid branches and leaves of a young birch tree. After each 'sweat' we run outside and into the cold plunge pool and fully imerse ourselves in the water so we cool off. The Banya was built by Igor's Dad and his elder son a few summers ago and is a wonderfull experience, you feel so fresh and clean after.

It's a phenomenal weekend and the Dacha is a truly amazing place. It's so simple, quiet, peacefull and a different way of life. It's definitely the way forward.

Day 9 - Berdsk and Novosibirsk

31.07.09



 Row row row your boat gently down the stream is today's motto. We take a short walk down to the river banks with the rubber dinghy, a homemade life jacket which is quality and a pair or oars. Igor's dad takes him out first and explains a bit of river safety, then we head out together and end up towing Nikolaj around the river.It's quite a small dinghy for two tall people and so if you relax too much you deform the boat and let water in, we also manage to pop the seating boards out of their position, which creates a small moment of panic. Both decked out in aviators in a rubber dinghy, we look like real tourists! On the way back from the lake, we also stumble upon some more mushrooms randomly growing next to the path, my newly learnt scavenging skills come into play and we harvest some fantastic fungi.

The evening excursion was into the academic part of Novosibirsk called Akademgorodok, where we meet some ex students who Igor's dad used to teach, Andrey, his wife Anya and their friend Katia. Andrey's English is almost flawless, although like most people I have met he is adamant he can't speak very well. The special thing about Russia is that you can walk into shops with 1,2,3 or even 4 litre plastic bottles, pick a beer from a list of about 30 and get it filled with live beer straight from the keg. Absolutely amazing!
We go to a subterranean joint that seems to be a beer shop combined with a pub, meet an ex police major who was fired due to corruption, a massive Russian guy who tries to teach me various informal language and a guy who spent several years in Texas and has the accent to match. A lot of beer and cured seafood saw us away until the early hours.

Unfortunately for both activities today I deemed it too risky to take my camera and so no photographic evidence exists.

Day 8 - Novosibirsk

30.07.09

Shrooms is the order of the day and we wake up at 5.45am don our forest gear and proceed to grab a bus out to the forest. Once there I get the low down on what mushrooms you can eat, which ones will make you ill and which ones will send you off a journey of another sort. Igor's dad comes out to the forest early to pick, as lots of old men and women come to the forest and gather the mushrooms and they live near by so if you arrive later in the day, they will all be gone. He also tells me that in the morning the grass is still wet and so he can easily see where other people have been and picked, so he can find the spots which haven't been touched. We end up gathering 3 bags of mushrooms and Igor finds an absolute beast! I manage to stumble upon some kind of mushroom holy ground and harvest a collection of beauties right at the end, which fills my bag out nicely. We are dressed for the occasion and among our items we have over boots, made by Igor's dad from Russian radioactive/chemical warfare suits. Safe!

We get back home at around 9.30 and clean all the shrooms and cut them up. The big ones are massive meaty buggers as big as my hand and look amazing.


The next task of the day is to get what Igor called the true Russian experience and have my visa registered. We get to the police station just after 3pm and end up leaving at about 6.20pm. The details are too long to go into, but it involved a mass of forms photocopies, queuing, confusion, unhelpful people, helpful people and letters written on my behalf. An interesting experience.

Day 7 - Novosibirsk

29.07.09

Today as Igor's dad puts it, is business day. We have admin stuff to do and bits and bobs around town. The main tasks for me are to buy my train ticket and also register my visa.

I manage to get my ticket to Vladivostok at the train station without too much trouble, except the lady at the ticket window seemed to have woken up on the wrong hemisphere, let alone the wrong side of bed. I should also probably state, that I didn't get my ticket, Igor got it as my Russian skills would still have her barking at me now. A train ticket bought from Novosibirsk to Vladivostok takes just over 4 days, and you travel about 6000km in total to the east crossing 4 time zones. It cost me 9430 Rubles which is about 197 quid, not so cheap, but for such a long journey and travelling second class (Out of 4), it's not so bad.

We also try and get my visa registered today, but the police station is closed, so put it off until tomorrow afternoon.
Igor's dad is quite creative and creates mosaics and makes medieval armour and swords, so we obviously don the chain mail helmets and take a few snaps.
Tomorrow is mushroom picking day and a 6am start, so we call it a day quite early in preparation for our forest adventure.