Made it to Saigon!

Arrived last night at 10pm .....2 hrs late. One hour of this due to the train hitting two cows on the track. I won't post the pics in case you are eating. Suffice to say the locals ran from the rice fields to pull the remains from under my carriage and as I saw one walk off with a lower leg and hoof I can only assume the "train kill" was destined for the pot.

Glad the train from Hanoi to Saigon was my last and not my first as it was the worst of all the carriages I have had, with the added problem of cockroaches climbing the walls and me being the only westerner on board. It did however result in some interesting sign language and sharing of an odd assortment of food. I was also the only one in my carriage travelling the whole 30hrs so I had an assortment of companions and one who was a union rep, spoke a very little english, called me beautiful and then wrote her address and mobile number in my diary!!!

More pics to come but some other stuff may not get posted until back in UK mid July because of tech problems that I had not envisaged. The Google locator will be switched off tomorrow afternoon. Its all over folks! Thank you again for raising over GBP2500 for DebRA.

Off to catch my last train

Arrived Hanoi yesterday and have explored the old quarter (like marrakesh
souks on speed), walked around Hoan Kiem Lake, and visited the 1000 yr old
Temple of Literature(pic of incense in the temple). Last night I met David and Kathy, my next door neighbours from Stamford who are in Hanoi for a year with VSO. Local knowledge is everything and so
I enjoyed vietnamese restaurant and rooftop bar with them.
On the way back from the temple yesterday I took a ride on back of scooter
and videoed the ordeal. It will get posted on the blog later.
At midday I board my last train for Saigon....the end of the road and I
arrive 8pm tomorrow night.

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What a day!

I arrived at this station in Nanning at 4am this morning. Taxi driver decided to take me for a detour to double the fare!! The money was not an issue as total cost £1.75 but he entered road from wrong direction so i was lost for a while. A few hours sleep and i made it back to the station on the no.6 bus and managed to buy my ticket to Hanoi for this evening.
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Reason for my 7 hour train delay

Torrential rain had hit southern China causing landslides and almost 100 deaths
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Lunch on train to Nanning

21 June

Beer rice and whole chili baked fish .....more delicious than it looks
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Shanghai at night

19 June

View from 34th apartment.

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This is for DebRA

18 June

Had time between trains to take a selfphoto in front of Birds Nest Olympic Stadium.
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20 June

Awake to try and update this blog and upload pics but Chinese censorship
and issues with Google do not allow me. I have got around this but wont say
how to protect the innocent. However the pics remain a problem.

Today off for a few more sites of Shanghai before night train to Nanning
where life should be a little more difficult than in international
Shanghai. Doubt if pics or blogs will be possible for another 4 days. Such
is life.

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19 June

Arrive Shanghai and get to Marriott hotel serviced apartment which is home
to my hosts Sharon (my camden landlady) and Roland her husband. Suddenly I
have moved from shared dorm to own bedroom on 34th floor luxury apartment. Its
cheating a bit but worth it for the long shower and ability to wash clothes.
Unknown to me Sharon is now 6 months pregnant and this is her last month in
Shanghai before moving to Hong Kong where she will have the baby. During
the day we sample the best dumplings in town, see the Bund, visit the tree
lined French concession area and have Linzertorte in a Viennese cafe(Roland
is Austrian).
In the evening they generously take me and 4 other friends to one of the
best restaurants serving Shanghai food. It was delicious. This was followed
by a group foot massage session ......another first.... before falling into
a deep and satisfied slumber at 1a.m.
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18 June

Arrive 2.30pm and am leaving Bejing at 9.30pm so must make most of time in
city i have visited before.

I find ticket office in central Beijing to collect my next two train
tickets the head out to Olympic village to see birds nest stadium. Immense
area thronging with internal chinesee visitors. Back into town to Wanfujing
area.....a large pedestrianised area with designer shops but also with open
air food stalls where you can buy scorpions on a stick(they are alive until
plunged into the fat. I am told they tast like popcorn. Off to station to
catch bullet train to Shanghai where my cabine companion is young english
speaking lady who has studied in London and lived for a while in Windsor.

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Best laid plans!!!!

Problems with internet and uploading within China. If this works i will
post some pre dated blogs

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Overnight to Beijing

17 June

Uneventful journey spent napping through the Gobi desert.

In the morning get first sight of Great Wall. Beijing only a few hours away. Travellling through spectacular gorges.
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Tired and emotional leaving Mongolia

16 June
Watched Switzerland beat Spain in beer tent. Dor buys my last Mongolian beer and we return to hostel. Cram into small dorm with 6 others, including two Irish girls so seems an appropriate time to polish off the remainder of my Jamesons 'medical supply'. Bed at 2am and Dor insists I wake him in morning despite leaving at 6am.
The Jamesons was a mistake and I feel terrible but am packed. Dor jumps down from bunk, we have been together 10 days and enjoyed each others company. We embrace and not saying much I leave for the station. Pic of UB station.
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Typical day on Trans Mongolian

It's day 3 and we have fallen in line with the pace of the train....an easy restful experience punctuated by the station stops. I wake at 8am Moscow time and wander to the loo which by now holds no fears. However I must still remember to wear waterproof shoes and roll up my trouser legs to avoid absorption of various liquids on the floor.
I pick up some boiling water from the samovar and make some instant porridge with honey for breakfast. My Dutch cabin companions break out some crackers over which they spread a tuna mix. Yuk! This combined with the smell from their clothes of the "sware shag" rolling tobacco, which they smoke, is too much and the porridge is pushed to the side.
Back to the bathroom for shave, wet wipe bath (these weren't invented when i was a baby so this is another first) and a change of clothes. Chat in corridor. Nap.
At around midday stop in Omsk, buy 2.5 ltrs of beer for £2 but fail to find something for lunch. In my cabin share my beer and the Dutch provide some tasty 'oude amsterdammer' cheese. The scenery changes as we move into the steppe and will remain unchanged, other than at stations, for another day.
Next stop I buy noodles which I later discover to be mashed potato (tasty) and the Russian equivalent of a magnum ice cream.
Now 4pm but 7pm local time adding to the disorientation. I join Leo and Dor was some sausage, bread and beer.
At 10.30 local time we reach Novosibirsk with great sunset. Now Leo, Dor and I are joined by Laura and Shin. We settle down for a few hours of Dai Fu Gon, a complicated card game taught by Shin which the others now call Japanese shithead. Bed at 2am local and sleep like a baby.
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Onwards to China

Mongolia has been an unexpected pleasure.....both Ulan Bator and the countryside. Now discovered i have bruises the size of tennis balls on the inside of each thigh from the horse riding. I leave the hostel at 6a.m. tomorrow for Beijing and straight on to Shanghai where i will stay with my old Camden landlady Sharon. Its now 9.45pm and off to meet a group of fellow travellers at the beer tent showing the world cup. Its a hard life!!!

Overnight in yurt

Just returned after overnight stay in Terejl National Park. Amazing open countryside. Yes i did go horseriding and expected a pony trail. However you would have paid to see me screaming to stop after guide had whacked the ponies and sent them into a full gallop!!
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How to buy a horse in Mongolia

This is a test as I hope I have now resolved my email problems. This morning went with Dor to investigate horses. He plans to spend several months touring Mongolia on horseback with a friend. He will need 3 horses and saddles! Then visited Gandam buddhist monastery. Now off to Daves Place an expat bar and home to the UB Yaks expat rugby team......I wonder who they play. Tomorrow several of us head out to Terejl National Park for overnight stay in a yurt and 2 hours of horseriding.....even the old man may have a go!!

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Arrived safely(just) in Ulan Bator

It is difficult to put into words what 5 days on a train, thrown together with strangers, covering five time zone changes, can do to your mind and body especially when much of the experience is personal without any sense or reason to those not present.

The train was not busy and our carriage and the next one carried a band of brothers all seeking their own particular experiences. The 20 somethings included Japanese, American, Swedish, Israeli and English, the 30 somethings English, Russian and Dutch and then myself and my chain smoking cabin companions from the north of Holland. A dutch couple were first off at Ulan Ude with their bicycles to cycle across Mongolia and China and the boat to Australia (a years trip). Others had even more challenges like the Belgium guy travelling with his terminal ill father-in-law who by the time he left train at Irkutz apparently had no energy to even speak and they expected him not to make it back to Belgium alive.

On a lighter note eleven of us took over the restaurant car on the third night and they ran out of vodka. I am afraid it all got a bit out of hand and of the eleven 4 hand to be carried back to their cabins. It was a quiet carriage the following day!! Five of our group jumped out at Ulan Bator and such was the camaradie that a group decided to stay up all night to send us on our way at 6.30am this morning. It is now 6pm and I am in the hostel with Dor, the Israeli student from the train, after sleeping off the effects of our last night.

Oh and I nearly missed the train at Moscow and was nearly locked out at the border crossing with Mongolia but thats another story. Pics to follow.

Leaving Moscow

Catching the Trans Mongolian in 1.5 hours so signing out for at least 5 days until settled in Ulan Bator

Beatification of Jerzy Popieluszko

Amazing sights yesterday in Warsaw when thousands processed down Nowy Swiat (where my hostel was located) following the beatification ceremony for for Father Jerzy Popieluszco who was beaten to death by communist security guards in 1984. It was part of the "Solidarity" peoples revolution and yesterday it seemed that it was a national as well as religious ceremony. Pics to follow.