Land of the rising Yen

which rises and rises against the pound until it reaches 150 Yen to 1 GBP... and I end up with no money. So maybe I shouldn't have eaten kobe beef for dinner (yum!)...

Ah well, tonight I am staying in a temple in the mountain town of Takayama. The walls are paper and slide and the bed is on a mat on the floor. I feel very zen. I wish the mossies did too.

Risen from the ashes

So today's post may be less up-beat that others. I'm in Hiroshima, and it has affected me in many ways. At first glance you could say that a more sombre post would be appropriate when you think about the only thing that the rest of the world knows about Hiroshima. And sitting in the Peace Gardens opposite the A bomb dome (the only building that really survived with some walls intact after the atom bomb because it was pretty much ground zero), my mood was pretty low. I would like to challenge anyone who has ever thought that nuclear weapons could be justifiable (including our own Trident "deterrent") to come to Hiroshima and still believe there can be ANY justification for nuclear weapons.

That is one side of Hiroshima. Necessarily sombre. Monuments calling for world peace. The other side of Hiroshima was the group of school kids laughing behind me. The gentleman who came and talked to us in a shop, just to talk to a foreigner. The people who smile at my attempts at Japanese, and the city that gets on with the act of living and being alive, full of bright lights and chatter. Hiroshima has risen from the ashes, and is a great city as well as a poignant reminder of how fragile civilisation can be.

I have also been in Kyoto since my last post, geisha hunting, and saw some real geisha as they were chased down the street paparazzi style by groups of excited tourists. In true Japanese style they simply continue to smile and walk around the offending lenses. We had the fortune to be in Kyoto for a couple of festivals - the first the slowest parade EVER of costumes through the ages. the second in Kurama outside of Kyoto was a fire festival where boys and men carry ridiculously oversized torches up and down the main street, the men with bare backs and sumo style nappies, chanting what sounded like "sailor, sailor!". Cue a lot of photos of mens bums, accidental and otherwise.

Geishas on the metro

So I'm in Japan! And I'm just skipping over my last few days in China, just because there's TOO much to writte. The Summer Palace was amazing, but I'd like to keep that as my personal experience. However I will happily share the nightmare of airport security in China (who confiscated my alcohol hand gel from my checked baggage even though I was fine taking it on the flight to Berlin. As I asked "who do you think's going to be setting a match to my backpack?"). They also did not want to check me into my flight as I didn't have a Japanese visa. Passport holders from the UK and EU don't need a tourist visa in advance, it gets granted when you arrive. As I told them, repeatedly. I ended up whipping out my flights to Australia to prove that I was only staying there 2 weeks, but the whole time I was thinking "surely this should be Japans problem not yours? My Chinese visa is about to expire, you don't want me!". After that ordeal (all before 7am and on 4 hours sleep) the thought "I would kill for a Starbucks" went through my head for the 1st, and I hope the very last time. And the next corner I turned I heard the incipid soft Jazz designed to melt your brains that tells you a Starbucks in nearby. I'm slightly worried that Starbucks can read my mind.... (and for the record, no I don't normally drink in Starbucks, but when you want a coffee in an airport in China...)

So Japan, well Tokyo was hectic, but not as hectic a I'd expected. No-one had to push us onto trains. It is a bit confusing because the overground trains are run by 2 companies that you have to buy separate tickets for, and the metro is run by 2 different companies that you can't interchange between unless you've pre-planned... In fact when I arrived I navigated myself very well until I had to buy a metro ticket, which you have to look up your destination station on a map to work out the fare for. As I stood staring at the VERY complicated ticket machine a kindly gentleman stopped and asked where I was going. When I said he found it on the map, worked the machine and even put in 20 yen for me as I didn't have the right coins, then pointed out the direction I needed to go! You can always depnd on the kindness of strangers :o)

But aside from initial confusion I've mostly been wondering at how neat and tidy and fashionable everyone is. And how you get ladies in full Geisha costume riding the metro alongside the Harijuku girls! I'm definitely not fashionable for Harijuku and I don't know anyone who is....

I've seen the lights, seen the crazily clean streets and on-time trains and climbed the Tokyo Tower (a copy of the Eiffel tower that happens to be just a bit taller - bet the French LOVE that, they even call the cafe at the top "de la cafe" just to rub it in!).

Unfortunately I have not been very well, so the vast arrays of delicious looking Japanese food that has been passing under my nose have predominantly remained untouched.

Today we are in a small town at the foot of Mt Fuji, and fortunately for us the sky is clear and blue, and the view amazing! I say "we" as Lezanne arrived safe and sound (and jet-lagged) for our adventures and many cheesey photos together...

I don't need real friends, I'll make them from clay!

So yes, I went to see the Terracotta Warriors. Well you have to really. I mean if you go to China what are people going to ask? "Did you see the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors?". And if you say no you'll probably just get a strange look and people will wonder WHY you went to China and start wondering where your hostel was in relation to the red light district and... well, OK, probably not for me, but I think I WOULD wonder why not!

Anyway, so I went to see them because it's the "done" thing. Fought my way through the crowds of shouting elbowing tourists (predominantly Chinese), nearly had my eyes taken out several times by those little flags the tour guides hold so the rest of their group can find them (incidently the rest of their group can find each other because they all have matching baseball caps). I knew it was a big site and there were a lot of warriors and eveything, but I don't think I was quite prepared for the SCALE. I mean this guy Qin must have pissed off a LOT of people to think he was going to need that much protection in the afterlife! So you walk in and you're in this aircraft hanger. And facing you are lines and lines of full size ancient warriors. The whole hanger has yet to be excavated, but it's basically enormous and all filled with army ranks. Rows and rows of different soldiers that had real weapons, and terracotta horses that used to have chariots attached. And every head is different. Maybe I should emphasise that more? EVERY HEAD IS DIFFERENT!!! And there are 1,000's And this was just pit one. There are 3 pits, although 2 and 3 are smaller than pit 1. And here's the amazing thing about it - this tomb is over 2,000 years old (we're talking BC here ok?) and there are metal working techinques used that were only discovered in the Western world in the 1920's, paint compounds that were still unknown to the Western world when this was discovered in the 1970's, I mean we're talking a very advanced and old civilisation here. Makes us look a bit pathetic in comparison hey?

So how to top that? I can't really. But the sun DID manage to break through the smog here, so yesterday I cycled around Xi'an city walls - all 14km on a rattley bike with no discernable suspension... But worth it for the wow factor. These are no 'York' city walls. These are walls designed to keep people out and make them wonder why they ever thought it might have been a good idea to try and get in in the first place!

So that's it for Xi'an - tonight I'm on a sleeper back to Beijing.

Street food and smog

So I made it to Xi'an on a lovely comfy overnight sleeper train (just to rub it in to certain people who laughed at me having pre-booked a train ticket and who then had to sit on a hard seat overnight...). First impressions? Well it's colder than Beijing, and cheaper, and smaller - which is a relief. Maps of Beijing were all very confusing. It's so big that what appears to be a 10 minute walk generally takes over an hour. Here I keep arriving places before I expect to, which means I'll probably have to start doing some other form of exercise to work off all the street food I keep consuming!The general problem seems to be that the easiest way to find out what something is is to try some. And generally everything tastes good! Fortunately in Xi'an it seems easier to find fruit that HASN'T been coated in a sugar glaze than it is in Beijing.

There are also fewer bicycles here, but the rickshaws are just as determined to run you down. It's a brave person who flags down a rickshaw that has a screen covering your view ahead - you don't know when to brace! Driving any type of vehicle in China requires a horn (even bicycles have them), and I suspect that the horns wear out long before the brakes...

Unfortunately today the smog is thick, putting me off the idea of going up any view-points or exploring the wall (Xi'an has an intact wall around the centre). I think it may be wishful thinking that the smog will improve though, as I heard that it snows black here... I may just have to shop more! I hope that Lezanne has lots of space in her suitcase...

Millipedes and Scorpians

I only ate one of the above. Guess which.



So I'm in Beijing, I braved the crowds at the forbidden city, and became a bit of a tourist attraction myself along with a tall blonde lady I was with. There we were, listening to the dulcit tones of Roger Moore (who narrates the audio guide) and out of no-where Alex has been grabbed by an over-excited Chinese family who have started taking photos with her. This happened so much that there were suggestions of charging for our services as "impromptu freak show". The thing about the Forbidden city is that it's so bloody big. By the time we got to the South gate no amount of soothing facts from Roger Moore could entice us into any of the side streets, so we missed out the Concubines quarters and many of the exhibitions. It is spectacular, but I think I got a bit "over-spectacled"!



Yesterday I took a trip to the Great Wall. Not one of these soft "we'll drive you to the wall, let you wander around, take photos and then shop" trips for me - oh no, I opted for the 10km hike over a rough area of the wall, up and down steep slopes with broken pathways. In the absence of kendal mint cake the 1kg of honeycomb bought from a street market suddenly didn't seem like such a bad idea! I think I took about 100 photos, each of which looks like every postcard you see of the Great Wall, but I was on it! I could hardly believe it! Then at the end there was the option of walking ANOTHER 20 minutes, or of taking a flying fox from rather a large height, and across a lake, and getting to the restaurant by boat. I took the flying fox option - brilliant fun, just hanging from a harness over nothingness. More importantly I didn't have to walk any further before lunch!



There were loads of Millipedes on the wall. Some of which I later saw on skewers for sale at the night market. I, however, opted to try the scorpian. Still wriggling before being fried.

I have moved hostels and am deep inside a hutong district, which means taxis at night, but fantastic street food and many many bicycles during the day. Oh and that I hear the phrase "hello, pretty lady, I give you good price" at least every 50 paces when I step out of the hostel! I couldn't say whether there really are 10 million bicycles in Beijing, or whatever that number is, I keep losing count. And as anyone who has ever nearly been run down by a rickshaw knows you have other things to concentrate on whilst walking down the road! (Incidently, do rickshaws count as bicycles?)

p.s. Scorpian tastes a bit like ready salted crisps.

Well it can't be seen from space...

But I'm off to hike the great wall tomorrow! Yes I made it to China - currently in Beijing. More to follow soon - might even tell you about the Danish chef....

Sky, Camels and Fermented Mares Milk

Mongolia has a lot of sky. That's the first thing you notice really. Or the first thing I noticed. Amazing plains surrounded by mountains and hills, but sometimes the edges are so distant they disappear over the horizon. That means it's windy. And dusty. But open, and this openness seems to extend to the people. In Russia no-one ever waved back when you waved at them. They seemed to be shy, more insular, here everyone is curious. Often they instigate the waving and look disappointed if you don't respond!

The difference between towns and the countryside is that in towns the gers (yurts) have fences. Seriously. Some of the fences contain what look like sheds, some more permanent structures that may be business premises, some even contain houses, but they all contain gers. Just out of Ulaanbaatar you see people herding sheep on horseback. I mean literally where the permanent city buildings end. And within Ulaanbaatar there are many stretches of open ground that have gers on them. It seems that's the way people are comfortable living. And having spent the past 3 nights in a ger I can't say I blame them! Gers are warm and cosy, even in the wind and hail that prevailed last night (quite an event that - precipitation).

So shortly outside Ulaanbaatar the tarmac ends. 3 1/2 hours of bumps later you encounter more (unfortunately at right angles to the direction we were going). 30 minutes later we reach a "real" road. Smooth tarmac - luxury! after nearly 7 hours drive we made it to a ger camp. I don't know how, there are NO road signs, and the roads consist of several different tracks (obviously formed when one of the others gets too rutted) that overlap and then often split randomly to fade into the distance. The landscape doesn't seem to change either, but somehow the Mongolians find their way. Everywhere you look there are herds of sheep/goats/cattle/horses/camels, and every vista has a ger (every ger also has a huge satellite dish and motorbike). We visited a ger close to our "tourist camp". We were going to a different ger, but this couple were outside milking their horses and we asked if we could watch, and they then invited us in. They fed us what I can only describe as "bread" although that's a very loose description, cheese, fermented mares milk (tastes a bit like fizzy yoghurt) and Mongolian tea (mostly milk, a few tea leaves and lots of salt). It was very sweet as they obviously weren't expecting us! We ended up playing drinking games with the husband (the penalty being fermented mares milk, the game being something along the lines of a complex "rock, paper, scissors"). The camp smelt of wild thyme, and food was good!

The following day we moved camps and headed towards what was the capital city in Ghengis Khans time (they call him Chinngis). It later became a monastry, but very little remains of either thanks to the communists. We stopped at a statue of a turtle that everyone had seen on "Long Way Round", and is a symbol of long life. At this point it transpired that our driver was drunk (in retrospect the impromptu karaoke by him on the bus should have been a clue, but he was so buoyant so much of the time we thought it was just high jinks). Our driver drove off without us as we returned to the bus, and we walked back to the ger (a bit over an hours walk). When we approached the bus it seemed that the over-excited driver had decided to turn around and had placed the rear end of the bus in a ditch.

The next morning he was hungover and VERY apologetic. At least we weren't on the bus, and I found it all quite amusing at the time - watching them trying to get the driver out of the ditch whilst he's grinning and waving away really was a comical sight!

The rest of the trip went without hitch, except for a grumpy camel, and sudden freezing temperatures combined with hail/sleet. The cold seemed to fit in somehow though, considering Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital in the world, I've been very warm in a t-shirt during the day! Although it gets colder as the sun sets.

And for the record, clubbing in Mongolia is the same as everywhere else, they're just really slow at serving drinks.

Europe - Asia boundary

So I know I've said in a previous blog that I was at the Europe-Asia boundary in the Urals. The geographical boundary that is. But one question I wanted to answer with this trip was whether there is a gradual or an abrupt change between Europe and Asia.

I am now in Mongolia, and am acutely aware that I am definitely in Asia - even though they still use the (now familiar) cyrillic script. This got me thinking, where did the change actually occur? There was a definite change in driving attitudes from East to West across Russia: the further east you go, the less lane discipline there is - in Ulan Ude they don't even bother driving on the road half the time! But I haven't quite reached the craziness I've previously experienced in Asia - I think because I've come across very few motorbikes on the roads. Actually in Mongolia they drive like the Italians - a bit crazy, sound their horns a lot, skip red lights, but will still brake for pedestrians. I wasn't convinced they would in much of Russia...

Saying this I'm pretty sure I can define where the boundary between Europe and Asia was for me. Lake Baikal. But it wasn't an abrupt border. Not a complete change, just a realisation that things were no longer European. Irkutsk (on the west side of the lake) is definitely European. The population was predominantly caucasian, although attitudes were changing and there was a definite increase in Asian features as I travelled further East. The other side of the lake, in Ulan Ude, the population was predominantly asian. Buryat to be precise - it is the capital of the Buryat region.

Now in Mongolia caucasians stick out as tourists. Thinking back I think we did in Ulan Ude as well, although we were by no means the only caucasians as we seem to be here in Ulaan Baatar. So that's my border, Lake Baikal, it's just a little fuzzy.

So I've spent the day in Ulaan Baatar, and tomorrow I head off to ger camps for much of the week. Mongolia is cheap, and I feel like a millionaire (with about 2000 togrot to the pound). It's the coldest captial in the world, and today was warm and sunny - for the first time I didn't wear a coat all day! Although the wind is cold, and you have to stay in the sun.

Mongolia seems to be a nice place - people are friendly and smile a lot (and not just those trying to please the tourists!), so I'm looking forward to the next few days living in a yurt!

If vodka is the answer then what is the question?

So it's been a while. And yes I am still alive, despite my best efforts to poison myself with Russian spirits...

I've been a bit in the back of beyond - or at least without internet, which feels like the back of beyond in todays day and age. However now I am in Irkutsk (if my cyrillic is correct), GMT+8, having spent many long hours on trains in tiny compartments with people I now know possibly better than I should!

Last post was in Moscow, since then I took a train to Yekaterinburg, managing to fit 15 people into one coupe compartment to drink vodka (3 Australians, 2 Germans, 1 Canadian, 1 Russian and the rest Brits). There isn't a lot else to do on the train... somehow the hours FLY by. Apparantly the Russian guy took a bit of a shine to me - I have been teased constantly ever since.

Yekaterinburg is an interesting place. The place of the Romanov murders, and the place where they were cannonised by the Russian Orthodox church. Also close to the border of the European and Asian plates, with lots of opportunities for cheesey photos! There seems to be less of the Russian pomp and circumstance there than in other places I have been, and very telling is the Afgan war memorial, where a soldier sits a broken man hanging his head rather than standing strong and proud as elsewhere.

We stayed in a soviet style hotel here as there was an absence of hostels. Walking down corridors that would be more at home in "the shining" was entertaining - less entertaining were the freezing rooms and communal showers, but it's all part of the experience!

Then there was a rather longer train journey - 2 days, 3 nights to where I am now. Boredom on this train meant that we visited the restaurant car having "dressed for dinner" first, which entertained us, and certainly entertained the Russians whose carriages we had to go through en route!

So I have just spent the last 2 days on the shores of lake Baikal - the deepest in the world, holding the greatest amount of fresh water of any lake in the world. Staying in a cosy log cabin surrounded by taiga forest, with views over the lake to the snow capped mountains across the lake was amazing. As was the cold. Although it is cold for the season there seems to be general agreement that we'd feel short-changed if we were in siberia and it was warm! I'm not sure how I can really describe where I've been, and photos won't do it justice, but I will upload some pics for you all when I find an internet cafe that has fast enough internet!

Things that are surprising about Russia :

• The Taiga is silver birch trees and fir, probably with more birch than fir, meaning that the colours at this time of year are amazing. I don't know why, but I expected coniferous forests all the way.
• Borsch is GOOD!
• Cyrillic is surprisingly easy to learn.
• Russians are incredibly shy (unless on the vodka), and never smile - until you get to know them
• Babushkas scare people more than the dogs running around the streets
• When a taxi driver starts miming shooting a gun then digging a grave, it isn't necessarily cause to scream!
• The Urals seem to be the mountain range that isn't - much of Russia seems to be rather flat. Of course there is the possibility that we went through the mountains at night....
• Flora and fauna so far look just like the UK, only the buildings and people are changing

Today is a slow day. Tonight we have a train to Ulan Ude, where we arrive at about 4am. It sounded better when we looked at the tickets (which are all in Moscow time - 5 hours behind us). I'm still very relaxed from the Banya we took yesterday. A Banya (for the uninitiated) is a Russian sauna. Very civilised - apart from you hit each other with birch and fir twigs! Many inappropriate comments and 45 minutes later we were completely stewed and even didn't scream (much) at the bucket of cold water thrown over you at then end!

So now onwards and Eastwards...

So Moscow then... bit chilly

So I should probably expand on previous comments on Moscow, otherwise it sounds like I'm having a pretty disaster-ridden time!

I arrived late, very late, and the cash point was out of order, and the currency exchange place was closed for the night. So after 11pm at night, on my own, speaking barely a few words of the language and NO local currency. Hmmmm.... One thing I have discovered here is that if in doubt a friendly babushka (have I spelt that right?) will always mother everyone. I was taken under the wing by a lovely old lady who marched me to a hidden door behind which was a currency exchange desk, where she stood beside me berating the cashier in Russian the whole time. Seems I got a pretty good exchange rate! She then delivered me to the metro and pointed me at a cashier! As such I arrived at the hostel in one piece and sane(ish).

First day, well, I met vodka-trainers and an accidental lenin lookalike. We visited the real Lenin (seriously, go to Madam Tussauds or something - the guards are less scary...) and generally hung out round Red Square (getting cursed by gypsys en route...).

The evening consisted of vodka (yes I was careful, but Russian vodka does not seem to disagree with me the same way as British vodka!). Many entertaining photos (not of me) helped everyone piece together the night.

Today the Kremlin, freezing our arses off, and tomorrow the museum of the revolution. At some point I will learn cyrillic. As it stands I'm very glad I learnt a few words of Russian! Tomorrow we head off to the border of Europe and Asia on another long train journey. I'm wondering whether I should pack a fire extinguisher?

Do 2 curses cancel each other out?

We got cursed by a gypsy beggar yesterday when we refused to give her money, maybe this will cancel out the curse of the flaming trains?

Maybe the trains are telling me something?

When your train does an emergency stop it generally isn't a good thing. You all groan and wonder how long until they move the branch/leaves/whatever the big issue is that day. When your carriage guard starts shouting and runs down your carriage with a fire extinguisher you know the outlook isn't good. Only then did I notice the smoke outside and distinguish the strange smell of things burning that shouldn't be from the residual musty cigarette smoke that seems to permeate everything Russian.

Long story short, my sleeper train between Berlin and Moscow caught fire, in the next carriage down from ours, about 20 minutes out from Berlin. What with this and the Eurostar fire I'm starting to wonder whether taking trains half way round the world really IS such a good idea...

Looking on the positive side, I have some really impressive photos of German fire fighters, and it did break the ice with the Russians on the train, meaning that we did attempt to communicate, and boy am I glad I learnt a bit of Russian, because they were ALL Russian, with only a few words of English between them! I have now made it to Moscow, albeit 3 hours late, and very sleep deprived from the 4.20 am and 5.20 am border crossings, plus that the train driver seemed to decide that he enjoyed the emergency stop so much at the beginning of the journey that he'd continue to use that as method of choice meaning that EVERY stop during the night (of which there were many) sent everything flying round the cabin, including the occasional person!

Second time lucky?

So, I made it to Berlin!

And I have a hangover. I had one of those nights when you end up in a basement bar watching a live rock band in Berlin, happens to us all eh? I'm pretty sure it was the fault of my roommates... I'll blame Martin anyway...

So I've been doing the tourist trail. Predominantly I've been in East Berlin. I visited the holocaust memorial, and it really got to me. I didn't expect it to hit that hard. When you stand on the edge you're just looking at a rippling sea of concrete rectangles (that are vaguely reminiscent of posh victorian graves). You walk into it and the ground is rippling, so you don't really realise that the blocks are getting bigger until suddenly they're way above your head and the sound all around cuts out. That's when it gets you.

I went to checkpoint Charlie today, where there's nothing to see except blokes posing for photos in American Uniforms in front of an American flag. That's all you see everywhere. Not British, not French, it's the stars and stripes. Anyone would have thought they HADN'T arrived late!! It must be especially annoying as there's and American flagged gate right outside the French embassy, bet they LOVE that!

I nearly forgot to mention the currywurst. Drowned in ketchup, best hangover cure ever! Photo to come when I work out how to upload them...

And she's fallen at the first hurdle....

Oh yes, I'm NOT in Berlin. I'm back chez Mum and Dad for the night. What went wrong? Eurostar. Seems there's been a lovely chemical fire in the tunnel, which I found out as I arrived in St Pancras by the hordes of people milling around. There will be no trains tonight. There may be no trains tomorrow, although if there are there will be very few. Basically, chances of getting to Berlin by train before my Moscow train leaves? Slim to none. So I'm on an Easyjet flight tomorrow morning. So much for green credentials eh?

Of course it's fine, I have travel insurance. Except they'll only pay per 12 hours delay. Whoopee. So I could hang around for 2 days, miss Berlin and risk missing my train to Moscow, and earn enough insurance money to pay for a flight (although not the hostel accommodation I'd booked). Or I could get on a plane tomorrow morning and only arrive a few hours later in Berlin than I originally intended... I made my choice, I want to see Berlin. Although this does mean I'm not travelling London-Beijing by train. Which I'm more than a little irritated about.

So now I'm going to stop ranting and get back to my glass of wine before having an early night and getting up stupidly early to get to Gatwick. Second time lucky?

And she's off!

So this is it, I'm off! I'm nearly ready too... I'm sure I'll work out what I've forgotten soon enough. Next stop Berlin!

OK, the idea is that I will not be sending out enormous emails to everyone (and therefore will avoid the hate mail from clogging peoples inboxes up - other hate mail ("I'm so jealous!", etc) is still expected...). So, if you haven't heard from me it doesn't mean that I'm dead/in the custody of the mafia/I hate you... well, not necessarily....

Obviously some parts of the world will be easier to blog from than others. Don't be surprised if all goes quiet as I travel through Siberia/Mongolia/China!