A scenic overnight train journey from Ulaan Baatar to Beijing finally brought to an end my Trans-Mongolian journey. China was yet another country I was visiting for the first time, and after a fortnight in some of the most remote parts of the world I was more than ready to step into this buzzing metropolis. I had the pleasure of staying at Leo Hostel. It’s…
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The penultimate stop on my Trans-Mongolian journey was in Ulaan Baatar, the capital of Mongolia, where I spent a week exploring this large, landlocked country. I hadn’t a clue what to expect beforehand – I’d never met anyone who’d been, nor researched it much prior to my arrival. About half of the 4.3 million population live in the capital city, Ulaan Baatar, which makes the remainder…
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Check out the photos above as I stopped beside Lake Baikal in Siberia at a town called Listvyanka. The 25 million year old lake in the world covers an area larger than Belgium and is deeper than 5 stacked Eiffel towers. 400 streams and rivers flow in from the nearby mountains, which supports many endemic species of fish and other wildlife in the surrounding national park. Recently…
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The Trans-Siberian express, also known as the ‘Vodka train’, runs on the longest railway track in the world. It also happened to my home for 4 days last month. And it’s one experience I can’t wait to share. Built in just 10 years from 1891 across treacherous terrain and in the harsh Siberian climate, the Russian built line has evolved to become today a critical…
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As I type this update somewhere on a train in the Siberian wilderness, I’m mulling over an experience in Moscow filled with highs and lows. The Russian capital was the first stop on my journey for 4 days. Founded in the 13th century, the city today has a metropolitan population of around 15 million making it one of the largest in the world. The iconic…
Read MoreI didn’t intend to write about this first leg of my trip. But if the remainder is anything like the first three days, I’m sure in for one heck of an adventure! My journey began last Sunday on the 09:39 Virgin Trains service from Milton Keynes to London Euston. Everything was pretty straightforward down to Paris, although the train had a fault and was running…
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Later this week I’ll be heading on my longest trip to date. A four and a half month adventure around Asia. Over the first month I’ll be travelling from Milton Keynes to Hanoi, Vietnam by train, through Russia, Mongolia and China via the Trans-Siberian railway. The remaining few months will see me continue overland through south-east Asia, exploring the tropical regions of Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, finally ending up…
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