Beijing, revisited
Something’s missing, I thought. It’s not the hutongs, it’s not the Great Wall, it’s something else. It was my second time in Beijing and something had changed. The city was different. It annoyed me. It...
Five Foot Traveller Blog
Mongolia-China border crossing
Our train to Jining Nan Compared to the Russia-Mongolia train crossing, the Ulaanbaatar-Beijing leg can be described as slightly dodgy. The options for passage from Russia to Mongolia are more or less straightforward but...
Double-humped camels, Mongolia
I thought I’d lost these photos- I know I snapped some photos of camels but somehow couldn’t find them on my netbook. Then I went through the images on my SDHC card and found...
What I’ve learnt so far
I’m feeling lighthearted today and in the spirit of said lightheartedness, here’s a list of what I’ve discovered after travelling for six weeks: 1- Of the countries I’ve visited, China has the best street signs...
Bad start in Ulaanbaatar
The sound of car horns all around you. Not short, little toots but long, drawn-out angry blasts to intimidate. Coming at you from left, right and centre. Brakes screeching. More horns. Shouting. Then- crash. Welcome...
Gorkhi-Terelj Park, Mongolia
One of the best things about Mongolia is that even when you’re in Ulaanbaatar, its dusty, chaotic capital, the countryside is never too far away. Gorkhi-Terelj Park is two hours from the city and...
Russia-Mongolia border crossing
The view, soon after entering Mongolia Overland crossings are incredibly exciting; I love entering a country by land. Arriving by plane sometimes strikes me as a little too straightforward and almost uninteresting. There...
Diamonds over Siberia
This is my first night in a proper bed but I cannot sleep. For five nights, I was soothed by the gentle left-to-right rocking of my train. This same rocking put me to sleep...
Russia, in photos
I’m writing this thousands of miles away from Russia, a country I was very sad to leave. I never thought I would enjoy Russia as much as I did – even now in Beijing,...
Tips for the Trans-Siberian Railway
There are two main points about the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Mongolian Railways. The first is that the Trans-Siberian proper runs from Moscow to Vladivostok and the second is that the railway branches out from Ulan-Ude...
