JOURNEY OF HALF THE GLOBE

Dear diary ...

Ni hao (Chinese)

Sain Bain uu (Mongolian)

Zdrastvootyeh (Russian)

So here we are on our first train with half of our Intrepid team (picture 1) as we start our journey over 8000km from Beijing to St Petersburg. We had to learn the above greetings along the way as well as a whole lot more.We last left you in Beijing, China on day one of our tour where we checked in with our group. Since then we have travelled the Trans Monglian and Trans Siberian railways, rickety old buses, vans, walked and gone by boat along the way. We have now finally flown to Germany. As we are sure you can imagine we have not had much internet along the way so hold on for a whirlwind overview of what we saw along the way.

Day 2 we left Beijing bright and early to board our first train (30 hours - Trans Mongolian) to cross the Chinese then Mongolian boarders and make our way through the Gobi Desert to arrive in Ulanbatar(UB) the capital of Mongolia on Day 3. We spent the rest of the day checking out the town, eating booze (traditional dumplings) and learning about Chengis Khan (Gengis to us but apparently we are all wrong?! Good fact huh)

Day 4 was time for adventure. We left the city and headed for the hills. The further we went the colder it got (picture 2, please note snow is actually falling!!). Here at the edge of the Hustai National park we stopped at a Ger for some Mongolian tea and fresh yoghurt - still lumpy and warm fresh off the stove! We then went for a walk in the snow to see the native Przhewalski horses before heading to another family Ger (picture 3) to warm up by the fire.

We spent the evening drinking vodka (straight), having a mongolian bbq (meat cooked on rocks in the tent) and shooting a bow and arrows! We slept the night here in a spare Ger huddled around the fire, and after horse riding in the AM (Day 5) we drove back to UB through the valley. An absolutely incredible time.

We spent the morning of Day 6 in UB checking out the National museum before getting on our next train (25 hours) to cross out of Mongolia and into Russia. Day 7 was spent looking out the window at the beautiful Siberian scenery before a late arrival to Ulan Ude so it was straight to bed.

Day 8 we headed over a mostly gravel road for 4 hours to Lake Baikal - the deepest fresh water lake in the world. Here we spent our time walking (picture 4), having a boat ride and siberian BBQ, eating fresh fish, enjoying the banya (siberian version of a sauna) and sun bathing! The sun did not set until about 11pm. (picture 5) It was like paradise.

We spent day 9 and the morning of day 10 at the lake doing much of the same, and with the homestay owners only speaking russian our sign language has continued to get better!!

We headed back to UB in the PM of Day 10 to have a picture with Lenins head and get some supplies to try and reduce the cabin fever as we were next to get on the train for 3 nights! Picture 6 shows us aboard our Trans Siberian train.

Day 11 and 12 were spent looking out the window, reading, writing, playing cards, eating, and of course traveling through 4 different time zones. The scenery changed as we got closer to the Ural mountains and we entered into Europian Russia.

Day 13 we got off the train at the base of the Urals in Kungur. With only one night here we managed to shower (it had been a while!), check out the town on foot, visit a local restaurant and get some fresh food at the farmers market before getting back on the train(24 hours) (Day 14) to head into Moscow.

Day 15 and 16 we spent checking out the sights of Moscow. It is a very over priced city with a huge amount of expensive european cars wizzing round with their private guards following - just like the movies!!! Here we visited Red Square, St Basils Cathedral (picture 7), Lenins Mosoleum, the GUM, the Church of Christ the Saviour, the Kremlin and the main pedestrian street - now that we have written a list on paper I understand why we were tired!! Everything had its own highlight and oodles of history. The detail in the architecture was fascinating - I'm sure you can imagine Tristan's excitement!

10pm on day 16 we caught a train to St Petersburg leaving at 10pm and getting in at 6am (day 17)! With little sleep we dropped our bags at the hostel and marched on to see what we could find. With only 2 days and we had to make the most of it (thankfully the Russains can make good coffee!!). We visited the hermitage in the day and then to celebrate the white nights (where the sun doesnt go down) in fine form as we hired a boat and went on a canal/river trip begining at 12.30am! Here (picture 8) you can see it is just getting dark at 1.30am. This darkness lasted about at hour!

Day 18 we sadly said goodbye to our group and went our separate ways. We didnt have to be at the airport until 3.30am so we made the most of our time and went to see Swan Lake performed by the Russian Ballet ... what more could a girl want for her birthday!

From picture 9 you can see what we look like after staying up all night to catch our flight to Munich! Once safely in Germany and not wanting to waste time we put our bags at our hotel and went for a walk through the 100 magnificent rooms of the Reisdenze castle, ate fresh summer fruit and basked in the sun before a big 12 hour sleep! The next day we did a bike tour of the city taking in the sights before meeting Leo and Simon for dinner and a stein at Hofbraus, (picture 10) was great to be amung the locals for the Germany football game and we found Munich to be a beautiful city!

Who would have thought we could see and do so much in only 3 weeks!

Till next time ...

McDuff

Michele and Tristan

A GREAT day at the GREAT WALL

Dear Diary,
Our last 10 days in Beijing has been action packed. Our first week was spent rotating around local hostels and completing various sight-seeing expeditions. After a couple of days relaxing in a place that was handy to the train station we moved into the city further and explored the Chinese culture - staying in the Hutongs (alley streets).

Our first room was inside an old army weapons base that had been converted into a loft type hostel. There were a couple of things that could have helped this place, e.g. a locking door, increasing the distance of our toilet from our bed, and a sign for our neighbour advising that watching loud movies and having numerous Chinese mobile conversations at 3am is perhaps not the best way to make new friends. We however had a good laugh for a few days using it as a base. From here we saw Tianemin square, the Temple of Heaven, the 2008 Olympic park, and the Forbidden City - all incredible in there own right. If we had to pick one the Forbidden City was a standout, we spent a full day enjoying the different temples, alleys and courtyards.
Our second place was another little hutong with a much smaller 'guest house' feel and plenty of jazz type cafes run by foriegner's nearby. The street even had a single speed bike shop!! We booked a few nights here - we missed the locals mans name who ran it so he became known as 'old mate'! One day we hired classic Beijing bikes from the bike store and covered half of inner Beijing. Im not too sure if anyone is fimiliar with riding a bike in China but im sure your imagination can help you out... If you picture how we have explained the amount of people around and how walking can be hard without crashing into each other, then add wheels and double the speed you've got it! Very cool day.

With the help Aunty Paula we managed to track down some Duffy family friends and our last (and final) four nights in China have been spent staying with the Bowyer's out near the airport. Our time there playing with the triplets, swimming, running, and enjoying the BBQ was so good!! With the help of some insider knowledge (Thanks Kathryn) we took a private driver (who we might add turned out to be an english speaking, Pegueo driving opera singer) to the wall which was great (could'nt help the pun). Charlie dropped us at one section and we were lucky enough to walk 10km to another area where he picked us up. Our walk was on both restored and un-restored sections and at times there was no one else in sight so it really incredible.

We have just checked in with our interpid tour group leader Dennis, who seems awesome. We meet the rest of the group at 6pm and then tomorrow we board the train for Mongolia and then on to Russia before making it to the rest of Europe in about 2 and half weeks - should be a blast.

Thanks for all the awesome notes from home, we look foward to updating you again soon.

Love
McDuff
Tristan and Michele