Warm welcome into Mongolia

It was my last night in Russia and fittingly it would be on a train. This time it was the 650km journey to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. This journey would take 28 hours, that’s an average speed of 23km/hr! Why? We spent 6 hours at Naushky, the final stop in Russia, while Russian immigration and customs officials carried out their checks before we left their country – they wanted to ensue we weren’t exporting any of their precious weapons or ancient art. There was little to see, buy or do in Naushky and most of the time had to be spent off the train in the soaring heat. Soon after leaving, we reached the first stop in Mongolia. This only took 2 hours and was a very different experience. There were several local stores, lots of people offering to change foreign currency and even more people selling fermented mare’s milk, Mongolia’s traditional drink.

Linda (from Vancouver, Canada), Christian and Stacey (from Oldham, UK), Gabrielle and Flore (from Brussels, Belgium) and I decided to celebrate our last night in Russia with some Absolut Raspberry (Stacey picked the flavour), and to go with it, some cookies, banana cream biscuits, crisps, noodles and mash. This meant that I only had 3 hours sleep before being woken up by the carriage attendant ahead of arriving into Ulaanbaatar.

After a quick tour of the city, i.e. trip to the main square to see the statue of Chinggis Khan (aka Genghis Khan), and some government buildings and theatres, I was taken to a Japanese ‘bathhouse’ in a hotel to freshen up (much needed).

We then set off for the 300km drive to my nomad homestay, most of it offroad through fairly flat green pastures. The roads were terrible, like many in India after the monsoons, and the previous nights antics suddenly didn’t seem a good idea.

Shitere and Enkhtsetseg were my hosts at the ger. They had two sons, Uuganbaatar (4) and Uuganbayr (6 months). All together, four generations lived together.

The ger itself was fascinating, very similar to that I saw in Buryatia, and located 200 metres from the edge of the Gobi Desert. It was surprisingly very comfortable, and certainly cosy when the entire family gathered for dinner or to watch sumo wrestling on their 14” black and white TV.



Most visitors like myself would go out with the herders (any man who could ride a horse) to bring in the horses, cows and goats for milking, go out and collect horse dung for the fire or help milk the animals, but the weather wasn’t great so I couldn’t do any of these things.

There was a storm one night and the wind never let up until the morning I left. Apparently these winds (I would think up to around 40mph) were nothing in comparison to what they see in spring or during the winter months.

My stroll to the Gobi Desert was cut short by a sandstorm, and when I decided to venture back there, this time on a camel, I didn’t fare much better.

One afternoon, we did drive through the countryside of the Ovorkhangai Province to the birthplace of Mongolian civilisation, Karakorum. This was where Chinggis Khan was declared the Great Khan and his quest for domination of the west began. The ancient city was destroyed, but on its site lies the monastery of Erdene Zuu, the first Buddhist centre in Mongolia built in the 16th century. It was only after this that Buddhism became the prominent religion in Mongolia. The Russian militia, under the orders of Stalin, destroyed much of the monastery in 1937, but strangely the three main temples survived.

Otherwise, I spent most of my time in and around the gers, and I loved every minute of it. It also gave me a flavor of what it would be like in winter when most of the day is spent indoors in what compared to back home would be considered a very cramped environment. After all, the ‘kitchen’ ger, where we spent all of our time in other than for sleeping, had a diameter of no more than 3 metres. At one time, I think we had around 15 people watching TV.

The traditional food was very good too, although a little different to what I’m used to, jackal soup for example, but also ‘buuz’ (steamed meat dumplings) and ‘suvan’ (fried slices of dough with meat). During the winter, they would have lots of meat as very little else is available, so during the summer, they would have lots f dairy products (what they call ‘white foods’) to clean their stomachs. This mainly took the form of homemade ‘airag’ (fermented mare’s milk), but also green tea with milk and dried curd. They also sometimes distil the airag to make ‘shiimin arkhi’, a clear spirit. I couldn’t quite believe how much airag each person would drink, I would think around 4 litres a day. There would always be a bucket of it and a bowl to drink it from. You never finish the bowl as it is a sign of greed and wanting more. Everyone would take turns drinking it. By day 2, I was drinking a couple of litres of it myself – it was the only cool drink available! I also brought a bottle of Chinggis Khan vodka for the father of the house – he loved it – not surprising, as the local stuff I had the following day was nasty.

I got lots of exercise playing with Uuganbaatar. He had so much energy. We played football, but he loved the nomad lifestyle. He would try and sit on a goat and ride it, like his father does on a horse. He spent much of his day sitting on my shoulders with a whip in hand asking me to run around as if I was a horse – very tiring!



His father, 28, was very friendly and so hospitable. He wanted me to return in November as this is the month where all four members of the family have their birthdays.



One the final night, he dressed up his son in traditional riding gear and let him ride his horse. I was amazed at how comfortable he was riding it – I guess it’s second nature to them, but nevertheless, he was completely fearless. The father then let me on one of the horses.

I then showed the family all the photos and videos I had taken of my time at their ger. They have very few photos of themselves, especially with their 6 month old son, so I promised to print some and send them via the tour company.

I don’t think I saw any anger or frustration on anyone’s faces for the entire three days. Even the women, who cook, clean, look after the kids and milk the animals, seemed so cheerful.

It very much reminded me of when I would visit my mum’s village in India (Bochasan). The roads were appalling, guests were treated with such hospitality, animals would always need milking, the women did all the work, the entire family lived under one small roof, and there was even a small black and white TV.

Fantastic experience – I could have spent another week there.

Was that Russia?

Firstly, there are more people pics from Altai thanks to Christina.

It was a short train journey around Lake Baikal from the western shore to the eastern shore, to a place called Ulan Ude. I had now travelled over 10,000km by train since leaving home.

Ulan Ude is the capital of the Buryatia Republic region of Eastern Siberia. Buryats are a native ethnic group, similar to Mongolians and are traditionally Buddhist.

There is not much to see in Ulan Ude, and its highlight is the great big statue of Lenin's head in the main square.



I was at a lovely homestay hosted by Andrei and Svetlana, and their two children, Yasha (21) and Masha (19).

The family has done lots to develop ecotourism in the region and has been working in tourism for 18 years. They were very friendly and welcoming - definitely the most homely place I had stayed at since leaving home. The house was fantastic too, built from scratch 4 years ago.

Andrei and Svetlana were also my guides. Andrei drove me to the small Atsagatsky Buddhist temple outside the city, which Andrei is helping to renovate and develop with the head lama. The head lama is a cool guy who wanted to take me in as a pupil - I look Buddhist apparently especially with my lack of hair!



We then went to a Buryat village for a traditional lunch - green tea with milk as a welcome, and then some noodle soup and 'poozy' (meat dumplings). I finally felt I was in Asia.

After lunch, I tried on a traditional Buryat costume and we played some traditional games with sheep's ankle bones (I wasn't very good), and had a go at some archery (much better, although I was out of luck).

I learnt lots about Andrei's vision for tourism in the region. His main project is to build the Great Baikal Trail, a network of 570km of trail around the Lake. You can visit www.greatbaikaltrail.ru for more information. He is very determined to make it work and seems to have the right people and skills, but can always use the help of willing volunteers.

Yasha and Masha get very involved in the projects too. Yasha manages the hostel that is adjacent to the family house and Masha was on a project by the Lake at the time, so I didn't meet her.

Eli was also staying with the family. She is a student from Glasgow who is spending a few weeks in the area helping out on various ecotourism projects.

Yasha knew I was keen on playing football (for the first time since I injured my ankle back in November of last year), so we went and joined a game at the local university dust field.

That night there was a big storm and lots of lightning; don't think I've seen anything like it before - I actually thought the windows might cave in.

The next morning, I met an Aussie couple from just south of Sydney: Rob and Janet. Svetlana took the three of us to the Ivologinsk Datsan, containing many Buddhist temples and schools, and housing for the lamas ands pupils. It's the centre of Buddhism in Russia, and was visited by the Dalai Lama in 1991.

We then visited an 'Old Believers' village. Old Believers are people who stuck to the old Russian Orthodox beliefs and traditions after the reformation, and were exiled in Siberia a couple of hundred of years ago. There is a population of about 250,000 of them there now.

On our return to the house, Yasha took an interest in the music on my iPod, but thanks to Apple, I was unable to transfer any of my music to his PC. I did however get some local Buryat music in return, most of which is played with the fiddle.

That night, we had a fantastic meal coked by Svetlana. Meat dumplings, grilled fish, pickled cucumbers, and great sponge cake (which I had almost all of). We were sitting by the dining table for hours chatting, although Svetlana would run ff every now and then to attend to her beautiful (although high maintenance) garden.

It was now time to say goodbye to Russia.

The wonder that is Lake Baikal

After some confusion with my itinerary, I headed out of Irkutsk into a cab to Listvyanka, a village 70km outside Irkutsk on the shores of Lake Baikal.

I was staying at a "homestay" hosted by Olga. John and Chris, both Brits, also arrived that same morning. Her house is a traditional Siberia "izba", a square log timbered building with a massive stove in the middle to keep all the rooms warm. The longdrop loo and banya are outside (design must be questioned given it falls to around -35 degrees in winter).

The local museum was surprise surprise, dedicated to Lake Baikal. A few cool facts about the lake:

* Deepest lake in the world (around 1.6km at its deepest)

* Largest freshwater lake holding 20% of the world's freshwater

* Can drive across the lake between Jan and early May where the lake freezes over with ice up to 1.5 metres thick

* So clear that you can see up to 40 metres down

* If there was no water in the world other than that contained in Lake Baikal, the world would have enough water for 40 years (my favourite fact, although the mathematician in me wanted to understand the underlying assumptions)

The very fat nepra seal is the largest animal in the region. We saw two playful seals in the aquarium in the museum. We were also introduced to the endemic omul fish, and then had some for lunch with cabbage soup and some vegetables made by Olga.

We also headed to a viewpoint at the top of the hill (opting not to take the better cable car option). The view was cool, but it was a little hazy.

One thing I did notice is the lack of entrepreneuralism, which has also been evident in other places i've been to in Russia. There was no shop selling food or drink at the top or bottom of the hike we did, despite everyone wanting a drink as the walk was fairly strenuous and very hot! There were also no (i've been told there are a few very occasionally) watersports on offer on the lake. This was not to preserve the lake and its inhabitants as there were many more boats on the lake. Potential business opportunity?

That evening we had a banya, where one of the Brits was very uncomfortable with the nudity.

The next morning, an American couple came in, Todd and Mollie, who had been teaching English in China for the past five years. They were heading in the opposite direction, across Europe and finally back home.

I then left for my one night hike/camp trip. It was the highlight of my stay in this region. It was a fairly relaxing walk hugging the shore of Lake Baikal. For my guide, Valyara, a biologist, Lake Baikal was the dream home. He would point out various interesting things along the walk. We reached our first stop, an almost secluded pebble beach with crystal clear waters, which was to be our campsite!



The dog and the brown man. There was another family also on the beach who had their dog with them. Like most Russians, the dog had not seen a brown man before and took very unkindly to me, barking for almost an hour. At this point, the dog's owner asked my guide if I was with him and if he could introduce me to the dog as the dog had never seen anyone look like me before and was scared. I charmed the dog within seconds and he stopped barking.

After lunch and a refreshing swim in the lake (water so clean that we also use it as drinking water), we went for a walk further north. This time we were walking along the no-more-than-foot-wide cliff edge, with a gradient of around 70 degrees, 40 metres above the lake, for 40 minutes! My fear of heights kicked in and I was not feeling entirely comfortable and was glad to get to a sandy beach for another swim. Then we had the exact same walk back - not physically tiring, but mentally shattering.

My guide then disappeared for 2hrs (only supposed to be 1hr) and just before I was about to tell the family on the beach about my guide's absence, he appeared with a girl - apparently someone who help him for the following day - believe that if you want.

I briefly returned to Listvyanka the next day to find it sprawling with tourists, mainly weekend visitors from Irkutsk, before I headed to Irkutsk for another homestay . I was very glad that I missed the tourism in town!

There was little in Irkutsk to write home about. Centre was fairly dull and Irkutsk's only pedestrian street, supposedly pretty, was not very nice and had cars parked down the entire street! Although there is a good restaurant on this street called Arbatsky Dvorik (enter through Café Fiesta). There's a few nice buildings in the historical part of town. It's a city of 60,000 students, but it didn't have a particularly vibrant feel to it.

I'm now off to Ulan Ude, my final stop in Russia.

Chill time

I did very little of note in Novosibirsk and I'm glad. It was the first time since I left London where I had no plans, but to chill.

The city itself, had a huge Lenin statue in its centre, but was not particularly attractive; but I liked it. Maybe because my hotel was only a 15min walk away from the centre so I didn't have to walk much in the glorious Siberian weather. Yes, that last bit is true - 31 celsius during the day and 20 celsius at night - and with no cooling to speak of in my rusty hotel room.

I had a great Italian meal at Makaroni, probably best meal i've had since London. Otherwise, days were spent walking up and down the main street and lots of afternoon siesta. Evenings were spent at the Old Irish, which other than a few expats, was full of locals. Having said that, this is where I met Lee, an English teacher from Maidstone, and Trevor, an aviation engineer from Liverpool, who had been in Novosibirsk for 4+ years. We then went on to Trubar, where I met a lovely couple, Sergi and Ira. Ira grew up in Altai, so was fascinated by my experience there.

Whilst wandering, it did seem that there were more women than men, and many stunning at that. At first, I thought it could have been because more men work or drive cars maybe, but I was told this is very possible as Russia still hasn't completely recovered, in terms of population distribution, from WWII, where apparently 1 in 4 men were killed (also has to do with increased life expectancy for those mathematicians).

After more than 2 days of R&R, I had my first train journey in 10 days to look forward to - forgot what it was like to be on a train for so long - 30hr this time. As Long As You Love Me by the Backstreet Boys on the train speakers as we head into Irkutsk, from where I would experience the wonder that is Lake Baikal.

Adventure in Altai

Wow, what an experience! This was no usual trip. I suspect this might end up being a long posting, but so much happened in the space of a week. It's also my record of what happened and hence the detail.

Getting to the Altai Mountains

It was a long train journey to Barnaul. I was first sharing my cabin with a man who smelt bad, but soon he left and a large, and very loud family came on board. The father kept on trying to get one of his sons to speak to me in English. They were all very friendly. I let the kid play with my iPod. His mother was playing sudoku as I was, and even challenged me :)

As I previously mentioned, I was held by cops while waiting for the bus in Barnaul that night. If that wasn't bad enough, the bus journey was. It was a painful overnight journey in a small minibus crammed with 11 Russian tourists and me heading to our base in Ust Koksa, a small town in the Altai region. The place itself was very nice and peaceful, although visa registration at the local police station took 2hrs!

Once I got back to base, I met a couple of guides - Yura and Yevgeny. They showed me their drinking habits - shots of Komandirskiy cognac with a cigarette in between shots, until it was time for supper. Everyone would take turns making a toast for each round of drinks, a Russian tradition. Yura translated my toasts in Russia for the others.

Supper was traditional "borsh" soup (beetroot soup with vegetables and meat), and some meat and mashed potatoes - yum.

This was followed by more drinking around the fireplace, but this time it took the form of Nemiroff Vodka (spiced up with red chilis). After each shot, we would eat something small. If a shot is refused, you are asked "Ты меня уважаешь" (or "Do you respect me?" in English). I didn't dare refuse. And then off to "bed".



Trek to the Multa Lakes, Altai

The next morning, everyone began to split the required food supply for the nights out camping amongst the group aiming for an even split. However, I ended up with all the heavy stuff, mainly potatoes, pasta and onions, but also cans of meat, crackers, bread, biscuits, and Indian tea :)

It was only now that I realised that I was going out treking with only four of the group - Veronica, Christina, Olga and Anastasia - 'appy dayz' - and we were being guided by Yevgeny, nickname Zhenya. The girls were all from a Omsk, a city on the Trans-Siberian railway between Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk.



Finally, after 3 weeks travelling from one city to the next, I was spending some quality time in the wilderness.

The first day's walk was fairly relaxing, meandering through forests and navigating our way across rivers via very narrow logs of wood. Lunch that day consisted of an apple, half a cucumber and some walnuts.

Veronica, born in Kazakhstan, but moved to Russia in her teens, spoke excellent English (thank God, otherwise my experience could have been very different) and helped translate conversations etc. She was also loved all kinds of music, included Venus by Bananarama and Hotel California by The Eagles - very varied!

Camp that night was beside a beautiful lake with mountains in the distance.



As we began putting the tent up, I realised there was only one (no mistake) and I would be sharing with the four girls - yes, me and four girls in a single, standard 3-person tent (while Zhenya had a tent to himself).

Dinner was porridge, which I don't think I have had in over 15 years! And there was vodka of course. During dinner, I also found out how they were all huge fans of Mithun Chakraborty, a C-list Indian actor from the 80s. Bollywood movies were very popular during this time as very few American films were screened in the Soviet Union during this period.

The next morning, we went for a very cold dip in the lake, and then went for a leisurely stroll around the amongst the many surrounding mountains and lakes. The weather was awesome and scenery spectacular. It reminded me of Los Alerces and Torres del Paine in Chile, although the landscape was not quite as dramatic. Some of the girls were finding it difficult navigating from one rock to the next, and at one point Christina got into a little trouble as she was stranded on a rock and couldn't get to any of its neighbours - Zhenya and I volunteered to get very wet and help her.

Christina, who similarly studied economics was a trader, but her favourite hobby seemed to be taking photos of small animals and plants. I couldn't understand it, but maybe it's because Russia has very little in the way of large wildlife :) They were particularly fascinated by chipmunks, which they associated with Chippendales. I told them about the clubs known for male dancing.

One of the girls nicknamed me the "grasshopper" as I was walking fairly fast. Personally, I would have preferred something like a cheetah or leopard, but maybe this was Russian "large animal" syndrome.

That night, I experienced my first "banya", a Russian tradition that is similar to a sauna, but not quite. You enter into a relaxation area, which then leads into a wet room for bathing and then into a steam room. The steam room was extremely hot, much hotter than your typical sauna. After 5 minutes or so, Zhenya said it was time to go to the lake. We walked out of the banya, butt-naked, and ran into the lake, which was around 8 degrees celsius. Fantastic! After one more round, it was time for "chai" (tea), which Russians would typically drink afterwards in the relaxation area.

After returning back to our tents, we were approached by Russian militia. It was common for militia to check passports and park permits, but it seemed a completely pointless exercise, and I'm not sure why they needed massive guns on them. Even in the middle of the sparsely populated Altai region, Russia's Big Brother was watching.

Zhenya was trying hard to speak to me in English, so I let him borrow my phrasebook. He found it very entertaining and it was soon being misused - "Давай в постель", he asked me to tell one of the girls.

Veronica, Christina and I played a "word association" game before bed in the mosquito-infested tent, which was funny given the language barriers.

We would start walking each day around late morning, but the girls would always wake me up early. Zhenya would always be the last to wake, and once I had to collapse his tent to get him up - he wasn't too happy about that.

We had a tough walk ahead of us the next day, and Anastasia was keeping me company at the front. She was an unbelievable athlete - it was like she was on autopilot. She reminded me of Paula Radcliffe, but in a good way (if that's possible) - tall, slim and very fit. Zhenya was scared off snakes so I was asked to lead and look out for them (but I missed one apparently).

As we stopped for the night, beside a river with the sound of a 25m waterfall behind us, we had some borsh soup - this was a daily occurrence, but it tasted very good, even though the meat was preserved in lard. The sound of the waterfall, especially while sleeping, was very relaxing, and I had my best sleep in days.



That night, finally, we would have "макaрoни" (pasta). I was dead excited as finally my bag would become lighter. Up until now, we were reducing the girls' foodstock. I didn't have a bowl (only a mug), so I would always have dinner out of the pot it was cooked in. We also had Indian tea, which I'm afraid tasted nothing like as good my mum's back home. They were sad when I broke the news to them.

The next day would be my final day with the group as I had to return back early to catch my train to the Baikal Sea. We decided to climb to the top of one of the mountains that surrounded us. The climb was lots of fun, randomly finding a path, and the views from the top were stunning. Zhenya was so excited at the top that he wanted to listen to Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit and Can't Stop by the Chili Peppers on my iPod.



That night, Yura, the other guide, joined us for dinner with another group. He was going to take me back to base the next day. Surprise, surprise, he brought some Nemiroff Vodka with him. One of his group was cooking pork on the skew - shot of vodka, bite of pork, and so it went on until there was no vodka left. Yura also put on a mini fire show for us.



The next day, Veronica, Christina and I went to a nearby lake for a nice walk and another very cold swim in the turquoise, clear waters.

Zhenya was listening to as much music on my iPod as he could before I left - Nirvana, Queen, REM, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails.

I then said goodbye to the group (strangely quite emotionally with everyone in a line) and headed back to Ust Koksa with Yura. Yura was almost sprinting and we ended up walking for over 4hrs in the soaring heat with only a couple of 5min breaks, but I had a 120-litre backpack with me!

I couldn't wait to get back now - I felt and probably looked a mess. I wanted a bed, although it would be a wooden bunk until tomorrow, a shower, which would have to wait another day, any drink made by the Coca Cola Company and a shave.



After walking 4hrs, Yura stopped in some village and asked a local family for some tea and biscuits. I was then picked up in a car by his other group and headed to Ust Koksa. The car seat felt so comfortable - finally some cushioning for my butt, rather than rocks or logs of wood! The car broke down on the way, but a new tyre later, we were back at around midnight.

I chilled around town the next day before the bus left at 5pm for 15hr ride to Novosibirsk, but that didn't factor time for tyre punctures. Everyone on the bus was dropped off pretty much where they wanted to be - 40 or so passengers on the bus and we must have had 20 drop-off points, and the last one was mine - right outside my run-down hotel - couldn't wait to get in a freshen up. I knew I was back in a Russian city when I heard the screaching sound of brakes of the ever popular Lada's tumbling along.

The trip was a brilliant experience. I learnt a lot about the local culture. Everyone would share everything: food, drink, bowls, cutlery, water etc. The people were very friendly, everyone greeting anyone they came across. The banya was another example of Russia's very social culture. The region itself is beautiful too, albeit difficult to get to.

It also reminded me that we can live off very basic supplies, and enjoy it, and how "soft" one can get living in cities. I'm not used to drinking water direct from rivers and lakes with bits of whatever in it. I'm not used to the lack of cleanliness and not being able to have a shower twice a day. I'm not used to borsh soup and crackers with salami and cheese every day. But although I did miss the variety and "luxuries", I got used to it and was strangely enjoying it.

I learnt quite a few new Russian words, and I let the girls know it as I kept on repeating them whether relevant or not. But more importantly, my experience proved that one can overcome language and other difficulties when travelling and have fun, lots of it. I also hope that I have convinced at least some of the people I crossed paths with on this trip to travel beyond Russia's borders, which doesn't seem to happen very often for various reasons.

It has definitely been the highlight of my trip this far, and for that, a big thank you to Zhenya and the girls.

Do I ask for it?

I've just been held by cops for about 30mins at a mini compound next to the bus stop where I was waiting for a minibus to take me to the Altai mountains.

I kept in good spirits, although very frustrated, and even gave them a Haribo Strawb each (which they all seemed to like)! They found my phrasebook hilarious as I tried to get them to call the tour operator I booked the trip through.

After the bus arrived, they let me go, after a few jokes between them.

I then met the 10 people (5 couples)
who I will spend the next nine days with - none speak English. However, I have been assured that the guide does (thank god)!

This is going to be exciting, tough, and very intriguing.

I'll be back in a week or so.

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The real adventure begins

I was finally starting the first real Trans-Siberian journey, a 26hr train ride to Yekaterinburg.

Not knowing what to expect, the train was in excellent nick - clean cabins, boiling water for cups of tea (and noodles), and the dining carriage was cool too, although food was average.

The people were far more friendly than those in Moscow. One of the guys in my cabin, an ex military man, after having a couple of cans of beer with bread for breakfast, found my travel guidebooks fascinating. While the dining lady thought she'd learn some English using my phrasebook.

The best of all was this little girl, maybe 6yrs old, who was singing along to "baby if you give it to me, I give it to you", which was playing on the radio (which they seem to play at the start and end of journeys). She knew all the lyrics; hope she didn't know what it meant!

The journey would take me across the Ural Mountains, and finally into Asia. The 'middle' Urals are not really mountainous, more miles and miles of very tall pine trees, with the odd lake and village every now and then. The lakes leading into Yekaterinburg were particularly beautiful.

Lots of music, a few episodes of Gossip Girl (!), some sudoku, and 25hr and 37mins after leaving (to the minute), I arrived in Yekaterinburg. I was now halfway into my train journey from London to Beijing; only 5,600km to go!

Yekaterinburg was larger than I thought and I was pleased to hear that most of the locals I spoke to there also didn't like Moscovites :)

It is particularly famous as it was here that the Romanov Royal Family, the last before WWI, the Russian Civil War and then communism, were murdered. It has a wonderful "Pond" too (more like a lake) in the centre of the city, and an impressive memorial dedicated to the Afghan War.

It had been raining heavily the previous week before I arrived so I had the option of cancelling my mountain biking trip for an excursion to a traditional Ural village.

Having rode a BMX without breaks my whole life (some of you will have seen it), I wasn't passing up the opportunity to ride a proper bike!

After a good night sleep, I woke up and Dmitri drove Estelle (?) and me to the point where Europe and Asia meet (pretty unspectacular, but lots of tourists) and then Estelle took me into the Urals to start biking.

After taking a while getting used to the gears, I had a brilliant time riding through puddles getting very muddy, admiring the awesome surroundings. After an hour, we climbed up the Ural Rocks for an incredible view.

Both Estelle and Dmitri were great, and I highly recommend anyone who's here in the future to join their trip (from Hotel Suite). Both spoke good English and answered most of my many questions about Russia, Yekaterinburg etc.

I was shattered after 2hr of bike riding. My leg is certainly much weaker than it was before my ankle injury, my butt was hurting, and I think I had the runs - perfect way to head into the next 10 days of hiking in the Altai Mountains, after another 1day+ train journey of course.

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Uninviting Moscow

Biggest city in Europe and don't they know it!

Unlike St. Petersburg, there wasn't much to see. I had a lovely tour guide, Dina, show me the main sights, centred around Red Square and the Kremlin. Militia were everywhere and I felt like I had a bomb up my ass waiting to explode if I took one step wrong.



The Kremlin is an impressive sight, and I especially liked the Armoury Building, which houses the collection of treasures accumulated by the Russian State, including the most incredible carriages. It's also amusing to see the "checking" of the guards ceremony which takes place outside the Kremlin regularly - check out my video, hilarious!

It's very obvious that Lenin is everyone's hero here, so I made a special effort to queue early one morning to visit Lenin's Mausoleum in Red Square. Security was immense and there were guards every 5 metres to ensure visitors remained respectable. I got told off for having one hand in my pocket. The whole experience was a little strange.

The Bolshoi Theatre is closed and will be for the next year or so, so that was that.

Another cool place to walk around was Arbat Street, Moscow's most famous street, which has a Covent Garden feel to it. I then had lunch at Café My My (pronounced Moo Moo), and yes, there was a great big cow outside. Excellent Russian food.

Having "seen" the sights, I went on a search to find an internet café - it was somewhere in the underground shopping mall near Red Square. By now I had a grip on the Russian alphabet and was using my phrasebook frequently. Even so, about 10 Russians I approached for help all ignored me, except the final person, a security officer, who responded "This is Russia, no English". So he spoke English, but had no interest in helping - nice!

That evening I ended up at the O2 Lounge on the roof of the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The bar was 5ft off the ground; I felt very short. The views were great although the clientele were basically bankers (ironic I say this, but wasn't really looking to discuss the current economic climate or UBS's stock price). And then onto one of the new spots in town, Denis Simichev. Cool bar / club, although small. The wealth around the place was very clear to see. If you weren't drinking champagne, you were a bit of a loser!

It would have been interesting to see Moscow 10yrs ago - I suspect it was a very different place, without the oil money fuelling the local economy and ego.

Londoners are fairly arrogant when it comes to acknowledging the rest of the UK and even other parts of the world, but they don't come close to Moscovites. These guys live in a different Russia (a bit like Mumbai and Delhi vs rest of India), and I can only see the divide between Moscow and the rest becoming greater.

Dina did tell me however that more and more young Russians like herself want to learn foreign languages and increasingly travel to other parts of the world, not just on holiday.

One think Moscow has got right is its metro system, the busiest and deepest in the world. Even though it sometimes felt like I was taking the Waterloo & City line to Bank, it was very fast and efficient, and easy to use providing you can translate Russian letters into English ones!

Also Russians seem to love cakes and ice-cream :)

Hopefully as I travel east across Russia I will find the more pleasant Russian people that I've been promised.

Sankt Peterburg: an intriguing entry in Russia

I got in at 8am and immediately had a tough decision to make whilst tired and hungry: navigate the metro system or negotiate "best price" with a taxi driver. The traffic was a nightmare (went for the taxi), and it turns out, I probably could have walked in half the time, and not risked my life on the roads of St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg (the capital of the Russian Empire prior to the end of WW1 when Lenin moved it back to Moscow for defence reasons) was built based on Venice, but with the added attraction of even more spectacular architecture.

Due to its latitude of nearly approx 60°N, St. Petersburg often enjoys beautiful "White Nights" from mid June to mid July - the views are quite spectacular, so much so that at 5am after clubbing I felt I had to capture it on camera, so ran to the hotel and then to the Fontanka Canal for some awesome views.

I walked along Nevsky Prospect (the main street) crossing the two canals (Fontanka and Griboedova) and the River Moyka seeing the usual sights, including the bling Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood (which is also Twister ice-cream style domed), then up towards and crossing the Neva River where you see the splendid Peter and Paul Fortress. If you want a walking route, just follow the order of the photos up to the Hermitage. I was taken back by the amazing, grand scale of the buildings, and how many there were!





I left the visit inside the Hermitage and Winter Palace for another day, so I could spend proper time there. And it was worth every second spent. In fact, if you're an art lover, it might even be worth getting the 2-day pass. Everything about it was striking - and you wouldn't let Delboy near the chandeliers! The collection of art must rival any collection in the world.



St. Petersburg had a constant buzz about it, but especially at night. I went out both nights I was in town, Rossi's Club on Friday and Lubovic on Saturday. Both were great fun, although finding anyone who spoke or wanted to speak any English was a real challenge. The other challenge was staying up until the next morning, as these clubs didn't really kick off until well past midnight.

I haven't quite figured out what I think of the young female population - these girls didn't have a care in the world, except feeling the need to look good! A few remarks however. Most of them are very tall (vs 5ft6") and very attractive; many smoke; they drink like fishes (saw many start their nights off with flamin' sambucas); and dress to kill - lavish dresses, huge big belts, high heels (even for sightseeing) and oversized shades. But the funniest thing of all is that they love posing for photos of themselves - this was evident when I went to Peterhof, where I thought I was seeing a film shoot for a Bollywood movie.

Peterhof is a beautiful town outside St Petersburg, and has an amazing palace, which can be visited by bus, taxi or boat. I opted for the boat.

The palace was well worth the visit - beautiful gardens, fountains around every corner and it even had a beach. I spent 4hrs there, but one could easily spend more time.

However, the journey to and from Peterhof was ridiculous, and almost put a real dampener on the trip.

I only had RUB600 (£15). None of the nearby ATMs liked any of my cards, so I thought I would pay for the boat ride by card - wrong, they didn't accept plastic. Return trip was RUB700 and one-way was RUB400, so I had to get the latter. Everything looking good, cool boat ride too.

But just as I get off the boat, they ask me for RUB300 entry into the palace (guidebooks suggest you can go for free)! I then try to pay in euros or pounds, but no good, and finally try to exchange my foreign currency for roubles, but no takers (even at a favourable FX rate to them). I couldn't get into the bloody place nor get back to St. Petersburg - I was screwed!

I then decided to see if I can get in as a student, ticket RUB150 ... using my driving licence. The lady at the counter tried her best to make out what the card was, but really had no idea - job done, I was in, just!

I had 4hr to see the palace, and to find some roubles. No ATM in sight and the ice cream vendors didn't want my euros either. Finally I was directed to an ATM - 3rd card worked (the most expensive), but I didn't care, I had money and even though everyone else did too, I felt the best for it!

With money, the return journey was going to be much simpler. Final boat back was at 6pm, so I got to the pier at 4:45pm to buy a ticket. But, oh no, they close the ticket counter for no good reason! The Russian tourists were going ballistic. After an hour waiting in the baking heat, they begin selling tickets and getting people off the pier and back to St. Petersburg - complete comedy!

St. Petersburg didn't feel like the most hospitable of places. I hope it's simply down to large city syndrome and language differences. Having said that, it (and maybe Russia) didn't seem to be particularly interested in attracting outside tourism: getting a visa is difficult (part explaining the lack of foreign tourists (most were from other parts of Russia), Russians tolerance of non-Russian speakers is nil and the service especially at the major attractions was surprisingly appalling (as experienced in Peterhof).

I partly overcame the language issue by liberally using the concierge services at the Grand Hotel Europe (even though I wasn't staying there) to arrange tours, check transport times etc. Thankfully they were happy to help.

All in all though, definitely one of my favourite cities and I will certainly go back. Magnificent in summer, but I'm sure it would be equally special in the winter, although in a different way and a whole lot colder.