Fi & Bryn's Big Trip

We arrived in Beijing full of expectation of our first taste of China - but also with a little trepidation at arriving into one of the biggest cities on earth and hoping that our Happy Dragon Hostel would come and pluck us out of the train station. Amazingly they did and before we knew it we were unpacking into our hotel style room. The hostel had only opened weeks before so they couldn't do enough for us and were constantly brining us cups of tea etc Before we knew it they'd invited us to Betty's birthday party and we were tucking into a Chinese feast with all the staff! Then we were heading off to karaoke with them all - although enough said about that

Woke up the next morning, feeling a little groggy, but determined to complete our free bike tour of Beijing. Of course, not before the hostel had gone and bought the bikes! And then we were off....weaving through the Beijing traffic. No really, it wasn't that bad - Fi only got stranded in the middle of a massive road just the once. 3 hours of biking and then into the hutong and treated to an endless dumpling lunch - yumyum.

The next day we set off to the Great Wall with a couple of people from the hostel. We were due to walk from Jianaling to Simatai - a tough 10km that would take us at least 5 hours apparently!! We had it sorted in 3 and were quite disappointed to realise that we'd finished as we could have kept going. Fantastic experience - hardly met anyone else walking it! It was great to see the restored and unrestored sections as well. Definitely an experience not to be missed.

Then we needed to see some sights of Beijing!

So we went off to the Forbidden City....

And then a trip to the Summer Palace and a walk around the lake...another fine Lonely Planet mess of course as we spent an age searching for Bus 375 before we need to revive ourselves in McDonalds For lunch we got the wierdest thing - a self heating lunchbox .....

And of course, Bryn couldn't miss the zoo and the chance to see a first Panda.....

Before taking on the hostel at pool....whilst Betty and Bryn were the doubles champions Fi was proud to give Bryn a schooling in the first game of the trip.

And Bryn couldn't resist visiting another sports stadium...great to see them with the lights on as well

And of course we went off for our Chairman Mao viewing - he wasn't in a photographic mood.

Bryn got quite emotional when asked to name two of the younger staff in the hostel team who didn't have English names yet. We chose Jenny and Katie! He'd never seen two such big smiles and had to autograph their english books!

Very sad to leave the Happy Hostel and we hope that the team there make a success of their new hostel! But onwards to Xian!

Arrived into Ulaan Bataar and were shipped off to the UB Guesthouse like all backpackers that had gone before and likely most that will go after. The hardest, lumpiest beds ever experienced. Off exploring UB we saw the Palace and went off to the Intellectual Museum in the afternoon which was full of wooden puzzles, which we were allowed to try and showed our lack of intellect in minutes. A niche museum for sure but quite fun.

Up early the next morning to head off to Teralj Ger Camp which being only 2 hours outside of UB we were worried it wouldn't be wilderness enough for us. We needn't have worried....the five of us were dropped off by the taxi and for the next 24 hours we hardly saw anyone.

Our Yurt...

Went for a walk around the camp and were amazed by the desolation and barren beauty of the landscape.

After lunch we were off on our horse trip! Our horses were more donkey-like and only listened to the guide who would throw branches at them to make them move. Bryn won sprint finish after a few large kicks in the gut, just edging Fi.

Dinner was served at 7pm...sun went down at 5:30pm. Due to the fact that we didn't have any lights we were all asleep by 8pm!

And then we were off on another train to Beijing...our best train yet...ensuite bathroom with a warm shower

Arrived into Moscow station and after stowing our luggage we were off to see what we could in 12 hours. Into Red Square...and saw Lenin's mausoleum and upset we couldn't visit as Monday was his day off.

Trekked over to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where it's traditional for an unknown reason to us for newly weds to be photographed. We instead got lured into McDonalds. Made it over to see the goosestepping guards changing over.

Visited the Kremlin and luckily bought tickets for the Armoury as well. Not a whole lot to see in the Kremlin actually - but the Armoury did have lots of bling.

Wandered over to the Gum Arcade which is a posh old shopping arcade just off Red Square full of Western brands. Security guards eyed us warily in our hiking gear.

Popped into St Basil's which is a rather different 'church' as it's actually a collection of about 10 chapels all in the one building.

Then we were off to the Sanduny baths for our traditional Russian bathing experience - birch branches in super hot sauna. Bryn sat and read his book quietly and did 3 sauna followed by cold plunge pool routines - avoiding the shady characters sat round drinking beer in the nud. Fi got harassed by the women to put a towel on her head whilst the old Russian ladies stoked up the sauna which resulted in everyone having to squat (naked) on the floor. Certainly an experience to remember!

Then another train station kerfuffle - went to the wrong station twice! It's long and complicated but things really are tough when you can't read Russian and your guidebook doesn't have the cyrillac. Only realised with 45 mins to go! Sprint down the subway to the other side of the road - Byns back nearly snapped with the heavy pack! Board the Baikal Express for a 23:25 departure - our cabin had a nautical theme with pictures of Lake Bakial covering the walls; the unfriendly butch samovar lady wouldnt accept our tickets at first as being genuine and took our tickets off us and wouldn't give them back! eventually she allowed us to board - phew! Woohoo! Three days in our little cabin now!

Time on the train passed peacefully playing games and reading in our first class luxury cabin. Got off and bargained with locals at the stops for snacks and goodies. Didn't see any Westerners on our train at all - and little interaction from the miserable Russians.

Pretty excited at my giant Baltika beer!

But it's all too much for Bryn....

The landscape started out with pine trees covered in snow and lots of little wooden houses each with their own vegetable plot next to the tracks.

But by day three the rivers were starting to steam it was so cold outside....

Arrived in Irkutsk around 9am and found our way over to the Baikaler Hostel in town - unsigned to avoid paying tax (hard to find). Freezing cold and snow on the ground - welcome to Siberia! Took a minibus over to Lake Baikal.

Visited the Lake Baikal museum (yellow submarine interactive video dive with the most unenthusiastic russian guide ever).

Tried to find the lookout and failed - found a water tower and an excitable horse.

Then walked over to Listvenyanka. Ate tea including Omul fish from the lake at the bus station cafe. Back to the hostel to chill out.

We didnt realise we had to stamp our trolley-bus ticket and a traffic cop pounced asking for a 2.75gbp fine. Bryn's principles got in the way as usual and we refused to pay, insisting it was a naive tourist mistake. We then legged it at the next stop, darting through side streets and into a cafe where we safely changed into our 'disguise' - waterproof jackets and rucksack raincovers on - no-one would ever see us!

Skulked in the shadows for the remainder of the day before heading to the station and getting our next train to take us to Mongolia!!

Arrived into St Petersburg full of excitement at the start of our big trip! But we were foiled at the first hurdle by the cyrillic street names and our roman letter map. We spent quite literally two hours walking round with our massive packs bulging with our library of books and wine cellar of champagne. Fi was moaning about the weight after 30 minutes and I thought it was going to be a long year! Eventually an English speaking Russian took pity on us and directed us to our hotel. Never been so happy to find a hotel in our lives! And even more happy to find some Champagnski awaiting our arrival, a dozen red roses, chocolates and not just a jacuzzi but also our own ensuite sauna. Nice one Wren and Bryn.

Up promptly for a massive breakfast at the hotel including all manner of delights such as sauerkraut, rice and frankfurters. Walked over to the other side of the river to St Peter & Paul fortress....

Over to Peter's Cabin, and the Aurora....

Enjoyed posing for photos with Lenin and then back on the metro to town.

Headed over to the Hermitage and spent about 4 hours in there wondering at the amazing collection of arts and rooms.

Dinner at a German beer house....

Up early again! And off to the Kunstkammer which contained numerous pickled babies with all sorts of deformities. Peter the Great had a fascination with them and had decreed that all babies born with deformities must be sent to him from all the lands. Lovely stuff for one's honeymoon. Had a laugh at the Russians having their wedding photos taken outside in their horrific dresses....

Then we were off on our guidebook's suggested walk around an island to the north of the city which was supposed to contain verdant parks and many beautiful mansions - where people escape from the city and relax. We enjoyed our walk around the building sites and busy roads, but at least with our Thames Water knowledge we could pass comment on the utility excavations.....

Walked back via St Isaacs and Decembrists Square. Newlywed photo opportunity by the statue in the middle.

Out to see the Church on Spilled Blood - pretty amazing mosaics covering the inside of the church everywhere.

And suddenly our time was up and we had to check out of the hotel!! But one final bit of luxury for us! We were off to the Marinsky Theatre to see the Nutcracker!! The first of our many kind wedding gifts - thanks Deb/Yves/Chris! We had great seats at the side balcony at the front. Bryn even enjoyed it! It really was fabulous and kept us captivated right the way through!

And before we knew it we were out into the cold and off to the station where it all turned a little nightmarish as we were told our tickets had already been picked up!!! A rather stressful 30 minutes with Bryn co-ersing an English speaking Russian to help translate and our tickets were 'reinstated' for a couple of quid. Train to Moscow overnight - the Nickolevsky Express which was an old fashioned style sleeper train. Pretty excited at our first sleeper train! Eventually we did unpick the mystery of our tickets and complained to our travel agent who had picked our tickets up and had them for us in Moscow! - they got confused over our complaint and ended up refunding us the entire ticket price of 200GB...woohooo.....shhhhh!