Living life the Mongolian way!

Well, i believe i left you back in Russia's town of Irkutsk, weve since traveled to the land of Mongolia, and its capital Ulan Batar. Which was fun as we travelled on a two day train with our Finnish friends, an Italian named Nico, a Brazilian lass, a man named Jesus and his pet Flamingo Mario... And yes trhats the truth.

After a vodka fueled night we arrived into UB got ourselves overnight stay, although as we arriver at 6am we chilled on the sofa drinking tea and watching cnn and a man dressed as an alligator before the cable blew, so in went my 8movies in one dvd, which we were fine with until i switched on the kettle and it blew the power too the whole building! (how many languages can you say whoops in???). Oh and managed to watch the transformers movie... was soooooo COOL!!!

Then began our 6night 7day desert treck through the gobi desert, the gang plus Heban (a korean traveler) it was full of fun, horse rides, suicidal goats, star gazing, korean wrestling, camels (oh the pain) Mongolains, nasty buiscuits and of course lots and lots of sand!!! (we even climbed to the top of some perfect Dunes)

Desert toilets are also fun! (this being an advanced model)

The gobi was surprisingly fun ill admit, chasing sand twisters, sleeping inside woolen Ger tents, sleeping on the floor, getting eaten by desert mice, and even playing doctors with a sick mongolian baby (ok that one was a little more serious). But all in all its been pretty worthwhile! Heh, youd be surprised the things you can amuse yourself with in the middle of knowhere!

One noght we gopt lucky with our Ger... we got an electric light!!!

Off to Beijing next, lovely multiple day journey on the trains yet again!

Such is life!

Danny!!!
xxx
Sorry about the random photos... cant load up the images so have no idea what im uploading till its on here!!!!

Russian Trains, Lurkers, Polish Parties & Finns!

Well the 5 days we spent traversing half way across siberiaproved alot of fun, we dined almost everyday on the finest beef strogonof (a very russian dish) for just uder a fiver each time, but back to the point. The train ride was fantastic, despite mine and the gangs initial worries of five days stuck on a train they soon passed, it seemed that people very soon found out we were english as the word spread, most of the attention we attracted being from younger english speaking Russians, as opposed to the older, drunken lurkers who preffered to slap you annoyingly hard on the back to get your attention!

But yes, the train was fun (minus the facet we passed through six different time zones that proved hell to adapt too), we were the only english people, outnumbered only by russians and the large and very hospitabal group of polish that were also aboard the train. We spent some nights sleeping, others drinking vodka, well rather warm beer (пиво), some singing polish songs and others just chatting away to the people we met. Most of which proved to be very interesting characters indeed. more will be nexplained later.

But after five nights on the train we arrived form Mosocw to Irkutsk, said goodbye to our new found friends, mainly our polish translator friend Kasia, found our hostel, checked into Hazel's little gingerbread house (Hazel being the nickname we gave our russan extreme sports hostess whom fancies a bit of mirko...), were stuffed with pancakes, met up again with Kasia, went for GORGEOUS russian meal before heading for home meeting three other Finns (Whom we were to travel with to Lake Baikal and Olchin Island the next day) Linda, Walter and Nanne. The next morning we were stuffed with yet more pancakes curtousey of Hazel before we were shuffled off via minibus (Kasia also on board randomly) were we everntually arrived at the island and our fishing village hosts house (But only after being stranded without a bus for three hours). We swam in the freezing cold of lake Baikal (supposedly doing so adds a year to your life) before heading back for beer.

Next day it was off for a tour of the island where we were shown all of the sights and even made an apperance on a russian tv documentary before heading back for a sauna (complete with birchleaves) and a ngiht of beer filled, vodka drinking, champaign in my eye night of fun, all rounded off with a very long game of nothing other than the infamous 'The Question Game' (just ask dean, 'how wide...'), all this whilst my swim shorts almost burnt to a cinder... now they come complete with fron ventilation system!!!

Next morning, all feeling a little worse for wear, plus breakfast was as 8am and wed only got to bed at 4, before being once again bundled into a vam after bidding farewell to Kasia and the Finns, (well ubtil our train to Mongolia on the 18th of august, to which theyre in the next compartment). Sleeping most of the return journey we arrived back in Irkutsk and returned to Hazels grotto where we are to spend to more nights before our departure to Ulan Batar, the capital of the land of the Mongs!!!

Wow what an adventure eh!

Speak soon,
Danny & the Gang!
xxx

From Russia With Love!

Russia has been immense so far, been in St petersburg 4 days and off to Moscow on an overnight train tonight! (although im actually here now)

Yesterday was fun, went to a Featus museum, lots of strangely pickeled deformed babies in jars.... STRANGE!!! watched Elton John in concert... FOR FREE! lol, even though it was raining the russians were still full of groove and grooveness, kinda odd considering there usually rather glum and stand-offish!!!

God, last night at the hostel was fun, lots of vodka (well everydays full of vodka but you know) erm, yeah theres like 28 aussies here and they were all in our room last night, was ace guess what there favourite word is... Tis BOLLOCKS!!!! Wow Deanus would be proud!
Hey they even knew of the potter puppet pals, somehow managed to initiate a mass sing song of our favourite potter jingle, me taking on the role of Harry!

Harry potter, harry potter ooooo!!!

Was ace, hope all is well back in the land of Eng!!!Speak to you soonage!Danny!xx

But now as i said im residing in Moscow, leaving our buddies Alex, K and the aussie tour group behindmade way for the station. Anyway moscows not quite got the charm of St petersburg but hey not that bad... even though i only had 2 hours sleep from the overnight train! :s

Did the sight seeing thing today, missed Lenins corpse, they closed it up as we got there, damn 13.00 closing time! Had a great meal, with a rather cheeky waitress who was all for entertaining us whilst we ate, as well as cheekily hiding miikas flip flop!!!!! Met a few more english lasses back at the hostel, there dopin a similar thing to us but ending in aus with a work visa i think, given a few tips and pointers for asia. Met a few more people doing the trans siberian like us but a day or too later!

Heh, mirkos currently having fun with the local pussy (cat), spanish guys have decided i dont need a light on to use the computer and the rest of our gangs cooking some dodgey russian noodles!

Been on the hunt for an eng lang cinema whilst in russia, theres lots of them, but none in english. the price is bout 2pound 50 for an adult ticket too! Kinda gutted theres masses of adverts for the transformers movie... and unless i want to watch a dodgey dub, then no thanks. (Ratatoouilee or however its spelt is also pretty big too). anyone heard of a film called stardust???

Anyway, gunna head off and freshen up, off on the Trans siberian all the way to Irkutsk tomorrow... That means a lovely 5 day non stop train ride... But dont worry, weve stocked up on the essentials, foods provided on the train with endless amounts of hot water, so were prepared with our copious amounts of teabags and bottle of vodka! And for those that arent usre we can look after ourown company have no fear, were not anything like what you think!!!

Take care chaps and chapettes,
speak to you in mebe a week!
Danny!!!
xxx

Way Hei, Suomi!

Well the blogs been a little desolate for a while, and ive finally managed to find unlimited net access for only the price of a coffe, but anyway... Finlands been great so far, Myself Dean and Miika finally arrived on the 27th after an overnight ship journey from sweeden (oh, our hostel there was great, it was a high school converted to summer lodgings, we stayed in an emty corridor classroom, the place would hacve been the perfect setting for a horror flick!) but whislt in the ship we feasted like kings on the 33euro buffet, caviar, sushi, steak... but your not really interested in that.

Met up with the rest of our party, Mirko that day then Cherry and Lee when they arrived that evening, since then weve done alot of swimming in lákes, eaten masses of extremely freshand healthy food (no ham and cheese baguettes here) cycled a fiar bit, met up with random finnish girls and spent the day lazing around a rather large water park. last day here today, Dean already departed for his return flight too, hes really had an amazing time... Not that he really wanted to go home, he's well and truly been bitten by the travel bug!

Speaking of Dean he has been ace to travel with... Even if he did look like a Sweedish lady, (hums: Duh duh, duh duh...) :P

Off to Russia on the 4th, should be fun, bought our tickets today, so were deffinately off... the only problem being the lack of hostel availability (?) but it should prove fun to find!

Speak soon guys and gals!
Danny!
xx