Gobi

Говь
Distance traveled: 10884 km

Next morning, after too little sleep, I woke up about 20 minutes late for my trip, fortunately the friendly Mongolians we're still waiting for me, and drove me to the rest of the group. Swiss the lot turned out to be, topped of with a Japanese house wife, they we're all alright though.

The bus was one of those 4 wheel drive soviet minibuses that you see everywhere in Russia, wonderful piece of machinery, if it brakes it will rarely be anything not fixed with a good knock of a hammer! The driver was a Russian educated veterinarian and the guide a fresh university grad, money obviously is in the Tourism industry, which i found somehow saddening - it tourism industry does however bring a lot of much needed foreign currency into the country.

The Mongolian countryside was a world away from UB, and the people a world away from Russia, smiling, helpful, and generous to the extreme - just the smiles is enough to warm anyones frozen heart, especially after dealing with the Russians who (are very nice people, but) wouldn't bring up a smile on their face if their life depended on it.

We stayed with Nomadic families almost every day, they were however all camps that rented out an extra Ger (or yurt) to tourist tours, still, the hospitality was extraordinary and it was a fantastic experience brushing my teeth before bed time, with goats, camels, cows, dogs and sheep running around my legs. Our guide whipped up one great dish after another, in the most primitive of circumstances - Often the lack of electricity and running water, can somehow make you fell like you've traveled back in time, even the "roads" are nothing but bumpy dirt tracks (my rear quarters are still hurting from them) apart from being the exact distance of two wheels, might as well have been made by horses or camels. In the course of a few day our day rhythm changed to that of our Nomadic hosts, up by dawn and in bed my sunset, mainly due to the lack of electricity, and hence any form of lightning other than our flashlights.

The Gobi itself it not a dessert as we think of it back home, but rather dry barren land of sand and gravel, with a thin layer of grass on top - just enough to give the livestock something to graze on - it was all mind blowingly beautiful. And there was some extraordinary sights along our route, Especially the sand dunes seem to have left a lasting impression.

I leave UB on Sunday with a bus to Ulan Ude in Russia, enchanted by this far flung lands, and with a strong feeling that I some day will return here, with enough time and means to really explore this wonderful nation!

Gobi

- Stefan

Last night in UB

Улаан баатар
Distance traveled: 9128 km

After waiting countless days, actually only 3, but being stuck somewhere, and especially in UB, makes it feels that much longer, I was finally set for going to the Gobi the next morning - that was until i ran into a speed talking obnoxious Brit, and he's two much more likable companieros, who offered me some Vodka, which following ancient Mongolian traditions, I - naturally - was unable to refuse. The events that followed this one glass of Vodka, felt - and still feels - rather surreal.

Having been rather bored in a couple of days, I had a hard time refusing going out with this lot, and so it was, that in the course of an hour, I found myself in a closed restaurant, at a Mongolians birthday party, and here I was in all honesty - force fed with Chingiis Vodka, which I must say is rather good, it is still Vodka however, and Vodka can only taste that good. But wait, the observant reader might go to wonder how exactly one is force fed Vodka?

In reality it's a rather simple procedure; you simply take one Englishman (preferably to drunk to speak coherent sentences) holding the subjects hands, add to that a Mongolian (preferably hell bent on getting the - often Caucasian subject - in the same condition as the aforementioned Englishman) pouring Vodka in a pint glass, and top off it off with a whole ensemble screaming drink! drink! drink! once step 1 & 2 have been completed - you'll get the gist of it.

This all seemed to be rather strange by itself, but the circumstances i found myself in, got even more surreal by the minute at this point. The birthday child turned out to be a cook-in-training at this closed restaurant, which i guess makes sense somehow. But apart from being a cook-in-training, I was here dealing with a Mongolian with broken English, who was a satanist, loved Norwegian Black metal and all things evil and had a heartfelt desire to join the Waffen SS, and even seemed to make a big deal out of the latter, in front of his (female) boss. Fortunately, battle hardened by Russia, I had a few defenses to the onslaught up in my sleeve, one of which was to leave 1/3 of the glass full each time (which is almost never commented on). This torture of all things sensible, continued at a Mongolian Techno club, where I was attacked (or rather given a light slap to my back head) by Buddhas fat Mongolian cousin (dunno maybe he had a bad experience with foreigners or whatever) not to worry, I was immediately defended by an armada of Mongolian guys (I told you they were a friendly lot) who promptly carried the attacker to the stairs, and in a rather impressive show of coordination threw this guy far down the aforementioned staircase. I needs to be noted that I at this point was far from the drunken state of my companions, which made the whole experience all the more odd.
To top of a very disorientating night, the birthday celebrant insisted on following us home to the hotel (cause: "I am waffen SS, I will protect you") after circling rather doggy neighborhoods for a very long time, and a great deal of asking when we would arrive at our much needed beds, we found out he was not at all protecting us, rather the opposite - since he went "I find great Mongolian slut women for you" - we got back to the Hotel rather quickly after that one!!!

Stuck in Ulaan Bataar

Улаан баатар
Distance traveled: 9128 km

I seem to be stuck in Ulaan Bataar (UB) for the moment, which is somewhat of a pity, since UB isn't exactly the most exciting of cities, rather drab concrete buildings and horrible traffic conditions makes this capital city a place you really only want to spend a day or two. However it does seem very exotic compared to Russia, and I'm staying in an excellent guest house in Ger's (traditional Mongolian tents) on an airy porch, at the top of a building, overlooking downtown UB. They have the cutest old Saint Bernard hanging around the driveway, and the owners daughter, the most adorable little thing ever, is in charge of the roadside store.

I've apparently arrived very early in the season, I've had a bit of a struggle finding a tour out in the countryside, which really is the reason to come to Mongolia in the first place. Prices have gone so much up that hiring a guide on your own in UB, really isn't much of an option anymore (unless you're lucky and find some English speaking person from the country side lingering here) .

So I've had to wait for a group to assemble somewhere at one of the many guesthouses, which finaly seem to be working out, so i should be leaving on Thursday, on a 10 day tour around the central and Gobi areas on Thursday. Which puts me in Mongolia way longer than planned, but from the pictures I've seen, and what I’ve heard from people coming back into UB - it's pretty damn amazing out there.

And except for their capital city, I really like Mongolia so far, while Mongolians didn't exactly have the most lucky draw at the gene pool - with their very round faces and long narrow eyes, the often reminds me of little Buddhas. However, to compensate, their maker instead made them into one of the most likable peoples on earth, they’re very very friendly and agreeable, even in hectic UB. Well - That is - until they get behind the wheel, and suddenly all the little Buddhas, turn into insane devils – hunking their horn every other minute, and make crossing the street seem somehow like a leap of faith. Being nice Mongolians, as they are, they will do their best to steer around you and avoid you any way they can - the drivers will even make skillful maneuvers into lanes with opposing traffic, but forced into a choice between pressing the brakes ever so lightly or running you down, they will not hesitate for a second, before mowing down any pedestrians in their way – It’s complete and absolute insanity! Oh, and in a last cruel sense of bad humor, who ever molded this bunch back in prehistory, made the language sound like a Greenlander who is speaking Chinese with a very thick accent.

Maybe the bad driving has something to do, with how long people have had cars. When communism fell here in 1992, Mongolia was a world away from western consumerism, as opposed to eastern Europe, who had it right at their doorstep – it seem to have cached on much slower here, but these days the winds of capitalism seem to be hitting with full force, and the old State Department Store, is now burgeoning with western goods from Gucci sunglasses to the first 100 different brands of shampoo. (and nothing resembling sunscreen grrr!!!)

Anyway, I’ll give you an update of my impressions of this far flung nation, when i return here in 11 days.

Ulaan Bataar

Stefan

Buying train tickets in Russia

By popular demand here is some info about buying train tickets for the Russian railways...

Buying tickets
Let me start by saying that many of the websites that claim to have some authority in the issue, are full of rubbish, they just want to sell you tickets! It is indeed both possible and feasible buying the tickets yourself inside Russia, even if you - like me - don't speak a word of Russian.

Basically I've found the best way to do it is to write all the information down on a paper in Cyrillic, and hand it to the ticket lady, I've found something like this works just fine...

No 002 Train No 2 22.05.2008 23:45 Departure date & time Свердловск -> Иркутск Route - you can find the city names in Cyrillic in the Lonely Planet 1 человек, Купе 1 Person (find this in lonely planet) and traveling on kupe (2nd class)

Sometimes the ticket lady will ask if you want upper or lower bunk, just point up or down. If the train is full, she will usually just wave her hands in front of her, in any case it always seem to work out just fine in the end - Although it can take up to a good 45 minutes to get your tickets, including the omnipresent Russian queuing. I've been traveling in May and June, and haven't had a single sold out train, even the infamous No 4 (Moscow - Beijing train) went smoothly, even if i bought it 2 days before departure.

If you are not that adventurous - The German Railways (DB) - sells ticket to all Russian trains. And the Finnish railways (VR) sells tickets to most destinations in European Russia. Also there is a Russian only page that enables you to book your tickets online, often the hostel will be able to book ahead for you, so you only have to hand in a reservation number at the station.

Platzkart or Kupe?
Lonely planet makes Platzkart much much worse than it is, if you've ever been on hard sleeper class in China, they are basically the same thing, I would even dare to say platzkart is a bit better.

Kupe is more or less the same standard as a western sleeper train, just with all the Russian nips that goes with it.

Prices:
The more stops you do, the more expensive it gets, however, the money you save by buying the tickets inside Russia, will usually make you able to do at least 4-5 stops for the same price.

Here are my tickets so far
Saint Petersburg - Moscow, Kupe, Train 005, 54.60 Euro / 405 DKK (bought in Finland)
Vladimir - Nizhny Novgorod, First class, Train 062, 1296 RUB / 267 DKK
Nizhny Novgorod - Kazan, Platzkart, Train 041, 534 RUB / 110 DKK
Kazan - Ekaterinburg, Kupe, Train 378, 1640 RUB / 338 DKK
Ekaterinburg - Irkutsk, Kupe, Train 002, 8495 RUB / 1752 DKK
Irkutsk - Ulaan Bataar, Kupe, Train 004, 2594 RUB / 535 DKK

Total: Saint Petersburg - Ulaan Bataar 3407 DKK / 16516 RUB

- The lower the train number, the fewer stops (faster), the higher the price.
- Platzkart is usually half the price of kupe
- 1 st class is usually 2-3 times the price of kupe

If you go with trains in the 300-399 range where you don't pay premium for speed, and go platzkart all the way, you are looking at a altogether different budget. However the stretches are already really long, and if you go on a slow train, on platzkart, they will feel even longer!

Schedules
Two sites have schedules in a comprehensible language

- German Railways (just type departure and arrival station in the normal schedule)

- YourTrain (has a funny transliteration of some roman letters)

Also, they have touch screen computers on all the major stations, with schedule and reservation info - it's in Russian/Cyrillic only, but if you play around with it for a bit, it’s pretty easy to figure out. All the menu's have icons that are pretty self explanatory. Just type in the destination in Cyrillic, and you can get information on when the trains are going (the icon with the clock and arrows) , and how many seats/beds that are available on the departure (the icon with the clock and seats - you'll need to type in the train number)

Hope that helps :)

Irkutsk & Mongolia by train

Иркутск & Монголия поездом
Distance traveled: 8015 km

One of the interesting thing about traveling over land is the gradual transformation you get to see, the further east I'm heading, the more Asians on the streets. And there certainly was quite a few Asians on the dusty sidewalks of Irkutsk. A run down city, that certainly doesn't seem to have a great deal of things going for it. Another thing I've noticed, is that on the other side of the dusty sidewalks - out on the street things are getting profoundly more Asian too - the Buses running in Irkutsk all seem to come from Korea - which is pretty easy to tell since they still have Korean advertisements on the side, and the prices on the side of the door is quoted in Korean Won. Also, half of the carpool seems to have been imported from Japan, since just about half the carpool in Irkutsk are with left hand drive - weird stuff! And all the fruits and vegetables here are Chinese.

Anyway, it is a pretty drab city as i said, so not much to tell... we cooked a lovely dinner ourselves at the hostels kitchen, after buying fresh groceries at the market, and then we had a party in the rather small kitchen, we all got pretty drunk - and Ben & Emma (whom i met on Olkhon) almost missed their train the next morning :-)

Anyway, following night i had a train at 5.13 in the morning to Ulaan Bataar in Mongolia, which was a real pain, but I got on it alright. Train turned out to be Chinese so the conductor (or Provodnitza as i seem to have adapted in my language) of my carriage was Chinese, this fact alone, made him infinitely more polite and service minded than his Russian counterparts. He even spoke a few words of English.

The border crossing between Russia and Mongolia, turned out to be something like the worst experience of the trip, not so much because of the border formalities themselves, which went surprisingly smooth, 5 hours at the Russian checkpoint (a full five hours quicker than Ben & Emma's border crossing into Russia) and half an hour at the Mongolian counterpart.

No, the thing was that I'd been having a few beers at the platform, when we were all suddenly asked to board the train, i really needed a toilet, but the toilet was closed and there was not a darn thing to be done about it! Imagine you're at a party, and are chatting to this really nice girl or guy, it's going really well, so you hold of going to the toilet, until the last possible minute, and you end up in a queue for 10 minutes - right? hold that feeling...

And add another 3 full hours!!!!!

Argh, that was a bad one, anyway my bladder held up for the challenge, and now i'm in Ganas Ger in UB!

Olkhon Island

Ольхон
Distance traveled: 7775 km

It was a misty morning at the train station in Irkutsk, when I hit the northern outskirts of the Asian backpacker trails - It was quite easy to tell since the number of backpackers at the station outnumbered the 1 or 2 odd travelers I'd seen at other station, by quite a substantial factor.

Behind me was a 58 hour train ride of 3 nights and 2 days, which is long enough in itself, but was made even longer by the fact that my cabin mates turned out to be to elderly Russian women (I'd jokingly asked for 3 Russian chicks when i was in Ekaterinburg, so I guess God has a sense of humour anyway) Not only were they not terribly attractive, they also seemed to be terribly worried about my health and size, so they were constantly feeding me with bread, tomatoes, cucumbers and god knows what else. Anyway I survived, and I can testify that Russian hospitality is indeed legendary.

Anyway, battle hardened from almost 3 weeks in Russia, I decided 58 hours wasn't quite enough of a challenge, and decided to head straight for the bus station for my bus to Olkhon island in lake Baikal (another 5 hours on a terrible road). But knocked by head to a big "Njet" from the Babushka at the ticket window - Road was closed apparently - or as i found out, the road wasn't exactly closed, but the rules and regulations demanded it to be so, and so it was.

Hostel was sold out, arranged a home stay, and just as i was settling, the hostel suddenly called at said a minibus was leaving in 10 minutes - Naturally yours truly was on it :-)

Ran into a great group of people, 3 couples - a British, a Canadian/English and a Icelandic/Danish on the minibus - and safely there and quite exhausted, we ended up having something of party in the sunshine on the balcony of our Bungalow anyway. Late that night, and a bit tipsy, and in search of a cigarette, I banged my head against a really large Russian dude. Who gave me a grave look, and in a very deep voice uttered "ВOДKA!" - and so, Vodka it was - everything after that seems to quite blurry! :)

The Island was beautiful, unfortunately we had the worst weather they had seen this time of year, in many many years. Which made it all that more fortunate that the guest house we stayed in, was so lovable!

3 traditional meals a day was included in the ridiculously low price - which basically meant you went to the restaurant, and in a matter of minutes, you'd be eating the most wonderful warm Russian stew, with cabbage and bread. It was sooooo nice! The rest of the 3 COLD! days on the island went with playing cards, sitting in the Banja (sauna)

... And lastly, we went on a grand tour to the north Cape of the island, with this wonderful Russian grandfather type, in his old army truck - the dark gray sky made the whole scenery look so dramatic - sometimes you'd look around and imagine you were on Greenland. And sometime it would look like lush Steppe. Our granddad for the day even made wonderful soup in a bowl under the open fire.

I'm back in Irkutsk now, and even though it's only a 5 hour (which is basically like 1 stop with the s-train, by Siberian standards - which I'm getting all used too) and we were riding though huge piles of snow in the mountains, here in Irkutsk you can wear T-Shirt and shots , pretty crazy!

Anyway, have 2 days here, and then I'm of with a train to Ulaan Bataar - The capital of Mongolia - on Saturday.

Olkhon

- Stefan

Yekaterinburg

Екатеринбург
Distance traveled: 4160 km

We'd gotten of the train, and was trying to figure out a way to get to this Hotel - The Bolshoi (meaning large) when we bumped into a Swiss girl, escorted by to men in rather fancy uniforms. Turns out this was the case of two Russian gentlemen who had met our new friend on the train, and during their 5 hour layover, had insisted on escorting this "lost" woman to her hotel - In reality, they didn't have the faintest clue where this Hotel was, or how to get there - what they did have though, was the ability to speak Russian :-) and they did get us there, it has to be said.

Russia being the horribly expensive country it is, we opted for rooms without private showers, much to the bewilderment of our two captains, who was fighting a loosing battle trying to translate for us, add the confusion of 3 westeners on one hotel, going in two different directions, on three different days, to the registration paperwork - and we had a rather hillarious situation on our hands :-)

Anyway, we got our hard fought rooms, and we were all rather impressed with the place, until we arrived at our corridor, in the unrenovated section - and in a flash we were back so Soviet times!

Unpacked the girls had their comrade captains waiting, so we all went for drink, which very appropriately, since they were navy officers, hapenned on the Yellow submarine bar. Turns out that even though they were both 28 years old, we were the first foreigners they had ever met, seemed like we were making a rather good impression, since they had a 2nd beer with us before their train - and they weren't allowed to drink alcohol in the first place :)

We followed them back to the station, turned out they had been on the train for 3 days, going from Vladivostok, had another 8 hours, before they reached their destination, where they only had 3 days of recruitment to do, before they were going all the way back! crazy! Anyway we wen't back to the Hotel and a some beers and wine before going to bed.

Next morning we all went to the border between Europe and Asia, and had a foot on each continent, apparently it's very scientific, and the real deal, even though it didn't look all that impressive.

In the evening we were listening to music and drinking beers in the sun, at a bar in the park by the Hotel, sitting there enjoying myself, I had to admit that Russia is really growing on me!

Anyway goodbye to the girls, as i had a very late train to catch 1:45 at night, it even turned out to be an hour late, for a 3 nights and 2 days, train journey all the way across Siberia to Irkutsk. A journey of almost 3000 km

Ekaterinburg

Kazan

Kazan

Well it took some convincing to get Phillipa here, but glad i did
since Kazan was an awfully civilized place, compared to what i've seen
of the rest of provincial Russia or even Moscow.

We arrived horribly early in the morning, possibly since we an a
heartfelt effort to fit in with the locals, drank some balticas before
bedtime. But the fact we were woken up a full hour before arrival, did
feel a bit like she was giving us a light taste of her migthy
powers! :-)

Safely at the station we were joined by one of those rare English
speaking locals, who offered to give us the grand tour. Which we did,
after a fair bit of dificulty getting our onwards tickets - Phillipas
name on the ticket had been past a russian numeraligist and was now
"Nationality Australian" in Mongolian. Not really useful neither for
boarding the train, or as proof of stay!

Anyway after all the fun, we joined our local, for a guided tour of
the city; the beautiful Kremlin and the old city. Before going on a
rampage in search of Bliny's for breakfast, all in vain, and rather
tragic our search ended on the local McDonalds - the only place open
this early. Next stop was an enjoyable wet picnic by the fountain in
the local park, featuring some very good local brews - and
fortunantly, this being Russia, no one found it the sljghtest bit odd,
to be drinking beers 11 in the morning on a weekday.

Out guide left to attend some Buisness, so we went in search of some
internet on the local university - guys im telling you, even CBS had
nothing on this place in terms of chicks :-)

Day ended hanging out in the sun, on the local beach, with view to the
lovely Kremlin.

Suzdal & Nizny Novgorod

Суздаль & Нижний Новгород
Distance Travelled: 2781 km

Ok then...

Morning of hangovers and on to the station, since there was a train to catch. Plans slightly altered the destination was now Suzdal, which is a world heritage site only a short ride out of Moscow.

We found our subway, and our station, relatively easily but then the luck sort of ran out, as we had apparently lined up in the wrong cue, which we naturaly only found out when it was our turn, after about an hours wait, wonderfull - Russian cueing, you either love it or loathe it.

So instead of another hours wait, we decided to give up on the train altogether, since it wasn't really working for us, and go for the bus instead, which turned out terribly easier, as this was quite simply a matter of boarding the first bus we saw, and paying the 150 ruble ticket, on the bus.

Well it all seemed a bit to easy, until i sat down in my seat, very much wanting to go to a hard sleep - but no - this being russia, my bloody seat didn't work - meaning i couldn't lean back for about 2 hours, through Moscow traffic and everything! After which i got so deperate that i actually managed to fix the seat, probably out of sheer desperation.

Once we had reached Vladimir, it was on with a local bus - had a fair bit of difficulty buying tickets for the bus, since the dear Babushka at the ticket counter, asked me something in Russian, and refused to go any further before i had answered a question, which, one would think, it was fairly obvious I didn't understand. Well luckely the lady in the counter next to her, seem to feel some sort of sympathy towards us, and away we were - on some German citybus - or atleast the entrance said bitte nicht aufsteigen :)

Arrived in Suzdal in late afternoon - and it turned out to be absolutely beautiful! especially in the twilight (the pictures should speak for themselves) . Well, as their always seem to be some minor complication going on in this country, obviously the Hotels were all full, since it was weekend - and a nice little weekend trip from Moscow.

Luckily we managed to land a room in Guesthouse (basicly a room in their house) at a wonderful and kind lady, it was so nice, and an absolute bargain! she even gave us biscuts and jam in the morning :)

Next morning we cruised around a bit and saw most of the sights (Suzdal is a rather small town, it does seem to have more churches than people though) and then it was of to Nizhny Novgorod, which turned out to be somewhat of a dissapoinment. However rooms was sold out, so we stayed in a proper western style hotel room - bathtub and everything - otherwise Nizhny is just a drab industrial town by the Volga..

We did have good fun ordering food here though, Russian/Cyrilic only menues. so it has basicly been a food lottery as of late - fun fun! and things havent gone terribly wrong yet! :)

Anyway, im outta time here at the internet place in Kazan, so.... to be continued :)

Still in Moscow

Slight change of plans...

Still in Moscow, ended up with a pretty cool bunch of people at my hostel here, and we went out last night, once again, I promise you guys that Moscow night-life is absolutely legend!...

Anyway, might have found an Aussie to travel around with as far as Irkutsk, if everything works out all right - there is quite a bit of difference in our schedules - it would take a few more stops going through Siberia - first one would be Suzdal a couple of hours travel outside Moscow.

Anyway, I'll keep you guys updated.

Moscow

Москва
Distance traveled: 2289 km

After 2 days further days of urban exploration, my impression of Moscow remains somewhat mixed.

Let me for a short while, go back to the subway system, since I made some additional observations regarding this peculiarity. The Russian officials responsible for the damn thing, have apparently decided on a spell of heavy vodka consumption, that if invasion is ever going come, the mighty American army will surely be taking the subway down to the Kremlin from the airport!

And so they have gone to great lengths to avoid this. For one - they can have giant flat screen TV's down in the deep, but ticket machines? they will have none of it! So at every station the potential invader would have to deal with grumpy old ladies, who just isn't going take it (or anything else for that matter). Second - They have managed at every single of the 176 stations on the system - not to place a map of the system. So unless you know exactly where you are going, and how you plan to get there, the Metro is absolutely useless, and they've made damn sure that everything is in Cyrillic too, so private Ryan won't stand a chance in hell - It's absolutely hilarious.

Well, some other stuff, I went to see Lenin, who is taking a rather large nap beneath the Red Square, apart of course, from his brain, which - sliced into thin pieces - are safely resting across town at the University of Moscow, Somehow I doubt he is going to wake up any time soon. But just to make sure no one does, the Russians have employed guards - to, well, guard, Lenin's tomb. And rather strangely at least one of them bears an uncanny resemblance to Gollum of Lord of the Rings fame, i wouldn't be terribly surprised if, after closing time, he climbs into the coffin with good old Lenin, and calls him "my precious".

Walked around the Kremlin, but couldn't get in - naturally - since it was a Thursday. That's obvious, or maybe just Russian.

Anyway during nightime i got to see the cool part of Moscow, went to a couple of clubs with a befriended Russian-Canadian guy. It was wicked, for all their flaws the Russians does know how to party, and the decor of clubs i went to, left London or New York very little to be desired. And naturally my halfway Russian host had me drink Vodka shots - i promise you - they're big, really big, and surprisingly tasty.

So naturaly next morning i woke up with hangovers - and to redeem ourself from a night of sin - we went cultural. First we wen't to the xxx museum, and among other things saw this painting which i absolutely love! then on to the armory of the Kremlin - very impressive - and i got to see some real faberge eggs too! While we were waiting for entry there, i got to see another glimpse of the bohemian Moscow that lurks in the shadows - we wen't for a bite, to a shady courtyard, down some concrete stairs, with damp walls - around a corner, through a security guard, and into the most classy restaurant i've eaten in for a very long time. Had an excellent Risotto!

Now waiting a bit until my train leaves for Kazan at 00:30.

Anyway, this anecdote, overheard on the street near the red square (Vlad translated). 2 police officers in full uniform talking to each other on the street, and one guy goes "Let's get a bottle of Vodka" And the other guy goes "Njet - let's get a box of Vodkas!" :-)

Arriving at Moscow

Москва
Distance traveled: 2289 km

- New cities can be disorienting!
- New cities where you don`t know the language or alphabet - particularly so!
- And a new city where you don't know the language, alphabet, and you arrive smack in the middle of rush hour where 10 million people are trying to get to work at the same bloody time, with the same bloody subway will just outright blow - you - up!

Well you guessed it, I did. The night train from Saint Petersburg arrived at Leningradsky (don't you just love that the stations are actually called that) station at 7.00 o'clock in the morning. And since the station seemed to be somewhat of a magnet for shady looking types, I decided against digging up my Lonely planet from the backpack, since it felt like it would be somewhat of an open invitation for one of those aforementioned shady charecters to come and rob me.

The priority, i thought, was getting my ass out of there as quickly as possible, and regain my bearings at more friendly territory. So I made for the subway, which, i wondered, was a very peculiar type of subway - as it had more than a handfull of exit points and not a single entry point. After a few rounds around the subway station, making me look like the stupid tourist i was anyway, I realized that i weren't the only idiot around, and a silly looking chap, wearing a metro sign was pointing down the street.

I followed his finger, or at least the direction it was pointing, and Eureka! 500 meters further down along the street, the architects must have run out of Vodka for a while, and actually added an entry point. However, for a metro with so many exits and so few entries there were an extraordinary amount of people in there.

And very rude ones too, at least those Moscowites haven't heard of cuing. So going down an escalator, with atleast a 1000 other people wanting to do just that, at the same time - and not being sensible enough to devise a cuing system, made navigation somewhat of challenge. Wearing a large backpack didn't exactly help things. Not knowing where i was, where i was going, and what line to take, didn't exactly brighten the outlook.

Anyway going on intuition, since i couldn't find a system map, and i couldn't find any signs informing me which station I was at (the architects must have found some more Vodka in a closet somewhere, by the time they reached 'signposting' on their agenda) I boarded a train, which was basicly just the train that send out the better vibes. 2 stations later i thought I saw some pink beneath some incomprehensible cyrilic writing, and decided to go for it - since my stop was on the pink line - this seemed to be a very reasonable idea.

And somehow, without really realizing what i did, i had ended up at Kitay Gorod, which was pretty much exactly where I needed to be.

My hostel seemed to share the general idea, that signposting is a bad concept. (I don't know, maybe it's the Vodka!) When you're located on the 3rd floor of a dodgy looking stair case, in a court yard of the main street, in my humble opinion, some sort of sign is not a bad idea!

Anyway eventually found it, and went for a walk around the Red Square and the Kremlin, very interresting actually seeing it yourself, nothing like i had imagined it to look like.

First impressions of Moscow, is that it lacks the grace of Saint Petersburg. While Saint Petersburg seems graceful, Moscow is bombastic. The girls in Saint Petersburg looked pretty, here they more than anything seem to look, well, Russian. And the clothing have changed too, from the very chick and fashionable in Saint Petersburg, to the more serious and formal here in Moscow.

Anyway, have two more days here, so you'll get a rapport on this - the largest city in Europe - in a few days.

- Stefan

Saint Petersburg

Санкт-Петербург
Distance travelled: 1639 km

Finaly inside a Russia, the border formaleties were carried out on the train, and basicly went as smooth as anywhere else - and definantly smoother than what i experienced at Newark Airport in the States.

After crossing the border with some delays, the train continued for Saint Petersburg - the difference between Finland and Russia was very clear. The houses started to look like something that would fall apart any day, the gardens are used for everyday food - and not just pretty flowers, and the roads were looking in a much more sorry state than they had on the other side of the border.

It took a couple of hours from the border, until we arrived at the Finlandzky railway station in northern Saint Petersburg. Expecting to be attacked by people wanting me to go to their hotel and ride their taxies - I was very pleasantly surprised that this was not the case - at all actually - after a bit searching around for an ATM and getting my first rubles, I went for the subway to go downtown.

Ha! - i'll never forget the look at the ticket ladies face when I handed her a 5000 rubles note (1000 Danish kroner) for a 14 rubles ticket for the Metro. But she got even when she returned a freaking large bunch of Notes back to me at a overcrowded subway station :-)

The Hostel - Cubahostel - where i've stayed, is a cool and lovely social hangout - smack downtown - 2 minuttes of the main street 'Nevsky Prospect'. The days have gone by exploring the neighboorhood around the hostel by foot. And socializing at the hotstel during the evenings - Now i'm really travelling again :o) wee!

So far I haven't been anything but positively surprised by this strange country. Things seem to be in a far better shape than we hear about in the west. Sure, there is social decay, but so far i haven't seen anything that i consider worse than a trailerpark full of white trash outside Detroit or something like that. On the other hand, the middle class here in Saint Petersburg seem to be fairly large, people even in the outskirts of the city center are very very neatly dressed, in posh brands, and drive better cars than we do back in Copenhagen. I'm sure if I went out in the real russian suburbia, the story would be different, but i'm impressed all the same.

Went to the Hermitage today - i guess all there is to say about that place is - wow! a few pictures in the gallery. Also bought my first train tickets, for the Moscow - Irkutsk leg of my journey...

... In the interrest of my personal safety, the schedule is as follows.

May 13th 23:30 - 07:10 Saint Petersburg - Moscow
May 17th 00:30 - 12:50 Moscow - Kazan
May 17th 20:20 - 14:10 Kazan - Ekaterinburg
May 20th 12:30 - 17:45 Ekaterinburg - Irkutsk (arrive on the 22nd)
May 23rd 08:00 - 16:00 Irkutsk - Khuznir (Bus - Olkhon island)

Inside Russia

Distance travelled: 1639 km

Just a quick post to let you guys know im safely into Russia, and at my Hostel in St Petersburg now - so far im pleasantly surprised, but ill keep you posted a bit later

- Stefan

Helsinki

Distance traveled: 1214 km

Finally i got to visit our brother people in the north, certainly the Finns are the odd one out in Nordic context.

My first impression comming out of the rather massive ferry from Tallinn, was something of a welcome to land of Nokia, when a girl on the bus showed a text message to the bus driver as her bus ticket - neat :)

Anyway, journey to my hostel turned out to be a bit of journey, as it was located 15 minutes outside Helsinki on the motorway, in a suburb called Mattby - and something totally unpronounceable in Finnish. Superb location though, nestled in a pine forest down by a narrow inlet in the gulf of Finland, with it's own beach - although i didn't dare venture into the water this far North in early May :-)

The next day went with sightseeing in Helsinki, which really doesn't say much, as here is not that much to see here, although the town is cozy enough. I went out to Sveaborg , which is an old giant fortification, on an island at the sea approach to Helsinki. Quite nice, it actually had a little tint of Christiana to it, probably due to the art school and the apparent left wing crowd living there.

Friday i was supposed to leave for Russia, but - luckily - i was double checking everything, and as it turned out, with tiny print, my Russian visa doesn't allow me to enter Russia before Sunday. So i tried heading for the embassy to have it changed, but the consular department was close, bummer, so i went for a travel agency close by, that had a big sign with Express Visas outside, and asked if it would be a problem. The middle aged lady at the desk looked at me with a patient look in her eyes, and with a firm voice made it clear, that this would indeed be a problem.

So on to the railway station in a hurry, since I had 3 hours until my train were leaving, and much to my great relief, there was no problem changing the dates of my tickets to St Petersburg and Moscow.

The 'Sibilius' leaves for St Petersburg at 7.00 tomorrow, and then the journey really begins :-)

- Stefan

Tallin

Tallinn
Distance traveled: 1118 km

I came to Estonia expecting somewhat of a gentle introduction to the wonders and horrors of Eastern Europe - Well - those sneaky fucking Estonians...

While we've been walking around thinking of the Baltics as poor nations, riddled with organised crime from the Russian mob, human trafficking, and an economy in ruins after 60 years of Soviet rule. They've been busy - damn busy - and frankly there's very little things left around Tallinn, to suggest you're east of the Iron curtain. The buildings have been renovated, and anything giving even the slightest stench of hammer and sickle - have been blown smithereens by the city administration. The Lada's og Trabi's of old, has long since been replaced with Volvo's, Lexus', Mercedes' and BMW's. And a pint of beer down in the city center, will set you back 40 kroner. And that's not all...

Estonia, or Tallinn at least, seem to have been subjected to somewhat of a veritable Scandinavian invasion, a couple of 100 years since the last conquests (where, for those who knows our history, is where our lovely flag comes from). Apparently business leaders around the Nordic capitals, collectively decided that 'them darn Ruskis ain't got nothing on us'. So after the last sorry soldiers of the red army left, and the Baltic peoples celebrated their new found independence - in the spirit of our ancestors, they embarked on a capitalistic and cultural conquest on their own, to regain the territory lost 100 years ago.

And so it happened that today, 16 years after the Estonian independence, people drive in their Volvo's or Saab's to the Statoil gas station, buy a pack of Prince or Red Corners, and pay with their Nordea credit card. And before they drive home, they invite their friends out for a Carlsberg beer, with their Nokia phone on a Tele2 prepaid service paid for in Estonian Kroner (or Kroon). So it seems all natural that the city's only two tall buildings, that dominates the skyline of Tallinn - along with the hill where the old town, built by Swedes and Danes centuries ago, lies - would be a Radisson SAS hotel and the Estonian headquarters of Skandinaviska EnskildaBanken. The prime minister has even gone so far, as to suggest they change their flag to a Scandinavian Cross. But hey, atleast they seem more happy about us than the Russians :-)

The city itself is absolutely beatifull, the old town is pretty big, with brightly painted old houses, impeccably renovated, rising above the cobblestoned streets. Full of (expensive) restaurants, sidewalk cafés, and trendy fashion stores. And some huge churches thrown in here and there for good measure. Outside the old town many parts of the city has wooden houses with small gardens and cedar trees. If you look carefully you can see some old soviet concrete appartment complexes - appartently the Estonians decided that if the Russians build it, they can live in it - and left it for the large (40 odd percent) Russian population to live in.

Unlike the ethnic Estonians, that doesn't look all that different from us - The Russians here, still very much look, well, Russian. And from i understand, they don't have much more money than their counterparts on the other side of the border either. But then again - who are we too teach Estonians good morals - we we're having a good time building parcel homes and selecting which jolly garden gnome to put in the garden, while they we're being deported to Siberia for buying the wrong morning newspaper.

Anyway, food, beer, sleep and up for a ferry to Helsinki tomorrow (hopefully in that order).

Tallinn

Lidt om Montreal og New York

New York New York

En eller anden paranoid sjael har aabenbart bevaeget sig fra paranoiaens hoejborg - pentagon, og ind i New Yorks administration, og vedkommende har aabenbart besluttet at frihedsgudinden er et oplagt terrormaal - well dough! saa sikkerheds kontrollen foer faergen til Liberty Island er af en anden verden. hvilket har medfoert at det kreaver en hel del taalmodighed at se den lille dame. Noget der ligner 20 minutter for at koebe billetten og 50 minutter for at komme igennem security - man faar dog lov til at beholde Sko og toej paa, foer turen forsaetter paa en jampacked bette faerge.

Min bus til Montrèal afgik kl 8, saa klokken halv syv ringede mit vaekke ur, min krop, eller mere specifikt mit hoved, var absolut ikke tilfreds med det faktum, efter en stoerre intern diskution, stod jeg op og begynde at pakke mit habengut, og hovedet luftede sin utilfredshed med at forvaerre toemmermaendene temmeligt betragtligt. Ned i undergrunden, og til bus terminalen, boarde bussen, phew, saa var det bare at lukke oejnene og blive venner med mit hoved igen. Troede jeg! for i sidste minut inden afgang. tordner en stor sort mand prustende gennem bussen, og beslutter, selvfoelgelig, at saette sig ved siden af mig, to minutter senere snorkede han som noget der var loejn, og mit hoved begyndte igen at lufte sin utilfredshed med den generelle situation - som varede indtil Albany - ca 3.5 time fra New York.

Ved graensen til Canada, blev vi alle smidt af bussen for at gaa gennem graense kontrollen, og jeg fik lidt af et chock da min taske ingensteds var at finde!!! jeg kikkede fortvivlet rundt, indtil jeg saa en dame nonchellant spadsere afsted med den. Jeg gik hen til hende - og startede hoefligt med; Excuse me, det loed for hoefligt, saa jeg forsatte med; what the fuck are you doing with my bag!? hun sagde ikke noget, hun stillede bare tasken og fortsatte til paskontrollen - uden baggage.

Og saa begyndte, yours truely, at blive en anelse nervoes for at idioten havde plantet noget i min taske, saa jeg traedte ud af koen, og gik igennem indholdet fra ende til anden, og maette heldigvis konstatere at alt indholdet var mit. Vel gennem graensen var det bare en time til Montrèal. Men efter 10 timer i en Greyhound har jeg ogsaa faaet nok af busser for et stykke tid! turen var dog rigtigt smuk, gennem blodroede og gule efteraars farver i bjergene, nice!

Nu er jeg saa i Montrèal, paa det fedeste Youth Hostel jeg nogensinde har boet paa, og nogle rigtig cool companeros. Cool by, selvom det hele foregaar paa Fransk, heldigvis kan langt de fleste snakke Engelsk, men det er vist ogsaa det eneste sted i Quebec at de rent faktisk ogsaa goer det.

Torsdag er det videre til Sarah i Toronto med toget, og saa skal jeg lige have fundet en maade at komme fra Toronto til New York... 11 timer med toget, 9 timer med grayhound, 6 timer i bil, og 1.5 time med fly, surt flyet koster 350 dollar :-( da jeg ikke er saerligt frisk paa en ny omgang grayhound ;-)

Bienvenue au Montrèal

Flyet landede som planlagt i Newark Liberty International Airport, og helt som planlagt var turen gennem tolden et mareridt. En anden passager fra havde i et akut tilfaelde af barnlig naivitet, fotograferet et stort skilt med teksten, Welcome to the United States of America, paa sin vej gennem terminalen, staklen blev naermest overfaldet af vagterne i tolden, nej velkommen skulle man ihvertfald ikke foele sig. Da det blev min tur, betragtede betjenten mig mistroisk, indtil han paa en naesten grinagtig, aerke amerikansk accent halvvejs spurgte halvvejs konstaterede "traveling alone!?" hvilket oejensynligt var vaeldigt mistaenksomt, for derefter fortsatte et 5 minutters krydsforhoer, hvilket dog endte med at jeg, med en slet antydning af irritation, grundet taemeligt rationelle grunde til at vaere hvor jeg var, paa det givende tidspunkt, uden selskab, blev lukket ind i det forjaettede land.

Da toget fra lufthavnen ankom til Penn Station paa Manhattan, og jeg begav mig ind i det der maa vaere verdens stoerste labyrint, The New York City Subway, opdagede jeg til min skraek at sedlen med adressen til mit Hostel var blevet vaek. Ordene Don't Panic blinkede et par gange i mit synsfelt, uden jeg dog kunne forbinde det med nogen af de mange neon skilte der arbejdede haardt for at finde et tilfaeldig epileptikker at tage livet af. Ikke at fortvivle, det virkede paa trods af den manglede fysiske tilstaedevaerelse til at vaere et godt raad. Saa istedet for at gaa i panik besluttede jeg at det alt andet end lige ville vaere en bedre indgangsvinkel at finde et sted hvor jeg kunne komme paa internettet og slaa adressen op. Efter en stoerre eftersoegning fandt jeg en lille kinesisk internet biks, gemt godt af vejen ca. 20 blocks fra hvor jeg startede min soegning. Og derefter var det bare at finde op til 94th & Lexington paa oest siden af central park.

Efter at vaere blevet installeret paa mit hostel, var neaste punkt i programmet at faa bugt med en kold fadoel, en lille lomme filosofi jeg har, siger at man ikke er faldet til, og faldet ned efter dagens strabadser, foer man er blevet svalet af en kold oel! ca 5 minutter senerere sad jeg paa en wannabee irsk pub, og forsoegte at overbevise en ignorant bartender om at Carlsberg paa ingen maade kunne siges at vaere en Norsk oel, som de ellers paastullerede i deres drinks menu, og at det egentligt var en betragtlig fornaermelse mod hele det Danske folk at paastaa andet! Og en haandfuld oel senere sad jeg paa en lukket klub i Upper West Side til fri bar sammen med to fyre fra mit hostel og underede mig over hvordan precist jeg var endt hvor jeg var, noget med at have den rette accent og mumle nok til at man virker vigtig, men uden doermanden har en chance for at forstaa hvad man siger.

Weekenden gik med plejning af toemmermaend og sigtseeing i New York - der er nok at tage af... Frihedsgudinden, MoMa, Empire State, Ground Zero, Ellis Island, Brooklin Bridge, Wall Street, Central Park var nogen af dem jeg trods alt fik naaet.

Anyway, jeg er lige indviteret paa en omgang oel, saa resten faar i senere :-)

Last post from the Phillipines

Hep hey, so once again your uncle travelling mack brings you news from his favourite corner of the Planet, making the world unsafe for god (and my dodgy alcohol stained memory) only knows which time...

Since i last bothered you guys with mails only slightly more useful than your average penis enchanting offers (or are they?), yours truly have payed a visit to the end of the world - you heard me, thanks to my unrivalIed intelligence, or perhaps the slightly more probable explanation, thanks to alcohol intoxication induced by Filipino rum, I managed to find an end on this planet everyone thinks is round - bullocks I tell you - bullocks!

It certainly feels that way when you're strapped to a toilet with diarrhea, on an island with fuck all to do but diving...

but nice things first, we travelled by pump boat one hour, then on the local bus, on road, which left more infamous potholed dirt tracks around the planet, very little to be desired. However it was rather nice to get off the beaten track and out into the real Philippines - poor but mindblowingly beautiful.

Anyway, after countless hour getting shakn' to the bone, Cambodia style, we got on a small boat that ferried us to a small island, rally nice, white sandy beach, rain forest in the middle, and no noises by the cicada's and waves rushing on to the shore, and as the sun set, hundreds of fireflies was illuminating the ancient rain forest, B E A U T I F U L !

Unfortunately, that was how much i got to enjoy, as monsoon rain, and severe stomach problems kicked into gear at the exactly same time, conspiring bastards! but all the same, considering this island, is smack in the middle of monsoon winds, we've been really lucky with the weather so far, so all the same. More worrying however was the fact that i was 6 hours from the nearest doctor, and displaying all the symptoms of dengue fever. As the boat that was to ferry us to the reef we were heading to dive was broken down, we headed back after two days

(and a miserable birthday, in company with a toilet which at this time had come a very close friend of mine)

when we got to the port city on our return leg, the surf looked like it would make any Hawaiian's mouth water and grasp for the nearest surfboard, which with our luggage unfortunately wasn't an option. after some looking around, and quite a bit of bargaining, we found a sailor, which, i trust, by mere coincidence looked very much like Buddha, and with his very little, rickety, but somehow charming boat - we threw ourselves into the waves - (since you are now reading these lines, and guess ill just have to drop the suspence and say that i survived)

so a couple of days of restitution awaits here on the resort, i am allready feeling better, after the family doctor (she sometimes come in handy my step mother) got me on a antibiotics treatment

Tthen we will head back to the Manilla meyhem!!! DADADAM!

catch you guys when i get home :-)

regards

El Grande Mucho Stefano Con Patatas!

Holla Mi Chica Cuapas!

Greetings from the white shores of Puerto Gallera on the phillipines, glad i got here in the first place...

Our flight to Frankfurt had gotten delayed, so when we landed in Frankfurt Airport we had only 30 minuttes to catch our flight for Manilla - unfortunantly the otherwise splendid airport in Copenhagen has been declasified to a high risk airport by our friends in Bruxells, so when we got of the plane we were houled by busses, to outside the airport area, to have a "proper" security check, fair enough, but unfortunantly it also left us in a rather delicate situation - as we had to recheck in on the plane, get through security, and immigration, and get to the gate in something rather close to 20 minuttes.... if you've ever had the questionable honors of transitting through frankfurt, you will know that this is indeed utterly impossible. Luckly i was able to charm a rather dodgy looking german lady, into checking us in to the flight anyway, following was a hectic run through the airport, my brother managed to have a immigration counter open just for us, and a 'apparently' gay securtity worker, let us straight trough to que to the security check. So against all odds we managed to catch out flight, albeit we had a large airbus with a mere 400 passengers waiting just for us for something like 10 minuttes.

VIP or what? :)

After a short stopover in Guangzhou, China - we landed in the terribly run down airport of Manilla, looked alot like something bought from a soviet airport wholesale some 20 years ago, just wondering how they managed to transport it here :) first impressions proved to be right, the country seems to be quite pure - much worse than Thailand and the likes, however i have to say that so far i like the philipinos very much.

Anyway, due to high seas on the crossing to the island we were go to, mindoro occidential, we had to spend the night on Hotel in Manilla. for dinner we went to a rather fancy Japanese restaurant, quite nice to be greeted by a large choir of "Irrashaimase" again - allthough to rest of the family seemed rather perplexed by this. Apparently it was really a japanese restaurant, so i had to order for the whole family in Japanese. including a fair amount of Kirin beers for sleepers.

Next day a bus picked us up in the airport and drove us to Bandang, from there we had to take a small ferry boat over the strait to our hotel. We have a typhoon roaming somewhere up north, so the sea was pretty rough, oddly enough it was the Asians that puked, while all the Europeans seemed ok.

This afternoon we arrived at our Hotel - and holy cow - what a change from the standard im used to when travelling this part of the world. Our bungalow, for instance, have a line connected to a house, which residents, a quite nice family, only serves our bungalow, shocking! can't say im to fond of the principle, allthough it is very nice. i just don't like being the rich white boy very much. Allthough i do like the fact that mojitos are 6 DKK a piece :)

The resort is stunning, nested around a small cove, with crystal green waters, a white sandy beach, and the bungalows in traditional phillipino style - dotted around beneath the palm trees. Gotta love Asia man!

anyway, im gonna catch a nice cold beer, prepare for my dives tomorrow, and leave you guys to it...

ill keep you updated, when i can drag myself away from the beach bar :)

- Stefanowich