Day 15 sat 10th July - journeys end

Day 15 - journey's end

Two weeks ago robert and i set out from Singapore to hong kong, and from there we travelled 5000 miles by train: seven trains plus numerous metros (Beijing, Moscow and paris); and passed through ten countries, across two continents.

Our journey now ends in Largs, 30 miles west of Glasgow on Scotland's ayrshire coast.

It was raining when we set out, and is raining again on Scotland. Rain is auspicious in some parts of the world.

Train travel is fun, and can be comfortable. It is more environmentally friendly than air travel, less prone to delays, and avoids the discomfort of turbulence.

We are grateful for technology (ipad and iPhone got alot of use), and most trains allowed some form of charging of gadets.

The trip, including tickets and hotels, was about the same cost as a return flight, but much of that was fungible, we chose to travel in fairly comfy class, and due to time constraints had to get express visas, which were expensive. It is probably possible to do the trip at 30 to 40 pc less, of comfort and time are not pressing issues.

We had fun. The end of the trip is always a bit of an anticlimax, as the journey itself is the thing, but we will have lots of memories.

Thanks to Marie and Ellen for allowing us to make the trip.

Robert and Craig


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Location:Largs, Ayrshire

Day 15 - Ithaca

Day 15

The eurostar pulled into London st pancras on time at 930pm and we grabbed a taxi to euston. We could have walked, but I had taken the opportunity to buy some nice French wine and a slab of very smelly Brie at gare du nord, so we were somewhat encumbered.

Euston had it share of Friday evening inebriates, and a few people like ourselves awaiting the 23:50 Caledonian sleeper service to Glasgow.

We are now at Glasgow central, after a surprisingly good, although short, night's rest. Apart from our next door neighbour having a loud nightmare, awaking in panic as to where they were, the journey was uneventful.

Our train, our last train, to largs departs at 8:45, and appears to be on time.

Our odyssey is nearing its end, with largs our Ithaca.

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Location:Glasgow

Day 14 - Friday 9th July - Paris

Day 14 - Paris

We arrived in Paris, formerly known as Paris of Europe, at 923. We arrived at gare de l'est, and after a petit dejeuner with a former colleague from Vietnam, we took the metro to gare du nord and stored our bags in left luggage.

We walked to the louvre, immersing ourselves in the antiquities, though after a while Heracles, baccus and their Mileu started to blend into a mix of white marbled torsos. Mona Lisa was enigmatic, and crowded with flashy admirers.

Paris was hot, possibly hotter than Paris, Texas. Even on the seine, our sanity frayed under the heat.

We skipped the Eiffel tower, yes, I know, but steel, steps and stifling heat would have finished us off.

Instead we headed to the Elysian fields, and joined other heroes in airconditioned starbucks.

Too soon it was time to leave, so we grabbed a taxi back to gare du nord, sank a small glass of crozes hermitage (a decent 375 ml glass), a plate of smoked salmon and a steak fritte. We skipped the oysters, and went for our first train of the evening, the 2013 eurostar to st pancras.




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Location:Paris

Day 13 - thurs 8th July - Berlin

Day 13 - Berlin

Overnight we crossed Belarus and poland, before arriving in Germany in the early hours (about the same time Spain ended their world cup hopes ).

We arrived at Berlin hautbanhof at 9 am, left our bags in left luggage and began a whirlwind tour of Berlin.

Robert dragged me round a few museums, thank you rick riordan (the writer of Percy Jackson books) for giving children an interest in the classics.

We ticked off checkpoint charlie, Brandenburg gate, Reichstag, nudists in tier garden, the wall, and also visited the excellent acquarium.

We returned to the station, exhausted, and got on the aptly named Perseus, the 19:57 overnight express to Paris.

Apart from the relative "hardship" of sharing a shower with the rest of the carriage (not at the same time), and relative only compared to the previous Moscow express, the journey was smooth.




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Day 12 - weds 7 July

Day 12 - off to Berlin

We were up at 6am to take metro to belorusky station ( via park cultury). The moscva express departed at 0800. Very comfortable cabin, ensuite shower and wc, and tv with DVD player in room. The food was also excellent, Russian soup, salad and pork chop.

Short stops at smolensk, and Minsk, where the engine was changed.

At the Russian border we had a much longer stop as the bogies were changed, moving from Russian wide gauge to the narrower European gauge. The process is interesting and takes a couple of hours as each carriage is jacked up, and the undercarriage (or bogie) is swapped out along the track.

The next stop was in Belarus, at terespol, with some serious looking customs and migration staff.

Robert and I took advantage of the DVD player to watch series 7 of Lost. We also took advantage of the ensuite shower: hot and powerful.


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Location:Moscow to Berlin

Day 10 continued - in Moscow

Day 10 - Moscow

The train pulled into Moscow marking the end of an epoch of our journey. As with all sincere travel, we felt a mixture of emotions: panic, arriving in a city where we can't read the Cyrillic alphabet, and don't know a single compound Russian phrase, other than "my name is billy Joel", which I recall from the video of Billy Joels Leningrad tour in the late eighties; insecurity, leaving the safe and predictable environment of our train home for the last week (cabbage, we have christened it, a cross between cabin and carriage); awkward sadness, the travelers dilemma of making acquaintances during a shared and brief journey where you can slice through the layers of personality like a paring knife through an onion, and then vanish into the metro; and, adrenalin rush of a new city, new country and a beautiful sunny day to enjoy it.

Despite the incomprehensible names, the Moscow metro lives up to expectations: clean, cheap, efficient and, other than guessing which train to get on, easy to use. Within one hour we were off the train, having thanked our Chinese attendants and donating all our spare renminbi, past the farewells to our great travel companions, through three stops on the red line (central line?) of the metro, and exploding our bags in the hotel Budapest.

We showered, such joy, then walked 15 mins to red square.

Quite awesome, incredible, what a treasure of Europe. The first step into red square is like nothing else. If you imagine walking into the centre of Venice, Prague, Paris, London and, dare I say, glasgow at the same moment in time and knocking back an espresso, stavopramen, cognac, half pint of bitter, and a wee dram, and, ignoring any feeling of nausea, the light-headedness would make you feel you were somewhere like nowhere else.

After an obligatory big-city-square-expensive-cappuccino we took the metro to gorky park, " follow .... Down to gorky park.. And wrestle with the winds, of chaaaaanngggee". Robert is much braver than me and went on a g-pulling, corkscrewing roller coaster. I looked after our bags.

More metro, then a quiet dinner and bed.




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Location:Moscow

Day 10- nearing Moscow

Day 10 - monday 5th july

Gorky station at 7 am, then vladimir at 10.20am, with a 15 minute stop at each. Even though the stops are short, they are highly prized and anticipated. A good chance to stretch legs, watch the engine being changed and take some photos. Vladimir is flanked by the glistening gold turrets of Assumption cathedral on the hill. The sky is copper sulphate blue and the gold turrets stand out for miles.

We feasted on some hard boiled eggs (going a bit green), a hunk of excellent black bread, a softening banana and the last of a jar of Chinese peaches.

We are 60km outside of Moscow and have travelled over 6000km by rail since our journey began.

We are looking forward to the sights of Moscow, and walking for a couple of days before the next train on Wednesday to Berlin.


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Location:66 km outside Moscow

Day 9 - U2 and the Romanovs

Sunday 4th July 2010

2144 km to Moscow

The train stopped shortly after breakfast at Tyuman (the oldest city in Siberia). On the other slide of the platform sat the train heading east towards beijing, a Russian train with more surly looking attendants than our Chinese ones.

We said goodbye to Siberia and carried on to Yekaterinburg. This town has quite a history. In a villa nearby the Russian royal family, the romanovs, were brutally executed at the hands of the bolsheviks in 1918. After being held under arrest for two months the entire family was shot, bayonetted, dismembered and then burnt.

Also in the same vicinity, us pilot Gary powers was captured when his U2 spy plan was shot down. The soviets found undeniable proof that he had been spying and made quite a song and dance about it. The song became popular, and then a band was formed, initially called powers, but then renamed U2. The bands lead singers name is the short form of BelieveitOrNOt.

Despite the infamy of the town, we only had 20 mins in the station, just enough time to stretch our legs a bit and hum Billy Joels "we didn't start the fire".

We left Asia at km 1777 from Moscow and passed through the urals. Then came Perm, where Robert bought a smoked salmon sandwich for 30 roubles (1$) and we stocked up on bread, orange juice and hard boiled eggs for tomorrow's breakfast of kings.

Tonight is our last night on this train. We battle on to Moscow tomorrow. The fan in our cabin packed in, so we have been moved to the adjoining cabin. Should take us about 10 mins to mess it up like the last one.

We may try some vodka to celebrate the last night and the us independence day, with our american fellow travellers. Any excuse to try some on the train. Can't be worse than last night's russian champagne (champansky).




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Location:2144 km to Moscow

Day 8 continued - "are we there yet?"

Just crossed a time-zone, we are now three hours ahead of Moscow time. A little over 3390 km to go to Moscow.

Long stretches of birch wood forests flank the railway line for hundreds of kilometers, and, in the absence of border crossings, or many stops, a sense of early shoots of ennui in fellow passengers (and I don't mean Robert).

A bit of a book club started earlier. Robert borrowed a "warrior" book (about cats, apparently) from Brenda, a grade 7 English teacher from the international school in beijing. He read it in a single sitting and returned it with gratitude. One of the other families further down the train had run out of reading material, so their son borrowed "warrior" from Brenda, and one of the other children did a book swap with Robert. I did my part and passed a lousy Tom sharpe book (which read as if it had been made for a BBC tv series) to Stuart, a teacher from shanghai.

Meals and stops en route are the high point of days like this.

The restautarant car is quite interesting, and is under the control of the Three Weird Sisters. one makes up the food, one prepares the trolley (beer, chocolate, chips - so no takers there) and one fabricates the bill. Whatever you order, or eat, seemingly regardless of the combination, volume or intrinsic value, comes to us$30. "a drum, a drum, the next punter has come.."

Actually the food is not bad at all. I had a most agreeable salmon sashimi salad, Robert a chicken fillet with sauté potatoes and I also had a large bottle of russian lager all for $30.

The russian beer is good, if not unpronounceable. Yesterday I asked for some Czech beer, but got a stern "russian beer" reply. Weird sister number three had Czech beer, but is clearly proud of her nation's bevvy.

Robert and I retreated into post perandial lethergy. Robert read two more books, I stumbled through a William Boyd. I find that William Boyd is never quite as good as Julian Barnes, and given my alphabetical ordering, the two authors fight for precious space in our bookshelf back in Singapore, so I'm afraid this one won't be coming back, and will be donated to the trans-Mongolian book club.


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Location:3394km from Moscow

Day 8 - Taiga, Taiga, burning bright

The sun finally crept beneath the covers at midnight, and we then crept beneath our own blankets.

During the night the train jolted and snaked through the foothills of the Eastern Sayan Mountains.

We awoke and ate the last edible portion of our five day old bread with liberal application of peanut butter and manuka-esque honey. Our food pile remains substantial, however, and we have yet to make a dent in the catering pack of Oreos.

We have just passed the 3932km marker (the distance from Moscow) which signifies we are halfway between Beijing and Moscow.

We take for granted that we can sweep through the countryside at 60kph on electrified tracks, though building the tracks across the swampy Taiga (frozen for Several months) and crossing several wide rivers would have been a significant undertaking in the late 1890s.

Much of this part of russia is comprised of timber forest and lignite (brown coal) mines.

Robert is making his way through his pile of books ( physical and iPod based) and one of our fellow travellers has lent him a Warriors book, about cats apparently. I have also made steady progress through several books and podcasts of BBC radio 2, 3 and 4. In Moscow we hope to upload additional episodes.

On on..

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Location:4000 km from Moscow

Day 7 contd

The southern tip of Lake baikal extended for a couple of hundred kilometeres, and was really beautiful.

Robert and I stuck our heads out of the window and drew in deep draughts of cool fresh air. Body Shop could bottle it (the air or the lake) for an anti-aging tonic.

It was almost sad to leave the lake, and curve north west to irkutz, once known as the Paris of Siberia (it is odd that so many strange places, whose stars have dimmed, are know as the "Paris of the.." or the "Venice of the..").

We have found the missing restaurant car at the back of the train. It is now a Russian car, with the appearance of a retro - russian diner(according to Robert). We lunched there, deciphering the russian menu with the help of the waitress. Robert had grilled salmon, I had the stroganoff. With bread and beer and random additional charges, plus the foreign exchange losses converting a mix of dollars and euros into roubles, lunch set us back $30.

At irkutz we said goodbye to two Israeli academics who were breaking their journey at lake baikal, and wandered up and down the platform, amazed at how many Russians were smoking.

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Location:5000 km from Moscow

Day 7 - in Russia

Day 7
Skirting the southern edge of lake baikal. The deepest freshwater lake in the world, holding 20 percent of the worlds freshwater.

An amazing lake.

During the night the restaurant car appears to have vanished, so tucking into cashews and snacks.

Irkutsk is the next major town.


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Location:Russia

Day 6- Mongolia

The gobi desert was amazing, more like a prairie, but seemingly endless and with an eerie openness.

The train snaked through the vast plains, offering a view of the train itself from our carriage.

The border crossing was slow. A very thorough inspection by a surly pair of guards. We finally pulled away from Mongolia and into Russia at 230 am. I think..



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Day 6 - first class travel through Mongolia

We had been able to upgrade our tickets to first class (deluxe soft sleeper) for us$140 which provided for a private two berth carriage, with a shared shower. The shower is hand-held, and as Robert poetically said "My pee comes out stronger than this shower". I hoped it was an expression rather than a simultaneous comparison.

The shower cubicle is shared between two compartments, and I was sure the chaps who got on at erlian, intended to use it as a toilet whilst waiting for the lavatories to open at the border stops, so i, rather selfishly, locked their access to the shower at night.

We awoke to find ourselves traversing the gobi desert. It looks more like a prairie than a desert, but maybe that is just my misconception of what a desert should look like.

Our neighbors had managed to open the shower cubicle in any event during the night (alleviating my guilt), and then locked us out. Fair Play I suppose.

The dining car has been changed, and now appears like a rather grand London theatre bar, where you would pick up the over priced interval drinks. Still, the omelette and bread was a tasty start to the day, and so far so good in Mongolia.

Next stop ulan bator for lunch.


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Location:Mongolia