Author Archives: alex

Moscow

It was a relief to finally get off the train at its final stop in Moscow – nearly four days in a train cabin had made us appreciate the outside world again, even if it was below freezing. We only … Continue reading

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The Great Train Bazaar: Trans-Mongolian Railway

The Route: Ulanbaaatar -> Ulan Uday -> Irkutsk -> Lake Baikal -> Novosibirsk -> Ekaterinberg -> Perm -> Moscow Upon boarding the train we were shown to our cabin which we were to share with two Mongolian guys, who had … Continue reading

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Camping in the Gobi Desert

We reached Ulaanbaatar at sunset, spending one night in a city hotel to shower and pick up provisions before travelling onwards into the desert the next day. The decor in the hotel made feel us like we had stepped back … Continue reading

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Morning in Mongolia…

And so began our journey from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar… We boarded the train early, on a cold April morning in Beijing. The train wasn’t heated except for a small corner where a samovar (or hot water tank) was slowly bubbling … Continue reading

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Beijing and the 798 Arts District

Although we’d already taken the high-speed train for a brief stop-over from Shanghai to Hangzhou, our journey to Beijing would be our first long distance travel on China’s fast expanding high-speed rail network (reported to be the smoothest and fastest … Continue reading

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Hong Kong

Hong Kong is familiar to most people as a nexus of capitalism and is often portrayed as the world’s busiest city, where individualism and the rule of the dollar note have always gone unquestioned. However, it is actually a much … Continue reading

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