As far as pre-death preparations go, the Army of Terracotta Warriors take burial planning to the extreme. Soon after Qin Shi Huang became Emperor in the 3rd century BC he ordered the vast tomb to be built. He spent the afterlife buried with a mighty clay...
The ancient walled city of Xi’an is a feast for the eyes, the senses and the taste buds. Brimming with history and culture it requires a few days to take in all it has to offer. Xi’an was certainly my favourite city in China, I...
The Great Wall snakes over the mountain ridges of northern China like the backbone of a mighty dragon. A crumbling monument of stone from the distant past that enthrall visitors today yet was built to keep out marauding invaders from the west. The only marauding...
One of the simplest and most enjoyable pleasures in Beijing is to spend time in many of its wonderful parks. These parks range from an attractive place to sit or stroll to the grand parklands of the Summer Palace or the Temple of Heaven. In...
Our favourite site in Beijing was definitely the Summer Palace, we spent a sunny day exploring this fabulous royal park and found it far more absorbing than the Forbidden City. Maybe it was the glittering lake or the leafy parkland, whatever it was we thoroughly...
Tiananmen Square marks the symbolic end to the Trans-Mongolian rail journey, stepping into this historic square romantically represents the end of the line, one iconic square to another, Red Square in Moscow to Tiananmen Square in Beijing 7826 kilometres away. It was the conclusion to...
Ulaanbaatar After our little adventure around the wide open spaces of the Gobi desert it felt strange to be confined in chaotic, noisy Ulaanbaatar. In the two full days left in Mongolia we saw an excellent cultural show, with traditional throat singing, I had and...
Two and a half months into our adventure I’ve finally baked! Well, actually no, I’ve pan-fried, I’ve whipped up these heavenly little pancakes twice during our stay in Hong Kong. And by whipped up, I kinda mean that; I had no measuring tool so I...
The sun had peeped out from the grey snow clouds by the time we were driving out of the Yolyn Am gorge and when we eventually stopped for lunch it was a clear sunny day. Bata’s usually impeccable navigation seemed a little off for...
Yolyn Am After our fun frolicking in the Khongoryn Sand Dunes, another day in our little Soviet van beckoned. We would be heading to Yolyn Am, a rocky canyon to the west. From the dunes we travelled through the wide valley, the dunes to the...
We reached an extremely wide, featureless and bird-less plain, the van ground to a halt. From the noise we knew this didn’t sound good. We had broken down.
There are few blacktop roads in Mongolia once you leave the smog blanketed chaos of Ulaanbaatar, out in the desert it takes knowledge and experience to navigate the wide open plains. The sun and the stars become your road signs, mountains and rock formations guide...
We certainly arrived in Ulaanbaatar on an auspicious day. At 5am, all bleary-eyed, we stepped off the train from Russia in to the shivering darkness of a Mongolian morning and were informed it was a national holiday. It was Chinggis Khan’s birthday. The train, number...
Olkhon Island Olkhon Island sits like a beautiful gemstone, set in the glimmering silver of Lake Baikal. This ancient lake in south Siberia is deeper than any other lake in the world, holding twenty percent of the earth’s fresh water. To leave the busy, polluted...
Irkutsk For many travellers taking the Trans-Mongolian rail route to China Irkutsk is usually the last Russian town they stop at before heading to Mongolia. It is the perfect place to pause for a few days and check out the natural wonder that is Lake...
Crossing Siberia by Train The pleasure of standing in the corridor of a sleeper carriage watching the world pass by the window is one of the reasons I adore long distance train travel, being rocked to sleep by the rails, I could rhapsodize forever. For...
