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Route Map - Beijing to
St Petersberg

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Wednesday
9th June
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Wednesday
9th to Monday 14th June Hong Kong We
arrived in Hong Kong about 6 a.m. on a dreary wet morning and made
our way to our hotel - Butterfly on Morrison - a small boutique
hotel on Morrison Hill Rd. It was too early to check in so we left
our bags with them and went to find coffee. We
had a hectic schedule of lunches and dinners to catch up with old
friends so after a hot shower at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club
we had a long enjoyable lunch with Anne, a long time colleague and
friend followed by drinks and dinner in the evening with Gerry,
one of Steve's old work competitors and a long time sailing friend.
Hong Kong didn't seem to have changed very
much but after our very laid back cruising life we found the hustle
and bustle quite hard to get used to again. Over the few days we
were there we managed to catch up with old work mates, sailing friends
from the Yacht Club and some but not all of our friends from Discovery
Bay.  We spent a pleasant day sailing
with friends Richard and Tom from Discovery Bay which made a nice
break from rushing around town, then dinner with Deborah and another
friend Alistair who we'd met on our way through the Plaza. Both
were old friends from our Lantau Boat Club days. We found Discovery
Bay had changed considerably since we'd left. The Disney Theme Park
was now finished and made a big impact on the views and there was
a lot more housing. The Plaza had finally been redeveloped to take
advantage of the views over the bay and the whole place seemed more
vibrant than we remembered it. We did
notice how much worse the air pollution was since we'd left. The
first couple of days it was raining so it was hard to tell what
it was like but after that on most days we could hardly see across
the harbour. We managed to fit in a trip to Stanley Market and
a day out on Lamma Island where we enjoyed a meal at one of the
many seafood restaurants that it is famous for. In the evening we
had drinks with Esther and Yiu Kee who we'd met while sailing around
Malaysia. They just happened to be in Hong Kong and we hadn't seen
them since we'd left Malaysia. On
our last night we met up with long time friends Paul and Alison
and Mike. It was hard to believe we'd been away for seven years,
nothing seemed to have changed.
Tuesday 15th to Friday 18th
June Beijing Our flight
to Beijing was at 9 a.m. so we had to make an early start. We'd
planned to get a taxi to the Airport Railway in Central then catch
the train to the airport. When we got into the taxi the driver offered
to take us the airport for HK$200, well, the airport rail fare is
HK$100 each so it seemed a good deal - but we did get there very
early. We landed in Beijing about midday and
found the pollution even worse than Hong Kong but we're only here
for a few days. The hotel was comfortable and right opposite the
Beijing Railway station where we will catch our first train. We
had to find our way to Monkey Business, which is our agent organising
the trip. They were not easy to find but having found them they
passed on information we needed about the trip and took our passports
to get Mongolian visas. This all takes a day or two but hopefully
everything will be organised by Saturday when we leave. In
the few days we have here we are doing some sightseeing. We walked
to Tianaman Square and had a look around the Great Hall of the People.
It is a massive building with enormous rooms for the use of the
Chinese Congress but since Wednesday was a Public Holiday
it was open to tourists. The following day
we saw the Temple of Heavenly Peace. This is a circular temple on
top of a small hill in the middle of a large garden area surrounded
by smaller temples. We paid a visit to the
Summer Palace which was most attractive. It covers a very large
area and comprises a number of temples and living areas surrounding
a large man-made lake. There isn't time to see the whole site in
one day so we just tried to fit in the more interesting areas. We
used taxis to get around because they were reasonably cheap even
for quite long trips. Beijing does have a comprehensive metro system
but we didn't use it. We had an interesting
time poking around the supermarkets looking for snacks to take on
the train. It wasn't always easy to identify what was in the packs
but amongst other things we did end up with vacuum packed roast
duck. It will be interesting to see what it tastes like. Saturday
19th to Sunday 20th June Beijing to Sainshand - 21
hours approx  Our train on Saturday
leaves at 7:47 a.m. and we've been instructed to meet the Monkey
Business rep at 7:00 a.m. She has both our passports and tickets
so we don't want to miss her. We found
our way to carriage 2 berths 9 and 10. We were in a 4 berth cabin
and found ourselves sharing with a somewhat garrulous Danish lady.
On the trip through China we passed through many townships, sections
of which didn't seem to have changed much since the days of the
communes. We also passed through some spectacular countryside with
steep hills each side of the railway line. As we got closer to the
Mongolian border the land became flatter as we approached the Gobi
Desert. We reached the border crossing about
8:30 p.m. and customs and immigration came on board to collect passports.
The railway line gauge changes between Mongolia and China and we
were rather hoping to see them change the bogies. Apparently they lift
the carriages off the Chinese wheels and replace them on the Mongolian
wheels. Unfortunately we were not allowed to stay on board while
this was done and had to spend 2 tedious hours in the waiting room
at the border station. At about 11:30 p.m. we reboarded the train,
had our passports returned and crossed the border into Mongolia
where once again we had to relinquish our passports to immigration
officials. After only a couple of hours sleep
we arrived at Sainshand at about 5:30 a.m. where we were met by
our guide Ogi.
Sunday 20th to Tuesday 22nd
June Sainshand Ogi was
a very pleasant Mongolian lady who would be with us until we left
Mongolia from Ulaan Baator. There were 6 people altogether in our
group - the two of us, Richard and Johanna who were heading for
Sweden and Mary and Delena from Zambia. We
were driven to the Ger camp - about an hour and a half along dirt
roads into the desert. Steve and I had our own ger which had plenty
of space for the two of us. The toilet and shower block was a short
way away up a slope and was still suffering teething problems.
On our way to the ger camp we stopped to speak
to a nomadic
family. Ogi wanted to arrange for us to visit them in the afternoon.
They were in the middle of gathering the goats together for milking
and were tying them in a long line head to head before the children
went down the lines milking them. After settling
in at the ger camp we were served an enormous lunch before going
back to the nomad family. By the afternoon the milking was finished
and the ger tidied up ready for our visit. Our hostess served us
Mongolian milk tea and curd cheese, some made with goats milk and
some with camels milk. With Ogi as interpreter we learnt a little
about their lifestyle. They kept goats, camels, sheep, cattle and
horses and moved their camp 4 times a year so as not to wear out
the pasture. They would be considered reasonably wealthy by Mongolian
standards since they owned a lot of livestock. They had been able
to have their 5 children educated at school and University and as
well as the livestock they also owned an ex Russian jeep. The next day we visited the
Buddhist Temple, caves used for meditation and the Shambala. When
the Mongolian government was under the influence of Russia religion was suppressed so many
artifacts were lost or destroyed. In 1991 when the USSR was broken
up Mongolia became democratic and went through some very hard times
establishing itself as a democracy. Things have changed considerably
since that time and conditions have improved. People are now free
to follow their religion and about 70% of the population are Buddhist.
The temple we went to has now been renovated and people come from
far away to pay their respects there. The
Shambala is unique. It is situated on a small hill and the entrance
building is decorated with the allseeing Buddha. The people believe
that if they stand in front of the eyes of the Buddha in this place
a line of energy will fill their consciousness. Inside the square
of stupas are places to make offerings and cleanse yourself of your
wrongdoings. At the north end of the Shambala is a raised mound
covered in prayer flags where people come to make their wishes known.
We took part in a ceremony here with many local people joining hands and
singing to the land. The next day we returned to Sainshand
and visited some of the local museums before boarding the train
for Ulaan Baator
Tuesday 22nd to Wednesday 23rd
June Sainshand to Ulaan Baator - 11 hours approx The
trip to Ulaan Baator would take from about 9 p.m. Tuesday until
8 a.m. Wednesday. The train was a little less comfortable than our
first train but quite adequate. We were sharing our compartment
with Ogi and the fourth berth was taken by a Mongolian judge travelling
back to a small town somewhere on the way. He'd had a little too
much vodka but was quite amiable and tried to persuade Steve to
share another bottle with him.
Wednesday 23rd to Saturday
26th
June Elstee Ger Camp We
arrived at Ulaan Baator early Wednesday morning and drove out to
the Elstee Ger Camp. This is a much larger camp than the one we
stayed at in Sainshand and is run by the agency Ogi works for. There
were probably 20 or so gers and a restaurant and bathroom area with
running water. After settling in to the ger
and yet another enormous lunch we tried our hand at archery with
a local style bow. The arrows were a little mismatched so it was
difficult to find the range but quite fun. Thursday
we tried riding local Mongolian ponies, it was some time since Steve
and I had ridden but the ponies were well behaved and responsive.
We found the saddles a little less comfortable than those we
were used to but it wasn't a problem. Mary, Steve and Lyn rode
as far as an enormous statue of Ghengis Khan. This is the largest
stainless steel statue in the world (or so we were told) and is
certainly visible for some distance. We left the ponies tied to
a post to visit the statue and museum. The complex is still under
construction so the museum is built but only c ontains a few artifacts
as yet. There is a stair inside the statue to enable you to climb
as far as the horse's head giving a magnificent view over the surrounding
area. In the afternoon we climbed to the top
of a nearby hill to watch ponies and riders from all the surrounding
ger camps practising for a race. This is an annual event which would
take place a few days after we left and is taken very seriously
by the competitors. The riders are children ranging from 5 to 10
years old and the competing ponies are valued very highly. The
following day Ogi arranged for a couple of local nomads to drive
us to the nearby river for a picnic lunch. The river was maybe half
a metre deep but quite cold and running very fast. We waded across
it to explore the countryside on the far side. Saturday
morning we visited a nomad family. At this time most of the families
would not allow visitors because it was considered bad luck to have
non family members near the horses just before the race. The family
we visited consisted of a widow, one of her sons and some small
grandchildren. We got the impression it had been difficult for her
to manage since she had lost her husband and that she would not
be moving her camp this year.
Saturday 26th to Sunday 27th
June Ulaan Baator
We returned
to Ulaan Baator and Ogi gave us a tour of some local temples and
places of interest. Steve had visited the city some 20 years previously
in his capacity as an Environmental Engineer so was interested to
see how much it had changed. The city had grown considerably in
that time and there are now many foreign consumer goods available.
Unfortunately the city has developed in a very disorganised way
with little thought for environmental considerations, however, Ogi
tells us that life is very much better for the people since their
peaceful democratic revolution in the early 1990s.
Sunday 27th to Tuesday 29th
June Ulaan Baator to Irkutsk - 36 hours approx We
boarded the train for Irkutsk Sunday evening and this time we were
sharing our compartment with a couple of Swiss-German backpackers.
They didn't speak a lot of English and we spoke even less German
so our conversations were a bit limited. This train has no restaurant
car so we stocked up on bread, cheese, fruit and pot noodles before
we left Ulaan Baator. Every train has a samovar at the end of each
carriage so there is a constant supply of hot water to make tea
or coffee (as long as you remember to bring your own mug and
a supply of tea bags or instant coffee). We
arrived at the MongolianRussian border about 6 a.m. but the immigration
officials don't start work until 9 a.m. so we went back to sleep
for a few hours. When the officials arrived we handed them our passports
then went to explore the station area. We would have to wait some
3 hours or so while our passports were processed. The area around
the station was pretty scruffy, there were a few market stalls and
a small shop but not much else. While we were waiting a funeral
procession passed by. The custom seemed to be to carry the body
in a decorated open coffin to it's final resting place while
the mourners followed behind. Once our passports
were processed and returned to us we crossed the Mongolian border
into Russia where the train stopped again and Russian immigration
officials boarded the train. Once again we handed them our passports
then the train moved off and continued to the next station about
40 minutes away. Customs officials boarded here and searched every
compartment before leaving the train. Eventually our passports were
returned and the train moved on. The whole border crossing took
some 10 hours but we had now officially entered Russia. We
started to see small villages from the train. They seemed to be
small primitive wooden houses without electricity. From the signs
of wood smoke we guessed cooking was done on wood fires. The countryside
became greener and less arid than in Mongolia. We passed Lake Baikal
in the early morning and arrived at Irkutsk about 8 a.m.
Tuesday 29th to Wednesday 30th
June Listvyanka - Lake Baikal We
were met at the station by Leanna and transported to Listvyanka
on the shores of Lake Baikal. Here we would stay in a homestay which
is a room in a family home. Our hostess was called Olga and she
had breakfast waiting for us when we arrived. The home was quite
basic. It was heated by a large wood burning stove in the guest area
and another in the kitchen area which Olga used to cook on. There
was no running water. A well close by provided water and Olga would
bring water into the house using buckets. Outside was a composting
toilet and a banya. The banya was where you washed. Inside was another
wood burning stove which was lit in the early evening and heated
both the room and water in a tank. A bowl to put water in and a
scoop were provided to be used for washing. The
afternoon tour should have consisted of a visit to the local museum
and a walk up to a veiwpoint over Lake Baikal. Unfortunately it
was raining so we gave the viewpoint a miss. Lake Baikal is the
largest freshwater lake in the world and contains 20% of the world's
fresh water. It is over 600km long and 79km wide. At it's deepest
point it is 1.6km deep and is home to more than 1,700 species of
plants and animals two thirds of which are endemic. In winter it
freezes hard enough to drive cars across it. We
went walking along the shores of the lake with our guide Sacha.
He had been a teacher during soviet times but now ran a guest house
in Listvyanka and acted as a guide. Our last
morning was bright and sunny so we took the opportunity to visit
the viewpoint over Lake Baikal. This involved a 45 minute walk up
the hillside. A cable car went about half way but it was closed
so we walked.
Thursday 1st to Friday 2nd
July Irkutsk
Irkutsk is
one of the largest cities in Siberia. It was founded in the 17th
century for gold trading and the collection of fur tax from the
local Buryat people. In the early 19th century many nobles, army
officers and artists were exiled to Siberia for their part in the
Decembrist revolt against Tsar Nicholas 1st and Irkutsk became their
cultural centre. It's architecture is a mix of the wooden housing
ornately decorated from those times and the utilitarian Soviet housing
blocks. A fire in 1879 destroyed three quarters of the city but
it was rebuilt and the first train arrived in 1898. We
walked down to the River Angara and discovered that the railings
were covered in small padlocks. Leanna told us it was a recent custom
for newly weds to come to the river after the wedding ceremony,
place a padlock on the railings then throw the key into the river.
It's supposed to ensure that the marriage will last. We
stayed at the Angara Hotel close to the centre. The next part of
the train journey would take us to Moscow. This part of the trip
would take 3 days and 4 nights. We had been warned that the restaurant
cars on Russian trains were unreliable so we visited the local market
to stock up on bread, cold meats, cheese and fruit for the journey.
Friday 2nd to Monday 5th July Irkutsk
to Moscow - 80 hours approx Our train left Irkutsk early
Friday evening and we were pleased to find we would be sharing our
compartment with Laura and Michelle who we had met at the homestay
in Listvyanka. The train was fairly basic, with plastic covered seats
not the more comfortable cloth covered ones we'd had from Beijing.
Our trip should have been about 10 hours shorter but the train we
had originally been booked on was no longer running and we'd had
the option to take the slower train or pay quite a substantial subsidy
to take a much faster train. The journey took
us across southern Siberia and through the Ural Mountains to Moscow.
By morning of the second day we were travelling through the taiga
seeing endless larch forests and miles of marsh lands. The marshlands
eventually gave way to drier hillier landscapes and we started to
see small settlements of wooden houses dotted here and there.
A few miles past Ekaterinberg as the train
approaches the Urals we spotted the obelisk that marks the border
between Asia and Europe. The train line goes through the southern
foothills of the Urals so the landscape was more rolling hills than
spectacular mountains. As we passed through European Russia we saw
more bigger towns and signs of industry. Much of the development
looked old and rusted although still apparently in use. The railway
system is heavily used and we saw numerous goods trains pulling
up to 70 or 80 wagons behind them. By Sunday
evening we were crossing the Volga River and a few hours later pulled
into Yaroslavsky Station in Moscow.
Monday 5th to Wednesday 7th
July Moscow  We arrived
in Moscow just after 4 a.m. so as soon as we reached the hotel caught
up on a few more hours sleep. A guide met us later in the morning
and took us on a walking tour through the back streets of Moscow
to show us historical buildings dating back to pre-soviet times.
The main tourist attraction in Moscow is
the Kremlin and Red Square. The Kremlin is the official residence
of the President of Russia and is the centre of government. The
existing Kremlin walls and towers were built in the 15th century
and were us ed as the seat of government until Peter the Great's
time in the early 1800s when the St Petersberg became the Russian capital. At the time
of the Russian Revolution Moscow once more became the capital and
the centre of government returned to the Kremlin. The
Armoury museum and Cathedral Square are open to the public so we
visited both. The armoury museum contains numerous valuable items
dating back to the 5th century. Cathedral Square in the centre of
the Kremlin is faced by 3 cathedrals all of which are beautifully
decorated inside with frescos. Facing the
Kremlin in Red Square is the iconic St Basil's Cathedral, a spectacular
looking building cons isting of 9 chapels each topped by a gloriously
colourful onion dome. Along on e side of Red
Square is the Guum building which, during Soviet times, was the
state department store. When I visited Moscow in 1968 this was a
dull and dingy building full of government run shops with very little
in them. Now it is a beautifully kept example of 19th century architecture,
still a shopping mall but now full of shops featuring high fashion
brand names. We spent a morning travelling
around the Moscow underground. This may seem a strange thing to
do but the Moscow Underground stations have a grandeur unrivalled
elsewhere. Most have marble interiors and are variously decorated
with columns, stained glass panels and mosaics. A
walk along the Moskva River took us to an extraordinary commemorative
statue to Peter the Great and yet another stunning looking cathedral.
With nowhere near long enough to see as much as
we would have liked to we caught the train to St Petersberg late
Wednesday evening
Wednesday 7th to Thursday 8th
July Moscow to St Petersburg - 8 hours approx Our
train to St Petersburg couldn't have been more different from the
Irkutsk to Moscow train. It looked clean and smart with soft cushioned
upholstery and sheets and blankets already in position on the beds.
The bathroom compartment was clean with hygienic white surfaces rather
than the dull stainless steel interior of the Moscow train and a
pre-packed breakfast was waiting on the table when we arrived.
Our travelling companions were a mother
and daughter. The daughter spoke a little English and was kind enough
to translate for us when necessary. The train left at 11 p.m. so
we settled down to the most comfortable night's sleep we'd had on
any of the trains and arrived in St Petersberg early the next morning.
Thursday 8th to Sunday 11th
July St Petersburg
We arrived
too early to check into the hotel but were able to leave our bags
there and have a shower in the health centre. We were only a few
minutes walk from Nevsky Prospect which is the main street running
through St Petersberg so we went to find a coffee and croissant
before spending the rest of the morning exploring. St
Petersberg, like Moscow, has far too much to see in only a few days
so again we had to select just two or three places to visit. After
walking the length of Nevsky Prospect and marvelling at the grandiose
18th and 19th century buildings along it's length we decided to
visit the Summer Palace, the Hermitage and the P eter and Paul Fortress.
The Peter and Paul Fortress is on an island close
to the far side of the River Neva. It was built by Peter the Great
during the Northern War at the beginning of the 18th century. The
principal building within the walls is the Peter and Paul Cathedral
reaching 120 metres from the ground to the top of the bell tower.
The interior is luxuriously carved and decorated. It functioned
as a royal burial vault and contains the remains of Russian royal
families from the time of Peter the Great and includes the remains
of the last Tsar, Nicholas II and his family who were murdered by
the Bolsheviks at the time of the Russian revolution.
The Summer Palace is built at Peterhof on the
coast of the Gulf of Finland. It covers an area of about 1000 hectares
and was originally built by Peter the Great in 1705. It takes about
40 minutes to reach by hovercraft and the view that greets
you as you approach from the ferry terminal is an amazing spectacle
of fountains leading up to the palace itself. There are over 200 fountains
altogether in various parts of the extensive grounds. The main buildings
are all museums and we were somewhat disappointed to find that as
well as the entry fee for the palace grounds every building required
another separate entry fee. Since we would also be visiting the
Hermitage we decided to confine our visit to the gardens. The
Hermitage, standing on the banks of the River Neva, was built during
the 18th and 19th centuries. It contains one of the worlds
largest and best arts collections. It's stupendous frontage faces
the vast Palace Square and actors dressed in period costume can
be seen wandering around the square ready to pose for photographs.
The Hermitage consists of 5 buildings, one of which was Peter's
Winter Palace and the rest built as museums. In the Winter Palace
the private apartments can still be seen in all their opulent finery.
The museum rooms are built on a grandiose scale and are also beautifully
decorated. The collection of paintings and sculptures dates
back to the time of Peter the Great when it began as a private collection.
Now the collection is so vast it is not possible to see it all in
a single day so we had to confine our visit to the highlights.
There was much in St Petersberg that we didn't have time to see
but maybe one day we'll go back.
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