I'm lying in bed in a traditional nomadic Ger, in the middle of Inner Mongolia with Kate, Jenny and a sick baby cow... Surreal is an understatement. We traveled to Terelj National Park early this morning, still feeling the effects of our antics at Mongolia's finest Irish bar last night. On arrival into apparent nothingness, just an hour outside of Ulan Bator, our taxi driver took the liberty of introducing us to, what seemed like, every pothole east of the capita...

Best day ever. There is so much to see and do in Ulan-Bator compared to indifferent Irkutsk. We were picked up straight off the train early this morning by the owners of the hostel. Unfortunately, due to the delay in reply from one hostel, we'd presumed they were full and so booked another; only to find two signs, side-by-side reading 'Anna Fowler' and 'Jennifer Daniel'. We swiftly deciphered which one we'd paid the deposit for and ushered them from the platform ...

On the train from Moscow to Irkutsk (three and a half days)... DAY 1: So, we've spent the last 27 hours on a train and we're running out of things to do! Having answered people's criticisms about the status of my sanity after spending three days on a train with 'don't be silly, I can just look out the window' - I realise how wrong I was. I guess if you count trees, the occasional Soviet-style apartment block and more trees as loads to look at, then I guess I was...