Nigel: Our final destination in Russia was a place called Ulan Ude (UU) which is the biggest city before crossing the border into Mongolia. The appeal of UU was that it has a very Asian feel even though you are still in Russia. To get get to UU you have to take "another train journey" from Irkutsk which takes 7 hours in total. As it is easier to put all foreigners in one carriage (for border crossing purposes) we were with a large German tour group who seemed t...

Nigel: After taking the long train journey, the next planned stop off was a place called Irkutsk, which is in East Siberia. The city is known as the Paris of Siberia due to the similarities of the buildings architecture. The main purpose for stopping here was to head down to a town called Listvyanka which is approximately 1 hr south, but whilst we were in Irkutsk, we decided to spend a couple of days to view the city. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great fo...

Nigel: So leaving Yekaterinburg on the train was the start of the longest train journey so far and likely ever to be. 57 hours stuck on the train and our only time to get fresh air was when the train stopped at the station long enough for us to get out. Even then we didn't venture too far in fear of the train going without us and our walk consisted of going from one end of the carriage to the other and back again. The journey also marked the crossing point of...