Once again we begin the day with the breakfast of champions, watching John knock back at least 2 omelettes and waffles with chocolate sauce. Not my choice of meals, but hey. I had arranged with Lily to get in touch with someone regarding a tour of the Hutong (Mongol for Water Well) region of Beijing. Lily had organised everything for us and our new guide, Jessica, arrived at the hotel just before 9am and with a new driver as well we once again braved the reckless...

Another day of travel, another day of amazement. Today began (after a healthy breakfast of coco pops and waffles) with Lily taking us to Tiananmen Square. Before we got in the car she reminded us to ensure that we had our passports with us and to not ask any political type questions as there are always a number of plain clothes police who understand English walking around the square. Now, I know the hype about how it’s the biggest city square in the world, and ...

Today began with an early start; 6am as we had to be ready for the drive to the Great Wall. Our guide who had picked us up last night had mentioned that traffic might be ‘extreme’ if we waited for tomorrow as that would be the 8th and final day of the Chinese celebrations, and, even going today we might take 1-4 hours to get there. Beijing traffic is ..... chaotic. You don’t simply give way to your right, or left, you move into or pull out whenever there is...

Day 2 Today started bright and early, with the alarm going off waaaaaay too early at 5am. There are 3 points on this trip which slightly concern me; ensuring that we get the HK-Guangzhou, Guangzhou-Beijing train, our crossing from Mongolia to Russia and holding on to the original visa for all 6 of us to cross Belarus. The Hung Hom station was deserted at 6am and we waited for over an hour before we were allowed to start boarding. This required leaving Hong Kong...