So an update! European Russia SUCKS. Apart from Red Square, Kremlin and the rest of the famous sites in the square, which are fantastic, forget visiting. It stinks, the food is the worst I have seen, tasted for a long time and the people are the rudest I have ever come across since I left Wales in 1978!!!

On our second day in Moscow (Thu last week) I had some stomach cramps and they escalated and escalted. I am now well over a stone lighter than I was last week. I have had to use a knife to add more holes to my belt to keep my trousers up! However, I have eaten my first meal in 10 days today and feel so much better.

Fiona and Eve and also feeling unwell both with upset tummies. Thankfully Fi is getting on top of the illness and they both ate today. James is remarkable. He has had no problems and eats anything and as often as he can.

We left Moscow on Sunday and travelled on the train to Irkutsck, Siberia, 83 hours on the train, and arrivd on Thursday. The journey SUCKED! It was so tedious. The train was air consitioned and the windows would not open but they kept turning the bloody a/c off. The scenery was simply miles and miles and miles of silver birch and disused Soviet building after disused Soviet building. The Russians were rude as hell and yep the food sucked.

We are now in Aisia Russia (Siberia) and what a difference. On arriving we were met at Irkutsck by a guide (Paul) from our tour company. He has been with us for 2 days and was sooooo nice. He has taken care of us shown us around Lake Baikal (the largest fresh water lake in the world), where we stayed until this morning and now we are in Irkutsck. Lake Baikal was beautiful but the surrounding area is just so dirty and everybody drinks all the time and then drives home.

Irkutsck is absolutely lovely, clean, friendly, the food is excellent and so is our hotel. We said goodbye to Paul today and it really was like losing a good friend. We've given him our e-mail address and asked him to stay in touch.

We are leaving here early tomorrow morning and catching the train to Mongolia and will be arriving around mid morning on Monday. More to follow