The Gobi Desert (25th - 31st March) We set-off from UB guesthouse in the morning with our travel companions Grace and Caroline and our driver/guide Loya. Although Loya doesn't speak much English at all, he smiles a lot and sems like a jolly fellow. We stopped-off at a market on the way out of the city and got supplies of water and beer and hit the "road". It isn't exactly a road, but a small track that runs through the desert over hundreds of mounds a...

We arrived in Ulaan Bataar with no prior hostel and as we had read good reviews about the UB guest house we excepted the free ride back to the hostel. The guest house is situated in the centre of what is a very small ugly predominently soviet built capital city but despite its apearences it is very easy to warm to the place as the mongolians seem to be friendly and the surrounding mountainous landscape is breath taking. The first couple of days were spent roaming...

Irkutsk turned out to be a brief but hectic stop and an excellent way to finish our travels across Russia. We were met at Irkutsk train station by our host Elena, a language student studying English and French who we had contacted through hospitality club. We dropped our bags at her flat and then headed straight out to witness a very intense English lesson in which the topic of modern art was discussed. After this highly confusing lesson and a tasty lunch in ...

Having now nearly spent three weeks in Russia I feel that we are only just starting to glimpse the Russian way of life. Over our time here we have spoken with a large variety of people who have given their opinion on Russia, its past, present and future. It seems that most Russians take a pragmatic view of thier countries history, looking upon the soviet era as being both positive and negative for the countries progression. From what we have experienced and b...

16th March woke up very late (again) - our sleepiong pattern here in Novosibirsk is in a bad way as there's really not a lot to do here during the day so we've become almost nocternal. Max (our friend from Rock City) and his friend Jane came round in the evening and took us to their friend John's house. They are all incredibly helpfull, constantly going out of their way to help us out and show us a good time here in Novosibirsk. John, who has a russian bear l...