Just a quick warning - this is going to be a long one! After 9 days in the Chinese capital, there's so much to write about and i'm not sure where to cut it down. So, in the words of Winston Churchill, I'm going to write a long one in the absence of time to write a short one.... Stay with me! We made it into Chinese territory on Friday 29th October (I have to write this down as it has already got to the stage where we don't know what day of the week it is, which ...

A bit of a delay getting this one finished folks, but here it is for those still following.... We arrived in Ulan Bator (Mongolia) on Sunday 24th October. This followed a very lengthy border crossing of over 6 hours (during which time we managed to make a complete mess of our entry/customs forms but luckily avoided any trouble). After the immigration officials were finished with us we were then mobbed by the currency exchange touts. I literally had to force one ...

We checked into our hotel in Irkutsk early on Sunday morning (17th Oct) and enjoyed a blissful, long overdue shower! I'd convinced Charlie that we needed to treat ourselves after the long train ride, but a more expensive hotel means more expensive laundry fees, so it was pants and socks into the washbasin with the travel detergent... Don't let anyone say that i'm not doing this backpacking lark properly! Despite being formerly known as the "Paris of Siberia...

We just completed the first leg of our trans-siberian journey (Moscow-Irkutsk) and, even after four days cooped up in a train carriage, I wasn't in a hurry to get off...(ok, I'm blatantly lying, living with no shower for four days is more than this girl can take...) Seriously though, if you can get over the lack of bathroom facilities and discover the wonders of wet wipes (I'm still working on that one), it is such a relaxing way to travel and the time just flie...

So it's been a few days... We arrived safely in the Russian capital on Sun 10th after another good night's sleep on the train and, luckily, no further dealings with border guards. Moscow is such a great city. We had originally only thought of it as the departure point for our trans-Siberian journey, but it was a highlight in itself and really surprised us both. Not only did it feel much safer than we'd expected, there's also a great buzz to the place which see...