have you ever been in a chest freezer for over an hour? me neither, but this place must be bloody close. we arrived in irkutsk, siberia just after 8am this morning to be greeted with minus two and snow. not the warm welcome we were after, but certainly keeps you awake. (just like to say that this russian keyboard doesn't have capitals. it keeps every letter at the same equal level...a kinda fair alpha system)continuing on from my last elongated sars email wit...

Forget about the fluffy stuff in this email. Let me endulge on an experience that has certainly been cemented in to the memory banks.The beginning of the VODKATRAIN...(as extracted from my travel journal)....Train 13, carriage 13 an on day 13, touch rotten wood that superstition is ficticious. The train is clean (best to date) and comes with western ammenities (trying to use a squatter on a shunting train is messy business).Each carriage is strcitly controlled by...

It's hard to imagine that we have spent over one month in China. I almost feel like a local but haven't yet made the prerequisits of citizenship by taking-up cancer sticks, spitting flem like a fountain nor pissing in the path of others in the streets. We have spent the last week in Beijing, awaiting for our next tour group to commence (which apprantly is tonight). The remainder of the week has been spent in a close proximity to our "red light" ...

Back in the epicentre of Duck land. Beijing boasts the birth place of duck, dumplings and anything else that moves and can be battered, fried and consumed whilst pinching your nose. From where I last left off, we were caught amongst the surging population in Shanghai, seeking refuge from National Day. A gathering of people swaming like penguins on a cold day (like a washing machine effect). That night we were the hosts of a westerner (west-side aiii) party in our...

Hello and welcome to another page in the chapter of Chinese Checkers,Today we seek refuge in an internet cafe back at the hotel. Outside is a deadly concoction of people, rain, rolex and nike merchants, raw putred sewerage, saliva infused footpaths, chief wiggums, e-coli infested meat, more toxic rain, rotten eggs (they eat black eggs, that have been soaked in what appears to be Castrol GTX2 oil), more bloody people, the army convoy, scooters on footpaths that ha...