After the festivities of Christmas it was nice to have a couple of more leisurely days in Irkutsk. We spent time sightseeing and shopping and resting. This beautiful city, draped in its white winter gown, is delightful. The churches are magnificent and we have seen several wedding parties. The brides look stunning in their white fur. Fur watching has become a major pastime of our group. We ooh and aah and rate the style and choice. (Perfect for the younger long-...

This has to be one of those special Christmases that will always be remembered. As the group of 15 we are traveling with have formed a nice bond it was lovely to share Christmas celebrations with them. After a leisurely morning we boarded our bus and traveled out of town to a hunting lodge where we indulged our inner child as we tobogganed down steep slippery slides, rode in horse drawn sleighs through white snowy woods, made snow angels, and then indulged our in...

We arrived early morning in Irkutsk and were transported to our hotel on the Angara River, the only river that flows out of Lake Baikal. Everything was draped in fresh white snow - the beautiful powdery white stuff of scenes on postcards and Christmas cards. Our room overlooked the river and parkland running beside it. We eagerly awaited daylight which eventually washed over the city around 9:30am, then donned our winter layers to go walking in a winter wonderlan...

A change in train timetable meant we left Mongolia late at night on the 22nd Dec. Not only are the weather gods looking after us, but also the train gods. We got the only Russian carriage on the train, while other passengers had to put up with lesser quality Mongolian carriages. We settled in for a good night's sleep and awakened at 7am to face the first stage of our border crossing. At 5 in the afternoon we finally were underway again. To quote Lonely Planet, i...

The first breath of air into our lungs as we alighted from the train in Ulaan Baatar informed us of just how cold the temperature was. We knew the day's forecast was for a high of minus 19 Celsius and a low of minus 33, so we had prepared by rugging up under several layers, but you still have to breathe. That first inhalation left us speechless and gasping. But the sky was blue and there was no wind, so we wrapped our heads in our scarves and counted our blessing...