You might have noticed that we've been out of contact for a couple of days? This is because we've been exploring China's countryside and hiking up a massive hill (nay mountain). It's great to get back to reality and to check in with the blog to see so many messages from friends and family. So keep them coming! Our hiking trip was a real slog! We're rather proud of our achievement though and can happily report that we made it to the top = 52 k people. Mount Em...

Hello once more. Well those keen readers amongst you may recall that in our last entry we dared to state that the fabled Chinese smog was a myth - we would now like to retract that statement. Our final day in Beijing and our last two days in Xi'an have witnessed a lovely yellow / orange fog layer that has hovered over the landscape, turning vistas into blurs and the moon a totally tropical colour (a bit like Lilt). Even for Pete (who's accustomed to the Middlesb...

Ni Hao, After racking up a colossal 145 hours on the train, I'm pleased to report that we've made it to Beijing. We've been here for three days and are having a great time. We might even go as far as saying "this has been my favourite place on our trip", so far. Completely unexpected as we were slightly dreading the whole China bit. We've had a succession of glorious blue sky days - no smog so far - it's all a myth!, we've done a day hiking the wall ...

Sain bain uu, It feels like only yesterday that we were 'blogging' about Russia, but now we're in a whole other country and can report on our numerous Mongolian adventures. We've done the Capital city thing - a few museums, view points and sights. Plus a healthy dose of nightclubs and dancing. One of our favourites involved boogieing around a giant statue of Stalin. We've also just returned from a four day adventure out into the desert. Where we stayed in our...

Hello once again, Just a quick entry about Ulan Ude, a relatively small city near the Mongolian Russian boarder (Russian side). The main highlight here is the world biggest statue of Lenin's Head. Who could resist such an attraction? Certainly not us! As promised we won't go into the sightseeing details but if it's ok with you we will tell you about Pete joining the Communist Pioneers (n.b for those not up to speed with Soviet History the Pioneers were the Comm...