January 22 - 28 We had the whole day on the train, it wasn't quite as exciting as we were well aware these were our final days together. We arrived just after 2pm and went straight to our hostel, the other tour group had joined at this point and we all went out for a meal with our honcho Alex. He ordered us a feast and a half, two whole peking ducks and near 16 dishes! It came to just under five pounds each with beer. It was delicious, it was a million times ni...

January 17-21 We spent all of the 21st going through border control on the train, which was a bit dull. It took us nearly eight hours. The trip was 32 hours in total. We arrived in Ulaanbaatar at 6am and met our new honcho, Bogi. We went straight to our hotel and had a nap for a few hours. We met up at 12.30pm and went for lunch, the food was so much nicer than Russias. Adam ate horse for the first time, knoeingly that is, and announced it was his new favourite...

January 14 - 16 We got off the train at 5.34am Moscow time, which we had been running off all week, but in fact we were five hours ahead in Irkusk. We were met at the station by Costa and driven about hour North to a little town called Listvyanka next to Lake Baikal. We stayed in log chalet and had private rooms and were provided with home cooked meals everyday. Costa suggested a walk so we walked for nearly two hours up the side of a steep hill where there w...

January 11 - 13 On our first full day we woke up about 11.30am, which was amazing. It took me a while to get used to the hard beds. I already felt like a scubber and we had another four days to go, waearing the same clothes and yes the same smelly knickers. I finally got the guts to go to the dinner cart, the lady ws a right nutter and screamed at us to get out of the cart. If hadn't bought food before hand we would have been b*****ed. We eventually persuaded ...

January 8 - 10 We got off the train and met our new honcho, Eugene and his trainee twins. He was a bit unfriendly. We went straight to our hostel, I really wanted a day of relaxation, but everyone else wanted to do the Red Square, which I thought was a lot to do in one day. We all got showered and changed and headed straight out into the cold streets of Moscow. We must have walked about three miles before we reached the square. I was really worrie about seein...