Moscow
It was a relief to finally get off the train at its final stop in Moscow - nearly four days in a train cabin had made us appreciate the outside world again, even if it was below freezing. We only had three days here before…
Travel
The Great Train Bazaar: Trans-Mongolian Railway
The Route: Ulanbaaatar -> Ulan Uday -> Irkutsk -> Lake Baikal -> Novosibirsk -> Ekaterinberg -> Perm -> Moscow Upon boarding the train we were shown to our cabin which we were to share with two Mongolian guys, who had each brought a number of…
Camping in the Gobi Desert
We reached Ulaanbaatar at sunset, spending one night in a city hotel to shower and pick up provisions before travelling onwards into the desert the next day. The decor in the hotel made feel us like we had stepped back into the 1950's, with a…
Morning in Mongolia...
And so began our journey from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar... We boarded the train early, on a cold April morning in Beijing. The train wasn't heated except for a small corner where a samovar (or hot water tank) was slowly bubbling away. The hot water tea…
Beijing and the 798 Arts District
Although we'd already taken the high-speed train for a brief stop-over from Shanghai to Hangzhou, our journey to Beijing would be our first long distance travel on China's fast expanding high-speed rail network ( reported to be the smoothest and fastest train ride in the…
Hangzhou and some Emperor Longjing Tea
The outer city high-speed rail terminal of Shanghai came as something as a surprise to us, though given the investment China has been inputting into its rail links over the past few years it probably shouldn't have. It was light, bright, and shiny with something…
On the Trail of J.G. Ballard and New Wave Art in Shanghai
The overnight train from Hong Kong to Shanghai was very comfortable and fast, a pretty standard sleeper train that goes at 160km/h with four person berth cabins, a toilet at the end of the corridor and an open plan sink area with two basins at…
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is familiar to most people as a nexus of capitalism and is often portrayed as the world's busiest city, where individualism and the rule of the dollar note have always gone unquestioned. However, it is actually a much more complex social and historical…
Menacing Hills and a Brush with Food Poisoning: if we can just make it to Hong Kong...
For the last few days of our stay in Yangshuo, we were transferred to the Mountain Retreat's sister establishment, the Yangshuo Village Inn at Moon Hill (so called because of the mountain peak with a moon shaped hole which overlooks the village). Moon Hill is…
Among the Karst Peaks of Yangshuo, Guanxi Province
The moment we arrived at the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat, we knew we were somewhere special. We were dropped off by taxi on a deserted, wet mountain road which wound its way through immense karst peaks (irregular limestone formations) that dominated the plains of the valley…
From the City to the Mountains by Train and Bus
When it came to navigating our way through China, we knew that we wanted to spend some time in the more rural countryside outside of the power and manicness of its cities. We were due to meet Alex's parents in Hong Kong early the next…
Into the mists of China we go...
The last train we caught in Vietnam left late in the evening. We hopped into the taxi arranged by our guesthouse and were soon rushed through the laneways of the Old Quarter, flanked by a stream of motorcycles and scooters which flowed onto the freeway.…
Hanoi
We stepped off the train in Hanoi at 5am in the morning and were greeted by the chill of a misty platform which was quickly filling up with taxi and tuk-tuk drivers. We had been advised to always go with one of the green and…
The Reunification Express
The Reunification Express (now more commonly referred to as the "North-South Railway" outside of the tourist brochures) runs from Saigon to Hanoi - spanning 1,000 miles of beautiful pastureland, countryside and hilltops. The railway was constructed in the thirties by French colonists, split in 1954…
Night Herons and Elephants of the Forgotten City in Huế
Huế is a town with a rich history and a turbulent past which has dragged it through everything from the feudal dynasty of the Nguyễn Lords in 17th-19th centuries through to the Tet offensive and massacre at Huế by Communist forces in 1968 and the…
The Fabric of Hoi An
Hoi An is a small town, almost half way between Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon and Hanoi on the East coast of Vietnam. Very accessible by train and then bus or taxi from nearby Danang, it provides a compelling antidote to the hectic city life of…
Crossing the Mekong Delta into Vietnam
The 'new' border crossing (newly open to tourists that is) at Ha Tien is basically not much more than a dirt track with a tiny passport control shack and a giant casino (aka the 'Ha Tien Vegas') on the Cambodian side. These gambling establishments can…
Kampot Pepper and Le Bout du Monde in Kep
The riverside idyll of Kampot lies just an hour and a half's drive west from Sihanoukville. There used to be a train which ran between the two every other day but the passenger line has been suspended due to bad tracks, so we opted for…
Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville to get a Vietnamese Visa
The bus service between Cambodia's two largest cities - Siem Reap and Phnom Penh - is more regular than ten years ago but in many ways unchanged. Peeling seats and moody air-con on ancient Chinese buses which travel along bumpy dirt roads are still very…
Angkor Wat
I have heard Angkor Wat spoken of as many things - 'pineapple towers', rubble mountain, overgrown jungle, the Tomb Raider set, magical this, spiritual that, enchanting, devastating and even 'Disneylandish'. But none of these really prepare you for the experience itself. It's one of those…
Sifting through Arts Cafés in Siem Reap
We had originally planned to spend our first day exploring the ruins of Angkor Wat but found ourselves completely exhausted after the long day of travel from Bangkok. Instead we rested in the comfortable hammocks of the Khmer family-owned Golden Temple Villa and later made…
A Window to the Wetlands: Thailand to Cambodia by Train and Tuk-Tuk
The train from Bangkok to the Thai border town of Aranyaprathet leaves Hualamphong station every morning at 5.55am. At 4.50am we left our hostel to make the short walk to the station. The city streets were already bustling with newspaper deliveries and families of sellers…
Moths, Monks and Prickly Heat in Bangkok
Our first impressions of Bangkok were of a strange, hedonistic city combining old-world markets, beautiful temples, seedy strip clubs and slum-like houses with manic motorbikes, gigantic shopping centres, banks and LCD screens. The heat was intense on the first day we arrived and a dust-like…
Trang to Bangkok by Bus
We arrived at Hat Yao Pier after a fairly stuffy three-hour journey on the ferry from Koh Lipe. Our ferry ticket had included a transfer to Trang and we were a bit bemused to find a 12-seater minibus waiting just for us. This was the…
An Island Border Crossing: Koh Lipe, Thailand
The Langkawi Ferry Service boat from Malaysia to Thailand left Kuah Jetty in Langkawi at about 9am. We'd booked with Langkawi Ferry Service who are currently dominating inter-island transport because they have online booking forms (in English) which allow you to book more than 7…
The Great Hornbills of Langkawi
The following day, at the crack of dawn, we boarded the ferry that would take us to the island of Pulao Langkawi , just a few kilometres south of the Malaysia-Thailand border. The ferry journey itself was only a couple of hours, punctuated by one…
Street Food and Art in Penang
After we had spent a few days in the highlands, we had to brave another hairy trip through the winding mountain roads (it turned out that the driving was just as crazy on the descent). The journey to Penang took only a few hours and…
The Cameron Highlands: the Land of Tea and Strawberries
I was quite looking forward to the bus ride up to the Cameron Highlands, envisaging a slow drive along winding jungle paths into the green, misty hills. This was before I had experienced driving in South East Asia however, having only had a little taste…
Kuala Lumpur: a Tale of Two Cities
Our guesthouse in Kuala Lumpur (referred to as 'KL' by just about everyone in it) was a very laid back place and a good introduction to the beginning of our journey across South East Asia. It was here that we were introduced to the quirks…
Wind Powered Cargo Ships and Arriving in Malaysia
Our last day at sea was spent slowly crawling up the Singapore and Malacca straits. The Captain called us at midday to come and watch Singapore emerge through the heat and smog haze as a strip in the distance. The number of cargo boats and…
Tropical Storms and Piracy Warnings
We went up to the bridge on New Year's morning to be greeted by a worried health and safety officer, clutching a piracy warning which had just been faxed over. We had now reached East Timor which meant that we were nearing the Singapore and…
A Rock n' Roll Christmas (of the non-musical variety)
Christmas at sea was not part of our original plan. We were supposed to have spent it with our friends in Melbourne, in the sunshine, probably around a barbeque which would perhaps have been on a beach. Sea travel, however, does not care for best…
New Zealand
The first major difference that we noticed between life on passenger vessels and being a guest on a cargo ship was the food. Twenty men (and in this case a couple of passengers) are fed three meals a day by a chef and the chief…
The AS Carelia: A Freight Adventure
We were due to meet the AS Carelia at the Port of Brisbane's Container Terminal, which as it turns out is quite a way out from the city centre. We took a train to an almost derelict suburban station (Wynnum North) and then after a…
Melbourne to Brisbane
There is no direct train from Melbourne to Brisbane, so we had to go via Sydney and then change. The journey to Sydney and the onwards route to Brisbane each take about 11 hours, so it's a good idea to stop overnight in Sydney if…
Melbourne Excursions
During our time in Melbourne we made several weekend excursions to the surrounding countryside, in an attempt to explore some of the beautiful coast and bushland that Victoria is famous for. On Melbourne's doorstep there are opportunities to spot some of Australia's extraordinary wildlife including…
Melbourne Markets
As Spring gave way to summer in Melbourne, there was more and more to explore every day as new craft, food and festive markets began to explode onto the scene. Melbourne is known for its permanent markets too, however, and below is a short round-up…
Chasing Freedom and Yarn: Street Art in Melbourne
Melbourne is well known for its magical laneways and street art, though city officials have not always embraced it as such. Various attempts by the authorities to 'clean it up' have all but failed and graffiti is now as much a part of the city…
Crazy for Coffee: Café Culture in Melbourne
Never will you look at a cup of the black stuff in the same way again after sampling Melbourne's most sacred beverage - for here it has become a form of high art - and not just where taste is concerned. Care and detail is…
Finding our feet in Fitzroy
It didn't take long for us to fall in love with Fitzroy and its surrounds; its streets never failed to entertain, subtly changing overnight, just enough to keep you on your toes. One day a shop-front would be filled with yarn or paintings, the next…
Melbourne: From the CBD to Fitzroy
The YHA Central hostel is a relatively new outfit, located on Flinders Street in the building of an ex-city hotel and so it provided an ideal jump-off point to go out and explore the CBD and its surrounds. Our first day in Melbourne was bright…
Sydney to Melbourne on the Countrylink
The Melbourne Train was scheduled to leave Sydney's Central Station at 7.15 a.m., so we left the hostel at 6.45 and searched for a cab at the nearest taxi rank (not far from the hostel, as it happens). We didn't have to wait long before…
Sydney
Leaving the boat for the last time was a strange, if not liberating, experience. Our YHA hostel was located very nearby, on the crescent of the hilly Rocks area of Sydney (which wasn't climb up to while carrying so many over-packed bags). From the hostel's…
Arriving in Sydney: 3 weeks and 7,415 nautical miles from L.A.
The waters on the strait between New Zealand and the south coast of Australia are notoriously choppy, and it looks like we managed to arrive at the worst possible time. The boat was originally scheduled to stop at Eden, a popular spot on the south…
Life at Sea
Twenty-three days at sea is a fairly long period of time to contend with, even when making the odd stop along the way. Although we tried to introduce some sort of routine, it was often difficult to maintain in the face of creeping nausea. The…
New Caledonia
New Caledonia consists of a breathtakingly beautiful group of islands (the largest of which is the main island of Grande Terre ), which somewhat ironically, or perhaps torturously, were used by the French in the mid 19th Century as sites for penal colonies. Some of…
Suva, Fiji
It was raining when we arrived in Suva. The sky may have been overcast and grey but the welcome at the port was warm with many greetings of ' Bula! ', a local word meaning all of 'Hello', 'Cheers' and 'Life'. In the morning, we…
Samoa - The 'Last Place on Earth' (until December)
In the morning that we arrived in Samoa, we were supposed to be heading to the local fish market, but secretly not relishing the thought of staring at a lot of dead or slowly suffocating creatures, our attention was drawn elsewhere...by a group of men,…
Pago Pago, Tutuila Island, American Samoa
I drew the curtains on the morning of my birthday to find that the seascape I had become accustomed to had been replaced with lush rainforest greenery and shipping containers. We were docked in the harbour of Pago Pago, on the island of Tutuila in…
Hilo, Kona and Honolulu
HILO (The Big Island) Our Hawaiian journey began in Hilo, which doesn't attract as many tourists as other parts of Hawai'i due to the large amount of rainfall it receives. Having just spent 5 days on a boat, I made the foolish decision to walk…
Hawaiian Hawaiʻi
Our first stop in the South Pacific was Hawaiʻi which I had been looking forward to visiting, especially since learning about indigenous Hawaiian culture from a Hawaiian man (who was going home to Hilo) on the boat. Not surprisingly, prior to Western contact, Hawaiʻi's native…
Passenger Liners and Environmental Practice
The Cruise Line International Association (a body representing the interests of North American cruise companies) reported in September that the cruise industry is one of the fastest growing areas of tourism. The environmental practices that cruise companies choose to either adopt or neglect will therefore…
Feeling sick on the Ocean waves
Our boat was scheduled to leave from the port of Long Beach just outside of LA, which is a strange place, with an atmosphere somewhere in between that of a theme park, a failed beach resort and a film studio. It is dotted with attempts…
North Hollywood, Los Angeles
Getting to spend some time with Naomi, Ned, Kai and Isan in their North Hollywood home was a really great way to end the American leg of our journey. Having started and finished the first cross-country part of our travels by staying with friends and…
San Diego
With a bit of time left on our side in the US, we decided to take the Pacific Coast Highway through Newport and OC Country to San Diego. Despite the obvious 'cultural' link with Josh Schwartz, we found Newport to be far less 'OC' than…
Sustainable Sea Travel: The Pacific Voyagers at San Pedro
On Cabrillo beach, near the yacht club and port of San Pedro, the Pacific Voyagers had moored up their seven Vaka Moanas on the beach for a short break before their onward journey to San Diego. These were the same boats we had see n…
San Pedro and Cargo ships
San Pedro is a working port town and we struggled to find much accommodation here apart from rather large chain hotels frequented by businessmen, cruise passengers and strangely rather a lot of Mexican wedding parties. It was in a café here that we estimated that…
Santa Monica: Putting the 'me' back in Environmental
Santa Barbara may be the official Californian home of the annual ' Earth Day ' festival (first started there back in 1970) but Santa Monica is proud to have been surfing the sustainable movement wave for some time before the word sustainable 'beca me a…
The Chumash Indians of Santa Barbara County
Like many Californian towns and settlements along the coast, Santa Barbara bears the mark of Spanish occupation in the form of its Mission (definitely worth a visit for the view from the tower alone - Santa Barbara's was the tenth to be built in California…
Santa Barbara
Leaving behind Morro Bay and its rock, we made our way slowly further south to Santa Barbara, arguably one of the last relaxed oases before you hit the urban jungle of LA. Santa Barbara prides itself on its smart, chic - with a hint of…
Cambria and Morro Bay
After initially getting lost, and driving up and down the same main road in Cambria more than a few times, we finally found our hostel tucked away down a quiet road in the 'East Side' of the village, next to a church. Although part of…
Big Sur
The concept of the Great American Road Trip has been immortalised in song, speech, film, on paper and canvas and probably many other mediums over the last century or so. Highways more famous than the land that surrounds them slice through dirt, desert and rock…
Carmel
Carmel is as it sounds: a gentle, sweet seaside town which reminded me slightly of certain pockets of the Isle of Wight (especially when the sea mist was in). We stayed in a cosy bed and breakfast, complete with porch and rocking chair, just down…
Santa Cruz
We arrived in Santa Cruz just in time to catch a stunning sunset. Living up to its 'free and easy' reputation, the beach was filled with barbecues and the air of wood smoke as people began to light the first beach fires and open their…
San Francisco
Due to the delays with the train getting into San Francisco (see Chicago ) we only had a few days left on our hostel booking and further accommodation bookings down the coast meant that this visit would have to be brief. After catching a connecting…
California Zephyr - Chicago to San Francisco
We finally boarded the Amtrak train after a minor delay but were just glad to be on the move. We opted for a sleeper car this time as we'd be on the train for three nights. The room in our carriage was small but comfortable,…
Chicago
We took the overnight train to Chicago, not getting much sleep but passing through idyllic-looking rural farm land along the way. The Chicago stop-over was supposed to be brief - a one night stay in the downtown hostel with a quick visit to Lake Michigan…
New York and Washington
New York had been experiencing a heatwave when we arrived and although we apparently missed it at its most brutal, it was still around 101 Fahrenheit whic h made the rubber soles of my shoes feel as if they were melting into the already baking…
Southampton to New York
We were both a bit apprehensive about the transatlantic voyage (given that this time last year we would both rather have swum through shark-infested waters than taken a cruise liner). As someone we've met along the way so far aptly said, 'they just seem so…
8 Days to go...
There are now eight days to go until we head off from Southampton to New York. After months of moving house (twice - Anna from Farringdon in May, then both of us from Tooting Bec in early June) and boiling our lives down to whatever…
East to West or West to East?
One of the first decisions we had to make when planning the trip was whether we wanted to travel from East to West or vice versa. There seemed to be a certain air of comfort in travelling Eastwards, getting the train or boat to France…
Tired of London (tired of life?)
After nearly six years of living/working in London, the daily northern line commute/high speed pace of everyday life had started to grate. Much as I love London, I had begun to feel like I was seeing more of the underground and office than anywhere else…