Russia is macho. Resilient. Fearless. But even the strongest of souls will succumb to the trance inducing effect of their local water. Read, vodka. They love the stuff. Alcoholism is more a local hobby. Continue reading ‘The Reprint: ‘Punch, Drunk, Love’’
Tag Archive for 'Train Travel'
This weeks Reprint shows one of the beautiful entrepreneurs of the Trans-Mongolian railway. Many of the stations are located in seemingly forgotten corners of Siberia, so a string of cabins full of hungry punters is a splendid bonus. Continue reading ‘The Reprint: ‘All in a Days Work’’
“You miserable, mangey, manky maggot! I bloody kill you! How dare you come into my restaurant and make such demands of me! Beg! Beg for mercy you flake of feeble fuzz. I’ll crush you with my clenched palm and smear you over the window with my elbow. Now, run! RUN! What you still here for? RUN!“ Continue reading ‘The Reprint: ‘The Victor’’
Tired of walking, I decided to exercise my lifelong avidity to fly like a bird. I swiftly span upon a silver yuan , donned my colourful cape and followed my outreached fist over classical scenes of paddy fields and rice terraces. Moments later, I became caught in a ferocious crosswind which brought me tumbling back down with a bump. I awoke recumbent in my sleeper berth aboard train K471. “Superman caught in a crosswind” is the most acurate description of an overnight train journey I have offered to date, and on this particular journey – 47hrs and 2000 miles from Beijing to Kunming – the views I was granted from my berth, through a slither of a dirt splattered window will stay with me for the duration of my – somewhat clumsy – flying days. Continue reading ‘Mr Wang and The Curse of the Airag’
One of the closing lines in my last post was “I’m leaving Beijing in half an hour for Datong, just 5 hours away.”. As a reader you’re afforded the blissful benefits of being effortlessly transported from the comfort of your armchair, from Russia to Mongolia and onwards to China with just a few gentle clicks of the mouse. As the author however, I thumped ‘submit’ on that post and headed for the taxi rank outside my Beijing hostel, scrambling through my pockets for the 26 yuen train ticket (less than £2). Immediately it was apparent I wouldn’t make the departure time, I’d misjudged it by a whole half an hour and this is where the “Datong, just 5 hours away” started to become a fallacy. Continue reading ‘The Man in Carriage 17′
Dumdum-De-DUM, dumdum-De-DUM, dumdum-De-DUM. It took me the whole 5 days from Moscow to Ulaanbaatar, to decide how I would portray the drum of the Trans-Mongolian train I alighted this morning. Say it with me, dumdum-De-DUM, softer, dumdum-De-DUM, emphasise the capitals dumdum, De-DUM, one-two, three-four, dumdum-De-DUM. Never has a journey left me so relaxed. To my right are a set of antelope horns, the hostel foyet is filled with lounge music and all I want to do is hug the keyboard, close my eyes and drift off to dreams of faraway places. Dumdum-De-DUM. Continue reading ‘Trans-Mongolian; it’s right down my street.’
