21st March In preparation for arrival at Ulan Bator I get up at 5.00am and do the Indiana Jones thing over the open tracks to get to the washroom in the next carriage.  I am unprepared for the sheer intensity […]

22nd March There are not many guests in the camp; apart from our guides there is Kevin, a fuel technician who lives in Alaska and works in Antarctica and Mel, Leah and Carol from Canada.  It feels like a snow […]

My last day in the camp and we are invited to visit the nomadic home of Bachka who lives nearby (at least he does at the moment).  Bachka is the local horse master, I have seen him in action taking […]

My eighth and final train takes me from Ulan Bator to Beijing.  It is by far the most modern and well equipped train I have been on so far – my cabin has a small armchair and an en-suite bathroom; […]

I am a little stunned to arrive in Beijing; it is quite the largest city I have been in since I left home.  I am not sure what I was expecting but my initial reaction is that it seems like […]

“Can we take your picture please?” She is about seventeen and accompanied by three generations of her family.  Standing in the queue for the cable car at the Great Wall they have been giving me sideways looks and giggling for […]

The vastness of Beijing airport makes Heathrow Terminal 5 look like a provincial bus station.  Inside I watch the check-in crew line up for their formal morning briefing, standing to attention and holding their schedules in front of them while […]

A week on and I am still being struck by the ironies – the worst toilet on a 5,500 mile journey was in the arrivals hall at Heathrow; I have consumed strange and exotic foods without incident but somehow manage […]