rob2ozoverland

Homesteading and home schooling

2011-03-11T16:19:00.001-08:00

Top. The Ulbrich Orchestra

2. The Homestead

3. Bottled fruit

4. Willoma weaving

5. The axeman at work

6. The control centre

7. Tara spinning home dyed wool

8. Wood fired sourdough bread

My intention had been to tour a large part of Tasmania, but I got no further than Deloraine in the central north area. It is my sort of ideal town: small; 3,000, beautiful, a really strong community spirit, with the largest craft fair in the Southern Hemisphere, 2 music festivals for this year, a co-op., local shops (not clone), very matey, red neck, hippie and retirees from the mainland, all of this surrounded by the Great Western Tiers, an area of great natural beauty. I stayed in the area for nearly three months, with the above as my last home stay for the 2010-2011 Wwoofing season (Willing Workers on Organic Farms), a scheme with some work in return for board and friendship.

I had never stayed with home schooling hosts before in my eleven years of doing this sort of thing, and was most pleasantly surprised at the parents and family. Amazing what can be achieved by dedicated parents in all aspects of child development: social, academic and creative. The children were all very articulate, as well as quisical on everything. Skillfully taking part in all areas of running the household, but no slouching on the academic, either. They participate in local sports, clubs and adventure. None of the usual mobile phones, computer games, junk food, fashions, or being bored. A model for others to follow.

I learned how to make and bake sourdough bread in a wood fired oven, to bottle fruit, (which I had done centuries ago when helping my mother in those make do, honest post-war days), also my wood splitting skills and stacking were honed. Also I learned how to weave. To drink rain water at all my recent stays makes me loath to drink English tap water on my return. To live a more simple life with wonderful people in a pristine environment was so memorable.

I expect to be back in the UK for the spring of 2011 and the forwarding of its clocks, thus having two springs and two summers in twelve months!

Bridge building

2011-03-07T19:17:00.000-08:00

The recent tirrential rains and flooding washed out the
bridge to John's house. It is on private land, the cost of rebuilding professionally would be prohibitive. So. the oly answer was diy. Being a real community costs were minimised, mainly the cost of feeding the woofers. Max and Greg, his son, felled the trees (niton eucylaptus), and used their tractor to put them onto a trailer for the two km journey. It took just over a week of hard work and clever inginuity from John to complete the task. Men and women joined in, with never more than four at any one one time working. There are three concrete piers with two logs

spanning the length of the bridge. Screws bolted old railway sleepers to the log base.

Top. Trees for felling

2. Max trimming logs

3. First half of the bridge

4. John, Veronika and Marina, on 2nd span.

5. Almost complete

Jackeys Marsh

2011-02-08T16:40:00.001-08:00

Top. Paddy the sheep and cattle dog

1. Abandonded farm machinery
2. View from farm
3. Wiltshire cattle
4. Hereford cattle
5. Nearby self-built house
6. Sunrise at High Marsh Farm

Currently i am staying at a beef and sheep farm.
It is a first time. The area is hidden and surrounded by mountains. My marvellous host is taking me around to meet all the characters who live in the area: fugitives, dreamers, eccentrics, craftsmen, reclusives, throw backs to an earlier age, religious zealots, a real live soap opera!

Here i have been helping in tree felling, bridge building, rounding up sheep and cattle with Paddy and really getting my feet under the kitchen table with the local community.

Western Creek

2011-02-08T16:05:00.000-08:00

1. Ripening applesHouse, bike and backdrop
2. House, bike and backdrop
3. Large blueberries from garden
4.Yoga studio made from straw bales
5. Saraswati altar
6. Cow dung used for a religious ceremony

I stayed at a yoga retreat in Western Creek, with mountains as a backdrop. Meditation was also practised. Sheep and a large garden supplied most food needs. The Saraswati practise their religion with chanting and also make offerings using cow dung, which has an acrid smoke.
it was so nice to eat bread that was made and baked daily in a wood-fired oven.

Almost every night I heard wallabies being zapped on the electric fence next to my bedroom. Possums clambered noisily on my roof trying to get into the garden where they wreck fruit trees. There would be a stunned into silence after they too were zapped by the electric fence, before they tumbled noisily back down the roof.

I enjoyed hearing the noisy roof-climbing possums getting zapped by the electric fence; they tear down the fruit and other trees.
Wallabies also run up against it with a stunned bump. They eat the vegetables. Daily, wood-fired
sourdough bread, was a great treat.

Highland Herbs

2011-01-28T17:13:00.000-08:00

1. Alternative accomodation
Highland Herbs is set at 800m in a secluded and spectacular environment.
A variety of herbs are grown which are made into teas, and other types of potion, such as evening primrose, camomile, spearmint and many others They are picked, dried and processes, which i found interesting.

2. View from lavender field

Tasks included picking red clover, weeding nettles, gathering rose petals, harvesting spearmint, picking elderflower.

Life was very collegiate and harmonious, with lots of debate and discussion with the group of wwoofers from around the world.

2. Surrounding woods and cliffs

3. Drying shed

4. Rose petals drying

5. Harvesting spearmint

6. My house on the hill

Cradle Mountain

2011-01-27T17:04:00.001-08:00

I have spent many happy hours over a few days wandering the Crater Lake National Park, which is part of a World Heritage Area. Dove Lake is one of the lakes set below the mountains and has an alpine flora of moors, glacial lakes and mountains. There are walks and treks varying from twenty minutes up to many days.

Seen from the saddle

2011-01-27T16:17:00.000-08:00

After the Xmas festivities i loaded my bicycle panniers and took the overnight ferry to Tasmania, across the Bass Straighs.

Surprised to find that Tassie has the largest crop of legal poppies in the world which is used for medical use.

The hills are so long and steep with a loaded bike, but compensated by beautiful scenery, quite different from "the Mainland!"

Staying with locals allows me to really get my feet under the table and experience the real flavour of life here.

View with foxgloves
View with poppies
Wallaby as seen in OZ
Echidna
Don't pick notice, with menaces
Tasmanian poppy fields

Kaukapakapa

2010-12-30T13:24:00.000-08:00

Twenty men and forty women attended the ten day Vipassana course in a remote and peaceful valley 50 miles north of Auckland.

Vipassana meditation is a technique that was developed by the Buddha 2,500 years ago. It is not religious or sectarian. It has proved to be successfully used in prisons in India, also in a women's prison in America, all with dramatic results.

The days were long and hard: 17 hours, with two vegan meals,

rising at 04.00, breakfast at 06.30 and lunch at 11.30. Twelve hours were spent with eyes closed meditating in a hall

under subdued light. The sexes were strictly segregated. The only sound in the total silence was a gong which summoned one to start and finish meditating and to come to the silent meal times. It was revelatory to have unresolved thoughts come to the surface, which had lain buried, in the unconscious, for years and to be able to work on them.

Top. In thespian mode

Centre. A quiet glade

Below.

The Vipassana Retreat

Wilderland

2010-12-04T18:22:00.000-08:00

Wilderland is a charitable educational trust which was set up in 1964. Many people refer to it as a hippie commune, which is completely wrong, the garishly painted 1970's wooden houses may give that impression, so too can the members' faded, worn out clothes, which in fact are a result of working on the land in bright sunshine and their frequent washing.
This stay was my third over a 10-year period. Their main source of income has been from produce and value added products sold in the organic shop, which is situated on the main road nearby. This time I was the shop keeper on two occasions. Herbal Maori teas, crafts, traditional skin care potions and creams, creams for bites and cuts, the much vaunted manuka honey, as well as three other types, freshly squeezed citrus juices, macademia nuts and many other fruits and vegetables.
The tipi

Now the community is moving more towards education and outreach within the local community. Partnerships with business and commerce can serve as a valuable link for those who have no experience of living in harmony close to the beautiful local environment, which was once occupiedas aMaori settlement and burial site many years ago. To use the land special permission had to be obtained. The sois are deep and dark. The gardens are set in small clearings set within the local native fauna.

Part of one of the citrus orchards

Each morning we assemble, after breakfast and get task assignments, which are both educational and well supervised. We work for four hours to fulfil our part of the exchange, before sitting down to a meal produced largely within the community and cooked by one of the team.
My time here has been quite magical, with laughter, good communication, openess and acceptance by younger people, which is pretty unique, and with healthy vegetarian food.
I will be out of action for the next two weeks because I will be attending a 10-day course in Vipassana meditation. During the period i will not be able to talk, a very hard thing for me, but I have done one before and survived

The rock pool is used after the sauna

Interior of the shop

A Wilderland view

The Pink House

Lunch time

Sauna in the bush

Lunch

Older transport

The Dome House

Long drop composting toilet

Garden furniture!

Tipi: interior

Rob weeding

At home on the range

Houses and Gardens

2010-11-28T21:30:00.000-08:00

KarunaFalls is an intentional community and is run as a co-op having been established over 30 years ago. Members built their own houses (about 30) and they live their lives seperately, but come together to discuss the business of running the community, this entails responsibilities and obligations such as grass cutting, bush clearing and bridge repairs, management issues, at regular meetings in the Community Hall. There is no mains electricity, or water. Most residents host woofers like me. Some residents have a huge solar panel array and live a normal life with all the usual household appliances. Water comes from mountain streams. Some residents are lecturers at Auckland Uni and come home for week ends and holidays. Others work locally on roads and bush regeneration, others are architects and consultants, or work at home using the internet. Some are retired and live with the other members in harmony with all around, supplying most of their food needs from their plot.

The place is set in a large, remote and forested area at the north of the Coromandel Peninsula, serviced by gravel roads. There are no buses serving the area, so I had to hitch the 60km in. Fortunately I was able to get three quick successive lifts, the last one was from an Australian cyclist who had done PBP last year, so we had lots to chat about. I was able to see a tremendous spirit of community and friendliness in all, this came as quite a shock to me in coming from England. Maybe if I had my time again this would be the life i would choose!

A house at anearby community

A house at Moehu Community

A community house

Another non-estate house!

Steph's house

Katie's House, in a clearing

Bush kitchen

View from my house to next door

My residence while at the Community

Breakfast and Lunch

2010-11-28T17:52:00.000-08:00

Every day I awoke with the thought of another wonderful breakfast and lunch. Most of the produce came from the garden where I was staying. It is late spring in this semi-tropical area, so we sat outside on the deck, eating mindfully and fully enjoying each mouthful. The only problem was that I had to go into the garden and pick it.
Left. Salad with passion fruit flower and others

Custard apple (cherimoyer)

Below. Loquat waiting to be picked.

Strawberries and banana passionfruit.

Coromandel Coast Trip

2010-11-28T11:42:00.000-08:00

On the way to my next host allowed me to travel further up the coast, where tar roads ran out, also mains electricity and water. Regenerated native forests proliferated in this mountainous area, with them having a silvery/white sheen of native manukas (tea tree) in blossom. There are a few holiday homes and a few intentional communities with various styles of organisation, one of which was to be my next stop.

Moehau Community Sandy Bay

Port Charles Kennedys Bay

2010-11-18T18:07:00.000-08:00

Before availing myself of the lift offered by the two young French girls, who were going to the same host as me to wwoof, I had the need to get a pair of bolt croppers, as i had lost the key to my security lock for my rucksack. Fortunately the back packing hostel had one, as this sort of thing has happened before.

I did not have a car on this visit and as also i have not been able to track down my old Jack Taylor bicycle that i used on my last visit here in 2003. It was decided to return to my favourite part of North Island, the Coromandel Peninsula, which is on the east coast. The two girls were going to stay with John, who i had stayed with before. His farm is beautifully set on hills overlooking green fields of cattle country eight miles from the main town in the region, Thames. The views are outstanding and constantly change with the weather and time of day. His house is constructed from rimu, a reddish local hardwood. It was trucked to its present position some years ago from another region after an earthquake there, but before doing so it had to be cut in half for transporting.

There was a variety of tasks available to me, such as mending chicken fences, pruning hedges, weeding the veggie patch, cutting grass, removing tree stumps with a spade and pick axe, stacking fire wood for the wood stove. At night we went possum hunting which is a pest imported from Australia; they ravage woodland by stripping tree bark. I have a new friend, Polly the Staffordshire terrier who accompanies me everywhere and was always looking for the opportunity to play games.

All in all my time at John’s is proving great; outdoors in the wind and sun of the springtime that is making me weather beaten and tanned, and oozing wellness. The only downside is that i have been eaten alive by sand flies, little critters that leave nasty red lumps making you want to tear at them with your fingers to relieve the itching!.

Dude Pommie rancher

2010-11-17T19:31:00.000-08:00

Chicken pox pf the leg
John's wooden house

Me mowing grass for the cattle

View from John's house

Coromandel, once again

2010-11-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

I got a lift to the Coromandel Peninsula from two French women to start my wwoofing adventure. Wwoofing is a system of getting free board and food in return for four hours of work a day. Wwoof allows volunteers to stay on organic farms and join in with the various projects hosts are busy with. A variety of properties are spread throughout NZ, including farms, market gardens, communities and ventures in self-sufficiency, in which organic growing plays some part. There are over 1,000 hosts in NZ.
Alternative styles of life can be experienced; skills can be learned, interesting people encountered. In sum it is a chance to develop and grow.

Auckland

2010-11-09T12:16:00.000-08:00

One approaches Auckland low over the sea of Mapukau Harbour. The fresh green scenery of early spring comes into view, rolling hills, sea splashing onto the numerous beaches around. On disembarking into 20C, the intensity of the light makes you screw up your eyes, until I was able to fish out my sunglasses.
On my last two visits I had been arrested for carrying banned substances: sage, which is used to reduce the smell of old socks (I had flown in from Buenos Aires after travelling through Central America. The second time I had an apple core in my bag, which the sniffer dog had picked up). I was apprehensive as I had a packet of rolled oats for breakfast for the next few days and Marmite for an addict. This time I got the all clear.
The bus into the city followed a helter skelter route passing small, detached, old wooden clapperboard houses painted in a variety of pastel colours.

Kuala Lumpur

2010-11-04T01:29:00.000-07:00

Petronas Towers used to be the tallest building in the world at 1,436 feet.
Kuala Lumpur Airport was a complete contrast to Thief Row: friendly, attractive and helpful staff. The city has food that is quite different to east Asia, with Malay, Chinese and other influences and still has a colonial feel to it.
It was dissapointing to see the disappearance of so much forest, it is now a monoculture, to that of palm oil, which is used in the manufacture of most toiletries

Off again: October, 2010

2010-10-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

The first real frost of the year arrived this morning. The central heating was tested and found to be working, it was allowed to run just long enough to get the house up to 13 centigrade.
Next week the clocks will change, but by that time i will be long gone. In fact i will be sitting on the roof of Central Backpackers, Auckland (ACB), in shorts, and plotting where i will start my two months springtime tour before moving on for three months in Oz. Well, someone has to do it!

"Things Fall Apart"

2008-12-18T14:47:00.000-08:00

Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, who wrote "Things Fall Apart", the title was taken from a poem of W. B. Yeates, or as that Bushian buffoon, Donald Rumsfeld, said "things happen". Well, both have happened to me in Malaysia, as a result of Bangkok airport being closed for ten days and resulting complications to the whole of S. E. Asia, found me getting about ten days behind schedule. All possibility of me getting a boat from Singapore evaporated, its air fares were prohibitively expensive, when available. Kuala Lumpur, too, was in the grip of the fall out and also the time coincided with school holidays, so i retreated to Bangkok and said my prayers, which were answered, as i managed to get the proverbial "last seat" available on a budget airline, which took me to my objective, Melbourne. My overland quest had failed, however.

It has been an amazing adventure, especially after being grounded for five years, of people, places and explorations. The sense of freedom that i have gained has transformed my life and outlook. How i get back to "Old Blighty", is still an open question.

This is the occasion to thank all of my pals, who have been following the blog and especially those of you who sent emessages of encouragement and comment.

Thank you.

Have a peaceful and joyful New Year,

Do no harm,

Rob

Georgetown, Penang Island, Malaysia

2008-12-15T19:44:00.000-08:00

Alan hard at work in Little India
Unrenovated shop house
Chinese temple
Sri Mariamann Hindu Temple
St George's Church, built with convict labour, 1818
Dimsum time
Refurbished shop houses
Kapitan Keling Mosque
Old Penang Guest House

Georgetown is the oldest British settlement in Malaysia, dating from 1785, having grown in importance as a port because of the increase in the opium trade conducted by the East India Company, as it was on the route to China. In the local museum there are a couple of opium beds, which have porcelain headrests, so the stupefied addicts could still imbibe whilst lying prone.

It was my good fortune to meet Alan Chan, at the Old Penang Guest House, he is a Malayian Chinaman, also my age and a fellow "grumpy", so we got on splendidly. He is an enthusiastic gourmet on all the cuisines of the country, as well as being most knowledgeable on its history and especially the Chinese contribution.

Much of Chinatown is seedy and run down, but has a thriving and active Chinese community. A lot of the old shop houses are being renovated, they are most attractive and functional inside with long, wooden stairways and shutters, with high ceilings, which allow control of temperature without the need for air conditioning. Being with Alan meant every day was a new food experience, starting with dim sum in the mornings. Not only are there there a number of Chinese styles of cooking, such as Cantonese, Sechuanese and Hainanese, but also the other styles from Malaysia, India, Indian Muslim, and Nanonya, which is a style developed by Malay ladies who married Chinese, they developed a synthesis of both styles, using fresh ingredients, sweet and sour, bitter with herbs and spices. The Chinese restaurants were full of enthusiastic slurpers who chatted noisily. All the restaurants were utilitarian, if they modernised, Alan said, they would loose all their customers, as they felt they would have to pay.

Little India holds a significant community of Indians, it is as if one was on a different continent, with music, saris, tilak marks, and the aroma of curries and joss sticks.

A visit to the tourist beaches was also undertaken, but it was not an area of iconic interest as Georgetown was, which also has an English fort and cricket pitch, just to fly the flag. It was the place to be, just being still and chilling out in contrast to all the weeks of movement and change.

BANGKOK, THAILAND

2008-12-14T23:06:00.000-08:00

Khaosan Road, Bangkok, at night
Wat Bowonniet. A Buddhist university

An ubiquitous tuk tuk
With a bucket in Khaosan Road
Advert

A very common sight here, in the Khaosan Road area of Bangkok (sleazy++), is really old chaps, my age, with a Thai nymph hooked onto one arm and a pocket of viagra, with a bemused look on their faces, hardly able to believe that their dreams are about to be fulfilled . Some faces looked quite familiar, but for a suitable kickback no names will be dropped. You may ask what i was doing there, well, someone has to do the sociological studies!

Khaosan Road is an area of all that us goody goodies tut tut about: loud music, drugs, money changers, stalls of bootleg cd's, dvd's, designer label clothes, 24 hour excess drinking, weirdos, cross dressers, tattoo lounges, food hawkers, even Rastafarian dreadlocks, unfortunately my hair is both too short and too sparse for me to have got it attached successfully, as i fully intended to go fully underground!

The heat here has found me low in the spirit of exploring further this city of 6 million. Just keeping up with reading guidebooks and talking with fellow travellers, to study the road ahead and to get up to date information, this takes a large part of my time. I am looking forward to getting on a train once again, this is my preferred method of travel. It is more akin to being on board a ship moving sedately, things coming into view and passing by slowly, while one continues in a straight line. You can read, doze, eat, read, chat, dream, walk about. I have not been on a train since leaving China. The alternative is like being driven by Toad of Toad Hall, braking hard, cutting in, dangerous overtaking, crushed together with others suffering the same anxieties, bumps and dust, as well as trying not to think about how long it might be before the next loo stop.

CAMBODIA

2008-12-07T17:48:00.000-08:00

Houses on stilts

Ta Prohm

Angkor Wat

The Royal Palace, Phnom Penh

Silver Pagoda,

Cambodian tuk-tuk
SEE VIDEOS AT BOTTOM OF POSTING

Now i have a new country to add to my favourites list. So peaceful and spacious after the claustrophobia of Saigon.

the country is dominated by the world's fifth largest river, the Mekong. Most houses outside of the big towns are built on stilts because of the massive and long lasting annual floods.

Phnom Penh has been the capital since the 15th century, when Angkor Wat was abandoned to the jungle. the Khymer people, who built the temples in the jungle, were the dominant power in SE Asia from the 9th to the 14th century. The country was sucked into the Vietnam War, after their war against the French and subsequently lost a quarter of its population under the Khymer Rouge led by Pol Pot ending in the terrible extermination that took place at "the Killing Fields", just 14km outside the city.

Now the city is relatively sleepy, spacious and captivates me when entering in an open-sided
tuk-tuk, passing temples, palaces and an avenue of franjipani in blossom. The country has largely been off the tourist map.

The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda is the official residence of King Norodom Sihanouk. The latter is so called because of the 5,000 silver tiles that cover its floor; "no photos allowed", which was an open invitation to me. It also houses a life-sized Buddha in solid gold and decorated with over 9,000 diamonds, the largest of which is 25 carats.

After Phnon Penh the small town of Siem Reap, which is leafy and semi-slumbering, this is being changed by its proximity to Angkor Wat and the other jungle temples in the area. (Siem Reap means "Siam Defeated', not a good name to use close to the border with Thailand).

These temples are the pride and joy of the Cambodian people.

Angkor Wat is the world's largest religious building and a wonder of the world. It is over 150 feet high, with a vast moat surrounding it.

Angkor Thom, its former capital, has at its centre "the Bayon", which has over 200 huge faces carved on its many towers, each with an icy smile, no matter where you look one seems to be watching you, quite disconcerting. Ta Prohm, which has been left to the jungle, was used for the film "Tomb Raiders".

VIETNAM

2008-12-03T02:21:00.000-08:00

If you can't beat them, join them

A ciclo, Hanoi

The Citadel, Hue

The Old Quarter, Hanoi
(see below for video)

Crossing over from China into Vietnam, by bus, is as visually contrasting as crossing over from the USA into Mexico. From spick and span Chinese PR into potholed, seedy and chaotic Vietnam. Yet, Vietnam seems more open, friendlier, as well as cheaper.

The houses are now tall and skinny, which, i suppose, can be expected from a small country which has a population approaching 90 million, most of which live along a coastal plain.

There are no electric bikes in HANOI, which has little electricity, instead the country seems to run on mopeds, millions of them. Pavements seem to be for parking upon, or for running a stall, the roads are a free for all between pedestrians, mopeds and cars, the mopeds win hands down, spooking one, from all directions, in the narrow streets of the Old Quarter, which is where i stayed on my last visit in 1993.

A further bus journey to HUE, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Formerly it was the political capital under the Nguyen dynasty and maintains its position as a cultural, religious and educational centre with a sedate pace of life along the Perfume River. Older tourists also seem to like HOI AN which is famous for its range of restaurants.

Beaches, fringed by waving palms, with all sorts of resorts, stretch all along the coast as far as SAIGON in the south, (which is a far nicer name than Ho Chi Minh City) (HCMC), this conjures up the French colonial past and where one still eats baguettes, drinks coffee and views fine mansions hidden behind the avenues of massive tamarind trees, which line and shade the streets. If the British had been the colonial power they would have left cricket and rules and regulations, which is still more than the Americans, who left bad feelings, munitions all over the country and a heap of soldier's dog tags heaped into a pyramid behind a glass case in a Hue museum.

Cholon, the Chinese part of the city, has a frenetically paced market selling everything, run by hundreds of very bright and beautiful chinese ladies.

The mopeds and cyclos dominate the city traffic. Riding pillion on one is an extreme sport, as dangerous as bungee jumping, or rock climbing without safety ropes.

Vietnam

2008-11-30T04:33:00.000-08:00

Guanxi Province

2008-11-28T03:07:00.000-08:00

The overnight train from Shanghai to Guilin took 16 hours. Awakening at 06.00, sleeping on a lower bunk for a change, made me realize that i had moved into a different climatic and geological zone. Gone was the near leafless, dry and drought stricken central and northern regions to be replaced with greenery, , many trees, paddy rice fields, sugar cane and citrus. It was also much warmer, the architecture had alsochanged. It was 11 years since my last visit and there has been much change. Three quarters of the population in this province are non-han Chinese. Faces showed a mosaic of all the minorities who live here in this region.
The mysterious karst peaks of Guilin and its area have appeared for centuries in China's art and poetry, which has lured travellers to the region. The cause of the geological shapes is caused by being under the sea for millions of years, when it was uplifted the limestone has been eroded by wind and water into these beautiful and unique shapes of very steep sides with round topped solitary hills. The River Li winds its way through with rice fields on either side. Fishermen on their flat bottomed bamboo boats fish with the help of trained cormorants. Nearby was the back packer paradise of Yangshou, but this has become flooded by tourists and day trippers, thus loosing its serenity. I moved on 20 miles to Xing Ping a thousand-year old village. Immediately, on alighting from the bus, it was like stepping back in time, slow motion was the speed. It had some quaint architecture and on the roof top of my quest house there is the view that appears, exactly as it is, on the back of the Chinese Y20 currency note.
Quite some time was spent walking the banks of the river and watching the peasants in their back breaking toil working at their raised beds of vegetables, frail little old ladies staggering along with two large watering cans, strapped together on a yoke, irrigating in the late afternoon.
My visit was finished by an impromptu English lesson for all the staff of the guest house. I do not remember ever having had such a group of hardworking students before.
The China experience was almost at an end with Vietnam beckoning across the border to the south. So much is changing, so fast. The people are driven, nothing seems too much just to make a penny, nor are they shy about working exceedingly long hours. Generally they are not a spending, creating, or individualistic culture, they seem to just save. They will give all sorts of advice on cutting corners, or how to avoid spending trivial amounts. "How much did that cost?", is the most common question. They have nothing to learn from the west at making a deal.

Shanghai

2008-11-21T21:35:00.000-08:00

The culprit

I took an overnight train from Si'an to Shanghai, which is a city which had the reputation: "whore of the Orient", Paris of the East". Certainly this may have been true before the war, where quick riches and ill-gotten gains were common, as well as being the domain of drug dealers, gamblers, tycoons and gangsters, all of this became a memory during the years of communism. It is a very recent city, just like Hong Kong, which Britain also opened up, when it started to import opium from the East India Company, to help stem the flow of silver payments, which China demanded from Britain in order to pay for tea and other exports from China. Opium became the biggest commodity in the world and saved Britain from a balance of payments crisis. The rest is history which we do not like to look at.

One of the biggest hongs, emanating from this time, was Jardine Mathieson.

I had another taxi experience on arrival, this time i took a photo of the culprit. Once again he drove a trike. Car taxis were taking the . . . . in their fare demands. So, he was prepared to charge an acceptable fare, but of course i ought to have known there was to be a down side. In order to accomodate me and my luggage i had to sit side saddle! His speciality was riding across zebra crossings and riding against the traffic flow, which made impacts seem more likely at double the speed.

Another thing i wished to see was what might have been a British first. Many years ago a English, at Imperial College, London, Prof. Eric Laithwaite, invented the linear induction motor.
There was a test track built near Peterborough about a mile long. End of project. Next i heard was that the Germans had bought the invention and put money into development ( our new forte is, of course, selling anything for short term gain), and now they have built it here in China as a prestige project from the city to the international airport at Pudong. I rode it in both directions. Traffic that was passed on the road looked as if it was stopped! My first run i did facing backwards! Both runs were at 431kph, max, making it the fastest railway in the world, by far.

I have a love of modern architectural skyscrapers and Shanghai is a place that has more than New York! There is a complete kaleidescope of architectural shapes to be observed both by day and night along the Bund.

XI'AN

2008-11-15T22:33:00.000-08:00

My last visit here was 13 years ago, i cannot believe the changes that have taken place during that time.
Xi'an is essentially at the roots of Chinese history and civilisation. The Qin Dynasty (pronounced Chin, hence China) unified a number of kingdoms in221BC. The first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, ruled with the twin rods of law and punishment. He even tried to do that from beyond the grave with the Terracotta Army that guarded his grave. This army, of many thousand, clay, life-sized figures, which are all distinctly different, having been worked on while the clay was still moist, and then painted, they are in different ranks and types as archers, both cross bow and longbow, kneeling and standing, cavalrymen and horse, officers and generals, details are amazing in clothes, facial expressions, hairstyles, armour and even footwear.
The army was discovered by chance in 1974 by farmers digging a well. Is sometimes referred to as the sixth wonder of the world. Qin was a capable ruler, he standardised the script, gave an infrastructure through building roads and canals.. He started off by building the city wall, which is 14 km long and is still standing, following this with his extraordinary underground Terracotta Army to protest his tomb.
The Silk Road also began here, there was a city of merchants and traders who exported and imported to the known world. An important import were horses.
Xi'an also has China's oldest Muslim settlement, dating from the 7th century. A visit to the Great Mosque and the Muslim Quarter would deceive you into thinking that you were not in China.
On leaving Xi'an for Shanghai i found it impossible to get a taxi in the huge rush hour, in this city of 6 million, to the vast railway station at the other end of the city. There was even concern that i may miss the train. train seats are at a premium in demand. Along came a chap on a motorised scooter with an enclosed cab. My rucksacks and i had to be shoehorned into the tiny cab. Then this startling ride commenced. Bus lanes, cycle lanes all were used. On a number of occasions i feared we would be crushed between towering buses on either side (it was dark and he was not using his lights). When the traffic became completely gridlocked he mounted the shallow kerb and stared to make his way along the crowded pavements full of pedestrians, beep beeping, all the time. Bus queues were also treated in the same way, with me aghast behind him. The

amazing thing is that nobody objected, or showed any annoyance. The simple fact is that in China there are no rules of the road. Go by trike! Electric, if possible.

Hutongs

2008-11-14T03:00:00.000-08:00

Beijing Metro

Hutongs are the traditional single-story building that formerly comprised a warren of narrow streets covering most of Beijing. In the rush to modernize they are disappearing fast. I stayed in one, so i was able to observe community life as it was led by all. The public toilets are a feature of these hutongs, as many houses lack sanitary facilities, strung out along the alleyways, people sitting outside their houses chatting, drinking beer, playing majong and card games, or chess, little courtyards with flower pots, tables and a variety of pottery, birds singing from little cages, red lanterns, traditional tiles on their roofs and thick wooden doors, intricately painted and with decorated woodwork. The places hum with life and activity. Being greeted with "Ne how" (hello), 'Ni shi cong nor loi de" (where are you from). Friendly and most helpful people, especially if one is older.

Tiananmen Square, the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City

2008-11-11T21:14:00.000-08:00

____________________

THE SUMMER PALACE

____________________

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

Tiananmen Square is the largest in the world. It is a vast desert of paving stones right in the in their eyes and waving the little red book ( a copy of which i have now got). It also has a more recent and regrettable history. The square is flanked by huge halls for CCP meetings, Worker's Cultural Palace, China National Museum and then a giant obelisk in its centre called Monument to the People's Heroes, at the north end is the Mao Memorial Hall, with a giant picture of him set in its centre, the architecture is largely Russian inspired. Statues are heroic in the Socialist realism style. People queue in order to have a photo taken with him in the background.

THE FORBIDDEN CITY
Either side of this is an entrance to the Forbidden City, so called because it was off limits for 500 years. It is the largest and best preserved cluster of ancient buildings in the whole of China. It was the home of the Ming and Qing dynasties, who only left this paradise only if they had to. It is roughly ten times the size of Tiananmen Square! I spent a day walking around it and was completely blown away with it all. Far too much to take in on one visit. Ceremonial buildings, residences, banqueting halls, lounges. Quaint names like: Hall of Supreme Harmony, Hall of Union, palace of Heavenly Purity, Imperial Garden, classical with fine landscaping, rockeries, walkways and pavilions.which. There is also a magnificent museum of clocks.

THE SUMMER PALACE
The Summer Palace is opulent with palace temples, gardens, pavillions, lakes and corridors which was once the playground of the imperial court. Royalty took refuge here in the furnace-like heat of Beijing's summer that roaste them in the Forbidden City. It had been enlarged considerably over the years. One emperor, Quinlong had 100,000 labourers to deepen and enlarge the huge lake which gave a cooling breeze in the hills that overlook it. It is 75% of the Palace area. Both British and French forces tried to damage its buildings in a couple of
campagains. There is the lovely Temple of the Sea of Wisdom tiled with effegies of the Buddha.

The Great Wall

2008-11-11T20:49:00.000-08:00

I saw the Great Wall from the window of a train , about 14 years ago, right where it petered out into the desert at its most southerly point. I have harboured an idea of maybe some day scrambling over it, that dream has now been fulfilled.
It is reputed to be able to be seen from outer space. Not true, pollution alone stops that, also it is only just over 20 feet wide. Its construction is a bit like a Roman Road, however the base of large rocks is held together with glutinous rice, ever tried to unpick it from a table? A very early morning start was made to reach Simatai, the stretch i visited. I wanted to examine and photograph rather than doing a great trek on it. This particular stretch is particularly steep, with watch towers dotted about every 200 yards. It is set in the spine of steep sided mountains, rather like a dragons back and stretching away into the pollution and dust in the distance. There are precarious plunges on either side, with strong, cold gusts of wind giving me the golly wobbles. I walked in the centre, as much of this section did not have walls at the sides. Heart thumping inclines and leaning backwards on descents.
A cable car car got me up to just below the ridge, then a scramble up to the wall itself. It is constructed of mud bricks, which are grey and much bigger than our standars sie.. These have largely stood the weathering of 2,000 years, most weathering is on the towers.
The return journey on the cable car was truly frightening because a storm blew up. The cable car was stopped with me suspended well up above ground half way back. The pod was bouncing about like a cork on the sea, the quality of the welding and peeling fibre glass made me think that Health and Safety has not been heard of here. It was hard to keep my mind on other things. I was numb with the cold wind.

Beijing

2008-11-11T20:23:00.000-08:00

Mobile food kitchen

Electric tricycle taxi

Mobile kitchen

Autumn has hardly reached here yet, the leaves are now only yellowing and it is only a couple of days past the US presidential election. Temps are still around 20, still, it is as if the bitter winter they get will never arrive, but when it comes it does so with a bitter vengeance.
The route in saw the field full of people and simple machinery harvesting maize and the vast apple orchards. The plain set between two parallel mountain ranges has many thousands of poly tunnels producing out of season green crops. There are thousands of new shiny pylons crisscrossing the countryside. Also, there were many new coal fired power stations, as well as many houses with solar panels on their roofs. China also produces 20% of its power from hydro schemes.
A first and lasting observation was the brand new taxis, their prices are low and better still all use their meters, speak some English and each ride the driver has to issue with an automatic printed out receipt, in case of complaint, or loss, this is in marked contrast to Moscow cowboys.
The Metro is cheap, new and efficient. Fixed fare of 20p for all distances. Note this Boris. New bendy buses, trolleys as well as a new form of taxi for me, electric tricycles, in fact electric bikes/trikes are taking over all sorts of traditional work horse areas of delivery and transportation. The streets are swept by an army of cleaners all day and evening. So, the usual culprits, that us grumpy old men have to endure, are absent: dog shit, plastic, graffiti, and paper are absent, enough to put a satisfied smile onto my face.
silk shops abound, as so too do tea shops, think of the Silk Road and Cutty Sark. Huge shops that sell nothing but silk, or tea. Not a tea bag to be seen, or a jug of milk. Good tea does not need masking, the same as good wine does not need colas added to it. Being an enthusiastic REAL tea
fan i have been to many tastings and also bought many types too.

Irkutsk, Lake Baikal and Erelian

2008-11-04T21:51:00.000-08:00

After passing through Irkusk, which is one of Russia's largest logging areas, there many large rivers which are used to transport logs. Scenically it is an impressive area as the train constantly crosses, descends and climbs many rivers and ravines. Lake Baikal is set in most beautiful countryside. It is the deepest lake in the world and contains 20% of its fresh water supply. Furthermore it happens to be the oldest lake, its water is particularly high in oxygen. it is about 400 miles long by about 30 miles wide. Incredibly the water is quite safe to drink, owing to sponges that live in its depths, along with many other hundreds of other species found nowhere else.

The track follows the lake side for about 100 miles, then it turns south and stays in that direction till reaching Beijing. The scenery starts changing to rolling green hills.

The Russian border with Mongolia is staffed with cold and officious Russians, who make me feel quite uneasy, in contrast the Mongolians are efficient and far less severe in manner. An elaborately carved dining car was connected, this was staffed by pink cheeked, Mongolian ladies, with warm, brown, smiling eyes. In contrast to the morose and obese ladies we left behind on the other side of the border along with their kitchy dining car.

Ulan Bator is booming, squat and scruffy. Black marketeers flood the train. I bought some Mongolian currency, fortunately just enough for a meal, only to find later that i had only got half the official exchange rate. The temperature was well below freezing in the treeless expanse, which is what you would expect in the world's coldest capital.

The Gobi is not a Sahara type sand desert, but rather, rolling, grassy steppe, where the blades of grass were thin and wire like. Impressively empty, with an occasional collection of yurts and grazing horses and the occasional camel. later i was to meet some Germans who had had a dream of living in a yurt and riding noble steeds in the desert, the reality was that they froze in the yurts and that the horses were nags.

Its delicate habitat could suffer irreversibly by the mining of the vast underground resources which include, gold, coal, copper, magnesium, uranium, etc. Bidding wars are taking place for concessions which will wreak havoc on the delicate environment.

Erelun is the Mongolian-Chinese border. Here a remarkable feat took place beneath my feet. The Russian rail gauge is 5 feet wide, the Chinese is 3.5 " less. Giant hydraulic jacks raise the carriages, then the bogies are pushed away, at the same time a train proceeding in the other direction sheds its wheels and both trains swap wheels and then move off in opposite directions.

The Chinese customs and immigration were ultra efficient, like a gymnast at the Olympics.

Yaroslavsky station and east

2008-10-30T19:56:00.000-07:00

Yaroslavsky Station is a crazy art deco design from the early 1900's. Is is the main station for all points east, eg those banished to Siberia. The station was packed with people returning there of which many were traders with piles of baggage piled high around them. One can see the patient faces of many as they pass the hours away with stoically.

There are three Trans-Siberian routes. The north one goes to Vladivastok and is the longest at 9,300km and takes eight days. The central route goes through Manchuria and the shortest route id the southern one through Mongolia and ending at Beijing, which is the one i took. It is only 7,900 and takes just seven days.

Once on board i soon got to know the few other travellers making the trip. Nania, a book worm and art student from Vienna and the centre of all the action were the two lads from Ireland, Ken and Jimmie, with four bottles of best vodka and a selection of beers. They were the life, soul and centre of all activity. One beer of interest was 9.5% with an added energy drink in it as well. Jimmy said you could hear your heart pounding after imbibing it.

The feeling of this near endless travel is a bit like floating in a dream, all connections are severed, the villages and forests pass by silently, yet is is all so variable. There being no fences make you all feel very much part of the whole.

A particular oddity was that the railway runs on Moscow time, this is fine when close to Moscow, but when the evening meal for 6.00 p.m. is actually 11 p.m.

Various cities were passed through, all depressingly concrete, in contrast to the individuality of the wooden houses and gardens of the villages. Perm ar 1,500km was where the US U2 spy plane was shot down. 1,777km was the Europe-Asia obelisk set was in the Ural Mountains: a great divide. The point of no return for prisoners. Yekaterinberg/Sverdlovsk, where the Romanov family were murdered after the 1917 revolution. Sverdlov was the chap who arranged it all, in 1989, when things changed, denial set in by changing the city name.

The taiga up to this region is rich black soil and is full of minerals such as copper, platignum, silver, gold, nowthe soil supports little agriculture. Now the huge Siberian river seem to start. Much of the early trading was done on these rivers, which flow to the Arctic. These bridges are massive as they have to withstand packed ice and further east even ice bergs. Some are about 1km wide. The Ob crossed at Novosibirsk (New Siberia) is 4,500 long. The Yenisey River is 5,300km long and is crossed at Krasnoyarsk. (Gooogle them)>

Trans_Siberian Railway

2008-10-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

Novodevichy Cemetry

2008-10-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

Red Square and St Basils

2008-10-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

top left is a view

of one of Stalin's seven skyscrapers.

A bitterly cold day to do such a visit. Maybe i had the brutality in mind of some of the tyrants who operated from here, there were some men dressed up as Stalin and Brezhnev to help jog the memory.

Moscow Metro

2008-10-27T20:18:00.001-07:00

There are a whole series of heroic

statues on this station. The nose of
is worn. It is touched for luck.

2008-10-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

2008-10-27T20:05:00.000-07:00

Do not sit here in sub-zero temperatures!

2008-10-27T20:02:00.000-07:00

Moscow Express

2008-10-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

Warsaw West Station. (Hopper study!)

2008-10-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

Polish Smoking Team Bus

2008-10-27T19:52:00.000-07:00

The First step

2008-10-27T19:34:00.000-07:00

Photos to come when possible

2008-10-27T19:08:00.001-07:00

Moscow

2008-10-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

Arriving in Moscow at night and with a sub zero temperature, as well not a word of the Russian language, nor able to sound out the Cyrillic alphabet, had me in an anxious state. Constantine had written my hostel's address in Cyrillic to help when using a taxi. Raphe, my son, had warned me not to use the Metro at night. Matters were not improved by the kamikaze Chechin taxi driver, who seemed to have a death wish. I have never before been so petrified in a car.

There was not a lot of time before i was to be off on the Trans-Siberian Express, so the priorities on this visit, i hope there will be more, were: 1. The Metro. This was built between 1932-35, when thousands of near slaves were driven to please Stalin and accomplish his status symbol. It was directed by a young Nikita Kruschev. It is still growing and handles 9 million passengers a day, more than London and New York combined! 2. St Basil's and the Kremlin. 3. Knovodechina Monastery and Cemetery.

Moscow is the barometer and nucleus of the changes sweeping through Russia. Nowhere are Russia's contrasts more apparent than here - ancient monasteries and ultra-modern monoliths stand side by side, and 'New Russian' millionaires and poverty-stricken pensioners walk the same streets.

Moscovites seem to prefer international name brands to monolithic department stores, and the beautiful churches vandalised or abandoned during the Soviet era of hard line atheism are being lovingly restored. But the real flavour of this city is in its nooks and crannies, each of them unique. These were observed as i tramped around to my three objectives.

The cemetery beside Moscow's Novodevichy Convent resembles a sculpture park. The city has one of those, too, but at a different spot, where all those great, but now naughty men's, former statues have been unceremoniously dumped. Here, behind high walls attached on one side to the convent and among gnarled trees, lie the remains of many famous figures including writer Anton Chekhov, composer Sergei Prokofiev and former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, ballerinas, anarchists, and over 1,000 other greats as well as and my own special man, Dmitry Schostakovich. I laid a flower on his grave and thanked him for over 50 years of pleasure that he has given me. The artfully chiseled gravestones, in many different materials and unlimited designs of form and typography, both busts and full portraits, make a visit especially worthwhile. Why can't we have such a place in England, instead of a little plaque, sometimes, in a church, if they were a practising christian? My highlight of Moscow.

PICTURES TO FOLLOW

What Napoleon and Hitler didn't see

2008-10-27T18:44:00.000-07:00

In Polish rural areas house often look shabby and and patched up, in Belarus, too, as well as on the route into Moscow, however the Polish frequently have new roofs and fresh brick and cement around the window areas, where double glazing has been inserted. Russian villages seemed to be in a state of hibernation, with outbuildings collapsed and crumbling and weeds taking over the garden areas.

I travelled with two particle physicists, Constantine and Natalya, who had been at CERN and also had been attending conferences, they were both excellent English speakers, and were returning to Novosibirsk unwillingly. Constantine had to do part-time work as an electrician in order to make ends meet. Villages closer to Moscow were having their choicest houses bought by
"yuppiski" to use as dachas.

One particular village, 40km from Moscow is famous in Russia, Borodino, the place where Napoleon almost met his Waterloo. He suffered heavy troop losses, almost loosing the battle, which resulted in Europe smiling with relief, now knowing the little Corsican was not invincible. The rest is history.

Following in the Footsteps of Napoleon and Hitler

2008-10-20T07:10:00.000-07:00

Today, as in the past, Poland is at a crossroads for invading forces, being situated on the Central European Plain, invading forces devastated and colonised its people over many centuries. Now it is a quite a different invasion that is taking place, with the laying down of smooth autostrada, which in many cases have replaced mud roads, modern trucks have replaced the formerly ubiquitous horse and cart. Roads are jammed with new trucks carrying goods in all directions, even outnumbering cars on these new routes.
The people of Poland are well-educated and hard working, which any gang master can attest to, they do not have the social problems that England has, often as a result of numerous immigrants and the loss of traditional working class jobs. Poland is strongly nationalistic, as well as having only one, well-established religion, the false teeth breaking language, which is full of unpronounceable consonants, must also deter.
Another visual observation to that of my beloved country, is that women i have seen, mainly in Warsaw, spring along lightly, with poise, elegance and confidence, as if their natural place is on the catwalk, slim as greyhounds, this all adds to their attractiveness, which is in stark contrast to so many of the obese, who can be seen shuffling along on our streets. (Present lady readers excluded, naturally). This happens despite a generally appalling diet of numerous dried sausages, and salami types of meat, with veggies cooked to a pulp, and plates heaped up with ladles of mashed potatoes: none of your five fruit and veg a day. Probably they do not eat much of it.
I maintain that Poland is destined to become very successful within Europe.

The Law of Unintended Consequences

2008-10-17T05:20:00.000-07:00

Two train and two bus rides in a day, however there is more to it. At Victoria Coach Station there was a major change. The striking French seamen caused the cancellation of my coach departure to Warsaw, three hours later i managed to find a coach that would accept my original National Express ticket. This now meant that my new schedule was going to be very tight if i was to make the transfer to the Moscow Express at Warsaw.
The frequent stops for long training sessions, by the huge, mixed Polish National Smoking Team, who were on board, or so it seemed, saw me slipping behind my required schedule.
After many vissitudes, with a last minute dash i arrived just in time to find the railway station closed, the rain pouring down; feeling abandonded in a strange city without a map, guide book, telephone number, or a word of the language at nearly midnight. Bugger the French!
The next morning, on my way back to the railway station i showed my useless railway ticket to the Polish taxi driver, who did not speak a word of English, but fortunately was fluent in Russian, which i am not. He being sharper than me, he noticed that today was the date of my ticket, not yesterday. Wow! The moral of the ''Law of Unindended . . '' is "Silly Old Fart".
Another thing also learned: Polish toilet paper is serrated on one side, just like a file. Be careful Rob.

Auschwitz

2008-10-10T07:43:00.000-07:00

Auswich was the most recent and by far the most horrendous result of all the invasions of Poland over the centuries. The camp is situated in Upper Silesia and comprised two camps. Camp 1 was purely for labour and Camp 2 was exclusively used for extermination. It is maintained as a reminder, lest we forget, where the loss of civil liberties and flag waving eventually ends up.

An iconic starting point . . .

2008-10-09T04:22:00.000-07:00

"The Art of Travel"

2008-10-04T09:22:00.001-07:00

Alain de Boton in his “The Art of Travel”, which is about artists and travel, not travel as as an art, draws attention to such writers as Baudelaire, whom T. S. Eliot said was “the first 19c traveller to give expression to the beauty of modern travelling places and machines, a kind of romantic nostalgia”. He admired not only the places of departure and arrival, but also the machines used. Ships, in particular, “have a profound and mysterious charm that arises from just looking at them”. John Betjeman, also, is able to evoke nostalgia in a certain style of travel. Baudelaire spent a lot of time at railway stations and ports. He had a major influence on the American artist, Edward Hopper, who was in Paris as a student in the early 19c. It is not just the scenes, but moreover the atmosphere of loneliness, isolation and poignancy, that arise from his paintings. Hopper also had an interest in trains and their associates. A half-empty carriage, dreaminess fostered by landscape, the rhythm of movement of the train and the sounds from the rail lines outside. In these environs one can be at one with thoughts and memories, in a timeless capsule.

The train, of all types of transport, may be the best aid to thought, with glimpses, though brief, but long enough to identify objects, or private domains. You can follow an object, through the window, or a scene, in a panning of perception, till the next one appears in one’s view, the previous one now out of sight and mind. This is more real than celebrity. One can become aware of the present through other peoples’ lives. This is a fly on the wall existence. The unfamiliar is the most eye-catching.

This is a process of travelling without reference to a destination, which connects us to our senses and experiences. Symbols of the abroad, chaos, richness, or even such a thing as a shitting donkey in a shop, which so fascinated Flaubert on a visit to Egypt and where a young boy cried out a greeting to him, “I wish you all kinds of prosperity, especially a long dick”.

2008-10-03T05:26:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for the off . . .

2008-10-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

Because i bang on about my green credentials i now find that i have talked myself into not being able to take the easy way, by air, doing so would mean a loss of face, and force me to keep my big mouth closed.

I have a rough outline of the route, largely dependant on finding a freighter across the ocean.

It is preferable for me to not plan too much about where i might sleep, eat, etc each day. From previous wanderings, over the past 40 odd years, the unknown and the unexpected things that happen on journeys themselves are the way: the interesting people one meets, the tips and advice one receives, the helloing and goodbyes.

Sheer serendipity . . . .

My rucksack is going to be half full of medical consumables, the other quarter will be travel guides and reading material. It is four years since i lugged a rucksack, shopping is about the only yoke i carry regularly.

Not yet sure what currency to carry, Euro or dollar? i've not yet been able to discover which is most suitable.

I have a train ticket from Uckfield to Victoria, a bus ticket from Victoria to Warsaw, (by National Express) and a change to a Polish bus, which is a fraction of the cost of the Eurostar and other trains, £59. The train from Warsaw to Moscow through Belarus, "the last outpost of tyranny in Europe", via Minsk and a rail ticket on the Trans-Siberian route through Mongolia, via Ulan Bator, to Beijing. There are two other routes across Siberia the northern route to Vladivostok, the central route through Manchuria, which enters into Harbin before Beijing. Also i have accommodation booked in Moscow at "Lenin's Hostel" in an 8-berth room and also a bed at a guest house in Beijing. Then the journey starts into the unknown . . .

Now got, the four visas, at last! Belorus, Russian Federation, Mongolia and China. This was was quite a traumatic experience, changes are not allowed, very strict adherence is required to all demands. Not many people know that registration is required, and a lot of cities and areas are still closed to visitors.