1 week to go

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Trip Start Feb 26, 2010 Trip End Feb 26, 2011 Next
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  Salford, England, United Kingdom
Saturday, February 20, 2010

Well only 1 week to go. Interestingly checking the weather forecast St Petersburg and Moscow are only about -16C however quick thanks to Rick for advising us that approximately half of Mongolia's cattle have died in one of the coldest winters on record. Checking the weather forecast -40C does seem a little on the chilly side. In particular as we haven't planned to take sleeping bags and only have a silk sleeping bag liner each. Never mind my mum and Dad have told me that the only way to survive is to wear two pairs of thermal underwear an a base layer of womens tights. That will make getting ready for bed interesting in a dorm room of 10 people.

So far we have booked a 10 room dorm in St Petersburg (Soul Kitchen Hostel and 10 room dorm in Moscow (Godzilla hostel) before boarding the trans-siberian to Beijing via Mongolia. In Mongolia we are staying with Mr Kim, a man who is completely obsessed with doing anything for 'US Dollar'. If we pay him 25 US Dollar he will drive us in his car to a local family and leave us in their tent for day. The thought about sleeping in a one room tent with a Mongolian family and with whom we can share no conversation while its -40C in a silk sleeping bag liner is thrilling Erica. To add insult to injury apparently the only ways for the surviving animals to survive in the cold is to share the tent with the families. Interesting.

We will need to update you on Mr Kim and the review of his gaff in due course.

We have got visas an things back in time so its all go.

Also I (Andrew) have discovered the beauty of Couch Surfing. We have really made a mess of Russia paying for dorms £13 per night each when we could have stayed on the floor of some odd Russians kitchen in exchange for discussing our respective cultures. Maybe we will couch surf around India where there are literally thousands of people who you can stay with.

Its getting a little exciting......


Update - 1st December 2010

Thank you everyone for looking at our blog, our early blogs are a little poor but for more interesting stuff persevere and look at Mongolia, China, Burma, Indonesia et al for a bit more interesting stuff we had bought a laptop by then and were not reliant on dodgy hostel computers with limited time.

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