We LOVED Beijing. Unfortunately we only had one full day there so this will be a shorter post than usual. We learned how to use chopsticks (sort of). We froze our asses of at the Great Wall of China, visited Ming tombs (actually pretty crap but you get that), visited a "traditional" chinese tea room where th staff wore hot pink and went to the forbidden city. Also Gen and I got really drunk. Twice in a week, we are wild thangs.

Hong Kong is warm, we've been able to feel our toes ALL day. We also like the shopping. Gen's gone a little shopping mad in fact, something i have never witnessed before. And this is also officially our first day without the other 7 people that have made our Vodkatrain trip for us.

This is a shout out and a thanks to;

Nadia (Tasmanian. Shared our first three nights with us in the world's tiniest bedroom. She deserves a medal)
Emily (Tasmanian,Actually considered peeing in a bowl at a border crossing. Other than that she was our leader in uber-tourism)
Stu (Tasmanian. Disco, Stu. Talk nice and he'll do the special Stu shuffle for you)
Nat (The sole english girl. Actually shared Gen's sense of humour and was our train crazy bunkmate and introducer of Haribo gummy bears)
Ben (Brisbane, recoiled with horror when i kissed him on the cheek and was the constant pursuer of french cigarettes and illy coffee on the trip)
Jamie (Scotsman)

Also Rob (the teacher of dice cricket, we kicked his English ass in a very indicative train Ashes), Alain, Mark, Jessica, the germans (they picked the lock on the toilets) and most of our honchos.

Thanks guys/slutbags (that was gen).

So, i realised i forgot a few amusing anecdotes last time I blogged.
Whwn we wer in Moscow we went to a hockey game as you know. The ratio of soldiers to spectators was 2:1 and we had a few problems. They let the guy in front of us go through with a hip flask but we were forced to pour our water into tiny plastic cups. Why? My theory is they were bored.

Also we actually went for a boat ride on Lake Baikal where I dropped our camera on the barrier-less floor. I had a heart stopping two seconds when I thought it had gone overboard into the deepest lake in the world but it was fine and I've nearl recovered.

Mongolia was great. We slept in gers, climbed a hill and had great mongolian bbq in Ulan Bataar. We were also nearly killed by fireworks, crushed by bus doors, caused near avalanches and Nat was nearly knifed at a market (they cut through her jacket to try to get to her wallet, it's not as bad as it sounds). You won't believe that we had fun but we really did. However it has been dubbed the 24 hours of death by our group.

Since then we've been on another train for two days. Gen and I finally had vodka on the vodka train where i disgraced myself by insisting that people take more flattering photos of me. Gen and I were dubbed the chinless wonders by our inability to take short necked photos (i'll explain when we get home) and Gen told Jamie, the annoying Scotsman in our group to fuck off. We clapped. And gen just reminded me that we did a very out of time, ridiculous version of our Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy dance in the (very small) corridor of the train.

We're now in Beijing, we love it, it's sunny and people are actually smiling at us. Smiling!

Gen and i are currently using the internet in Siberia. Siberia! My phone won't send ot recieve messages (i think) but i can blog. How strange. Since you last heard from us we've been on a train for 4 nights and in Lake Bakail.
Tonight we will officially leave the Russian Federation. In honour of this i will list the good and the bad of our ex-USSR adventure so far.

Good
Tepemok-Pancake/blini chain. It easily made up 80% of our St Petersburg/Moscow diets.Delicious and nutritious.
Red Square/The Kremlin/The Hermitage
Snow! Going up ski lifts and taking in the beautiful views.
Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world and it's aquarium with two very cute and very rotund seals.
Snorfle. The cardboard toilet roll that was given eyes and named, it provided much hilarity on the train trip. (Incidentally, we discovered that there are two types of funny in the world. Train funny and real funny.)
Watching Gen fall down in the snow. Three times.
A russian banya. A sauna, ice water and jacuzzi combination that involved 20 russian women walking around naked and beating themselves with leaves. We got laughed at for leaving our bikini bottoms on and yelled at for talking. There is to be "silence in the bath".

Bad
Russian couples and their displays of public affection. I don't know whether it's some sort of collective, subconsious memory of the separation of the gulags or what. Every time they part they feel the need to crawl into each other laps and snog like a 14 year old at a Guilford social. The winners of this section so far were a thirty-something couple on a VERY crowded Moscow train. The guy stuck his tongue all the way out and she sucked on the tip of it for two whole stops. It was like watching a car crash, we couldn't look away.
Pickled Lenin was closed for cleaning.
Russian manners. I've never been ignored or pushed past so may times.

It's been fantastic so far. Tonight we're back on the train for two more nights. Apparently the border crossing can take up to 11 hours and the toilets are locked the WHOLE time. I'm a little bit worried by that prospect and will be keeping my fingers (and legs, no doubt) firmly crossed that we'll get hthrough ina speedy 6 hours. Sorry for the massive posts. Happy 21st Suz!