Change is as good as a holiday... Part IChange is as good as a holiday... Part IIThe first stepAir conditioner, bar fridge and a double bedTwo of these people are not quite like the others...Hostel in SingaporeSingapore Botanical gardenwaiting for our island paradiselazy afternoons... mystical nightsthe busses are good but not good enoughMelaka, MalaysiaThe CapitalCameron Highlands"damn we didn't make it to a proper destination" stop overIsland ParadiseSeeking Refuge in a tour guide book!Karst Rock FormationsstopoverTraped by mamouth waves... a well needed restSmoggy daysAncient CityBest Markets, best pizza, best coffeeHappy New Year!Gloloating down the MekongDown the MekongWelcome to China!Dali: adventure to the lakeSouthern CapitalThe first MountainPandas!: birthday in Changdu (Ellie)A weekend away!Terracotta warriors and so much moreOver the hump!Freezzzing toesHello again world!!!Vodka and RussiaChita to BaikalTrans SiberianSurviving SiberiaWe're in Europe!Hi Jodi and Tim!We love the balticsstop over :(Little Green Men!da BahnWE MADE IT!The TruthThe move to... My (not just travel) Blog
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Location
Harbin, China
We realise that we've been slacker that we wanted to be with this trip tracker. It's been a combination of really dodgy internet access in china and that we've realisdd there's a life away from the computer screen (i know... It was a shock to us too!) but now we're well and truly in the cold end of the journey and the only thing I can imagine doing is drinking hot chocolate (on the rare occastion that the chinese get it right) and snuggling inside. We have some very long train journeys to come (a couple are 40hrs). So this protable computer set up is going to come in handy as we try to update the blog and add comments for places we've skipped along the way so stay tuned!
Anyway enough of that. what have we been doooooing? We just arived in Harbin. Capital of china's most northern province and bloody cold. They have an ice festival here in january and the ice sculptures last until thaw. So aside from being a convienient stop over between Beijing and the russian boarder (we decided not to go through mongolia to save on visa hassles) and on the official transmanchurian rail line this place is a destination in itsself and if we get up the courage to go outside again no doubt we'll find out why.
The Fact that we're here means that nath obviously suceeded in getting his russian visa!!! (now there's a story... For another day) but that was about the only thing that went right for us yesterday (our last day in Beijing). admittedly we shouldn't have left our trip to the great wall untill the very last minute, but we did. And we shoudn't have just believed the first bus driver when he said he'd take us there, but we did that too. In the end after packing up and picking up the visa it was about 1:30pm when we left. But we ffigured about 3 hours get out there and back and we'd have a couple of hours out there and make our way back for some dinner before getting on the train which left at 9pm. Well at 4:30 the bus finally "arrives" at it's destination (I won't go into the flat tire) a full 60KM short of the great wall and we're informed that we'll have to take a taxi the rest of the way. Well. Let's just say we weren't happy. I may have cried and nathan may or maynot have threatened phisical violence on a certain bus drivers property. So we came very close to the great wall. But unfortunatly, while you can see it from space you can't see it from 60km away. Next time I guess. We turned around and headed straight back to Beijing, ate dinner (i lied earlier we had excellent middle eastern for dinner the 2nd good thing to happen that day) and got on the train. We'd been sold tickets on two different carrages so didn't even have each other for comfort as we left beijing.
Another day another city. We've found a nice hotel in the middle of town so I'm looking forward to some fun adventures in Harbin!
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what brave souls
Written by francie 38 months ago
Great to read your news, though makes me compare to my airconditioned office to keep cool to your freezing temperatures in China. Keep up the great work great experiences you are both amazing. Sylwester keeps saying to remind you how cold Russia will be so take care Mum.
anxious for more news
Written by francie 38 months ago
all well still guys? thanks nathe to optus link, will make use of it. Is this what you use mostly use now with new phone & internet etc. I still feel for you both with the misfortune of missing great wall although good reason to maybe go back some time in future? Though with all your experiences that is just one thing you missed a lot more fun ahead. Anna is talking and planning to visit you in Germany sometime? So will have a few visits from family hopefully. mum
Re: anxious for more news
Written by Nathan&Ellie 38 months ago
Hi fran, we were really excited to hear about anna's possible visit in Germany! funnily enough there was a replica (scaled down) great wall made of ice at the harbin ice festival so we don't feel quite so bad about missing out on the real thing. much love Ellie