The temperature in Mongolia dropped to below -30 degrees Celsius recently, which makes it a little tough to get around on foot.
One of the locals thought it would be a funny joke to send me off on a “5 minute” walk to another village “just down the road” when it was -25 outside. Taking him seriously I set off on what turned out to be a 1.5 hour return journey–see above for results.
Check out the Mongolia photo gallery.
I just thought I’d take this opportunity to give you guys a quick update as to what I’m up to before I drop out of contact again for a while.
Presently I am in Irkutsk, Siberia, where I’ve just returned from two days in the tiny lake side town of Listvyanka. The weather here is extremely cold, as anticipated. It’s -13 degrees outside now, but it was around -20 in Listvyanka, and when coupled with both heavy snow and strong wind it makes it a little uncomfortable to get around on foot (Listvyanka has a population of about 2,500 so there is no public transport).
I met a couple of New Zealanders at my homestay in Listvyanka, as well as two Americans in a cafe, which are the only other English speaking foreigners I have met so far in Russia. The five of us ended up having a great time drinking copious amounts of Russian vodka to stave off the cold (which unfortunately did nothing for our balance nor coordination on the icy ground).
Tomorrow night I catch a train out of Russia and into Mongolia, something I’m quite looking forward to after hearing lots of nice stories from the Kiwis, who had come to Irkutsk directly from Ulaan Baatar. Whilst I’m there I probably wont have access to the internet, so I will be incommunicado for about a week (factoring in transit time to Beijing).
Check out the Siberia photo gallery.
It’s been a while since I made a detailed post and a lot has happened. As I mentioned in my last post Amsterdam was fantastic - I can’t remember ever having such intense fun for such a prolonged period as I did there.
My first 6 days where spent in a quiet hostel near the museum district, which allowed me to see 7 museums and countless monuments and buildings. Christmas day was rather quiet and a bit lonely as there was very little to do, but I went out drinking with a group of travelers from the hostel at night which was a lot of fun.
After that I moved to a larger, and much more party oriented, hostel in the center of town. Most of my second week was spent partying, with very late nights and very little sleep. My average daily schedule was bed around 5:00 am and up for breakfast at 10:00 am (as it finished at 10:30). Needless to say I consumed very large quantities of coffee to maintain this sort of lifestyle.
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Happy New year to everyone.
My time here in Holland has been so fantastic that I regret only organising to stay here for two weeks. Amsterdam itself is a very enjoyable city in which to celebrate the new year, and anything else you want, in the most hedonistic way possible. I’ve made a concerted effort to sample almost everything this city has to offer, which has kept me very busy. In one regard, however, it’s probably good for me to be leaving here, as it will allow me to finally get an early night with some quality sleep. Despite the lack of sleep, however, my health has fully recovered after the problems in Cyprus.
Since I’ve been in Amsterdam I’ve met a fascinating cross section of people from all over the world - including a female lawyer for the Israeli military police, but that’s another story - which has been great.
Unfortunately this has to be short update as I’ve got to run to the airport - my flight to Russia leaves today.
I hope you are all doing well back home.