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Ok, so I’m gonna have a little bit of a rant here. There are few things that I have really been noticing since being in Ho Chi Minh City that I just wanna get off my chest. By the way, most of this also applies to Hue and probably most of Vietnam, but I have just been more aware of it since I have been here.

Firstly, The pollution here is crazy! Now, this isn’t particular news to me given that I’d done my research before coming, but that doesn’t make it any less irksome. Hardly anybody walks here. There are scooters everywhere, and I’m sure that quite a lot of them are doing journeys that could be done on foot, or by bike. The thing is though, its a vicious cycle – it’s not pleasant to walk around here since most of the pavements are blocked by parked scooters so you often have to walk in the road; crossing the road is often difficult since traffic doesn’t always stop even at crossings until you walk out; and the constant noise of engines and horns makes your head ache if you walk around for any length of time – wouln’t you rather just hop on a scooter and get to your destination quickly? When you think about what this is doing to the environment though, it’s horrible. The worst thing is that people obviously are aware on some level since loads of people go around wearing anti-pollution masks, but no-one seems to be doing anything about it.

It’s much the same story with plastic bottles. The tap water is not safe to drink in Vietnam so obviously most people use bottled water. But although most households, restaurants, shops etc. seem to buy massive bottles to attach to water dispensers (like 50litres or something) they hardly ever let people fill up from these, and instead insist selling masses of small bottles to people, generating massive amounts of plastic pollution (I suspect partly in order to make money.) Small bottles of water are also often given out by tour companies, hostels etc. as a courtesy gift when you book with them, which puts me in a weird position because I don’t want to offend anybody by refusing a gift, but I will refuse uneccessary plastic. I think there just isn’t the awareness here – maybe it’s a language gap but every time I’ve tried to explain this to people they generally just tell me that the bottled water is really good, cold, etc… I don’t get the impression that they actually understand that it’s the plastic I’m worried about, however many different ways I say it. (NB. I bought a water filtration system with me, so I don’t have to rely on bottled water.)

Also for a different kind of pollution – noise pollution – wow this city is loud! Partly this down to the scooter / traffic noise which is very hard to escape, but on top of this in the ‘backpacker’ parts of the city this is added to by bars and restaurants seemingly competing with each other to play the loudest music in order to attract customers. I have to say it doesn’t attract me, but luckily you can avoid it by going to other parts of the city (though you can rarely escape the traffic noise.)

Pollution as a whole here is sort of a difficult subject. Vietnam as a whole is not a well-off country and in many ways is still feeling the long term after effects of the war, so in lots of ways it’s kinda understandable that people here prioritise the needs of themselves and their families over the environment. Added to this is the fact that during the war, the South Vietnam / American side did A LOT of damage to the environment in Vietnam through mass deforestation via spraying extremely nasty chemicals in order to clear the cover used by guerilla troops, so in some ways it seems a bit hypocritical for westerners to come over and start lecturing on how they should look after the environment better. I guess some vague hope is that since China is finally coming around to the idea of trying to tackle pollution, maybe some of this thinking will trickle down (the two countries do apparently have quite strong ties.)

Anyway, ranting over for now, I’m gonna go enjoy what time I have left in the city. (Pollution aside, it does have its upsides. 🙂 )

So tonight I am getting the final train (of the ones that I have planned) which will take me to Ho Chi Minh City (AKA Saigon). Corneils, a Dutch guy that I met on the final leg of the Trans-Siberian railway into Beijing said that he thought that UK to HCMC might actually be the record for longest train journey possible between two points – if so then that’s pretty cool!

Since my last post from Beijing, I have got the train to Nanning (China,) changed trains there to get on another train to Hanoi (Vietnam,) spent a day hanging around Hanoi (Vietnam), and then got an overnight train to Hue (Vietnam,) from where I am currently writing this.

Hanoi seemed like a nice city. The journey there was also entertaining since I ended up in a carriage with a Swedish couple, Stella and Robyn, who are also travelling around SE Asia and New Zealand, so we did lots of tip-swapping. The journey also involved TWO trips off the train in the middle of the night to pass through customs – one to exit China and one to enter Vietnam. I was very sleepy. Lots of people have asked me about if it is possible to get enough sleep on trains, but in fact I have the opposite problem – I sleep so deeply that it is very difficult for anyone to wake me when we need to get off unexpectedly! (Although I somehow always wake up BEFORE my alarm if I am actually getting off at a stop.)

After the night’s ordeals and on arriving in Hanoi, the three of us walked into the centre together and found a coffee shop in which to get our bearings (and free wifi!) After this we went our separate ways, having swapped contact details for continued tip-swapping as our travels continue, and I proceeded to spend an enjoyable day wondering around the streets of Hanoi old town, and around the pretty lake in the centre. As I’ve said, Hanoi seemed nice, with a relaxed atmosphere, and I look forward to visiting it again when I return by bike.

Hue… isn’t so nice. Although I have enjoyed looking around here as there are some interesting historical sights to be seen, the town itself is a collection of everything that is bad about tourism in general and backpacker destinations in particular – the central part is filled with tacky bars and clubs with english names and neon signs that blare out loud disco music during the evening, and the residential areas further out are run down and generally full of traffic. I sort of wish that I had gone to Hoi An instead, which everyone I have spoken to says is much nicer, but I was drawn to Hue because of it’s historical significance (it was the capital of Vietnam’s monarchy until the Vietnamese republic was declared in 1945.)

On that ‘historical significance’ note, I did do a very good tour yesterday (organised through my hostel) which a) got me out of the town and b) included lots of the main historical sights. It included a dragon boat cruise down the Perfume River, visits to a traditional Vietnamese garden house, 3 Tomb complexes built for 3 different emperors, a Buddhist pagoda, and the Hue citadel – the ancient palace of the emperors, similar to the forbidden city in China. The guide spoke good English and was very funny, and there were also some other english speakers on the tour to chat to, as well as some french speakers, so I also had a chance to use my French! For the tour, it was worth coming to Hue, but I can’t say that will be sorry to see the back of the town when I get the train tonight.

Ho Chi Minh City is looming as quite a significant point in my journey, because it’s where I will pick up my bike! After that, I just have a bus ride across to Phnom Penh in Cambodia then a few days before I begin cycling! I’m rather excited! But first, just another day, another train 🙂

This is going to be a very short post because I have to go and catch a train soon, but just a quick update on what I have been doing since I arrived in Beijing.

Firstly, communication has been more difficult here which is why I have gone a bit more quiet over the last few days. China blocks all Google applications including Gmail, as well as Instagram, Facebook and a load of other sites. Also, I haven’t bought a SIM card while I’ve been here because I didn’t see the point in paying 30quid for the privilege just for a few days when lots of the sites that I wanted to use were blocked anyway.

Another aspect which seems a little over-the-top is the amount of security. Its EVERYWHERE. For instance every time you enter a tube station, hostel/hotel, most tourist attractions, etc., your bags have to be scanned and you have to be patted down and scanned with a metal detector, and often have to show your passport or ID. But then, it is China.

Those aspects aside, I have generally enjoyed Beijing. One thing that has been extremely useful is that their transport system uses an IC card, similar to an oyster card, which makes travel around the city extremely easy and also very cheap – I have fully taken advantage of this!

Definitely my favourite thing that I did was getting the bus out to The Great Wall of China, seeing some Beijing suburbs along the way, then sleeping out on top of the Great Wall! I got to see both the sunset and sunrise, and the hiking was amazing! (Pics to follow once I’m back in the land of not-blocking-instagram.)

Now, to the train!

Finally, the train was everything that I hoped it would be! After my last experience of getting sick on the train, I was a little nervous about getting back on the next one (once bitten, twice shy, and all that,) but actually I felt fine and the scenery from the windows was amazing!

On the previous train from Moscow to Irkutsk the scenery was a little less inspiring (although being ill, I was also less receptive to feeling inspired.) There were definitely some nice aspects to it – for instance many of the trees in the forests we were passing by were beginning to turn red yellow and orange and were very pretty to look at when the sun shone on them, and many of the silver birches had already shed their leaves so that they stood out like shining white skeletons – but in general much of the landscape was non-descript grey/green with few defining features.

On this trans-Mongolian train however, the view from the window really was the main entertainment! Shortly after leaving Irkutsk, the train joined the shoreline of Lake Baikal, where I had been Kayaking the previous day, and we were able to stare out over its watery vastness. Stretching away to the distance, it looked just like the sea, especially on account of the wind that was whipping the water up into waves (I had evidently been lucky with the weather on friday.) looking out at it from the train, I relived the previous day’s kayaking in my head, and marvelled at the vastness of both this incredible lake, and the world in general.

As we left the shoreline of the lake, the scenery began to change gradually from what I had come to recognise as ‘standard russian landscape’ – the trees became sparser, the landscape became more rolling, and the vegetation gradually courser and more sand-coloured the further we went along. As the light gradually faded on Saturday evening, I listened to Maz O’Connor’s “This Willowed Light” as I watched the landscape roll by – its folky melodies providing a pleasing soundtrack to the changing and beautiful landscapes.

When I woke on Sunday, the sun was already shining down onto the sandy, rocky grasslands of Mongolia. Looking out of the window I could see occasional herds of cattle and horses grazing on the plains, and the distant yurts of their nomadic keepers. Birds of prey wheeled overhead or perched on power lines, probably looking out for the small, scurrying rodants that could be seen running around in the grass every time that the train stopped. Occasionally we would pass by villages of mostly wooden houses, or industrial facilities such as a coal mine, but for most of the day the the view has just been sunny rolling plains, with endless variations of sandy greens browns and golds – it was glorious!

On Sunday evening, the magic was slightly broken when we were herded off the train in the middle of the night into a building and made to pass through airport-style security in order to cross over the chinese border. This was a step up from all the other borders I had crossed, where the guards just came onto the train, and while it was all done fairly efficiently I was still slightly grumpy because I wanted to be in bed. However by Monday I was back to exalting the changing landscape as it gradually became greener and more mountainous before we arrived in Beijing.

Scenery wise, this truly was the train ride I had been hoping for when I booked the tickets, not to mention all the friendly people I met along the way! For anyone thinking they might be interested, I would definitely recommend it. Now onwards, to adventures in Beijing! 🙂

So Kayaking in Lake Baikal was AMAZING! I had so much fun!

The weather was amazing – the the sun shining brightly and reflecting off the water in the most amazing fashion, the air was still, fresh, and mild, and the sky was really clear so that you could see all the way over to the snow-capped mountains on the other side of the lake! Ireina, the Kayak instructor was lovely. She sat in the back of the tandom kayak and me in the front, and we chatted as best we could in broken english and listened to jazz, latin and popular music (even the beatles!) playing from her phone as we paddled across the lake. The water was amazingly clear and fresh and a joy to splash around in, and it stretched away into the distance for miles! It was at the the same time exhilarating and amazingly peaceful, it just made you feel so happy to be alive!

In total, we were out for about 5 hours (but I would have loved to stay out for even longer had my shoulders not been getting tired by that point!) We paddled across from one bank to the other, had a picnic on the other side, then paddled back (in total about 10km). As we paddled along we saw four endemic fresh water seals (nerpa) popping their heads out of the water then diving back down, and loads of different birds flying above or floating on the lake. We also went for a stroll along the shore when we stopped for lunch, to see this beautiful lake from another perspective.

On the way back, we stopped to visit Baikal Museum, which included information about the flora and fauna that live in Baikal, and also an aquarium displaying examples of the fish that live there, and two seals. I have to say I don’t really agree with seals being cooped up in an aquarium, but I do admit I was excited to see them up close.

Today I am back on the train heading for Beijing. I am feeling much better now and am looking forward to whatever comes next!

Eugh. So the train journey didn’t exactly as planned. I got the train fine, my tickets were fine, and the attendants in the carriage were all very helpful. In fact everything was going swimmingly until some point on day 2 of the journey when my stomach and head began hurting, and I began feeling queezy. At first, I hoped I’d maybe just eaten something funny and it would pass, but no such luck, this was my reality for the remainder of the journey. My theory is that being shut up in a carriage with a lot of foreigners with very different immune systems to me caused me to pick up some bug or other – kinda like fresher’s flu when you go to uni. Whatever it was, it wasn’t pleasant, and it rather tainted my experience of the journey. To make it worse the motion of a train really does nothing to soothe an upset stomach, nor does it help in getting to sleep when it is already difficult due to feeling ill.

On getting off the train all I wanted to do was lie down and sleep on something that wasn’t moving. Unfortunately I had to wait for 1h30 before I could check into my air bnb so I had to huddle in the train station, generally feeling sorry for myself.

Happily, when I arrived there, the air bnb, and the host were both lovely. Tamara is warm and caring Russian grandma who rents out her spare room that her children have moved out of in order to make a bit of money. When I emerged from my initial slumber that I had fallen into soon after being shown around and told her that I wasn’t feeling well, she whipped me up a tasty rice dish with freshly grown vegetables to eat, then took me out to the local pharmacy to get some antibiotics. At the time of writing this I am, I think, starting to feel a little better, which is a relief.

Tamara is also really interesting to talk to, despite speaking very little english, but google translate works wonders! She was telling me how a lot of the shops and supermarkets in Siberia tend to only stock cheap low quality produce since most people don’t have the money to pay the price of high quality items, so in response to this lots of people prefer to grow or forage their own food. As well as the standard vegetables such as peppers, tomatoes & courgettes which she grows on a plot in the country, she also forages for wild mushrooms, herbs to make her own tea, young ferns to eat (which apparently help to rid radiation from the body when eaten, and are popular with the japanese,) and pine cones which she makes into jam, and is very good for colds and sore throats! We also talked about the differences between life now, and life under communism. Suprisingly, (to me anyway) she said that it isn’t necessarily better now, just different – that there are pro’s and con’s to living in both systems.

It’s conversations like this that really reiterate to me the benefits of staying in homestays or with hosts when there is the opportunity, especially when travelling alone. Aside from providing company (and in this case comfort when you are feeling ill), it really gives you a window into the local culture that you would never know about from staying in a hotel or hostel.

Tomorrow, I am going Kayaking in Lake Baikal (“The Blue Eye of Siberia”) which is the worlds largest lake by volume and contains more water than all of America’s great lakes combined! I’m hoping I feel somewhat better by the morning but in any case I will have my painkillers and antibiotics at the ready. I’m not going to let some stupid bug get in the way of this adventure!

This extremely useful phrase was taught to my on the train by Fiona, fellow brit and fellow female solo traveller, who by lucky coincidence I ended up sitting opposite in the overnight train carriage from Moscow. It was really nice to have someone to chat to and swap stories and tips, and it turns out we are visiting a lot of the same places, although not necessarily at the the same time.

There were actually quite a lot of brits on the train – we met group of retirees on an organised trip to go on the Trans-Siberian railway who were in neighbouring compartments in our carriage, and a family who were visiting friends in Belarus who we got talking to on the platform. The Russian lady and her son who were sharing the compartment with Fiona and I were also really nice, and we communicated as best we could with a mix a smiles, gestures, and bits of broken German and English.

Things got interesting when we crossed the border into Belarus. First, the customs lady came into the carriage and started pointing at bags for us to open (this was easier said than done given that there wasn’t much space in the carriage and the bags were mostly packed away under the folding seats.) Then suddenly, she left before we had managed to open most of them, and never returned, leaving us wondering what all the fuss was about! Second, the border guard came in and started checking passports and handing out immigration cards to fill in. The immigration cards caused all kinds of confusion (the whole carriage was involved, and equally confused) the main point of contention being whether “exit date” referred to exit date from Belarus (the following day) or exit date from the Russian federation, of which Belarus is a part. We went with the latter. Thirdly, the train had to go into the train depot, for us to change over the gauge it was running on. This basically involved a lot of shunting and men controlling various bits of machinery to do things to the train. We walked up to the front of the carriage to watch for a bit and it was quite exciting and interesting to watch. I’m just an interested tourist but I’m sure train enthusiasts would be having a heyday to watch it!

After 18hours and a good night’s sleep on the train we arrived in Moscow. I said a temporary fairwell to Fiona (we had already arranged to meet up the following day to do a free walking tour together) and set off to find my hostel.

The one thing I can say about Moscow is that it is BIG. I don’t know about city limits or population or anything but just the buildings, monuments etc. are all HUGE. You really get the feel that the people who commissioned them wanted to make a power statement. It also doesn’t feel particularly friendly, probably partly to do with the very visible police presence, most of whom have fixed stern impressions and wave their truncheons menacingly at passers by. Once you get used to this, however, there are some nice things to look at and visit. I also amused myself by giving my brightest smiles to all of the police that I passed by!

On Saturday (yesterday) I walked around the city centre with a free walking tour, had lunch in a Russian fast food chain serving typical dishes such as filled pancakes, savory dumplings, and soup, and visited The Kremlin in the afternoon (which is a collection of churches and palaces from the Tsars, as well as the seat of the government.) By chance, it was turned out to be Moscow City day, so there were free orchestral and opera concerts and dance and theatre performances in the park during the day time, and fireworks in the evening, which really put the cherry on the cake!

Today I am going to catch the first of the real long-distance trains of the journey, heading to Siberia – I will be on the train for 4 days! I have a good stash of books and snacks to keep me occupied, and am looking forward to seeing the scenery pass by the windows. I have also heard rumours that taking these trains often involves sharing vodka with the russian locals who travel on them. We shall see…

Day 4, and I’m in Warsaw. Heading on to Russia this afternoon.

I arrived here yesterday off the overnight coach feeling a little bit groggy. I had slept quite a lot but it was quite poor quality sleep so I didn’t feel enormously refreshed. Arriving as I did pre 7-am to a tacky and slightly run down coach station manned by people who would evidently rather not be working there, and who either weren’t used to or didn’t care about confused tourists, my first impression of Warsaw was: Grey.

Luckily, the sun soon came out and by the time I had found my hostel, dropped my bags off, had a little rest in a lovely park with some lovely fountains, and wondered around the city for a bit, my impressions of the place had improved considerably. Despite being thoroughly flattened during the war, nearly all of the historical churches, palaces, streets and squares have been lovingly and painstakingly reconstructed, and the old town really does feel, well, old.

Another great thing in Warsaw’s favour is how cheap everything is. Unfortunately I hadn’t fully twigged that I wouldn’t be able to use my Euro cash once out of Germany (Poland uses the Zloty, despite being in the EU) but as it turns out the up side of this for brits is that everything is really cheap. eg. 3pounds 13p for an unlimited day pass for travel within the city.

In the afternoon I visited Warsaw Uprising museum, which tells the story of Warsaw during and immediately after the war. It was a really well presented and engaging museum which really brings to life the story. Unfortunately the story itself evidently did not end well for Warsaw or its inhabitants, despite a heroic struggle, and numerous examples of amazing human feats and self sacrifice. One thing that continually strikes me as I learn more about history in general are the extremes of the human condition that are show themselves in extreme situations. On the one hand, much of history seems to be a history of people being utterly dickish and inhumane to each other, but in amongst it all there are always flashes of hope of people pulling together in amazing ways to help each other. Having already listened to histories of Russia, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, etc. where I will be heading as I journey on, I don’t get the impression that my opinion on this is going to be massively changed…

Walking back to my hostel in the evening I saw more sides to the modern Warsaw, and really began to enjoy the feel of the ‘Phoenix City’. Amongst other things, i met a very cute and talkative cat with a handmade collar from material offcuts, found some cool street art, watched skaters and people on scooters whizz around a monument square as the sun set behind them, and watched a man ‘fire-breathing’ to entertain tourists. I also tagged onto a free spanish-language walking tour of the old town that stumbled on by chance – unintended benefits of speaking other languages!

This morning I’m off to do a little more exploring before I go to get my train to leave the EU, on which I have to use a visa for the first time. Wish me luck!

So… it’s finally begun! With just a little trepidation on leaving from St. Pancreas yesterday, I’ve now officially begun my trip and am writing this sitting in a hostel in Berlin. 🙂 EDIT – I’m finishing this from a in Berlin surrounded by street art

Yesterday’s journey consisted of 3 trains which crossed 4 countries (England, France, Belgium & Germany.) It was cool to sit by the window and watch the towns and countryside pass by – certainly much more interesting (and comfortable) than being on a plane. Some notable observations:

• Cycling seems super popular in Belgium (I was cyclist spotting from the train) which is hardly surprising as the countryside looks both beautiful, and not particularly hilly, and have loads of what seem like purpose built cycle tracks.
• Cologne (Koln) railway station is right in the centre of the city and the city itself looks beautiful.
• European trains are amazing – so much leg room, free wifi, electronic screens showing departure times and platforms for onward connections each time the train pulls into a station, and even recycling facilities separated into paper, glass, cans, etc at the end of each carriage!

Another thing on the trains which made me think was updates of the current speed on the electronic speed on the electronic display. Lots of the countryside that we were passing through looked like it would be lovely for cycling adventures, but the train was travelling at around 100kmh! To put this in perspective, for the Tour Aotearoa which i will be doing in NZ, 100km in a day is the minimum average distance per day, and probably what I will be aiming to cover. Basically, you could spend SO long cycle touring in Europe!

Today, I have explored Berlin through two walking tours. The first was a free “intro to Berlin” type tour covering the main tourist sights, and the second was ‘Alternative Berlin’ tour led by the same tour guide. Both were excellent. Afterwards, I went down to the East Side Gallery (art painted onto the remaining Berlin wall) with some people I had met on the tour.

It’s been a very full on day and I now feel pretty tired at the end of it, but I do feel like I am starting to get into the swing of things. Now onwards to the overnight coach (I’m hoping I’m tired enough that I will sleep for a lot of it) and onwards to Warsaw!

In an effort to train for the cycling I will be doing on this trip, I have been trying to do at least some cycling every day possible during August. Not massive distances (mostly because of needing the time to actually get organised and ready,) but I figure at least doing something every day that I can will get me a bit used to the sustained nature of bike touring, which is different from just doing rides at the weekend. For anyone who is interested, you can follow me on Strava, although I will probably be using a different app to record my progress once I actually go away.

Anyway, given that I have been spending so much time on a bike recently, I thought that I may as well use that time as productively as possible by multi-tasking. I decided to find podcasts to listen to while cycling in an effort to educate myself somewhat about the histories of some of the countries I will be visiting, and also the world more generally. Here my top picks of podcasts that I have been listening to, across a wide range of topics (nb. I’ve also tried a bunch of others that I wouldn’t recommend, but these ones are definitely worth a listen, especially if you are interested in the subject matter.)

In the Shadows of Utopia: The Cambodian Nightmare (Lachlan Peters)

How the Berlin Wall Worked (Stuff You Should Know)

Insight Guides: Travels on the Trans-Siberian Railway (Insight Guides)

The Russian Revolution: From Idealism to Terror (Parts 1 and 2) (CBC radio)

Lenin and the Russian revolutions (History Extra)

Blueprint for Armageddon (Episodes I – VI) (Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History)

No Man’s Land (Frank Turner)