sarah babes & steve-o RTW!

where do we start here?! just crossed 5 time zones by train and spent 5 nights on this bad boy:

still feeling the motion on 'dry land' now ffs! (btw, pic above is during the russian border crossing into mongolia. took around 7 hours, and straight outta 70's bond flick). you soon learn to like borst, vodka and looking at this:

thats lake baikal btw. deepest lake in the world, & one of the biggest in world (spent 6 hours chugging alongside it and still no end in site!).

but was well worth it to get to our new home:

oh yesss, its a traditional mongolian nomadic ger tent. just outside that shot is the traditional nomadic bar, and the traditional nomadic western bathroom with a fekkin shower better than our accomodation in moscow ffs! seriously though, words cannot describe the beauty of this place. last great unspoilt part of asia (according to lonely planet anyways). stand still and you cannt hear a thing, i mean not-a-fekkin-thing! and loadsa little marmots running about. ahhh...

climbed a manageable peak and took above shot. the night shots are a bit poor from my point and shoot digi cam, but the place takes on a sci-fi flick mars base kinda vibe after dark. full moon, stars close enough to touch etc etc. (spent last night on a vodka fuelled marmot hunt. not good in t-shirt and -4 degrees c...he he!).

...and finally the piece de la resistance (mmm...how do you spell that anyways?!). yes people, that is indeed a picture of sarah riding a horse! through a river no less! seriously though, was an awesome day trekking through mongolian countryside.

right, we're offski. dont know what we expected from mongolia, but it has been so incredibely good we're definitely coming back here in the future. the desert/countryside so awesome, the people so friendly (4 days in mongolia restored my faith in humanity after 11 days of russian sour bakes..he he!). ulaan bataar itself is like a downmarket costa del sol resort (unbelievable i know!). internet cafes, bars, club bars, karaoke bars...and the prices are through the floor cheap! fekkin love this place!

anyways, off to a karaoke bar later actually, so we'l upload the mayhem in beijing (2/3 days time).

see y'all later.

s & s

one final thing before we leave behind any chance of net access for a few weeks, here is a quick pic of our trans-mongolian train comrades, group ''vodka train''! next stop the gobi desert! bring it on!...

see ya all on the flip side..woo-haa!!

..btw, thats us in red square, moscow (outside st. basil's for all you cultured types who may actually notice..lol!).

GREETINGS COMRADES!

..in moscow right now. arrived monday on overnight sleeper from st. petersberg after 5 days there. russia awesome! though the cyrillic alphabet seems impenetrable! trans-mongolian train leaves tomorrow! okay, gotta keep this brief, sharing a pc in a hostel, central moscow, so no pic uploads (too many people over my shoulder right now wanting to check email etc.). in fact, probably no updates until we leave mongolia (week or 2 away!). anyway, a couple of things we've learned about russia-

1/ beer is a soft drink
2/ smiling marks you out as a tourist

..and don't forget to carry your passport at all times, or the fuzz will have ya big time if stopped (already happened once..lol!).

..thats all for now, so until the next time,

from russia with love!

steve & sarah.

camden lock, london town, few pre-departure cold ones! me sarah, and the one and only chris kong drumanator!