The Trans-Siberian Express - Russia, Mongolia and China

If you've never heard of the Trans-Siberian Express you might have heard of the Vodka train, its all the same thing. You can go from as far west as St. Petersburg and as far east as Vladivostok or Beijing.
I took the trans-mongolian route from Moscow to Beijing. I decided if I had to go back to the UK from New Zealand to get my Japanese working holiday visa before going to Japan, I may as well see some places on the way, so I did!

I let myself have a month at home to organise my Russian, Mongolian, Chinese and Japanese visas before setting off. This required a trip to both London and Edinburgh. I still managed to fit in a walk up Scafell Pike (the highest mountain in England)...

and some mountain biking around The Lakes...

After getting my visas with a whole three days to spare I set off to London in November to fly to Moscow. I stayed at Hostel A La Russe where I was surprised to find that most of the guests were semi permanent and were working in Moscow. This seemed to be the case in most hostels in the city from what other travelers said. I spent a couple of days exploring the city...

and its shops...

before flying to Irkutsk (I didn't want to waste two whole days on a train). Irkutsk was my first experience of snow since New Zealand:

I stayed at the Baikaler Hostel where a met a Chinese girl called Niya who a took a trip to Lake Baikal with. It is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the world:

Now it was time to use the train. I left Irkutsk and traveled over night to Ulan Ude, near the Mongolian border, also the home of the largest statue of Lenin's head:

I stayed at the GBT Hostel before taking the train trip between Ulan Ude and Ulan Baator in Mongolia. This was during the day so we saw some gorgeous landscapes:

We stopped at the border for passport checking...

then continued on to our destination after a number of hours. I arrived at the UB Guesthouse early in the morning. Having spoken to them before arriving they knew I wanted to take a trip to a Ger camp so after an hour of sleep a got up to see the manager and was told there was an overnight trip leaving in an hour. I repacked and stored the bag I didn't need and off I went in a minibus with some other English and Finnish tourists. First stop - the largest equestrian statue in the world:

Genghis Kahn.... in the middle of nowhere!

Next was our accommodation for the evening, a traditional ger camp...

Four of us stayed in each yurt...

although ours didn't have a Sky dish like the owner's one! Before we bedded in for the night we were going pony trekking though :)

The boys were not comfortable afterwards, those ponies were faster than they look. We also saw camels in the snow! We were served a traditional Mongolian dish for our evening meal and stoked the fire before we fell asleep. The next day we returned to civilization and had a quick tour of the city before the next train installment to Beijing. On this train I was going to meet Niya who I had met in Irkutsk but we didn't expect to be in the same cabin!

Unfortunately when the railway was built they didn't think to build the train tracks in China the same width as the train tracks in Mongolia and Russia so when we reach the border this happened...

Each carriage was separated, lifted up and given a new set of wheels... with us inside. They do this every time a train comes through! Its crazy! After passport check and a new set of wheels we continued to Beijing Station...

Niya was kind enough to help me find the SAGA Youth Hostel where I was given my own room and double bed, It was luxury after sleeping on trains! I booked myself a trip to the Great Wall for the next day and went out for a look around...

In the morning I was picked up and taken to the Great Wall, it was just as impressive as they make out...

The next day I went to the Forbidden City...

Beijing was so colourful I would love to see some more of China, hopefully I will get the chance soon, but this trip had to come to an end after just a short visit so that I could go on to Japan!