11 July 2018, Wednesday For our final day in Beijing, we had only one place left to cover – the Forbidden City (故宫). It was raining when we left our Airbnb house at 10:15am. We had already delayed setting off but the weather forecast showed that it would rain the whole day so we had […]
10 July 2018, Tuesday This morning, we set off at about 9:30am. The first item on our itinerary was Yonghe Temple or Yonghegong (雍和宫), also known as Lama Temple. From our Airbnb house, we took the subway at Guloudajie station and alighted at Yonghegong Lama Temple station, just two stops away. When we arrived at […]
9 July 2018, Monday After an easy and relaxing day yesterday, we were all ready to explore Beijing at full throttle today. Our first agenda was to visit the Great Wall of China, one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. There’s a famous saying 不到长城非好汉, which means “He who has never been to […]
8 July 2018, Sunday This morning, I woke up to news that my family had landed safely in Beijing at 7:23am. The travel party consisted of six people – my parents, my Uncle J and Aunt C, and Uncle S and Aunt J. I had arranged for my host to pick the six of them […]
7 July 2018, Saturday I had a good sleep on the train and woke up around 9am this morning. I made myself a cup of hot coffee and admired the scenery outside the window. Now that I was firmly in China territory, there was a lot more greenery and farmland all around, a far cry […]
6 July 2018, Friday I woke up today feeling much better than I did yesterday. The medicine had worked after all. As arranged with my hostel, my driver showed up bright and early at Zaya Guest House and sent me to the Ulaanbaatar railway station, located about 2.5km away. I arrived at 6:50am, well ahead […]
5 July 2018, Thursday I woke up at about 9am this morning. I had been nursing a flu in the last two days but it seemed to be worse today. I felt rather weak and decided I should find a pharmacy to buy some medicine. This was my first time falling sick after more than […]
4 July 2018, Wednesday I woke up feeling a bit sick this morning. I’m not sure if it was due to the vodka last night, or it was from being exposed to the elements the past two days, but I was starting to nurse a runny nose and I felt a bit lethargic. Coupled with […]
3 July 2018, Tuesday This morning, I woke up at about 5:30am because Mrs Oyunaa was already up and preparing breakfast and starting on the day’s chores. I snuck out of the ger to see the early morning sun and snap some photos. There was still some mist hanging around and it was a very […]
2 July 2018, Monday More than 92 hours since boarding the train at Nizhny Novgorod in Russia, my Trans-Mongolian Railway train number 6 finally arrived at Ulaanbaatar railway station in Mongolia at 6:50am. After spending the past few days on the train with Ray and Tony, and later also with my new bunkmate Aveline and […]
Europe | Russia | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 60 to 62 – Trans-Mongolian Railway (Part 2)
29 to 30 June 2018, Friday & Saturday The next two days of the Trans-Mongolian Railway journey were pretty much the same as the first day. We made stops at major cities like Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, Omsk, Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk. At every stop, I took the opportunity to sneak out of the train to take a […]
Europe | Russia | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 59 – Trans-Mongolian Railway (Part 1)
28 June 2018, Thursday After the late night yesterday, I slept only for about two hours before I was roused awake by my alarm clock at 4:15am this morning. After washing up and checking out of my hostel, I booked an Uber car at 4:45am to take me to Nizhny Novgorod railway station. Luckily, I […]
Europe | Russia | The Grand Adventure 2018
The Grand Adventure: Day 58 – Russia (Moscow / Nizhny Novgorod)
27 June 2018, Wednesday It was an early start to the day as I checked out of Godzillas Hostel at about 6:15am and booked an Uber car to go to Moscow Kurskaya railway station. The Uber ride took only around 10 minutes and it cost 318 RUB (S$7.40). I arrived in good time and made […]
26 June 2018, Tuesday The day I had been eagerly waiting for was finally here. It was match day! I would be watching my first FIFA World Cup match between Denmark and France at the Luzhniki Stadium later at 5pm. But first, there was more exploring to be done. I woke up at around 8am, […]
25 June 2018, Monday It was my second last day in Moscow, and I had three objectives to achieve today. First was to visit the Kremlin Museums, second was to collect my Trans-Mongolian train ticket from the Real Russia office, and third was to go to the FIFA Fan Fest early to catch the Russia […]
24 June 2018, Sunday After the late night out yesterday, I did not set my alarm clock and just slept in today. In any case, staying in a dormitory, you are bound to wake up naturally by the other “alarm clocks” – your bunk mates who happen to snore loudly, flip over and cause the […]
23 June 2018, Saturday After an almost 8-hour train ride from St. Petersburg, I arrived at Moscow’s Leningradsky station at 6:42am. From the railway station, I walked to the connecting Metro station, Komsomolskaya, and bought a three-day travel pass for 415 RUB (S$9.65). I thought it would make sense to get the three-day pass because […]
22 June 2018, Friday It’s Day 53 and I have a full day ahead to explore what’s left of St. Petersburg before catching my overnight train to Moscow at 10:50pm. For today, my two big objectives were to (finally) visit the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood and the State Hermitage Museum. It was […]
21 June 2018, Thursday I slept in till about 10am this morning, taking my time to wash up and get ready to start the day. After yesterday’s underwhelming breakfast, I bought my own half loaf of bread and a couple of bananas to supplement the jam and coffee provided by the hostel. I had two […]
20 June 2018, Wednesday Woke up feeling excited about another day of exploring St. Petersburg. My accommodation at Your Space Capsule Hotel provided a very basic breakfast from 7am to 10am. When I went to the common area and kitchen at 9am, I found that there was no more bread left. There was only some […]