Zhemchuzhina Hotel Perm

... reality on the teain, I brought a multi ise sink plug which does the trick. The toilet opens up after you use it and the contents just simply drop on to the tracks they close it whilst at the stations which is a good thing! By the end of today we will have done 1814km thus far out of the 7865km journey. As I said I am looking forward to getting to Mongolia.

... gekauft und dann gefragt, ob wir ihn nicht auf 100gr Wodka einladen wollen. Okay - kein Problem. Nur dann ist der Typ nicht mit 100gr dahergekommen, sondern mit einer ganzen Flasche, die er sich mit dem Kommentar "That can only Russian man, no american boy" mit einem Zug zur Hälfte runtergehaut hat. Das ist dann ungefähr zehn Minuten gutgegangen , aber dann war der Typ so betrunken, dass er alle begrapschen wollte und keinen Meter mehr grade gehen konnte.

... Kaverimme Fen ja Du ovat kylla ihan mahtavia heppuleita. Hopottavat meille kiinaks jotain ja sit kattovat ihmeissaan, et ettekste nyt noin yksinkertaista asiaa tajua. Ne syo ihan helvetin paljon nuudelia. Syo ne kyl kaikkee ihmeellistakin kanan varpaista alkaen ja tarjoovat aina meillekkin. Ulkonaosta riippuen joko maistan tai en. Annika tietysti ei, jaa paitsi kurkkua. Huomaatteko miten jannaa. Syomista... Kirjoittelen kohan on jotain asiaa. Pistanpa kuvia nyt ainakin.

... which made the whole experience ten times better, as it is our first snow this year and our first snow in Russia. We were like little kids at Christmas! We only had 2 days in Perm, so we spent our time walking around the town, and checking out the sights as we came across them. The guide book was not very detailed when it came to Perm, so it was a case of finding things for ourselves. We found a beautiful little church, which we went inside of, only to come face to ...

... be a a bit less intense as we visit the Kungar Ice Caves, to see the caves and all the staligtites and staligmites.......if anyone needs a reminder as my mother would say Staligtites hang down....like a pair of tights on a washing line!!!!!!! We are staying at a "Homestay" which is a 6th floor apartment of a Soviet-era apartment block. The Sheraton it certainly isn't, but the family are lovely, and after arriving we discovered ...

... in our room, we decided that we should try and get moved to another carriage, but they wanted 10,000 roubles which is about 200 pound.... which would go straight into the attendents pocket of course... so we decided to stick it out and fry in our little room. The 2 Uzbekistan lads got off about 16 hours into the train trip and, we were soon joined by a family of 4! our beds had been double booked, so at 12 midnight the dad of the family was arguing ...

... et habite au bord de la mer des Barents. Elle me fait part d'une generosite allat jusqu'a me mettre mal a l'aise, me remboursant de force une tourne de biere et m'offrant, de force encore le reste de ses biscuits a l'arrivee. Celle que j'appelerai Sylviana car je sais pas son nom mais je trouve que ca lui va bien. D'une cinquantaine d'annees, elle a etait au Vietnam il y a 30 ans. Elle ...

... occasion when Jamie, Julie and Bill crossed the tracks to the other platform to try and buy some vodka when suddenly another train pulled into the station alongside ours trapping them on the other side with our train due to leave at any moment. Luckily, panicking they managed to run around the front of the second train and back to ours. Unfortunately without the vodka.

... the locals at the stops anyway. Back to Bill, Joanne, Sang, and Chris's Coupe for vodka and toasts (the little speeches as oppose to food. Julie and Jamie also turn up. Good craic and Bill slurring the words with more vodka. Everyone tucking into each others snack stuff. Jamie classic gets us all laughing - when getting off last stop says in real dodgy US accent 'all you need is a Starbucks here'. Ok funnier if you where here!

... and their small but important contributions to the humanity of this particular dimension. I give you the Pentax Optio S4 and the Fuji FinePix F10, two great cameras that did the hard work these past five months to bring you the 600+ images so far in this journal, some of which a number of you have complimented so generously. The 4 megapixel Optio S4 brought you everything up to Singapore, which was a substantial ...