Mission accomplished!

Yes that’s me, paddling in the Pacific. Never satisfied, I hopped on a boat for a tour of Vladivostok’s amazing natural harbour which positively bristles with some very serious looking ships – and got a bit further east in the process……you know, just to make sure……

Made it!

Vladivostok! What more romantic sounding name could you have!

And in case you are harbouring a suspicion that really I am sitting at my desk at home in Shropshire and making it all up, here is irrefutable evidence that I have actually done it…….

PS despite expert instructions from both my brother and his wife on screenshots, well you’re getting good old fashioned photos. Nothing wrong with good old fashioned photos is there!!!

This is such a civilised way to travel My longings for Mongolia gradually becoming assimilated into a love of the country and pleasure of having been there with time to relax and acknowledge it as part of my life – instead of being parachuted back into my “real” life with no chance to let go in my own time.

That last day in Ulan Bator gave me a chance to experience the art and culture of Mongolia through visiting a couple of museums – I am no fan of museums normally but I loved these, the Mongolilan artistic heritage is rich and gorgeous with fabulous fabrics and costumes, wonderful paintings and statues – lots of Buddhist art where I enjoyed seeing many of the effigies and figures I am used to seeing in Tibetan monasteries with a Mongolian twist – squarer, Mongolian faces – reminds me of our English religious art where we depict Jesus as fair when we all know he was an Arab – and horses! Of course! And, delightfully, many of the wrathful deities and fierce protectors in Mongolia are not barefoot like their Tibetan brothers – they wear glorious boots!

There was a new moon for this new leg of my journey and I got out of the train for the last stops in Mongolia to linger one more time on Mongolian soil.

And now I look forward with growing excitement to arriving in Vladivostok early tomorrow morning.

Olga has donned a navy blue overall and is cleaning the carriage including mopping our floor. I’m now sharing with a family – mum and 2 teenage girls with me, dad along the corridor. We are beyond Siberia now. This is so far across the world! Siberia always sounds llike the far reaches of where you’d ever go and I’m beyond that now!

Still lush, still trees, still carpets of wild flowers. Small wooden towns and villages, a metalled road in view most of the time – this corridor with the railway line is more inhabited, to the north its empty land til you get to the artic. Easy to imagine bears prowling round the forests.

On the train, last leg of journey to Vldiovostok. Travelling 2nd class and surrounded by Russians – in marked contrast to every leg of the journey so far where my carriage companions have been foreigners – on the last one I felt positively hemmed in by Americans.

This carriage is a different design again, they all vary slightly – this one has the less delightful design of toilet – and my carriage attendant, Olga, is nothing like as assiduous in her cleaning duties as some! Ah well, I’m made of stern stuff and wet wipes may be unenvironmental but they make it all do-able.

I’m sharing with a large Russian woman (opposite, bottom bunk) who has done nothing but eat and sleep all afternoon and evening, and a young woman above. I can see the attraction of the top bunk, she’s in her own little private cacoon with her stuff around her and a good storage space off her bunk which goes above the corridor. Good for privacy and security. Very clever design – Scottish Caledonian take note.

Olga is relaxed and friendly, she has loose wavy hair and a slightly dishevilled look instead of the usual tight bun, tights and pristine trim uniform. She worried how I would communicate with my fellow travellers without a translation app. She chivvies me not to go too far when we all pile out at stations.

And Siberia? Very lush after Mongolia, long waving grass, lush river with trees and scrub in the early morning mist, larch and birch trees, sparse forest with open meadows , rolling landscape. My guidebook tells me I’ve slept through the most scenic part of the whole route. I don’t care. I’m happy. We’re running late. Doesn’t mean we go any faster!

Grabbing a quick fix of wifi in Ulan-Ude between trains. Goodness I do miss Mongolia but it’s good to be back in Russia and so glad to have more time here. I’m so enjoying Russia! And getting the hang of how to communicate with people – who are so helpful.

My compartment companion on the train was a MAN. It was OK but I had to freeze him out – he wanted to talk presumably to while away a long boring train journey. He kept fiddling with his phone and telling me where we were, how fast we were going, etc etc. He made a disparaging comment about Mongolia which made me feel very protective but I didn’t challenge him – he just didn’t get it and I wanted him to shut up so I could just drink in my last look at Mongolia.

Waking up on the outskirts of Ulan-Ude he excitedly took pics of a falling down soviet era block muttering about soviet legacy and this is Russia. I said I’m sure you have stuff like that in switzerland – he said not so much – I said well Russia has lovely stuff too. He only saw what he wanted to see.

Delighted to report this Chinese train a massive improvement on the last one – none of the plush trappings but CLEAN and the loo quite acceptable. Can it really just be due to the fact that the attendants were women this time????

Bye bye to my Chinese train – on the right

PS I claim no credit for the title of this post – my brother’s idea! Thank you little bro’!