Mongolia, and some other random stuff...

I'm stupidly excited about Mongolia now,
I think we can probably only venture into Ulaan Batar and surrounding national parks and 'steppes' because otherwise I think we might be taking on way too much but it should be very cool, and I'm dreaming of yurts (or ger as they call them) and horse rides through amazing scenery.

JWs reaction to Mongolia was ''But it's so remote''
Yeah! thats the point!
Poor JW, I'm pushing his boundaries big time!

Anyway, we are having a hard time this week,
seems to be a load of stress and stuff building up...

Here are the top 3...

1. Trying to send off JWs citizenship, getting the info together (like who knows precise dates of every holiday they've had in the last 5 years?!) and having enough money to pay for it.

2. Working when we both hate our jobs, and are soooo ready to leave right now, but having to wait until we have enough money.

3. My sister staying in London, making my parents home full to the brim, and really hard to get any privacy AT ALL!

already some added extras...

After proudly posting my 'finished' route through china, it was only inevitable that I would make changes right?

After doing a bit of research, I have decided that it might be worth doing more of the North West, on the Silk Road route.

So, we will be visiting the one province I hadnt included in our plans, Xinjiang.

There is a 20 hour sleeper train that goes from Lanzhou to Urumqi (fact: the furthest city from the ocean in the world) which also stops in Turpan.

And after adding Xinjiang,

I thought, seeing as we are passing so close by, why not venture into Mongola?

So with that I decided to add a whole new country to our trip!!!

These two detours should only add a few weeks to our trip.

And it may mean that we dont bother travelling up to Har'bin, which I was uming and ahhing about anyway.

But we'll see!

China route map

Ive finally completed the rough guide to our route through China,

Starting in Hong Kong,

and leaving China to visit Taiwan, Japan and South Korea and then finally leaving China for the last time into Vietnam at the friendship Pass...

This picture isnt that clear, but you can see the general route,

Also, this isnt set in stone, it will change and evolve as we travel...

It exciting!

Everything I want to see...

Y'know, I think Im just a really restless person.

I never feel comfortable staying in one place for too long,

and when I start thinking about all the places in the world I want to see, I go crazy thinking about everywhere I wanna go, and hope I can cram into my life.

I want to see everything! And NOW!!!

Me and JW had a chat about it this morning (never a good time to discuss anything)

and he said he was worried that when I come back, Im not gonna be happy...

Well, to tell you the truth Ive worried about this too.

I kinda see travelling as my escape that will make me feel happy, excited and fulfilled...

But what happens when you get back???

JW has promised that he too wants to try living abroad when we come back (lets face it he doesnt have that many ties left in London)

But will this be enough to keep me happy???

Anyway, with this in mind, I drew up this map,

The Red is places Ive already been

The Green is places Im going on my Asia trip

And the Yellow is places Id like to go (Im sure I could add to this but I had to stop myself!)

Train times...

Just found this guide to train times,
Its by Thomas Cook, and updated every 2 months...

Apparently it covers Asia (along with a lot of other areas like Africa) which is pretty amazing!

Ill have to get one before we go (I hope its not too heavy!)

Matsu Island

Ive been getting quite deep into routes this week.

Ive had a re think about the China route,


Firstly because Ive figured out that its probably a lot cheaper and easier to fly in to Hong Kong,
And secondly, with the news about the floods in Southern China at the moment, it would be very unwise to be in southern china next summer (rainy season)


So, Ive decided to start in Hong Kong, and do some of the south, before heading to the northern provences for the summer months.
(Ill put a map up on here when I get round to doing one)


Also, been looking at getting to Taiwan...
and (kinda excitedly) discovered (thanks to that reliable man in seat61) that the best way to get there from china is to get a ferry from Fuzhou to Matsu (a tiny island off the coast of china) then to Taiwan.
It looks very cool!!!
see....

Matsu Island...

It doesnt look like there is much there, and even googling doesnt bring up much...

(these pics are from google maps)
But I just like the idea of going somewhere totally out of the way and where not many people go!

Woburn

Woburn was lovely,
very chilled weekend in a lovely hotel.

Where we were staying felt really in the middle of the country side, surrounded by fields,
and the little village was in wasnt much more than a post office and a pub (We suspected that they deliberately keep it that way for tourists)

Woburn safari park was a lot of fun, we were all like kids spotting the animals, and it really was pretty good and really massive
Mum got freaked out a bit by the lions (they started kinda fighting when we were stopped nearby, and they came really close to the car)
She told us the story (again) about the time when she went to Longleat and a lion jumped up and put her paws on her car window (which sounds v cool actually)

Anyway, the walk around thing afterwards was very kiddy and not that interesting but there were some cool parrots that flew around in a demo, and some very cute red river hogs (I want one!)

On the way back we stopped at a village (cant remember the name-doh!) that had a beautiful old town, with seriously old buildings (like 1600's)

Im glad JW got to see some really rural England.