They think its all over... it is now...

If there's still an audience out there for our musings even when we're not globetrotting, drop on by Bansey.com.

Until then... adieu, ciao, goodbye, etc...

The Penultimate

When we headed out from Stockton Town Hall all those months ago we really didn't envision what our homecoming would be like.

We are soon going to find out. We are now in Singapore and tonight is our last night abroad as we catch our flight back to Brisbane tomorrow night at 21:20.

Its only a 7 hour flight which will hopefully pass in a blur of great first release movies, delicious food and quiet rest. Generally our flights pass with a straight-to-video film (why is it that the films are always fantastic on the flights going the opposite direction than we are??), inedible food and screaming children kicking the back of our chair. I think we're due one of the former.

Singapore is an island that has a lot of rules. Fined if you don't flush a public toilet, no chewing gum and no urinating in the lift (do you really need to spell that rule out?). As a result it is a very safe destination, but one can't help feeling that they've regulated all the fun out. As a government minister mentioned when trying to dissuade visitors that Singapore was "boring" - "we need to think seriously about the issue of having fun". I think he's missed the point really....

Do we sound jaded? Well, we certainly feel it. We've had a great time, but we've definitely got the back-to-school vibe. The trip back to reality is complete as I may even have a phone interview on Friday afternoon. Oh well, it could be double Maths....

Land of Smiles

Well our overnight stay in Koh Samui was lengthened to err... umm.. two weeks!? Part of this was due to our fantastic spot at Moon Bungalows where we had a lovely beach 100 metres away. Part was due to our overload of shopping and our heavy bags. Part of it is just travel tiredness and the fact that we like to have some sense of permanency to a place. It was a wrench to leave especially having made some good friends in Claire and Mark (hi guys!).

But we did and we've now made our way to Phuket via the most backpacker-crowded ferry I've ever seen. As Martin said, it would be a big loss to the backpacking fraternity if the boat went down. We hadn't thought about our dates and were leaving on the same ferry as all the full moon party attendees. Listening to their conversations about the party, we didn't feel that we'd missed that much (eg. "I was so stoned Dude!"). We needed our witys about us to attend a quiz at an expat bar on Samui the next night... and lost by one point. Questions that are haunting us now include where the first winter olympics were held, the number of times Borg won Wimbledon before losing to McEnroe and the European country which has a white flag with a red cross on it.

Mark had been to Phuket before making it to Koh Samui and had recommended a nice hotel at bargain prices. We're now in unknown luxury land of air-conditioning, mini-bar, satellite TV and DVD players (though it doesn't seem to like some of our dodgy Chinese bought ones). We're here for about 5 days before we head to our penultimate country of the trip, Malaysia. I hear its national dish is satay - so I'm getting excited already.

In the meantime we're off for a big bowl of Tom Yum Gaeng (Banz's minus the prawns of course!).

Seven Nights in Bangkok

After waving a sad farewell to Lisa in Delhi, we wasted no time in jumping on a flight to Bangkok. We definitely enjoyed India and will be back, but I think its a small dose country for us. Much respect to the six monthers out there.

The change upon hitting Thailand was sudden and welcome. Simple things like walking down the street and not having any hassle were commonplace.

As we've been to Bangkok a couple of times before we were quite content to primarily catch up on emails, shop, catch up with our friends Anthony and Tu, oh and did I mention shop! Our first morning after arrival was spent in Chatachak weekend market. I love Chatachak as there's a huge amount of stuff there, quite a bit of variety and because a lot of Thais shopt there is not the silly prices that you get at the more touristy markets like Patpong. My alarming (to Banz) shoe fetish has continued here and we are now at shoe critical mass of 11 pairs of shoes. I've never been a shoe person, but the cheap prices and styles (mainly sandals) available in India and Thailand have sent me on a buying frenzy. I did point out that the amount of paid for 11 pairs is equivalent to about 25 english pounds. I don't think he's convinced though...

We also found time to go to the cinema. Hooray for Thai subtitles! In two days we went three times and have managed to see

Sin City - we absolutely loved this film and are excited by the prospects of sequels in the next couple of years. If anyone has found a definition of what all the colours mean send it on to us. Viewing pleasure was increased by being the only two people in a "luxury" cinema with sofas and blankets (Thai air-conditioning is of the arctic standard).

Mr and Mrs Smith - great no brainer that we really enjoyed. Brad Pitt in suits - Jennifer Anniston are you nuts? Angelina Jolie kicked butt and can't really imagine Nicole Kidman (originally destined for the role) doing it as well.

Star Wars III - and then we went and spoiled it all by watching Revenge of the Sith. What a waste of time this film was. Anakin Skywalker is the one but somehow is the stupidest person ever. Definitely has sullied the memory of the original trio with this one. Worst moment - Anakin's first moments as a suited and booted Darth Vader and is informed of Padme's death. Darth lurches forward Frankenstein's monster style and lets out a James Earl Jones induced "Noooooooooooo" whilst holding his hands in the air.

We put our horrific Revenge of the Sith moment behind us and had dinner with our friends' Anthony and Tu at a fabulous Italian place near their house. I've been craving pasta since being in India (craved curry whilst in Italy - no pleasing some people) so this was a great treat. It was also great to catch up with them and share some experiences of India together. They've had extensive business dealings there to which I hope their patience is one day rewarded.

Darth Vader was not the only one to be suited and booted during our Bangkok stay. On our first trip to Bangkok five years ago we (Banz, Spence and HiG) had some made to measure suits done. These suits looked great on the boys and Banz decided to get another made for job searching purposes. We journeyed back to our friends at Arena Fashions for a fitting and were warmly welcomed back. One pinstriped number later and Banz is looking dressed to kill. Well at least dressed to obtain a highly paid IT position (fingers crossed!).

We have now ventured south and are chilling out on Koh Samui for a while before continuing onto other islands and then further south through Malaysia and finally onto Singapore. The trip is coming to a definite end as we have booked our flight out of Singapore for July 20th. Our feelings are both of sadness and excitement.

We'll see how that changes as the final date approaches.

Things We've Learnt About India

1. You can have too much curry

2. Indian Salesmen are the most tenacious in the world. We mostly managed to shake them off.

3. Completely unrelated to No.2. We are now carrying a third bag full of shopping.

4. Cricketers are the real stars of India... well that and a couple of ubiquitous Bollywood Stars who to our untrained eyes just look smug. Download our favourite, the Oye Bubbly Video for Pepsi here (make sure you download the Music Video, not the TV Commercial). Sachin, Dravid et al appear at about the three minute mark. If anyone speaks Hindi we'd love a translation.

5. Praising the Indian top 6 increases your chances of getting money off in a shop.

6. Telling them that VVS Laxman broke Australian hearts in the series before the last one and you're even more likely to get a discount. Swings and roundabouts....

High Anxiety

Our flight to Lhasa was fine. The scenery outside of the plane was fantastic (Martin is working as we speak to get these photos up) though the food inside gave us a slight cause for concern if it was a sign of things to come (salty porridge....?).

The flight was on-time and when we landed we started to wonder if all this talk of Altitude Sickness is just lies. Headaches, dizzyness, out-of-breath, yeah right. We were fine and we're only in the airport (kind of like that time we beat jet lag and woke up in a hotel room in Gympie at 9 o'clock at night - try finding food at that time of night in Gympie!).

It was another two hours before we were able to feel its first effects. The airport at Lhasa is over 90 kms outside of town and so felt fine for the two hour coach journey into town. We arrived at our Hotel and proceeded to walk up two flights of stairs to the reception. After the first flight we started to breath heavily and by the second we were panting like we'd just done the Ventoux. After checking into our room we discovered we needed to have a good lie down (involving a four hour nap) after which we had the strangest feeling in the world - the dizzyness of being tipsy combined with a hangover size headache. Hmm, hardly seems fair to have them both at the same time.

Its probably a good time now to say we were pretty disappointed with Tibet. Perhaps our perceptions were too unrealistic. We knew it wasn't going to be the Shangri-la of "Lost Horizon" fame and we knew that the Chinese had altered it forever, but we just couldn't get a good feeling for it. Maybe it was the harrassing monks shouting "Money, money!" at any white-faced tourists they see or being persistently overcharged by shopkeepers. Alternatively it could be the sinister Non-Government operators (NGOs) who seem to each have a token Tibetan with them in each of the restaurants we went to. Tibet's case also wasn't helped by the profusion of 17 year olds on their gap year whose Mummy has given them a round-the-world ticket which gives them a stop in 20 different countries for five days. I hope somebody back home will tell them how stupid they look in their collection of "ethnic" hats. I didn't have the heart.

As it stands we were happy to leave Lhasa and head towards the border on a Jeep trek that would take in some of the sights as well as Mt Everest Base Camp. We were lucky to be paired with Ana and Juan Carlos (from Spain and Argentina) for the trip. Apart from an opportunity to practice my ever-diminishing spanish, Ana and Juan Carlos were great companions and always up for a laugh. Lucky this as we keep running into them here in Kathmandu!

We departed on my birthday (4:00am start - that's why I'm starting to look old!) and over the next few days passed through several of Tibet's towns, monasteries and forts. All these were only a pre-cursor for the big one - Everest. All through the last couple of days our guidebooks had promised glimpses of Everest. It wasn't until Day 4 as we went over our highest pass that we saw it. I'm not going to bother with words as the four of us in the jeep certainly didn't. Instead we jumped out of the jeep and were giddy as children (not just the altitude this time) and ran about photographing Everest and us in various combinations. After half an hour here we jumped back in the jeep and headed towards Everest Base Camp where we would spend the night.

Everest Base Camp was an interesting place for an evening, but I can't imagine spending five weeks there as some of the mountaineers we met had. All that time for acclimitisation must drive them potty. One climber we met, Humphrey Murphy is hoping to go up in a few days time if the weather is right. We've got our fingers crossed for him and will be keeping an eye on Explorer's Web for his progress.

After Everest, we thought the last day would be a disappointment. Thankfully it wasn't. As we lost 4,000 metres of altitude and headed to Nepal the road hugged the river and we had some amazing scenery. The friendliest border crossing ever, a cheap and tasty dhal bat lunch and a five hour bus ride later and we were in Kathmandu. Obviously there are bigger issues in Nepal with the Maoist rebels in the countryside (our bus went through about 6 roadblocks), but Kathmandu is fine and a friendly and welcoming place.

We definitely feel we're back into our world now - driving on the left, cricket in the streets and fantastic food. Namaste.

Fly Me to Tibet

We've now had a couple of days in Chengdu and have enjoyed relaxing at a very cool hostel we found called Mix & Backpackers. We had actually met Mix (the proprietor of this fine establishment) in Beijing as he was travelling around China seeking cooperation and referrals from other hostels.

Mix has setup a great hostel and we're disappointed to not be able to spend longer here. Tomorrow we're flying to Lhasa. Despite a 5am start we're excited and can't wait to experience Tibet.

Cruising the Yangze

We last left you in Datong and the aforementioned Great Firewall of China is still playing havoc with our attempts to update the website or upload photos. Frustrating as memory cards are starting to move as slow as me on a fully loaded bike going uphill.

From Datong we stopped off in the town of Pingyao. When we got off the train we were slightly concerned to see the usual tower blocks that mark Chinese towns abounding around the station. After ditching the persistent trishaw drivers, we wandered for a bit and finally found the walls that enclose the old city. We entered through a gap and found the charming old town that we had been expecting. The instructions for our chosen hotel were vague so we followed our mother's advice and asked a policeman (who was playing pool at the time). He attempted no english niceties and bundled us (Banz, myself and another traveller, Nick) into his van. Two minutes later we were deposited at the front of our hotel and before we knew it he had left.

We had a pleasant day in Pingyao, just rambling about, checking out the old town. Allegedly ghosts from the Ming Dynasty still wander the streets after dark as the streets are still the same as they were in the ghosts' heyday. We didn't see any, but were content to be the usual point of interest for passing schoolchildren and pensioners.

We chatted with Nick over dinner but were put off exchanging emails by his turning his nose up at our books while recommending the Robbie Williams biography.

Next stop was Luoyang. We had booked a hard sleeper (basically a dorm on wheels) to take us there and were a bit distressed to find we arrived at 2:10 in the morning. Nevertheless we sleepily piled into a taxi and made some new friends by waking receptionists in the budget hotels we had selected. All were full or not as budget as we expected. The driver moved on regardless and despite continually pointing at "luxury hotel" in our phrasebook we managed to steer him in the right direction and were comfortably ensconced in our room by 3 am. Only problem was we were too tired to sleep and so didn't nod off until after 4. Imagine our joy when the same taxi driver knocked on our door at ten o'clock to take us on an overpriced tour of the local sights. Our response really wouldn't be allowed out by the Chinese authorities.

The principal sites of Luoyang were the Longman Caves and the park where Peonies grow. The Longman Caves were fantastic despite the persistent use of megaphones by Chinese tour guides. It didn't seem to matter how small the groups were, the megaphone was always necessary. So much for the serenity.

The Peony Park (for the life of me I can't remember the correct name) is the reason half of China flocks to Luoyang in the Springtime. A handful of reasonably pretty flowers was hardly compensation for finding our hotel was full and we couldn't extend our stay for one night. As a result, Banz had to spend a good couple of hours making contacts with doormen from Five Star Hotels as they organised a night for us in a reasonably priced Three Star. Our thanks to the good people at the Triumphal Arches are eternal.

The extra day was required as we had a one hour bus journey to Shaolin Si - the birthplace of Kung Fu. We were pretty disappointed with the temple grounds as it was more elderly Chinese tourists than kickass Chinese monks. Saying that, the Garden of the Thousand Pagodas was pretty interesting and the return journey was enlivened by the showing of Jet Li's first movie called Shaolin Temple (shot in and around Shaolin Si). Of course, the bus conductor turned it off with 20 minutes of the film and forty minutes of the journey to go so he could talk in Chinese about another temple we were passing.

From Luoyang it was a short six hour train ride to Xi'an. Xi'an seems to want to be the Chinese Las Vegas with its flashing neon lights. We were just happy to see Pizza Hut and welcomed some comfort food from "home". The other reason to visit Xi'an was to see the Terracotta Warriors which were as impressive as expected.

We had a panic as we coordinated our train and boat journeys. With a lot of phoning, emailing and a dash to the station we were set to travel to Yichang and catch the President No. 4 boat to Chongqing. There are several options for journeying up the Yangze, but we had decided to treat ourselves and go for the 4 star option. It was a decision that paid off as we had air-conditioned en-suite accommodation with fantastic meals whilst on-board. At our first dinner we were alarmed to discover that all the other guests were in tour groups and we were to sit at a table by ourselves. Another cause for concern was the table next to our's which had an average age of 75. The third concern was when all the tour groups were in turn introduced and then finally, we were told there was a group of Australians on board. When nobody else had put there hand up we realised they meant us and reluctantly rose our hands.

Not being used to the Tour Group way of things, we were raised from our beds the next morning at 6:40 by piped Chinese muzak and made our way as instructed to the dining room. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that we would be dining with 2 Chinese couples as well as a couple from Singapore for the rest of the trip. It was also over breakfast that people started to sidle up to us and say, "So you're the Australians". I think this was partly due to the friendliness of the people involved (hello Peter, Richard, Hilary and Julian!) but also due to our novelty factor as independant travellers. "You mean you're travelling alone!?", was the often heard remark when we said we weren't with a group.

The next few days passed in a whirl of amazing scenery (especially the Three Gorges), great food (battered coconut), the opportunity to learn mahjong as well as flying a kite off the back of the boat (and almost through some powerlines).

After four days of luxury we have now journeyed onto Chengdu where we hope to organise our onward travel to Tibet.

The Great Firewall of China

Well, we're having issues with keeping the site up-to-date as we would like here in China. The big issue is the aptly named Great Firewall of China. Our website is unable to be seen. They also block the BBC website so at least we're in good company....

We are now currently in Datong. Its a smallish town by Chinese standards of only six million people. It has to be said that we're one of the prime attractions in town though. We had heard and read stories of the Chinese propensity for staring at caucasians. We thought thought that the stories were overblown. We also thought that this would be the case in small provincial towns that don't have two of the main attractions of China nearby that attract a string of international visitors. We were wrong.

Sitting in a restaurant by the window on Saturday night we were constantly the subject of double and then triple takes and then staring - not just from people walking by, but from people on bikes and scooters (we were actually quite alarmed for their safety). One little boy (about 6) walked past with his table tennis bat in one hand and his Dad in the other, pointed and stared and then came in to say hello and test his english. Incredibly sweet as he then became very shy and would look down on the floor when we talked to him. Banz was most disappointed that he forgot to drop into the conversation one of our easily remembered Mandarin words - ping pong.

Previously on Saturday we had been to visit the Yungang Caves and the Hanging Temple. The Yungang Caves were amazing. Buddhas of various sizes (the biggest about three stories) were housed in about 50 caves. As well as the Buddhas the caves themselves were intricately painted and carved. According to our guidebooks, the earliest caves were created by sculptors and painters from as far away as present day Afghanistan and India.

From here we braved our Chinese driver (mobile phone constantly in one hand whilst overtaking on bends in the road on a mountain) and headed the Hanging Temple. I was a bit disappointed with these as a lot of the work was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and looks a bit Disney-fied and quaint. Banz went for a closer investigation whilst I practised my Mandarin much to the amusement of the stallholders trying to get me to buy verdigree turtles.

In a couple of hours we'll jump on our train and head to Taiyuan. We're mainly using this as a staging post en route to Pingyao which is a well preserved town which dates mainly from the Ming Dynasty where we'll arrive tomorrow.

Mega Update for the Galleries

Today had its ups and downs. We said goodbye to Hig (downer) but were able to do a mega update and clear all the photos off the digital camera (upper).

For your viewing pleasure the following galleries are now available -

Latvia and Estonia
St Petersburg
Pushkin
Russian Dacha
Moscow
Trans-Siberian Railway
Irkutsk

As always use the forward and back buttons down the bottom of each gallery to navigate. Watch this space as the Lake Baikal and first Mongolian galleries are imminent.

Mongol Empires

We last left you as we were heading for Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world. I wish I could think of the words to describe this place. All I can say is that it is probably one of the most beautiful and magical places that I've seen in my life.

We spent 4 days and 3 nights there on a tour with Jack Sheremetoff from Baikaler tours. Our nights were spent in a homestay on the island of Olkhon (the largest island on the lake) eating the best food we ate in our entire time in Russia. During the days Jack would take us for walks on the lake as well as a memorable day driving across the ice to see some ice caves and sacred sites (the area is understandably very important to the indigenous Buryiat people) and lunching on the local salmon (omul) which was absolutely delicious. We've got literally hundreds of photos and as soon as we can get a fast internet connection we'll have them up for you to see - though I'm not sure they'll do it justice.

Since then we've had a day trip to Ulan Ude. We arrived at 6:30am, napped for a couple of hours, went off to the Datsan (Buddhist Monastery), returned to Ulan Ude and saw the world's biggest Lenin head (really!) before testing our Russian for the last time at the hotel restaurant and retiring relatively early.

The next morning we were again on the train, this time departing at 6:30am and travelling to the Russia-Mongolia border. The train stopped at the border and after about an hour of waiting (and being reassured by a Danish girl who had talked to the providnitsa that the train would be there for 4 hours), Banz and I went in search of some food at a local market as the restaurant carriage on the train had closed. Whilst at the market buying very random items to spend the last of our roubles (noodles, strange kind of marshmallows and the largest bag of biscuits you've ever seen), we began to be alarmed by the fact that we could here train whistles. As we quickly paid for our goods (which had been added up on an abacus) and returned to the station, we saw to our dismay an empty platform where our train once had stood. We immediately panicked and started running up the tracks (me having to pick my way through the ice as I still slip over at the slightest patch). The train was there being shunted about and locomotives and carriages being added and subtracted. We met a worker halfway there and started shouting "ULAN BATOR!! ULAN BATOR!!" at him and he calmly told us to wait there and the train would be coming back to this very spot. The train was true to his words and as it pulled up, we ran and found our carriage, Banz opened the door (without waiting for the stairs to be lowered) and threw his three packets of chicken noodles and then himself on. I waited for the provodnitsa to lower the stairs and then hauled myself and biscuits on. We then found Hig who had been doing his own panicking (his was more for the fact that he would've had to carry our backpacks as well as his own if we didn't make the train). After we sat down, made ourselves a cup of tea and tried to relax we began getting visits from the other foreigners on board who had been alerted by Hig to our absence. We had become carriage celebrities!

The train then finished shunting and returned to the exact same spot on the platform where we had left it for our sojourn to the market. And stayed there for five hours. Yes, five hours - the majority of which we spent playing cards and incorrectly filling out Russian customs declarations.

We then travelled through no man's land to the Mongolian border and filled out four forms (2 customs, 1 entry and 1 health clearance) before actually continuing the journey to Ulan Bator where we are now. Ulan Bator seems quite relaxed and we've been excited by simple things like English in a menu, BBC World Service being on FM and clear instead of SW and crackly and the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) having a channel on our TV in our room. Makes a nice change from attempting to follow Beverly Hills 90210 in Russian.

White Nights in St Pete

Well for those of you keeping track Boro managed a 0-0 draw with Bolton. The game wasn't as dull as the scoreline suggests and it gave us an excuse to stay at the Dickens pub for extra deep-fried Latvian garlic bread.

Football could hold us no longer in Riga (even though the Dickens was showing Boro's game last night - 2-2 with AK Graz for those taking notes - played at the Arnold Schwarzanegger Stadium, seriously - check here...). Our appointment with HiG was duly approaching so we hopped a bus for six hours to our last EU outpost of Estonia. HiG arrived on time to the tiny Tallinn airport. We welcomed him and a supply of Marks and Spencer Teacakes and headed back into the city. The bus journey took only about 10 minutes as the airport is only about 3kms from the edge of the city. After dumping off our gear we all headed out into the evening to find some food and drink. After quite a bit of fruitless searching (a lot of places in Tallinn shut at 10pm, so had their doors locked for 9:30) we managed to refuel at a Tex-Mex eatery.

Next morning found Banz with a bad headache and achey joints. After ensuring that it was a bit of a cold and not a hangover, HiG and I left him to recuperate whilst we explored the Old Town. The area itself is quite compact and so after a couple of hours wandering about and checking out a couple of churches we had seen most of the Old Town sites. We then went in search of the Central Bus Station for our tickets for St Petersburg for the next day. We checked before boarding the tram that it was heading to the bus station - though of course we didn't specify which one and ended up at a suburban, rather than inter-city station. After jumping on the tram back the other way (and giving the locals some amusement at our pitiful attempts to validate our tickets) we were on our way. 10 minutes later and we had our tickets and were ready to leave the next morning at 11:00.

The bus journey to St Petersburg was rather uneventful. So uneventful that the bus pretty much didn't even stop for longer than one five minute period to stretch our legs between Tallinn and the border, and then again when we had to go through Russian customs.

Russian customs was surprisingly quick and efficient. Where's the whole queueing experience we've been expecting? One amusing "highlight" was the fact that Banz and HiG had to have their bags x-rayed whilst when I mimed to the operator putting my bag through, he just waved me through the beeping metal detector.

Upon arrival, we were able to distinguish where the Metro was (in cyrillic, Metpo) and after being pointed in the right direction by a local arrived at our stop and soon after our hostel for the next five nights.

All three of us were starving by this stage and found a local eatery with buffet style meals. We broke their system though when we had our hot meats and cold salads on one plate and then realised that the hot veg options were next door. The food isn't kept hot and so has to be microwaved once you have all your food on the plate. Queue our three plates having side orders of salad scraped onto secondary plates before being microwaved and returned complete with a stern Russian look.

We're taking it easy today and are going to have a more indepth tour tomorrow when we join a walking tour from the Hostel.

Warsaw Pact off to Lithuania and Latvia

Our time in Lithuania and Latvia is short due to our deadline of meeting HiG in Tallinn on Tuesday (though according to a Japanese woman I met in reception at our hostel in Riga, 10 days is way too short for Japan and way too long for Riga - she's been here for 3 years teaching, so perhaps she needs a break).

Our original two days in Vilnius was extended to three due to a night spent imbibing Vana Tallinn (or Estonian Gutrot as we've since christened it). Our two other days were spent wandering about the Vilnius Old Town (vainly searching for the Frank Zappa statue) and on a day trip to Trakai to see the castle.

The trip took about 20 minutes from Vilnius by bus to arrive at the touristy village. After leaving the bus stop it wasn't at first evident which way to go, but we followed our noses and soon worked out that we were on the right trail. A bit of cross country walking through the snow and next thing we knew we were walking across the frozen lake to the castle itself. Banz later remarked that it was a great idea to build this castle on an island in the middle of the lake - for six months of the year it would be damn hard to get to.... the other six you would have to be careful that you didn't slip over as you rolled your cannons, trebuchets and other heavy armaments from Age of Empires over the ice.

Yesterday was our time for our first bus trip of The Big Trip Part II. I really don't like buses but unfortunately in the Baltics you don't have much choice. When you weigh up a fifteen hour/several change train journey against a four and a bit hour direct bus there isn't really a question. We haven't exactly been blown away by Riga (despite a fantastic curry last night - not exactly a selling point for Riga itself). I guess we're not going to be able to judge tonight when in true Aussie/English abroad style we're going to an Irish Pub to watch an injury-ravaged Boro side play Bolton. A good result might just put a nice shine on our time in Riga, a bad one may lead to an early departure for Tallinn.


Some New Gallery Updates Below
Warsaw
Gdansk and Malbork
Lithuania

The Lingua Franca

Just a quick note to say that the number of countries that Banz's french has paid off in has risen yet again. From hotel rooms in (of course) France, Italy, Bulgaria and Hungary, last night we were able to add ordering a kebab in Poland. That's five and counting.