fillingthegaps

This will (I hope!) rate as the most arduous bit of travelling we will do.

Not that the train was uncomfortable, far from it, but we were on the train for 30 hrs and then rounded off the trip by travelling by bus to a Mongolian Ger. This was one of the felt ‘round houses’ that traditionally, nomadic Mongolian and Russian shepherds lived in. This was not a ‘Tourist’ version: this was the real thing, and we spent two fascinating days living with them. But I am getting ahead of myself.

The train journey out of the mega-city of Beijing started by slowly discarding the high-rises and super-buildings and finally getting into the countryside.

        

Immediately the train started a long gradual climb through incredibly rugged terrain: diving in and out of tunnels for literally hours, the countryside becoming more and more barren and inhospitable

_ eventually catching another glimpse of the Great Wall – still snaking its way North.

The terrain reminded me of scenes of the Afghan Border. A great part of the time diving through tunnels that cut through the mountainous region. Across ravines more rail tracks could be seen also diving through more tunnels. Incredibly difficult terrain. Dry dry dry. This was countryside just emerging from a harsh winter – months of sub-zero temperatures  and no rain.

Climbed slowly to over 5000ft Our popping ears – and Rob’s GPS confirmed that we were indeed getting high up. Air very dry and cold. Reminded me of flying in an aircraft. Gradually the rugged mountains gave way to more rolling hill country – still brown & dry. Not a blade of grass to be seen, not a tree in sight.

Later seen across a vast flat plain (reminded me of Klondike Corner in the SI but 10 times bigger: two huge goods trains going in opposite directions. Each with 2 huge engines coupled together and the trains looked up to 1/2 km long.

Iced-over ponds and semi-frozen rivers dotted the scenery.

Passing us in opposite direction every 10 mins or less, another goods train! In what seems the middle of a wilderness, signs of intense economic activity.

In ‘the middle of nowhere’ vast viaduct structures to carry rail & road above the countryside. Why? Every where evidence of vast infrastructure development, seemingly well ahead of current needs.

A sudden pollution-producing building block set in the middle of nothing. What purpose?

At about 8.15pm we reached the China/Mongolia border and this started the the longest and most arduous border crossing I have ever endured. The whole process lasted from 8.15pm to 2.00am. It was impossible to get any sleep during that time. Why such a long process? Well the reason is that China and Mongolia run there own rail gauges, and they differ by about 120mm! The most logical answer to this dilemma is that everybody disembarks and gets on another train for the Mongolian sector. But no! These guys have a much more ingenious way of dealing with the problem – change the bogies under the carriages! Hard to believe but that it what they did/do. Given about 16 carriages, each with 2 sets of massive 4-wheel bogy sets, this could never be a quick  job!

A huge workshop,

 

well over 100 m long equipped with many service station type hydraulic lifting stations and with twin gauge tracks is set off to one side of the line. By dint of endless shunting backwards and forwards a few carriages at a time are shuffled into position in the workshop A carriage (complete with passengers if you elected to stay on board) is lifted bodily off the bogy sets which are then rolled away. New-gauge bogies are then rolled in place under the raised carriage which is the lowered onto them.

 

A smooth operation except for the shuffling of carriages through the workshop. This took 2-3 hours with endless hooting signals from the train driver accompanied by bone-shaking crashes as the rain shuffles back and forth endlessly. It seemed part of the Safety inspection procedures to jarringly push and then pull the newly-mounted carriages. The racket was hideous, bang, crash, toot, toot, on and on for several hours. Of course the gangs performing this re-building of the train are  all working in about 0C temperature!

Of course, while carriages disconnected all carriage heating is off. Prob 1C outside so train cools off. Also all the toilets are locked while the train under service. Cold night air and no toilets not a good combination! There were a lot of anxious faces during this time.

Then came Customs and Immigration officers, taking passports, checking forms, handing out more forms, passing passports back, collecting passports again and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Finally finished at 2.0am.

We awoke a few brief hours later to a barren landscape of Mongolian Steppe. Actually the Gobi desert! Looks like Canterbury plains after 3 yr drought. Brown undulating plains as far as the eye can see. Apparently Winter is the dry season.  Occasional cattle nibbling at what appears to be pure desert! Air is crackling dry. Throat dry, lining of nose dry and tingling, throat feels parched all time.

To pass the time away I introduced some of the kids to Shanghai (the card game) and we spent a few fun hours at it. Some friends of mine will be most pleased to hear that the disease is spreading!

Hour upon hour of flat brown plains Not a tree in sight in any direction –it must be piteously hot in the summer. A desolate and barren outlook.

Finally we made a slow arrival at a quiet Ulaan Bataar station. Not the mad scramble to be first that has been the norm throughout South East Asia. Instead, a new cultural style that we will soon become accustomed to: a steady purposeful progress of burley people who happily shoulder you out of the way as they make their way.

 

Once on the platform we realise we a have over an hour to wait before our ‘Couch-surfing’ host is due to meet us. So Rob & I take off to look for money and place where we will be able to buy tickets, while rest waited patiently for our contact to arrive.

This is a fairly ram-shackle city. It reminded me of Yangon: the same crumbling footpaths and roads, broken facilities, rubbish everywhere, lack of order and general air of decay. There are the big modern buildings dotted around but these are few and far between.

When we returned, we found the party talking to a chap on his bike, with a young boy hanging around. As I approached I said “no sign of your contact yet”? thinking this unprepossessing duo were not likely to be our hosts. How wrong can you be! Our host had just ducked away from work with his son to meet us. His son, (all of 9 years old) it transpires, will take us to his Ger on ‘his’ bus. He pointed across the road to where I could see a number of mini-buses parked. Things are looking up I thought. How wrong can you be? Again! ‘His’ bus turns out to be the no.20 which his family always catch! Fortunately we are at the start of the bus route and so we get ourselves and our packs on quite easily. The journey takes about 30 mins. The bus stops at every stop. At every stop more people get on, no-one seems to be getting off. Half way into our journey it is standing room only. Still the bus stops. No-one is refused entry. More people get on. Again the the bus stops. More people get on. This is just impossible. Squashed next to me is a lady with a pair of crutches and one leg. Someone has grudgingly given her a seat. She is being pressed steadily into my lap. Hanging above us is another woman going greener by the minute and swaying dangerously close to a faint. I shove open the sliding window and encourage her to sit on the top of my (soft) suitcase. Somehow she manages to collapse onto the case. The bus stops, more people get in. This is totally unreal! The woman in front angrily slams the window shut again, but some colour has returned to the cheeks of the green lady. Mercifully, she will not throw up all over me.

Finally we reach our stop. Through the hubbub I hear a muffled shout from Rob, buried somewhere in the crowd, and we fight our way off the bus. Where are we? The district has been getting steadily more run down and scruffy, and here we are, on the dusty side of the road with seemingly nowhere inviting to go!

The boy gives us an encouraging smile and we head off, up the side of a dusty gully. The bottom of the gully is evidently the site of the local rubbish dump, but we trudge wearily up the side, I dragging my trusty wheeled suitcase through the dust and rocks.

Further on up we struggle (I am feeling just about done-for!) when the boy swings open a narrow ‘door’ to an alleyway.

 

We squeeze through this and find a barren rocky area in front of us, with a couple of Gers tucked in the corners. This is to be home for the next couple of nights.

 

There is no doubt about it – this wall is all, and more, than anything you have any logical right to expect. No matter what perspective you take, this wall should overpower your senses and your muscles!

Aesthetically, it has a sinuous grandeur that is quite breathtaking

Logistically, it defies the imagination

Engineering-wise, it is a colossal achievement

As a symbol of what absolute power can achieve, it is a mightily  sobering experience

As a physical exercise, it will stretch you well beyond your comfort zone.

I have already written about the challenge of getting there and back in my last post and Rach has already posted a graphic description of the day, with some beautiful pictures, so I really cannot add much more to that,

But the day was too significant to  leave unrecorded, so this is my small comment.

The Wall of course, meanders for 100’s of kilometers along China’s Western border and it is possible to take a sample of it from many different spots, Our spot was  not too far from Beijing, but not that close either – considerably further than I thought it would be. Rob’s GPS regurgitated a good summery of facts and figures and some of you may be interested in the following section. (if not, please skip on regardless)

Great Wall Walk 29 March 2009

Trip to Jinshanling….Bus 980 – 72 kmsMinivan – 69 kms

I suppose from a planning perspective that made things simple: just stay on the ridge and head North. But the resulting profile of the Wall defies logic and ones imagination. How you start to dig foundations and  build a wall on the steep slopes of a mountain side, I cannot imagine. How you haul umpteen million bricks over such broken terrain  I can;t imagine either. Not to mention paving slabs, roofing tiles etc etc.

To get started on the Wall you first have to get up onto the ridge – and that is your first big test. These stone steps were not planned by NZ architects – they were cut into the hillside to get up there somehow, anyhow. So the tread widths are irregular, and the riser heights are irregular. No steady rhythm here. For me it was trip, stumble,stagger, gasp until mercifully we were at the top. In my ignorance I had thought that once we were at the top, the Wall itself would undulate gently up and down across the countryside. Hah!

How wrong can you be? The climb up to the ridge was merely a warm up – now the work really begins! Clambering up almost impossibly steep steps, cruising briefly between watch-towers  

before stepping gingerly around crumbling ledges, gasping for more air, sweating profusely and trying to appear totally in control of those shaking legs – was for me a real challenge.

Fortunately we had to take a delightful short-cut away from the wall for a few km, because we were running out of time, The brief few km of dirt path winding through the vallies with the mountains and Wall high above was a delightful reprieve from the strenuous stuff of the wall.

But we had to climb back up, and clamber through another 14 watch-towers before descending down a steep gully and across a Swing bridge, and back to base

What a fantastic experience it was! If I see little else of Beijing, with this my senses are well satisfied.

Today we went on quite an epic trek and for me I am sure it will remain one of the highlights of this adventure. We went for a hike on part of China’s Great Wall. We started quite early – early enough to have on all available clothing and still feel the chill in the air – and we did not get back to the Hostel until about 9.45pm = and it was bitterly cold

I will give you my impressions of that day in the next blog, but first let me tell you about the other aspect of ‘ripping’. The East is well known for the entrepreneurial zeal that its citizens have for making a dollar wherever possible, and for taking advantage of Tourists in particular. You quickly become accustomed to having to reject the first price tendered for anything, and are prepared to enter into a bargaining session for most purchases. But our outing today was memorable not just for the magnificence of the wall but for the number of times the ‘rippers’ had a go at us!

To get to the section of wall that we had selected was going to require a long-ish bus journey followed by a long-ish mini-bus ride.  We walked

 to the bus stop, passing through some rather palatial buildings

 and found our bus waiting-that was good. After getting aboard the conductor=lady came down to take our money, It has been quite normal for he littlies to go free and for some of t5he others to be half-fare (the Chinese system works on the heights of children rather than age) after explaining details of the kids as best we could, the conductor was still unsure how much tot charge us. The driver then appeared (in a bad mood) and said we would all have to pay full price)   Rip-off no, 1

After we had been in the bus for about an hour, the bus pulls up on the edge of he Expressway and the driver comes down and says this is where we get off. WE had asked for a particular town, but this was not in any town! But what to do?  So off we get, thinking that we can possibly walk into town which is visible about a km away. But surprise surprise, who should appear but a gaggle of scalper car-drivers, offering to take us who knows where, since they spoke no English and we speak no Chinese. The light dawns! Rip-ff no. 2 Bus driver is obviously in cahoots with the scalpy drivers  and dellivers us into their hands. Burt we are well used to walking and we are by now a hard-nosed bunch.  Most scalperss drift away but a man and woman combination are determined to hook us. They start off at Y450 for 2 cars to take us. We laugh and walk away. They fairly quickly drop the price but in the negotiations, carried out as we walk closer and closer to the town, we establish that we are only interested in a mini-van to carry all of us, and it would need to take us to one spot and then pick us up from another (this all done by Rob by means of pencil and paper, arrows and lines and numbers, plus a copy of the Chinese names he has photographed and then stored on his Palm! We walk off and leave them again and we think we have seen the last of them, but no – they catch us up in the car and get out and start feverish offers once more. This time the offer is acceptable: Y100. We  still did not know if this was acceptable because we really did not know how far it was to the wall.  However, after a 45 min drive  we decided we had got good value. Y100 instead of the original Y900.

Then we got to the wall and purchased 5 tickets for the walk from point a to point b. Rob had asked for the 5 children’s tickets first expecting a concession rate. But 5 adult rates were charged. However at that point communications broke down as Rob tried to get the 3 adult tickets, they waved us through> So we did not argue! Rip-off no 3 ended in our favour.

So now we started the walk.

 And it was terrific. We were pressed for time  and so did a bush-walk diversion for a few km before rejoining the wall. What’s this? A guy demanding that we pay the same amount over again because we are just starting the walk! We try to explain to him that we have already paid from a) to b) and b) is within sight just 5 more towers along the wall, But no he is unshakable and we have to cough up. A passing European informs us that he is experienced in these matters and we have to pay as we are passing into a new sector controlled by a new ‘division’ It reminded me of our Maori brothers way of charging for things. This feeling was further reinforced when we had to cross a final swing bridge and found, not to our surprise, a guy sitting at the other end collecting a fee for using the bridge!

The final attempt to relieve us of our cash came at the end of the mini bus ride back into the town. Rob hauls out the agreed Y100 and the driver asks for Y120 – due to ‘extra parking money.’ We  are a bit tired by now so we don’t argue, give him the Y100 say thank you and walk away.

It was a ripper of a day!

today was going to be a restful day: an easy start followed by a good afternoon rest in preparation for a visit to the night market with the main objective of tracking down a couple of ‘’dragon’ shirts for the two older boys.

Well all objectives were achieved and so we could say it was a successful day, but the truth is, by the time we all got back to the hostel, we were all tired, nerves were frayed, tempers were short and bed seemed to be the best place for everyone to be! Now why would that be? (a short interruption to my thoughts here as Tgirl4 advises me that ‘going downstairs to the toilet with no pants on is totally cold’. I suggest to her that it might be a good idea to put some pants on before wandering around the hostel)

AS I said the day started well. We went for a walk, intending rather casually to see if we could find a barber – some of the herd were well past their shearing time. We checked out a few. Prices seemed to start at a base of Y20 with add-on’s in Y20 steps. Cheap enough by NZ standards (Y20 = $NZ5 approx) but when there is a mob of you there is always the need to find the best deal. Besides, your thinking changes as you get accustomed to values in the new currency and so you look for ‘best price’ regardless of NZ equivalents. And so it was that we came upon a splendid hairdresser’s manned by about 4 young men each adorned with the latest in Asian men’s hairstyles. Difficult to describe – long softly-flowing spiky tresses coyly covering sensitive almost feminine features, and one with artful touches of blond and pink streaks through. Hah! I thought, just the place to get my hair cut–NOT. But the price was Y10 – and that included a hair wash. So in we went. First the two young boys and Rob.

While they were being attended to, I went with the older kids for a walk around the block. By the time we got back, the team was ready to take the next batch.

These hairdressers were of unknown origin – they were Asian but did not speak the local dialect so even local customers were using sign language to communicate. But they had a stack of styling books and so every one was able to pick out a style they liked and leave them to it. In the end, the process of hair wash/cut/hair wash looked so relaxing (and cheap) that I decided to get a chop for myself. Very pleasant.

After that Mama took the littlies back for a rest as planned and the rest of us did a bit of shopping and then we returned to base.

So far all had gone according to plan! Now we all set off to walk to the Muslim Quarter which housed the Night Market, via the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower, two iconic landmarks which we we thought we could take in, en route. But as we are finding out more and more – ALL attractions in China attract a significant entry fee. So once again we contented ourselves with the outside view of things.

And so on to the Muslim Q and the Night market. Actually we got there before the night, and things were relatively quiet at the start. Rach and the boys trawled up and down the  narrow aisles, which by the minute thickened up with traffic, looking for Dragon shirts of a) the right size, b) the right colour and c) the right price. You need to know that the search  for Dragon shirts has been going on for about a month-obviously without success. The odds of being successful this evening were not good, but they were intent on tracking something down.

I think this is where the day started to unravel. It had been under stress during our walk: walking through crowded noisy streets to look at uninteresting things is not every young boys idea of fun, especially when bursting with suppressed energy, so they frequently found themselves racing beyond the parental bounds of control. This had to  be dealt with, for the boys safety and our sanity and resulted in some grumpy uncooperative children. And then the search began………….

Crowded Night Markets with intersecting alleys, peopled by crowds, bicycles, scooters, tricycle goods carriers, the occasional mini-van and even an arrogant Mercedes or two, makes for a hazardous environment, and a place easy to lose kids, not to mention adults!

As we trawled up and down, doubling back occasionally with some going one way and some another, things became to me at least, very confusing. Who was where and what they were doing became unknown. Communication was difficult due to to the incredible racket of hawkers hawking, stall holders trying to persuade you, vehicles tooting, bicycles dinging and everybody shouting to be heard above the noise. Bedlam is a reasonable description of the scene.

Add to the mix some tired, bored & frustrated children, and the tension rises.

Jboy13 was the first to get lucky, and Kboy11 grew despondent his size just did not seem to be around. So we broke off for some dinner in the food section.

That raised flagging spirits, to such an extent that the search was resumed. By this time the market was actually shutting down. Jgirl14 and I, having lost track of where anyone else was, discussed the merits of chopsticks with a pretty but desperate stall holder. She started off with a special very cheap price of Y660. As we were finally walking away she was desperately offering them at Y40.  But we were unmoved.

Finally a grinning Kboy11 and Mama appeared, having followed a guy to another place (who knows where?) who had actually produced THE goods – right size,design, colour AND price! We should have returned home rejoicing but the fact was too many of the kids had crossed the threshold and were too tired to care.

But what wonders a good night’s sleep can do! The happy purchasers proudly modeled their purchases for me this morning

and a bit later we  on a marathon walk: 15.8 km around the top of the Great Wall which surrounds this city, And not a word of complaint from anyone. These kids are fantastic – but more of that on the next blog.

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well this was a fairly quiet day in the life of these vagabonds, and I thought it might interest a few of you to get my perspective on it.

Day starts about 7.30 – 8.00am, with sleepy bodies assembling in the largest room for breakfast. Often this is bread (no toasters where we stay!) with a variety of spreads such as vegemite (what will we do when our supplies run out?), lemon curd, honey, or peanut butter. This morning we had a change, with porridge and coconut yoghurt – very tasty.

After breakfast Rob leads the family in a morning devotional time. They have a folder full of memory verses, hymns and choruses. This morning the kids went through about 10 memory verses, sang afew hymns (Veta would have been so pl;eased!) and a few choruses, after which Rob reviewed the story of the Jews wanderings in the desert

Then a rough plan for the day is set out: today needs to be easy going because the younger ones are in need of a battery recharge. We had thought of going to the museum because Shanghai is reputed to have beauty, but we have done 2 museum-type things in the last few days, so reluctantly that idea is dropped and we settle for a walk down to the ‘Bund’ – the river-bank walk which apparently is not to be missed. We only have one full day here, so this will be IT for Shanghai.

Getting out of the guest house is delayed, because the clerks all want to stop us and admire the fair-haired kids. Picture of clerk with kids. Picture of clerk’s assistant with kids, then just as we are escaping, another gentleman turns up and decides he doesn’t  want to miss out, so picture of HIM with the kids! To their credit, the kids have learned to accept this carry-on quite philosophically – even Ella-Rose. So out of the door at last. On the other side of the road a vendor is  selling bamboo shoots: he has them neatly spread out on a sheet of newspaper on the edge of the road. He peels off the outer husks and gives them to a waiting customer

So we set out for the Bund- reputed ly about 1 1/2 km to get there and 1 1/2km long – a mere stroll for this lot. But a hazardous stroll. The traffic in this city is suicidal. There are pedestrian crossings and traffic lights just as you would expect to find in any well developed  city. The difference here is that everybody ignores them, and every body is in one heck of a hurry

(note the green cross now light!)

We admire the flower planters ingeniously incorporated into the bicycle racks, and observe the washing drying in the trees on the roadside (this is in the middle of the city, remember)

Yesterday we walked past a series  of very impressive music shops and we were serenaded by a jazz tenor sax player, then someone on a flute, an impressive recital by someone playing a sort of horizontal harp, and of course some piano. All in different shops.Finally up the steps

and onto the Bund itself: the wide river on one side, with an impressive display of futuristic buildings on the far bank, and on this side an equally impressive assortment of buildings both ancient and modern:

It was not long before (as usual)  someone found our group more interesting than the scenery, and the inevitable crowd gathers and the photo shoot takes place:

The river here is of course right at the sea and so large cruse liners are moored  a bit further down the Bund.  A floating restaurant cruises by reminding jus that we are hungry, and it’s time for lunch.

 So we head back towards our hostel and a little shop that sells delicious dumplings. We  go in and order umpteen steamer-trays of them, find they vanish quickly and order another round, But dumplings are not enough, so  now we head for an even smaller stall where we have discovered delicious steamed buns. We buy about 20 – 10 with pork and 10 with mixed veggies inside.

We head off to a nearby park and demolish the buns.  Some of the boys end up in animated conversation with some nearby ladies, then most of us (not me) try out the exercise equipment provided for ADULT use. (a fairly common sight in these parts)

So having eaten, all finish the walk to ‘home’, the littlies for a rest and me for a Tutorial from Rach on blogging etc. So a restful time until we head out for dinner tonight. Plates of fried rice and more plates of fried veggies. Very tasty!

ps you may have noticed the hazy look to the pics. This is smog which just hangs around permanently, it seems. Time to head for the open road!

Well I don’t suppose you can have every  day filled with excitement. The last couple of days I have spent quite a bit of time chugging up and down the commuter train line. Actually chugging is the wrong phrase – these trains glide along with slick speed and efficiency. Inside are quiet, orderly passengers who sit there doing their own thing or occasionally as happened today, start the inevitable conversation ( by sign language) are they all yours? 8 of them? 4 boys, 4 girls? Very good! Smiles and congratulations all round. Not a pierced eyebrow, nose or lip in sight. Not a tattoo in sight. Not even any ‘scruffs’ in sight. One gets the uneasy feeling that such personal decorations might just be agin the law in these parts.

The reason or the train travel, was to go in search of baking soda which is apparently what all thoroughbred greenies use for everything from washing your hair, cleaning your teeth and preventing ingrowing toenails to polishing the family silver.  It seemed that Rach’s supplies were getting low, and so we had to find more. Our couch surf host gave us the tip-off, where to buy this stuff in mega-sized packs. The spot was three stops down the line and so off went Rob and I in search of the dreaded white powder. We had been advised to go certain super market. This we eventually found, discreetly nestling in one corner of the biggest mega-mall I am likely to see for a long time.

Of course there was no mega pack to be found, but even if we had found it, we would not have bought it. With a mini-jar of vegemite costing HK$38, I shudder to think what the giant economy size pack of soda  would have cost.  So we returned, more  or less empty handed, apart from half the bread sections supply, for our breakfast.

But we have had some more interesting encounters: on the train a well-groomed lady (in her 50’s I imagine) insisted on giving up her seat for me (by crikey, I must be looking even more decrepit than I feared) She then proceeded to do the usual thing of counting the kids etc.   Later this evening we walked into noodle shop we had visited once before, a few days ago, The proprietor was delighted to see his little blond girls again and was all over them like a rather noxious rash. The girls endured stoically and without offending the owner. It paid off handsomely! At the end of our meal, the kids then all got served hot chocolates, and then we were all plied with pomelos and oranges! Sometimes it is quite helpful to have these little angles in tow!

Finally, if you are still with me, I saw a sight the other day that immediately had me thinking of a couple of good families I know, who have an addiction to a card game named “Shanghai”  Whenever they guy together with 10 mins on their hands, out come the cards. This group made me think of them, maybe in a few years time!

Oh, the title just refers to the fact that most days we seem to be waking up in a different bed, and most of them are fairly memorable – I’ll and a pic or two now and again,

     Couch surfing                                               Bangkok airport

when you are travelling for a year, and your daddy isn’t Rockefeller all Bill gates, you have to watch your pennies (especially when your home currency takes a nose-dive, like the Kiwi dollar)  So we don’t spend any longer than you have to in a place that is expensive. Just to give you a little idea of our apartment block, this is a view down the air-well, viewed from our bathroom window!Waitakere Council would love it. A genuine plumber’s nightmare.

…but the rooms themselves were very tidy…..

And Hong Kong is expensive! Gone are the days when HK was THE place for a bargain p most things here are more expensive than NZ and even the REAL budget accommodation is costing more than we like to pay (HK$200 for a room for one night) Not too bad for just two of you but when you have 11 in a party, costs start to add up! So after 3nights in the Nathan Rd apartment block, we have taken a 20 min train ride down the line to Tai Poh Market, where we are ;couch-surfing for 3 nights. This is where a friendly soul opens up his house and lets you crash for free, if you can find somewhere to sleep, on the floor! Not as bad as it sounds. You get to meet some interesting people, they usually have a mattress or two, and there is no charge!

Our host here is a young Indian Expat, doing research at the local University. As a hobby/sport, he is a Uni-cyclist, and I have been admiring his bike in detail. We are all tucked into 2 bedrooms so it looks a bit like a refugee camp but we are very comfortable.

Rather amusing – Rob decided to buy some bread for tomorrow;s breakfast before we moved out of Nathan Rd in case we were not near any shops. When we got here we discovered that this place is like Orchard Rd in Singapore- Huge malls , glittering shops plus all-night fruit and veggie markets etc. Shops for Africa!

Tomorrow we take the train back to Nathan rd then catch the ferry across to Hong Kong Island to visit the Russian embassy  – to lodge our Visa applications. With good fortune they will be ready in a week. The kids are looking forward to the trip The ferry ride for one thing, and the lift in the embassy building goes like a rocket they tell me,so that should be fun!

Oh I have also got myself organized with new specs. After the cataract op I needed to change my specs. Had no time to  do it in NZ but now that the eyes have settled down I am able to get the specs organised, Ordinary specs take 2 hours but I am getting progressive lenses with Transitional lens material (instant shade correction for sunlight) and titanium unbreakable frames. All very flash, and I can pick these up in 4 days time (slight delay because the weekend came into that 4 day calculation!)

So life is going along nicely thanks. A few pics to let you see the terrain we have been travelling over.

I hear rumours that people are asking “Where are you going?” and all my dear father-in-law can answer is “Hong Kong”. That is true, but even though there is more to it than that, he has good reason for sounding so senile. He’s coming with us and our plans are fluid and constantly under revision. For example, we were loosely planning on heading through Scandinavia to get to London from Tallinn…..but we’ve been invited to spend some time with a family in Latvia and so we’re looking in to going that way. Why wouldn’t you?
But closer in the future…after Hong Kong, we take an overnight train to Shanghai, where we’ll take in the sights for a few days before boarding another overnighter for Xi-an, resting place of the famous Terracotta Warriors. We abide at a cheap youth hostel for a week (originally a traditional Chinese house built around an indoor courtyard apparently) before taking another overnight train, this time to Beijing. This is our launching pad for seeing The Wall and moving on to Mongolia….where we will stay in a number of gers (you know, those felted wool tents) with two or three different families. Then the train journey continues – four days and nights of it across Russia to Moscow. There we “couchsurf” (sleep on the couch of friendly folks who offer hospitality via the internet)….and then we’ll do the same in St Petersburg and Tallinn, Estonia……..after that? Scandinavia or Latvia? We’ll let you know when we do.

July and August will be spent on a history trip round Great Britain – for a couple of weeks one of Rob’s sisters will join us too. We’ll drag old stories out of Dad and record as many as we can!

After that Dad probably zips to Canada with said sister/daughter and then returns to continue on our odyssey to Europe.
Italy calls, Turkey offers good food, Romania is cheap, Poland has old memories….who knows where we’ll end up?
Can you see why this Blog Author is a bit vague about his plans? It’s not his fault.

So this is the start of my Blogging career. I know nothing about this business but I am hoping to pick things up as I stagger along.

A few words of explanation: I called this site “filling in the gaps” because I am hoping to see a lot of the world that I have never seen before. I have travelled quite a lot in my 77 years, but there remains a lot of the world that I have not experienced first-hand. ( and yes, there will remain an awful lot I have not seen after this trip) Now I have the rather exciting priveledge of joining my son Robert, his wife Rachael and their 8 children in a semi-unplanned Odyssey across Asia, into Europe and the UK and possibly taking in some of Canada as well.

The object is to keep some sort of a record of the journey, both in word and picture, for the benefit of family and maybe a few friends if they are interested. The theory is that it will save me the task of sending bunches of  emails: anyone interested in what we are up to can take a look. And at the same time I will have record that I can actually read, with pictures added at strategic points in the story.

Of course Rachael is maintaining a superb record in her ‘Bootsnall” blog which you can access by clicking here: http://blogs.bootsnall.com/kiwifamily/

I thought that Travel had lost much of its appeal, but I have to confess to being quite excited at this coming adventure. I just hope the task of keeping this journal going does not prove to be beyond my capabilities!    

This is the Tribe