It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... That's the song that's been going through my head for the last two days. Seeing the snow thick on the ground and hanging heavy on the branches of trees and a pleasant grey-white haze to the air just makes me think of all those American Christmas movies. Not sure what I last wrote about so will start from the birthday dinner back in Listvyanka. It was John from my group and Tim from the other group who celebrated bir...

Another cold and uneventful post! Did a Russian sauna when I got back to the lakehouse last night. It was great to be so warm! Then there wax the bit where we went and rolled in the snow outside which was not so pleasant... The defining part of a Russian sauna is the bit at the end where you get hit wit pine needles - sounds painful but really is not - it smells fantastic! Has actually been nice to just laze around a bit and be in the one place for a while - I r...

This is officially the coldest I have ever been - setting new PB's every day! It got down to minus 38 overnight and was minus 34 for the 40 min walk to dog sledding! It has warmed up slightly to minus 30 now but the wind is howling so I think it feels worse than earlier! Dog sledding was so much fun, did a 5km circuit in around 15 mins. I managed to only com off once as the sled went over a bump and i lost my balance on the landing. The guy who owns the dogs (47...

Today has been rather long and laborious with the Mongolia to Russia border crossing happening. After a sleep on the train, we awoke early for 5 hours of processing and waiting on the Mongolian side, followed by a 1hr train ride through no-mans land and then another 5 hours of processing and waiting on the Russian side! Highlights of today have included: • The crazy old Russian man in our carriage who was business up top with a collared shirt and suit jacket,...

Am on bus back into Ulaan Baatar from the Ger camp. Was such a great experience out here to get a somewhat sheltered introduction to the Mongolian nomadic way of life. Around 40% of the population live like this and both fortunately and unfortunately this way of life is slowly dying. Fortunately because the nomads are getting better access to services normally only received in cities, especially health care which is extending the life expectancy of the people. U...