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Transsiberia Express

Our last episode of this great World Trip.... unfortunately, although we are not sad that it's over, we can only smile that it happened!

Tomorrow we arrive back in Amsterdam, where we (hopefully) will join in soon with our friends and family and can look back at one of my personal best moments in this - already joyful and lucky- life so far. For sure we have these great memories to look back at..

The Transsiberia, or to be accurate actually the Transmongolian route, was actually our original intend of this World Trip! It was meant to be our honeymoon but waiting for the right moment to travel this special journey it simply just grew a bit larger than originally planned... ;). It started in Beijing where we started the first part with a 30-hour trainride to Mongolia. Although we expected to share the cabin with Russians and Mongolians, they turned out to be Swiss and... Dutch! You just can't get away from them ;). We enjoyed our company though, sharing travel-experiences over great views along the way with changing landscapes - from seeing the Chinese Great Wall to the worldfamous Mongolian Steppe. It also was nice not to be able to do something and not having to walk, as we had been doing. After a good night's sleep (vodka does the trick), we arrived the next afternoon in Ulaan Bataar.

Ulaan Bataar is ugly. The people all look like Maffia, they can't drive and the city has not much to offer except some pubs and soviet-like buildings. So after checking in at our Hostel, which was full with international travelers, we quickly learned how to get out of there and experience the real Mongolia what we came for. (We even met a guy from Barcelona who will be biking for 6 months through Mongolia, Kazachstan etc.; so what we are doing aint that crazy!).

Anyway, the next day we went to the Terilj National Park, to our 'Hotel in the middle of nowhere', what is called a 'Ger'. We were staying with a traditional Mongolian family, luckily didnt have to help milk the cow etc., but did join in riding the famous Mongolian horses! As being nicknamed Lucky Luke ,I felt my calling and enjoyed the great horse riding through the valleys and mountainous landscape.. I was also lucky to be friends with our 14-year old guide 'Gana' (the I-phone did the trick), as Zayde was frequently chased by him or otherwise she had to sing songs! It turned out to be a great karaoke-like trip on horses.

By the way, did you know in Mongolia the most important piece in chess isn't the King but the Horse?!

Been there, seen it done it and the next stop on the Transsiberian was Irkutsk, Siberia! Although Irkutsk had little to offer, except a parade of bit-wrong dressed up, vodka and beer-drinking Russians ('Sjonnies & Anitas' aka Nacos!), we were mainly here for the stop at one of nature's wonders; Lake Baikal. This lake is full of unique endemic flora and fauna and was partly still frozen when we got there. Although the sunshine heated it up fast, we enjoyed the scenery but moreover one of the best fish ever tasted; the (also endemic, sorry) 'Omul'. (see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_baikal ).

By the way our welcome to Russia was also in traditional style.. by a maffiosi taxi-driver! We had agreed on a price of 50 rubles (or as Zayde still says, rupies.... confusing so many countries..;0). But as we arrived the -not unimportant- big Russian taxi-driver wanted 500.. As we know, don't mess with Zayde, so she started her little scenery and that we would call the police.. but I had seen enough Sopranos to realize we probably better let him go and take the 10 euro loss, which our lifes are worth for sure... Well, we now know that in Russia the devil doesn't wear Prada but drives a Lada!

Next destination was Russia's capital, which we smartly decided not to travel by the 4-day train-ride but cheat a little on the Transsiberean and fly.. this way skipping 4 nights of (non) sleep on the train, cheap noodle-bowls and liters of vodka to fill time.. So we skipped the > 4000 kilometers to arrive in Moscow with a 5-hour time-difference (Russia, worlds largest country, actually covers 11 timezones!).

In Moscow we discovered a new -fastly covering the world- travelers hype.. couchsurfing! We had been talking to various travelers who recommended this great way of traveling and connecting with people.. moreover in places where hotels are outrageously expensive and it also is better -and actually often more safe- to stay with locals. So with whom better to start than with the Ambassador of couchsurfing himself! (and council in the Filipino Embassy; el!)

Although the start wasn't all smooth, as we had been in contact but never received the exact address.. but nothing is impossible for the 'Exploradores Ruschki & Zayruschki'! With just a couple of hints we went on our way and started narrowing down the options, and when almost deciding to give up.. we found his place! Who will sign us up for the 'Peking Express'? No stopping us.

It even got more crazy as also 3 belgians where staying there.. and nobody had even seen the owner yet!

Well this Ambassador, Deric, was a bit of an extreme, but really a lot of people are extraordinary friendly and go into large ways of hospitality. The network is great with open minded international people and we were almost like integrated expats living the Moscow-life and socializing with locals.

We decided to look for the same option in St. Petersburg, which even proved to be better with great people offering their couch to us!

Well, we first had to see of course still the sights of the Red Square, the Kremlin, a Ballet-performance at World's most famous 'Bolsoi'-theatre and the various artmuseums and sights... before getting on the train again for already our last city... Sint Petersburg.

Where Moscow is the 'real Russia', and a mix of the still Communism regime (combined with the bad parts of new capitalism), St. Petersburg is the Europeanized version with baroque elegance and architecture, palaces such as the 'Hermitage' and a more modern lifestyle. We first stayed in a Hotel, also to get the typical tourist-annoying-registration out of the way. Everyone staying > 3 days in Russia has to register with their Visa.. yep communism is still alive! Just recently even Russians had to do so when traveling to another Russian city!

After relaxing a bit first, as we could not keep up our traveltempo anymore and where getting a bit museum and info-overloaded, we where warmly welcomed to our next couch! Right in the center, we had a little home-away-from-home in our great 3 day-stay with locals Marina and Robb. They not only offered a couch, but it was 5-star all-inclusive, breakfast, dinner and even a party! Our couch was the centre or attention of the Couchsurfing meeting for St. Petersburg and we met great locals as well as international people from everywhere. Great fun and incredible to see this new world, sharing not only experiences but getting connected and integrated quickly with the locals.

After talks on politics but also hearing incredible travelstories, mainly from Robb, we said goodbye and were off to our last day of our travel (and being the Bday of Les; gefeliciteerd Pato! Hiep hiep Kwak!).

To finish it in style, we are now in a comfy hotel and soon ready for the flight back to reality!

By the way, as my mom sharply noticed, we never talked about -one of Holland's favorite topics ;)- the Weather; that's right but I guess if it is right it is often not a topic... we have been so lucky all the 3 months with hardly any day below 20s, even in Siberia and into Russia! Actually as I type this it started to rain in St. Petersburg.. so time to go home! :)

Well, that will be tomorrow, but we can look back on a great journey with so many memories that I am sure we can still enjoy for years to come. We have been swimming in tropical waters, awing at the great New Zealand views, diving with the sharks down under, relaxing in Bali, flying over the highest peak in the world, staring at the skyscrapers in Hong Kong, being amazed with the 2-worlds and expansion that China offers, contemplating in the silence of Mongolia and seeing Russians 'unfreeze' themselves with vodka!

I also noticed that often the less people have, the more they give... After all, I think 98% of people are good and are just trying to live their lives (this was 99% before Russia ;0); so no need to save the world!

Oh and last but not least, Zayde wants to add something as well... here she goes: "oink".

Eh well, yeah she has been acting a bit strange lately.. er, anyway, we are glad to be all healthy and good, so see you soon!

I hope you enjoyed this and everybody would get a chance to do a trip like this, or whatever it is they want to do.. just remember not to restrict yourself to your own limitations!

If you think you are in crisis.. go travel!

See you when we see you!

Zayde & Luuk