Japan, Osaka and Hiroshima

The first day in Japan was in Hiroshima, the day was spent learning more about the atom bomb, a short visit to Miyajima Island off the coast of Hiroshima and we also got a chance to visit Josche's friend Noako in Okayama.

Reading about the atom bomb was very sad I had a lump in my throat reading about it in the museum. The children's monument below was particularly heart felt with children still sending paper cranes from around the world to be placed here.


We then left to go to Miyajima Island, there were lots of friendly deer here and the best grilled oysters I have every tasted! The island is famous for it's shrine that is in the water unfortunately the tide was out so it wasn't quite as spectacular.





Next stop on the train was Okayama to visit Naoko. Naoko took us to a beautiful Japanese garden and for some local Ramen noodles mmmmm...yummy.






Final destination for the day was back to Osaka to see the night view from Osaka tower.



Tomorrow Kyoto.....


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Location:Japan, Osaka and Hiroshima

South Korea, Jeju Island

We arrived in Jeju Island after a very short flight from Busan, we took advantage of our lunch time arrival and booked ourselves a ride on the local submarine tour.

The tour was made up mostly of Koreans so there were no English guides, because of this we got treated like royalty ( we think that is the reason anyway). We were first onto the submarine and seated right up the front with the driver. This was much to some of the older Korean ladies dismay who were trying to get ahead of us by going under our arms or pushing us aside. They were promptly told by the crew to get back in line though.









For dinner we tried some of the local black pig at a Korean BBQ, absolutely delicious!

The next day we hired a taxi driver Mr Ko to drive us around the sites of the eastern part of the Island, he was very funny and a budding photographer who loved Josche's camera so he spent most of the day climbing into weird positions to take photos for us. Below is just one of the many positions.






The women on Jeju Island traditionally dive for food for there families and to sell. We got to see some of the women in action the oldest one was 82!



The following day we climbed Mt Halla and holy crap was it hard work! It took us about 3 hrs return we did the shorter track and our legs have been sore for days but it did have amazing views.




Next stop Osaka....

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Location:South Korea, Jeju Island

South Korea, Seoul & Busan

Arriving in South Korea was like a breath of fresh air (literally) everything was so clean even from the moment we stepped off the plane. I was so excited to go to a clean toilet that wasn't a hole in the ground :-).... Small things right.

We spent the first two days in Seoul exploring the city and experiencing the food and the people. Everyone is very friendly and very helpful. The food is awesome, we were lucky enough to be staying near fantastic Korean BBQ restaurant where Josche and I learnt the fine art of cooking a Korean BBQ from the locals.




The highlight of our Seoul trip would have to be the DMZ. We crossed into the DMZ and also got to see the demarcated military line between north and south Korea. We saw the North Korean soldiers on the other side, it was quite an eyry experience. It was also interesting to hear the South Koreans point of view. They are all very optimistic of a future unified Korea and have built various buildings and train stations in preparation. An example is the pictures below of the train station that they have built, it is totally empty and ready to go.








After our Seoul adventure we jumped onto one of the new KTX trains to Busan. These trains are super quick reaching speeds that exceed 300km/hr. While in Busan our first stops were the fish market and Busan tower.







I couldn't leave Busan without sampling some of the fresh prawns so we found a fish and grill for dinner. Busan city is a very happening place lots of bars and restaurants and a hell of a lot of character.




Next stop Jeju Island.......

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Location:South Korea, Seoul & Busan

China, Beijing

The last leg of our Trans-Siberian journey took us from Mongolia to Beijing. The trip took about 36 hours, however 6 hours were spent at the border moving the carriages onto a different set of wheels as the tracks sizes are different in former USSR states compared with most other places in the world. We actually remained inside the carriage while this was done.




After checking in our first walk lasted about 5 minutes before Jody tripped and took out a chunk of her big toe. This was made worse when we couldn't explain at the chemist we were after something to put on the wound.




Our first two days in Beijing consisted of heavy smog which was a little disappointing as we went to the great wall on the second day. The third day cleared up however and we were able to take some great pictures of the Summer Palace which was based around a huge lake on the outskirts of the city.














Of course Jody was able to get into some "knock-off" shopping, however we found the locals unwilling to go to the low low prices we had seen in Schenzen. Beijing however is still a very cheap city with the exchange rate fixed at such a low rate it was possible to eat a two course meal with beers for under $10.

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Location:China, Beijing

Mongolia

We took an overnight train across the Russia border into Mongolia. This particular train was full of Mongolians, most of which carried several large bags they would roll around the carriage. We later found they would roll the bags off the train at stops and set up little stalls to sell their items to the locals. As the train was about to leave they would quickly pack up and roll the bags back onto the train ready for the next stop. The really dodgy part was when they stored the bags in the roof and under the floors of the train when we went across the border and through customs.

Arriving in Ulaanbaater we were taken out of the city into the countryside where we spent the next few nights in Mongolian Ger's (Tent) where to this day a lot of Mongolians still live. Jody was able to fit in a few squatting exercises while we were here with the traditional hole in the ground toilet. Our driver tried to drive through a sand bunker with a regular bus and managed to get bogged. We had to walk the rest the way.











The area we stayed was beautiful and amazingly quiet to the point where you could hear the flapping of wings from an eagle high in the sky. We also had a chance to see the milky way at night time being so far from any city lights, and did some horse riding and other activities (take a close look at Jody's archery skills in the photo below). Oh and also checked out a big arse statue of the national hero Chinnigis Khan.













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Location:Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar

Russia, Tran Siberian & Listvyanka

The first leg of the Trans-Siberian involved a four day train trip with short 10-20 minute stops here and there from one side of Russia (Moscow) to somewhat the other side (Listvyanka).

The train trip itself was an interesting experience and this particular train was actually the worst of all the trains we end up catching in terms of it's condition. There were no showers (this was the same on all of the trains however), the toilets smelt, it was at times hot and stuffy and smelt of smoke. We slept in four bunk rooms with two of the nights being stuck with a very overweight, smoking, snoring Russia who smelt of smoke and BO.








On the up side we would get a free meal each day (however to quote Jody "I now know what food would taste like in prison") and met a few interesting people on the train, most of which did not speak a word of English. The food cart staff were always very friendly, and we got to know them over the four days using our hands and translator guides to communicate. Our days were spent looking out the window, reading, playing cards and talking to the locals, which without fail would always include on a daily basis a drunk Russia speaking to us in Russian and not seeming to understand "Nyat Ruski".

Finally arrived at Listvyanka, a beautiful little village alongside the largest lake in the world, Lake Baikal. The view from our room was over the lake with snow cap mountains in the background. Next couple of days were spent exploring in and around the village and included a long hike over the mountains and along Lake Baikal.













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Location:Moscow - Listvyanka

Russia, Moscow

It took us all day to get to our hotel in Moscow and the majority of that time was spent in a car getting from Moscow airport. The traffic was horrendous!
The next day we had a morning tour of Moscow with a local Russian guide, after a short trip on the Moscow subway she took us around the Red Square to see the Kremlin, St Basils Cathedral, changing of the guard and then onto the cathedral of Christ the saviour.

The subway in Moscow is something to see it is all made of marble and very expensive looking. Apparently Stalin wanted Moscow to be the best city in the world which included having the most expensive subway stations.





The Red square is definitely something to see it is surrounded by Russian culture and history. After spending a bit of time in Moscow it soon became apparent that I was a little under dressed Russian women spend all there money on clothes and shoes. But because it is very expensive in Moscow they often travel to Italy and France to by designer clothes!



The changing of the guard was cool to watch they can lift there legs extremely high! If you get a chance have a look at the video in our web album.





After our morning tour we walked to the Arbat street for some lunch at a sushi restaurant and yes you did read correctly sushi in Russia! It is apparently very very popular with the Russians. Arbat street also has a lot of street performers and souvenir shops and if the sign hadn't of said souvenirs I would have called the shops vodka bottleo's :-).


Then it was back to the Red square to wait for the sun to go down so we could get some night time photos of St Basil's church all lit up.



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Location:Russia, Moscow