Around the World in 37 Days by Plane and Train 2005
This is the journal of an "Around the World Trip" made in the spring of 2005. A friend of a friend, completing a work assignment in Kunming,,China in June expressed the wish to return to the states via the Tran-Siberian Railroad. The first friend, at my house for dinner one evening in January mentioned this trip, and I needed about 10 seconds to commit to making it with them. Briefly, we flew to Xi'an, China on Asiana, three days later to Beijing on China Eastern, and four days after that to Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia on China Air. Following four interesting days in Mongolia, here we took the Trans-Siberian to St. Petersburg, about 7000 km and 110 hours total, with multiple day stops in Irkutsk, and Moscow. After St. Petersburg we continued around Eastern Europe by air and train to multiple day stops in Warsaw, Prague, and Budapest.
(Photos: A link near the end of a section will take you to the photo album related to the section, while interspersed links take you to photos related to the narrative context. - use Cntl or Shift click to show in new tab or window respectively)
Saturday June 18, 05 (Seoul, Korea)
What a pleasant surprise. The 12.5 hour Asiana flight from LAX seemed shorter than one of those 5 hour American Air flights to Miami, owing to the larger seat, the excellent service by young, pretty, and enthusiastic flight attendants. Seems like I slept nearly as well as I might at home. They had good food, complementary drinks and real silver (well stainless probably). It will be interesting to compare this to the AA London to LAX flight in a month. Can't see much of Korea due to overcast and early morning arrival. The Inchon airport is very new and as modern as any I know.
Flight to Xi'an on time and uneventful. Terrain around Xi'an looks more desert than tropic, but lots of farming close to the city. Sometimes the view from the plane would encompass 50 villages interspersed with only slightly more farm land. Skipped the taxi and took a bus the 50 km from airport for 25Ą each. The exchange is 6.2865Ą/$, though Bush is pushing hard to get it revalued. Upon getting off the bus a young lady entrepreneur accosted us before could walk across the street to the Purple Mountain Hotel where our reservations were. She was selling a hotel down near the central city, She broke down our loyalty and we ended up in the Shaanxi Wenyuan Hotel (sometimes written Wen Yuan, while Shaanxi is the province in which Xi'an is located) inside the wall very near the south gate in a good central location. She also sold us a tour to the terra cotta warriors tomorrow for 45 Ą each ($5.50 for an all-day tour with transportation!). Not everyday that your feel lucky to have been taken in by a con person.
Xi'an may be the only walled-city in the world and also the only one that ever existed in the modern world. A rectangle of the current central city, about 4 km by 5 km, is enclosed on the 1500 year-old wall. Our hotel is near the south gate. We went exploring and walked round trip to the north wall and back. Later had dinner at the renowned dumpling restaurant, De Fa Chang where even Jiang Zemin has visited- - for 65Ą ~ $7 (yuan = Ą also call RMB or Chinese Yuan Renminbi or CNY).
Xi'an is very hot, near 100°F and with very high humidity, the weather seems more oppressive than anything I can remember from Pennsylvania or Ohio.
I think most Americans, like me last week, think that Xi'an just got on the map in the 70's after the terra cotta warriors were discovered. However, it has been the central city or "capital" of China much longer than Beijing through 17 dynasties and much more than 1000 years. Today about 1 million and very modern with lots of new construction and modern banks and businesses along its 3 or 4 thoroughfares. As you leave the center areas things deteriorate rapidly though.
Sunday June 19 (Xi'an)
Today we took the tour. Early 7:45 departure and 6:00 pm return. Went to about 6 sites, including a Jade store with very expensive stuff that nobody bought - up to $50,000, seemed like a waste stopping there with a bunch of tourists, a small museum that has a replica of the tomb of the last Qin Emperor, then to the tomb location itself, then to the location of the terra cotta warriors discovered in 1974, then to Hauqing Hot Spring resort, frequented by emperor of the Tang Dynasty and later by Chiang-Kai-shek, and finally to a little no-name museum.
Monday June 20 (Xi'an)
Today we went on a walking tour of a number of sights. First The Great Mosque, searching for this led us through a muslin ghetto of very narrow streets (12 ft from building on one side to the other) mostly lined with "restaurants" and food sellers. Restaurants usually consist of a couple boiling kettles of stuff in the street. Several planes seemed to be organ markets - at first I wasn't sure, but seems they would have about 10 or 15 whole cows livers (beef) out on a table in the sun with no refrigeration. One also had a similar number of beef hearts. I think they were uncooked, but not sure. After touring The Great Mosque we went by the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower, one on each side of our hotel near city center. In ancient China, one small act of the Emperors to retain power over the peasants was to deny them the concept or ability to measure time. Hence no great public clocks as for example in the tower of London. So within the walled city of Xi'an we have the drum and bell towers. In the morning at time to go out through the walls and commence work, the drum sounded to alert the whole city. Similarly at working days end the bell recalled all the workers. We climbed the Bell Tower to a very good view of the city in all four directions.
Next we went to the South Gate and the Calligraphy art and supplies sales area. Was our intent to go to the Small Goose Pagoda and a couple other points of interest, cut that short to avoid heat stroke! It is hot, hot, hot! And humidity must be around 110% and lots of smog in and around the city - most of the time can't see very far and the sun appears hazy. Xi’an Album
Tuesday June 21 (Xi'an/Beijing)
Up at 4:30 am to check out and make way to the Xi'an airport. A large park area fills about a square block in front of our hotel. Last night some guys on trick bicycles were doing good tricks, like riding head on to a 4 ft wall and jumping over, or just positioning the bike parallel to a 3 ft wall, getting a little bounce going, then jumping the bike to the top of the wall. These guys were pretty good. This morning as we left the hotel early there were probably 100 or more people just sleeping out in the open in this park, even in some cases a mother father and baby - guess the Chinese have their homeless too, though here it may not be considered a problem.
As we were dragging our wheeled luggage down the street to meet the bus, a taxi driver approached and negotiated a price only 5Ą more than the bus so we went for it. Good deal! Got coffee at the airport - thimble cups and no refills… and price on the menu was so high we concluded the decimal was missing …..but it wasn't and turned out to be 124Ą (~$15) for two tiny cups ….bad, bad deal! Nearly as much as we have been paying for great dinner with a giant beer included. We were met as expected at the Beijing airport and took the car to our Far East Hotel. Wow! In the last two blocks to the hotel I thought we were back in the Muslim district of yesterday. Turns out the Far East Hotel is really the Far East International Youth Hostel courtyard@elong.com is the Far East email and their concierge and tour marketer is at missshen2008@yahoo.com.cn and business816@hotmail.com .
Well now I've had the experience of staying at the two very extremes of hotels in Beijing, the Palace and the Far East, and guess which end the Far East has. Found a bank and got some Ą's from the ATM and headed off to The Temple of Heaven. A lot of walking again in very hot weather. Again! Temple of Heaven is a very interesting remnant of the Emperors, but the number of visitors has increased by a factor of 10 since I was here in 1996. I suspect this is true of all tourist attractions in China,
Stopped by the Novotel Xinqiao and met Matt Smith, our 4th traveling companion who came in from Kunming today. Matt was a little under the weather, but we think he will still make the train trip.
Wednesday June 22 (Beijing)
We chose today to visit the Great Wall. There are three places. The most popular because it is easily combined with a visit to the Ming Tombs is Badaling about two hours northwest of the city. I went there 9 years ago on my famous visit mentioned in the Cox Report with Madame Zhou. It was quite crowded then so now it's probably mobbed. A very remote spot is about 3 -4 hours northeast of the city, called Great Wall at Simati. We went a location about 2 hours due north Great Wall at Matainyu. This is a very good spot to see the wall winding through the mountain and greenery. It does require a significant climb, especially in 100°F and high humidity, to get on the wall unless you take the tram for an extra 15Ą
Barbara's acquaintance, Kirstin, joined us late in the day at the Far East and we went out to enjoy the popular "hot pot" dinner - many vegetables and meat cooked in a boiling pot in the center of your table. Cooking and serving was done by the waitress.
I was concerned about not bringing along enough books to keep occupied, however it seems that just "living" and taking in all the activities is a full time job thus far. Finding money, finding water, etc., etc.
Our Far East Hotel does have a good western style buffet breakfast - for 20 Ą (about $2.50).
Thursday June 23 (Beijing)
Took the subway first 3/4 and taxi last 1/4 to the Summer Palace today. Though this was my third time there we found a major section to the north of the main hill that none of us had ever seen. Kirstin was making her third visit to the Summer Palace too.
We have excellent food in China including good quality vegetables, though always cooked. Where does this come from? I have seen no evidence of serious agriculture. Around Xi'an there were tilled fields but couldn't recognize much growing, except for frequent orchards of what appeared to be nut trees. Never saw any machinery of even people working in the small fields. I inquired about how farm implements might be powered, tractors? Horses? And someone mumbled about oxen. Around Beijing and on the trip to the wall in the country, nearly all the agriculture I could spot was in little family patches, not on a scale for marketing. In all of China I saw one tractor traveling along a highway with a four-bottom furrow plow, and a couple of self-propelled combines (harvesters).
Friday June 24 (Beijing)
Today we hiked up through Tian'anmen square and toured the Forbidden City. Hired a private tour guide for about $15 who spoke rather good English and was very knowledgeable about the palace. Like many other tourist attractions in China, it was mobbed with people and many buildings are under refurbishment to make a good presentation during the 2008 summer Olympics. Time to visit will be 2009 when the Olympics and the crowds are gone, but everything still beautifully refurbished. For 50 years China has been a big mystery to most of the world. Now that it is opening up to tourists the world is flocking here in increasing numbers. Perhaps in another 10 years the mystery will be gone and the crowds of curious will abate. Smog, smog everywhere. It hides the sun, traps the heat, and clouds the photos. Good views from out several airplane rides across China and Mongolia just don't happen due to smog. Beijing Album
Saturday June 25 (Beijing/Ulaan
Baatar)
Ulaan Baatar ("Red Hero"), the coldest capital in the world, rebuilt and renamed with help from the Soviets around 1921, many buildings definitely have the Russian signature. The city has about 800,000 residents and the country 2.5 million. Temperatures are somewhat lower, around 85°F and the air is quite clear with beautiful cumulus clouds overhead. But Mongolia is a land of extremes, with temperatures dropping to -45°F in winter, and covered with a meter of snow. Center city has huge government buildings and a big square, nearly the size of Tian'anmen in Beijing, which could hold every person in the country standing shoulder to shoulder. We are getting north in latitude - at 10:30 pm it is just dusk. Prices of everything here in Mongolia appear to be about double those of China, but still quite low.
Saturday June 25 (Beijing/Ulaan Baatar)
Ulaan Baatar ("Red Hero"), the coldest capital in the world, rebuilt and renamed with help from the Soviets around 1921, many buildings definitely have the Russian signature. The city has about 800,000 residents and the country 2.5 million. Temperatures are somewhat dower, around 85°F and the air is quite clear with beautiful cumulus clouds overhead. But Mongolia is a land of extremes, with temperatures dropping to -45°F in winter, and covered with a meter of snow. Center city has huge government buildings and a big square, nearly the size of Tian'anmen in Beijing, which could hold every person in the country standing shoulder to shoulder. We are getting north in latitude - at 10:30 pm it is just dusk. Prices of everything here in Mongolia appear to be about double those of China.
Sunday June 26 (Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia)
Today we traveled west about 225 mi into the countryside. We are staying tonight and tomorrow at Khogno Kahn Mountain ger camp. The surroundings are much like the rock formations around Wilcox, Arizona, except grassland rather than desert cacti. At this moment I sit at the door of my yert and Barbara just took a picture of me working on the laptop in the yert that can accompany a similar picture from an Amazon River boat deck. What is a yert? It's the Russian name for what the Mongolians call a ger hut. The house used by the nomadic stock herders of the country, made almost entirely of animal parts and wood. A wood kind of scissor (lattice?) picket fence side frame and pole rafter roof support all sewn together by rawhide, horsehair, camel hair etc. ropes, wall felt sides covered with canvas. The countryside is green grassland as far as one can see, with low mountains in the background and many herds of livestock, horses, sheep, camels, yaks, goats, etc. etc. We stopped in the Takhi Horse Preserve. These wild horses were nearly extinct, but a few were restored to the preserve from European zoos and the population is now up to about 140. We spent about an hour and 10 miles of travel searching from our van - then set out on foot and finally got close to a group of 11 to 15 horses. Proceeding on the long drive to our ger camp one is reminded of driving in Baja by the very poor and pot-holed highway of 25 years ago, and the great expanses of open land - only here there are not enough people and cars to have littered the sides of the highway so the surroundings appear quite clean and pristine.
On the drive today we saw many herds moving east, reportedly to join the July 11 - 13 Naadam Festival. At this annual celebration they have competition in horse racing. archery and wrestling. Their horse race in more like a marathon of 30 km, rather than round a track sprint as we have. Mongolian horses can run 20 - 25 km/hour. The winner may get something like a Russian motorcycle (so he can quit riding horses) of about $900 value.
Monday June 27 (Mongolia)
Our guide, Temuujin, (nijuumet_d@yahoo.com.mn??) is a Mongolian who seems quite well educated and has lived both in Mongolia and in Russia both under communism and peristroika. He was apparently a serious communist as a younger person, but mentions his 180° reversal in thinking. He's clearly a liberal capitalist and often mentions the coming of freedom to Mongolia. Of course, like Mexico and many third world countries, the government is still quite corrupt. Today we drove west another 50 - 70 miles to Karakorum (Harhorin), a village in the Karakorum desert- but still doesn't look much like our sandy deserts. Visited the Erdene Zho Monastery, which now has 3 or 4 temples and about 40 monks. Before the Russian Communists took over in 1937 and forbade the practice of religion there were approximately 2000 monks and 30 - 40 temples in this monastery. Mongolians are again free to worship as they choose and are mostly Buddhist. Today about 20 monks were chanting in the main temple. They keep this up for about 6 - 7 hours per day.
Probably the most interesting part of our journey west was a stop at the ger house (home) of a real nomad family. We picked out a few small gifts for the children in a store with the help of our guide, Temuujin, and then picked a ger house with smoke rising from its stove in late afternoon because Temuujin knew this meant they were making vodka. Turns out the woman of the house was making vodka from mare's milk in a still improvised from 3 pots. It was a family of about 5 - 7 children and parents. The older girls were milking the goats when we arrived and during our entire visit. Nearly all conversation was between us and the head of the ger with our guide interpreting Mongolian. After some small talk, eating some variety of cheeses and drinking some fermented mare's milk (airag) we also tasted the vodka. All but the vodka were rather unusual and would take some practice to like. Fuel for making vodka and all cooking is dried cow dung gathered from the surrounding area. Then came time to "milk the mares." We went out to a string line where all the colts were tied. Here each colt was given a brief opportunity to nurse from its mare, then the woman of the household milks the mare very briefly. Unlike a dairy cow that may produce several gallons of milk twice a day, the mares are milked every two hours and produce only a couple cups of milk at most each time. The milk is poured in a big plastic drum with what has accumulated from past milkings; it's all stirred vigorously with a paddle and allowed to ferment. It is then dipped from this drum with a small bowl from which everyone drinks. There is no refrigeration so everything is preserved by drying or letting it spoil in an intentional manner - fermented milk, cheeses, etc. Also the diet is almost entirely animal products, excepting perhaps a little wheat and rice they purchase in the villages. And they have to survive the extremely harsh winters noted above. The mare's milk, a staple, is reportedly rich in vitamin A, C, and E, helping the nomads survive without vegetables. The herder we visited said he had about 300 head of livestock, by the way many more than my father had as a Pennsylvania dairy farmer. He told us the ger house, though quite substantial and adequate for the winter, can be torn down by the family in 15 - 30 minutes, transported by 3 animals (horse, yak, camel), and rebuilt in about 1 hour. They move to better pasture about 20 times per year.
The Mongols have a whole different concept of clean. There was little evidence of the folks in the ger house wasting much time washing - indeed at another time our guide told us that if a Mongol has greasy fingers after eating he wipes them on his face and/or chest. In addition we often noted that a statue of a lion or other ornament in a temple would be stained or dirty because the Mongols smear it with butter or animal fat as a matter of course, believing something like it's all part of life. Maybe that's why there "third world" still. But, after all, what's dirt. There's dirt and then theirs dirt. Real dirt is something with chemicals or germs that will cause harm if contacted or eaten. All the rest is just the wrong stuff in the wrong place.
Later on the way to our ger camp we visited some unremarkable sand dunes.
Saw a fairly large and modern farm tractor today - having seen one in China I know there are two in Asia.
We are told that when the Russian controlled Mongolia under communism they forced much of the grassland to be planted in wheat. Further, that some way this ruined the land - there is little wheat evident now and some spots without grass are said to be old wheat fields. How did this ruin the land?? Maybe lack of crop rotation?
Tuesday June 28 (Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia)
Drove back to UB today, 7 hours and 225 miles.
An interesting observation: in Southern California we have a style and small chain of restaurant for 15 years called "Mongolian Bar-B-Que." One of these has it to Mongolia, and even features itself as the first American franchise or some such. We didn't find any similar food in the places we dined!
Wednesday June 29 (Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia)
This morning of our last day in Mongolia, we visited the Gandan Monastery in Ulaan Baatar. People were chanting again and many citizens of the city were walking around the temples spinning prayer wheels and visiting the fortune teller monks. They must be the unemployed as it is Wednesday. Maybe why they are third-world. It seems very different events for one to know alternative lives and choose to be Buddhist than to be repressed in ignorance by Buddhism. Mongolia Album
We had a late lunch or early dinner in an excellent restaurant recommended by our driver, Laikhansuren, and headed for the train station. The train departed promptly at 7:30 pm leaving us three hours of light to see the countryside. It is awesomely beautiful as the train glides along the grassy planes surrounded by rolling hills and low mountains, occasionally dotted by stock herds and the ger houses of the herders. Again I am impressed by how clean the surroundings are. We are 5 people and we have two 4 person sleeping compartments on train #234 - 2nd class - there is no 1st class available on this train. One of our traveling group kind of wandered off and got very intoxicated at various times during the day, but the remainder of us didn't really figure out what was up until he more or less took over one of the train compartments for himself.
Met three younger girls, 20 -30 years, on the train traveling the world, Chris from Seattle, Itka from Czech Republic, and Clare from London. They said the way to get cheap tickets all over Asia is take a one-way to Bangkok, then deal with Subin and Nafin Sachanakul "Travel in Style" at www.travel_instyle@hotmail.com and tell em Chris & Mandi recommended. Interesting, hope I don't make the trip to Bangkok for nothing.
Thursday June 30 (Mongolia/Russia-Siberia)
We awakened this am with the train stopped at a station, which we later learned to be Sühbaatar, about 20 km from the Russian border. In fact we soon learned we were only 3 cars of the train and engine and other cars were gone. To our chagrin we spent nearly 12 hours moving the 20 km across the border and being checked by Mongol and then Russian customs, immigration, and military. At one point the Russian military were inspecting my camera and threatening to confiscate it because they thought I had taken a picture. About 4:40 pm finally saw us underway crossing the Russian border along the Selenga River. Crossing from Mongolia reminded me of the contrast in crossing from the US to Mexico - and Russia is supposed to be the 2nd world country! We had a few hours of daylight travel, during which Goose Lake was the highlight, and passed through Ulan Ude, a large city and the main Buddhist center in Russia about dark. We shared two bottles of wine in our compartment.
Thursday June 30 (Mongolia/Russia-Siberia)
We awakened this am with the train stopped at a station, which we later learned to be Sühbaatar, about 20 km from the Russian border. In fact we soon learned we were only 3 cars of the train and engine and other cars were gone. To our chagrin we spent nearly 12 hours moving the 20 km across the border and being checked by Mongol and then Russian customs, immigration, and military. At one point the Russian military were inspecting my camera and threatening to confiscate it because they thought I had taken a picture. About 4:40 pm finally saw us underway crossing the Russian border along the Selenga River. Crossing from Mongolia reminded me of the contrast in crossing from the US to Mexico - and Russia is supposed to be the 2nd world country! We had a few hours of daylight travel, during which Goose Lake was the highlight, and passed through Ulan Ude, a large city and the main Buddhist center in Russia about dark. We shared two bottles of wine in our compartment.
Friday July 1 (Russia-Siberia)
A few hours after sunrise we arrived in Irkutsk and were met by the MIR travel arranged guide and driver. They took us to get rubles, the Museum of Wooden Architecture, to the Limnological Museum (yeah I didn't know either, it's a museum about lakes), and to the top of a hill (called Chersky Mountain) to look down at Lake Baikal. The lake is supposed to be the deepest, 5371 ft, and maybe largest in the world. Guide book says it contains 20% of the world's fresh water and could supply all the fresh water consumed by man on this planet for 40 years. It is fed by the Selenga and many other smaller rivers and drained by the Angara, which flows ultimately to the Yenisey (Russia's Mississippi) and to the Arctic Ocean. The countryside and the hill all look about like western Pennsylvania to me. The lake is a little bigger. Then off to our hotel in Listvyanka Village on the shore of the lake.
In the afternoon one of our group, Matt, broke his ankle and Chiqui and Barb had to get him to a hospital in Irkutsk to have it attended. While the girls had a great time riding the Siberian ambulance and getting him in and out of the hospital, Jon and I had a great dinner of tongue salad and the famous Lake Baikal omul fish at a local restaurant. All the horror stories of the ambulance and hospital conditions were reported to be true, but the results seem to be totally satisfactory so far.
Saturday July 2 (Russia-Siberia)
Awakened early this morning so that at 8:00 am I could hear the sounds of Listvyanka Village also awakening, dogs barking, men beating their wives, kicking out there drunken buddies, …… Our guide, Alla, seems to be the only English speaking person in Siberia - essentially nobody at our hotel or any restaurants or stores understands any English. Of course we are away from any metro area in a little village - on the other hand the village purportedly caters to and there are a few tourists around. This am our guide came along and took us to see a railroad tunnel and told a long story about the construction of the railroad around the southwest end of the lake. Most interesting part was when the Russian Army tried to cross the lake on a rail line built on the ice, and broke through! Otherwise we probably have a hundred rail histories in the US of equal or better tourist interest.
Sunday July 3 (Russia-Siberia)
Alla met us at 10:30 am and took us to a couple minor tourist sites including the Angra ice breaker - an old broken down ship. Most interesting was the Decemberist Museum. Read The Siberian Princess, Caroline Sutherland to learn more. This group of wealthy educated elite revolted failed in an attempt to bring down the Tsar and establish freedom around 1825. Then exiled to Siberia and some romantic stories exist about their life and hardships. They were given amnesty around 1860 - but now we know where Stalin got the idea to send people to Siberia.
Our train left Irkutsk at 5:10 pm local. We have the only 1st class car in about a 20 car train, and maybe the only one without AC and lights - currently malfunctioning in our car. The 1st class compartments are two people each and somewhat nicer than the 2nd class we had from Mongolia - even a TV would you believe. They served us a nice dinner in the compartment shortly after departure - beats American Airlines.
For the first time I am wishing I had a little hand-held GPS, as we are going 5185 km (3041 miles) and realizing due to language barriers and other factors all the while we will not have the foggiest idea where we are. So am working up a little calculation to determine approximately when we pass major landmarks like the Yenisey River and Krasnoyarsk. I find we will be about 76.5 hours on the trip averaging 67.8 km/hr (42.3 mph).
Oops! All I had to do to get the electric on was ask the attendant. She also showed me where to plug in the laptop right in my compartment too, don't understand why one of the people who speak Russian here didn't do it. Things are getting pretty cushy here, better than the guide book predicts. No AC yet though - work on that tomorrow when it gets hot.
Monday July 4 (Russia-Siberia)
We have to figure how to celebrate. We past the Yenisey and through Krasnoyarsk about 4 hours later than my prediction. A new railroad bridge crosses the Yenisey since 1999. The Yenisey "wide water" begins in Mongolia and flows 5200km to the Arctic Ocean. The old bridge, built around 1890, required large marble buttresses to withstand the icebergs floating down the river in winter. It required 94,000 workers and three years to build, and won an equal award with the Eiffel Tower in the 1900 Paris World Fair as engineering accomplishments.(Trans-Siberian Handbook, Bryn Thomas). Air in the countryside is quite clear, but approaching Krasnoyarsk was reminiscent of the Beijing smog. There appear to be continuous expanses of cleared level land - ideal for agriculture, but most seems to be abandoned to weeds and wild grasses. However, vegetation and trees seem very lush and healthy. Why no agriculture on the beautiful land? Is the growing season too short? Passing Krasnoyarsk was of special interest to me remembering an adventurous visit I had here several years ago.
Clearly nobody in Siberia has wasted money on a lawnmower, nor time in using it - I have not seen one patch of dirt that looks like a lawn.
At 11:45 pm we are stopped briefly at Novosibirsk, maybe the largest city of Siberia with 1.4 million and the capital of Western Siberia. It's still daylight about like 8:30 pm in Pa. or Ohio. As we pull out of town to the west we have great sunset scenes of the beautiful Ob River and my camera tells me "battery exhausted."
The guide book has us bringing a lot of things like sink stoppers, food, water, toilet tissue, etc. some of which we don't need, but fails to emphasize that you really need a sponge and some kind of stick or handle or stepladder to get up and wash the dirty train windows.
No relief on the AC so it was hot in our car, up to 90°F from mid-afternoon till evening. We sought relief with a beer in the dining car. The 4th of July celebration was red wine in red, white and blue glasses.
Been making a stab at reading The Hungry Ocean, by Linda Greenlaw, but feeling cheated because at least the first 50 pages seem like a minor editing of The Perfect Storm, where Linda was a collaborator with Junger.
Tuesday July 5 (Russia-Siberia)
Awoke at Omsk, on the Om River, 2712 km from Moscow. The second largest city of Siberia at 1.1 million. The rumble of the train is so continuous, it is the silences of a longer stop that awakens. Exiting the city westward we pass the confluence of the Om and Irtysh Rivers in a very scenic early morning setting. As we move into western Siberia a few more signs of civilization appear, paved roads occasionally, gated railroad crossings, even a few grain elevators. Though the land is flat for long distances, near the tracks where detail is visible it is wet to the point of swampy. Perhaps lack of drainage discourages agriculture. For 600 km east of Omsk we have been passing through the Barraba Steppe. "This vast expanse of greenish plains is dotted with shallow lakes and ponds, and course reeds and sedge grass conceal swamps, peat bogs. And rare patches of firm ground. From the train is appears as if there is a continuous forest in the distance. However, if you walk toward it you will never get there, as what you are seeing are clumps of birches and aspen trees spaced several kilometers or more apart. The lack of landmarks in this area has claimed hundreds of lives. In spring this place is hell as the air is gray with clouds of gnats and mosquitoes", ibid. Thomas. Siberia Album
Throughout Siberia there appear to be many, many abandoned buildings in disrepair with lots of broken windows. Perhaps with a small population and abundant land they just build anything new in a new location and never bother to demolish old buildings? And of course the repetition of many huge apartment buildings all built by the government with the same plan.
Wednesday July 6 (Russia-Moscow)
In sharp contrast to yesterday’s awakening, we awoke several times in the night and early morning because the train was riding so rough, I thought it off the tracks on the ties, or that we were back in the van traveling the "Baja road" in Mongolia.
Countdown to Moscow: At 10:40 am local (Moscow now) we cross the mighty Volga River and approach Nizhny Novgorod (still called Gorky by many and the train table) 440 km south east of Moscow, Russia's fourth largest city, 1.9 million, after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk. We are entering the Golden Ring of villages, now cities, that surrounded and comprised of ancient Russia
As we near Vladimir about 14:30, 141 km from Moscow, the hillside next to the tracks is strewn with picturesque dachas. In addition to being a country cottage or holiday home for the city-dweller owners, they provide a place where they grow vegetables and a base for wild mushroom and berry collection. In 1157, Vladimir, a part of the Golden Ring, became to capital of the principality of Vladimir-Suzdal, and thus the most important city of Russia of the time. Next stop, Moscow!
Thursday July 7 (Russia)
…. and life is hard again. Getting around and getting things done in Moscow is much harder. Though Russian architecture is much more European than and many things appear more advanced, few of the Russians know any English. All the place names are in the Cyrillic alphabet and not readable to us. In China most important directions seemed to be duplicated in English, while in distant Siberia with no population travel was relatively simple, but here life has gotten difficult and expensive - guess we'll adjust in a couple days, by the time it's time to leave.
Our Moscow guide, Anna, took us to a lot of places I had already seen today, but the landmarks are impressive. She is very pleasant, an excellent English speaker, and very attractive too! In the afternoon I walked from our Belgrad Hotel, situated half block off Smolenskaya in front of the huge and impressive "Agency for International Affairs" (read State Department) building, to the Red Square area unsuccessfully searching for an Internet café. Long walk - maybe 8 miles round trip.
This evening we went to a café called Pirosmani recommended by Barbara's friend back in US. Was a real challenge to find "out of the Sportifskya metro exit and a short walk from the cemetery" but we did find it eventually and had a good dinner. Those $8 - 12 dinners of China are over though. Pirosmani, named after an artist, claims Richard Gere and Bill Clinton among their customers. The drunken bum, Matt, who fell of the balcony and broke his foot in Irkutsk is causing the group great discomfort and inconvenience, especially me, since his friend Chiqui has left us and Matt is now supposed to be sharing a room with me. I don't get much of the room. He has it in a mess and is on another binge. Can't help but think I am living the life of one of the characters in John Grisham's "The Testament" in the Pantanal - darn, the pantanal is a place I have long dreamed of going.
Friday July 8 (Russia)
This am Anna took us to the Kremlin and the Armory (Museum) inside the Kremlin. It was worth seeing again, especially the outside parts as it's a beautiful warm day with very clear air and the blue sky dotted with pure white clouds. Moscow seems to have little smog.
Some of us agree here that metro Moscow has a preponderance of very attractive girls - more so than anywhere in my recent memory - except Moscow in 1997. Today I got around to locating the internet café at the huge underground Manege Shopping center by Red Square. Very professionally run place with about 20 good computers, fast connections and in good repair at about $2.5/hour - not convenient to our hotel, but a lot better than the $30/hr at the Golden Ring Hotel next door!!!! Afterwards I force Jon & Barb to go by the Bolshoi and later to dinner on the walk-street, Arbat. The binge continues tonight, so it behooves me to return to the room late.
Saturday July 9 (Russia)
We are venturing on a few trips by trolley and the underground metro (subway). Moscow subways are famous for their depth underground (built to double as bomb shelters in the early days of the cold war) and for quality artistic character of the stations. Until today we have been so focused on interpreting station names in Cyrillic and just getting on the right train that we didn't get a real look at the stations. Two stations today were so beautiful with marble walls and ornamentation and paintings that we stopped to photograph. And the depth …. you get on an escalator going up, or down, and it is so long and steep that the people at the other end seem almost to disappear in the distance. Today we went to Park Pobedy or Park of Victory. This is the Russian memorial of WWII and the home of a museum with this theme, maybe called Poklonnaja Gora by the Russians. Most remarkable there are the paintings called dioramas. These are room-sized three dimensional "paintings" that have real stuff in the foreground, helmets, shell casings, artillery pieces, bodies, etc and at some point the foreground blends into the painted background. Very impressive. Also, it is Saturday, in the surrounding park itself there were many Russians of all ages having good clean fun, rollerblading, trick bicycle competitions, just walking, etc. Many brides come to the park in wedding clothes to be photographed in the park and monument settings. Seemed like a very wholesome, but probably we are seeing a tiny percentage of the rich Russians. It is not hard to form the impression that all the money in Russia flows to Moscow.
First time in Moscow in the summer, it's a great place, but I am slightly disappointed that as we leave I haven't seen anything that I haven't seen before, except the Bolshoi Theater without renovation scaffolding obscuring the front, and Arbat Street. Arbat is a "walk street" just east of our hotel in the direction of the Kremlin that has many nice outdoor restaurants, various free-lance performers etc. Reminds one of the Piazzas in Rome, a very pleasant place to have a beer, dinner, or just walk and the people.
We are catching the midnight train to St. Petersburg tonight. As we had to check out at noon, our drunken fellow-traveler slept away the day in the hotel lobby. Then, would you believe …as he is hobbling down the long platform to the train, broken foot, crutches, heavy backpack, and drunk too … the police accost him - after he fell. They were merciful, gave him his passport back, put him on a luggage "gurney" and sent him to the train. Another chapter of "The Testament." Later as we settled in for the ride to St. Petersburg and my fellow compartment occupant was asleep I dumped his remaining 1/3 bottle of vodka, …. For the 2nd or 3rd night running. Moscow Album
Sunday July 10 (Russia-St. Petersburg)
Our overnight train brought on time at 8 am to a beautiful sunny and warm morning, despite moving 400 km farther north. In fact the day was more pleasant than most in Moscow. By 10 am we were headed 30 km south to the village of Pushkin, renamed from Tsar's Village (Tsarskoe selo) by the communists. Here we spent most of the day in the palace of Catharine (first, Great, or something). This palace contains the famous Amber Room. It was occupied by the Nazis in WWII for a very long time and both sides did lots of damage so the place was ruined. However, apparently withdrawing Russians took many of the art works and treasured furnishings. Restoration started the day the war ended and continues - about one third is restored and treasures returned and it is magnificent!
Interesting sidelight, we were taken to the outside of a small palace known as the hermitage (not The Hermitage) which was were royalty took temporary refuge from the hustle of the main palace. Here the dining room table was on a chain elevator and servants prepared and set the meal in the lower level, then it was raised to the guest dining level by using the elevator so servants were never present in the dining room. Maybe there were variations on this theme, like each guest's plate on an elevator, and maybe sometimes the guest's chair on an elevator too - difficult to get the story straight or complete.
Today I walked for about 5 - 6 hours getting thoroughly oriented with St. Petersburg and taking photos at every sight, Nicholas Cathedral, the opera and theater houses, the canals, bridges with Isaac's Cathedral in the background, Bolshaya Neva River, University, Rostral Columns, Dostosvsky Most, Hermitage, Admiralty Building (Russian Naval Academy), Kazan Cathedral, Church of the Savior on the Spilt Blood, and more and more. Then a pickpocket made off with my camera. Well I didn't know what to do with the damn pictures anyway. Happened on Nevsky Prospect where guides have frequently cautioned us, but you can't take care of everything. I am second in our group - Leigh lost her camera to a similar fate in Frankfurt on the trip over. One of the annoyances on a Trans-Siberian trip is keeping track of your valuable possessions.
It is convenient that from a well-located hotel, our Comfort Hotel is 10 min from The Hermitage and waterfront; one can walk to nearly every tourist attraction of St. Petersburg - excepting Pushkin and Peterhof.
There are many gold domes, mostly on churches, but also on various other important buildings like old castles, museums, etc. I have often asked about these and continually gotten meaningless answers like "it's solid gold (yeah one angstrom thick?)," or "it's gold paint" Today I asked again and got the most believable answers I've heard. To wit, there are two techniques: a) gold leaf, where the gold comes in very thin sheets like foil with a backing. You rip off the backing and stick it on - this application process makes a gold dome that must be refurbished every ten years or so; b) glided, here the gold comes in some chemical compound including mercury. A sheet of base material, maybe copper or bronze, is heated and the gold compound poured on it. The heating boils off the mercury (evaporates it), very dangerous to humans, and the gold is bonded to the base material. A church dome made by this process lasts for centuries. Guess I will have to look it up on www.howstuffworks.com and find the real truth someday when I retire.
We are continually overwhelmed by the treasures that were destroyed by wars and other causes that seem to benefit nobody. Around 1917 the common people were invited to the Winter Palace after it was taken from the Tsars, and they filled all the bathtub and artistic marble vases with their excrement.
St. Petersburg has lots of attractive women too - they've got our McDonalds, but haven't gotten our obesity problem yet.
Tuesday July 12 (Russia)
Did a little camera shopping today and am feeling sorry for the bastard who stole mine, as it was two and half years old and only 2 m pixel chip. Will probably buy a 5 m pixel, though don't know what to do with more than 2 - just the way things are!
Today we went to The Hermitage (Winter Palace). It's probably among the top three art museums in the world along with Vatican and du Louvre. I'm not that much into art and especially the two-dimensional stuff so didn't mind that we had limited time. The immensity, and a lot of three dimensional décor are very impressive though, chandeliers, huge ball rooms and all the stuff around them, sculptures and sculpted walls, etc. etc are great …. and the five horsemen on the building in front of the Hermitage, probably the most repeated photo from St Petersburg - got it yesterday and lost to the pickpocket. Afterwards, the more hardy of the group walked across the bridge to the Peter and Paul Fortress in the Petrograd section (oldest) of St. Petersburg, which comprised the first buildings of St. Petersburg.
Wednesday July 13 (Russia)
Jon and I were just hanging out for part of the day, then meeting the others after lunchtime. On the way to the meeting place we went by and stopped to enter the Kazan Cathedral. This one is unique as it is patterned after St. Peter's at the Vatican. We happened to come in just in the middle of a wedding. There were very few people in the cathedral who were attending the wedding. However, music was totally the human voice with no instruments and no electronic enhancement (A cappella). The acoustical properties of the cathedral and the skills of the vocalists combined to produce a very excellent experience. This cathedral is by a wide margin the most impressive of our trip thus far, including Catherine's at the Kremlin. Haven't been inside St. Isaac's yet - judging from the outside it will be even more impressive - however they charge admission so that will detract.
For the afternoon we took the hydrofoil to Peterhof (Petrodvorets), about 35 km to the west along the south shore of the Gulf of Finland, built by Peter the Great as his Versailles-by-the-sea around 1720. This palace is famous for its plethora of fountains, all gravity fed, and they are very beautiful. However, like Catharine Palace at Puskin, and it seems so many other sights we are seeing, it was destroyed during WWII, and has been rebuilt as a replica. It does appear that many palaces etc. that we are seeing have been destroyed by fires or more recently by battle of WWII, then reproduced in the 1950's. There's a Disneyland of Russia character. Peterhof turns out to be a good example. The dozens of beautiful fountains loose something when you think of them being built in 1950. And there's an admission to the palace grounds, about $10, then a separate admission to every "ride" of about $5. I skipped the main palace because the line was too long, went to the little Maly Palace thinking it was the Hermitage - can't read the Russian. When I did find the Hermitage (many palaces seems to have this kind of get-away as noted above), I went hoping to see and learn about the chain elevators mentioned above ….. but in the 1950's rebuild they didn't bother to replicate. So two $5 rides and no elevators.
Tonight we finished dinner at da Vinci about half hour after midnight and looking north, there was still lots of sunlight lighting the sky over the horizon. St. Petersburg Album
Thursday July 14 (Russia)
Off to Warsaw. Upon arriving we find we have been upgraded to a better hotel, the Pelonia Palace, which is quite classy but this makes little difference to our current lifestyle. Eisenhauer stayed at the Pelonia Palace when he visited Poland to survey the rubble at the end of the war. Located in the downtown district a few steps from the Palace of Culture, Warsaw's highest building. Warsaw is very clean and prosperous looking. Building and streets in good repair and many new buildings. They were paving streets as we walked to dinner - using up-to-date machinery, unlike the wheelbarrows and shovels one would see in China and Russia, and doing an excellent job - better than work I've seen in Redondo Beach.
This stupid hotel has broadband in the room ……… at about $20/day. What are these people thinking? Only business travelers would pay that, and they probably negotiate it into the room price. And a few steps out the door is a 24 hr/day internet café that rivals the café I found in Moscow last week, maybe 100 computers with broadband charging 4 Zloty/hr ($1.16) in peak hours and sliding down to half in off hours.
Thursday July 14 (Russia/Poland)
Off to Warsaw. Upon arriving we find we have been upgraded to a better hotel, the Pelonia Palace, which is quite classy but this makes little difference to our current lifestyle. Eisenhower stayed at the Pelonia Palace when he visited Poland to survey the rubble at the end of the war. Located in the downtown district a few steps from the Palace of Culture, Warsaw's highest building. Warsaw is very clean and prosperous looking. Building and streets in good repair and many new buildings. They were paving streets as we walked to dinner - using up-to-date machinery, unlike the wheelbarrows and shovels one would see in China and Russia, and doing an excellent job - better than work I've seen in Redondo Beach.
This stupid hotel has broadband in the room ……… at about $20/day. What are these people thinking? Only business travelers would pay that, and they probably negotiate it into the room price. And a few steps out the door is a 24 hr/day internet café that rivals the café I found in Moscow last week, maybe 100 computers with broadband charging 4 Zloty/hr ($1.16) in peak hours and sliding down to half in off hours.
Friday July 15 (Poland)
Today we toured Warsaw with a guide for part of the day visiting, The Ghetto, where WWII Jews were confined before the systematic executions began, several cathedrals and war memorials in the Old Town section, and the palace on the lake of the last king. The Polish resisted the Nazis and as a result Warsaw west of the river was totally leveled and burned. Meanwhile, the Russians were parked east of the river appreciating that the Germans were making things so easy for them. All the historic and artistic buildings were destroyed, but the Poles began reconstruction within weeks after the fighting stopped. As a result of this scenario most of Warsaw is relatively new, though old structures are authentically reproduced and many of the artifacts were saved.
Despite years of domination by Russian Communism, Poland managed to keep their churches (Catholic) open and practice their religion. Also, instead of transferring all land from the ruling class to the state, they executed a "land reform" program under which land ownership was given to individuals. The farmland was given in small plots to common farmers as was other non-government land and housing. Sounds to me like Poland was under the thumb of the Russians, but never resigned to communism.
At the end of this day we got on an overnight train destined for Prague in the Czech Republic.
Saturday July 16 (Czech Republic)
Busy learning our way around Prague (Praha), Powder Tower, Wenceslas Square, Old Town, Lesser Town, Charles Bridge over the Vltava River, some beautiful cathedrals. Prague is very clean and in good repair. In contrast to Poland, the Czechs didn't resist the Nazis and as a result little was destroyed and most of the old buildings and artifacts are in a more original state.
Sunday July 17 (Czech Republic)
Been trying to get my cell phone working since China. In most locations the phone searches and identifies 2 to 4 networks, but when I try to select, it responds "forbidden." Numerous emails traded with T Mobile have been no help, until yesterday an email said they had reset my privileges. Wala! Today the phone works and I called sister Barbara successfully from Prague just to try. She was not happy to hear.
In sharp contrast to Russia, many people speak English quite well in Poland and Czech R.
We spent a large part of the day in the Prague Palace and associated grounds and buildings. The cathedral is spectacular and we found the circular stairway to the top of the clock tower. Matt tells me the huge reception hall occupying the 1st level was for indoor jousting. The palace was much planer and more austere than the palaces we have been seeing in Russia. Maybe because it hasn't been rebuilt for tourists. My overall reaction is that if you are visiting Prague, the palace is a must - but if you have just seen half the palaces in Asia and Eastern Europe, it's just another palace and not a very fancy one at that.
E had dinner at a nice restaurant overlooking the river just upstream and viewing the Charles Bridge. Location was great, but food is average and small portions at high prices, 700 Kc (Koruna) - ($28) for small salad and piece of chicken. Seems typical of Prague, except for the great breakfasts at our Mercure Hotel that come at an unknown cost. What the palaces lack in interior opulence is compensated for in the nighttime scenery. Many palaces, cathedrals and other ornate buildings are lighted with flood lamps at night to create many live "postcard perfect" scenes. In the square of Old Town the Astronomical Clock is ornate and interesting. It doesn't tell time, but tell phases of the moon, equinoxes, etc. and does chime and put on a novel animated display of elves and devils on the hour.
Monday July 18 (Czech Republic)
The group went to a spa in the country by bus today, singularly unappealing to me so I didn't. Instead I roamed around some now almost familiar places in Prague. I learned how in the narrow streets and tall buildings one can get lost in five minutes, and get found again in the same time as one of the city's hundred spires suddenly appears. I climbed the city tower with the astronomical clock, and the Powder Tower getting great views from both, and visited a half dozen more cathedrals. There's one every couple blocks and all different and awesome - the Catholic Church must have had limitless supplies of money and slave labor. Our wayward traveler is on another binge. Police dumped him unconscious in the hotel lobby about 3:45 am - minus, money, credit cards, passport, and perhaps drugged up by some sweet Czech girls? - and tomorrow we travel to another country, Hungary.
Tuesday July 19 (Czech Republic/Hungary)
After studying the camera market for a few days (result of losing mine to a pickpocket in St. Petersburg), I had settled on a Minolta DiMage Xg, a moderate upgrade of what I lost …. But as I was purchasing it down the street I learned the manual would be in Czech (obviously) - nixed the whole deal - don't need it that bad.
Our "1st class" train from Prague to Budapest has seats like an airline, not sleeping compartments. Probably because the trip is not an over-night as all our prior have been. The seats are spacious, large windows give good visibility, and the train is "much" quieter than most of our experience. For the first 100 miles out of Prague we passed mostly flat and fertile looking farm land with a variety of flourishing crops in fairly large fields. Then gradually fading into more rolling hills and smaller fields of crops dictated by the hills and gullies interspersed with pine groves and neat villages, then back to the flat planes again before dark. The train takes us from Czech Republic through Slovakia, enroute to Hungary. At each border immigration officials board and check passports. Seems the typical scenario is that immigration officials get on the train near border and ride between two stops checking papers - though entering Russia earlier they just stopped the train for nearly 8 hours.
Just crossed the border into Hungary - cell phone is working here and called brother Ken in Ohio. Sounds to be doing very well in recovery from his major operation in June.
Train tracks apparently come like roads, in many qualities. Leaving Prague the train was extremely smooth and quiet. Progressing on the same train to Slovokia and Hungary we encountered some quite rough and noisy sections. All across Siberia and Russia we endured the jarring and the kachunk, kachunk …. at about half second intervals every time the car moves to a new set of rails. We got to the Budapest station on schedule about 11:30 pm but our ride from MIR Travel that was to pick us up was not there - and the guards were closing the station for the night - leaving us out on the street. After a couple phone calls we ended up at the Astoria Hotel, which appears to have a good location and is a very nice hotel.
Only recently, in 1873, the cities of Buda (west hilly side), Obuda and Pest (east flat side), combined into one city, Budapest, upon completion of the chain bridge across the Danube River. Seems like a lot of buzz about the "chain bridge," just another suspension bridge with the suspension line assembled of bicycle chain-like links.
The buffet breakfasts at these hotels just get better as we move west, except Polonia Palace in Warsaw, which was best of all.
Visited the castle area on the Buda side today. I found the castle fortress wall, turrets, eat. and Matthias Church most interesting, but most of the city about like St. Louis after all the stuff we have been seeing in other locations.
Explored the castle section of town today after hiking up across the chain bridge.
Tonight we ate at Kispipa Vendéglö (Little Pipe, formerly a private restaurant), BP. VII., Akacia u.38. really good native Hungarian food (goulash and cabbage roll pork) and not too long a walk from our hotel. It's also rumored that the Hungarian Young Democrats sat at a table in this restaurant in 1988 and plotted the end of communism in Hungary. Thought I would email my Hungarian neighbor Elizabeth in Redondo Beach to tell us her favorite restaurant, but email access is difficult again. Burger King has terminals but they have flat spill-proof Hungarian keyboards with labeling worn off and wouldn't connect to my email server anyway. Expensive hotel service ($15/hr) wasn't working either. The hotel has WiFi service at about $15/hour but I made a wrong decision in leaving my WiFi card home. This is the second East European hotel that has had such service. Internet and email access on the trip has been spotty at best; all the way from non-existent, to $30/hr, to free. I'm getting the impression that the guy who write the Foder's an Frommer's guides hang around long enough to find something adequate, but when you are into a city and out in 3 days and have many other interests, getting to the internet is often quite inconvenient.
Thursday July 21 (Hungary)
Walked around the Pest side of the city today, first checking out a huge indoor market half a block wide and at least a block long down by the Elizabeth Bridge on the south side of Szabad sajto (whatever that says). Very large variety of fresh fruits, vegetables and meats look very high quality. Also virtualy everything else in this large market. Of little interest to me but Rick and Barbara seemed quite excited about the fresh spices and herbs and the like that they were finding here and don't find easily at home. Later we wondered by the area of the parliament buildings, St. Stephan's Cathedral, largest in Hungary took over 50 years to build with dome collapse in 1868 causing delay. Hungarians call it the Basilica, though it's not. Next took the metro to Hösök tere (Hero Square) and the park, Városliger, next to this. We skipped the notorious spas in this park.
Dinner at the Central Kávéház (Café) on the walk street Károlyi Mihály. After early light dinner the group went to catch a nighttime riverboat ride on the Danube. Having limited interest in this anyway and learning that we had screwed up the schedule so that we would have a 40 minute wait for next boat, I opted out and went for a beer elsewhere.
Friday July 22 (Hungary)
Today I rented a bicycle from a place very near the hotel. This was a great ides - rode to nearly everywhere we had been in the last two days and in addition, the Agriculture Museum near Hero Square, rode to and round trip along Margaret Island, and up and down the bikeway other Buda side from Margaret Island to Szabadság hid (bridge, south of Elizabeth). Wanted to get to Geilért to visit Hill Liberation Monument 1947 and Citadella 1851, but had to do with seeing these in the distance.
Saturday July 23 (Budapest/London/Los Angeles)
Sights on the trip to the Budapest airport: dozens of communist era cookie-cutter apartment buildings in the suburbs. During takeoff from Budapest on the right side of the airplane I see a farm, a large field with hay bails uniformly distributed as would be normal after bailing. At one corner of the field are the farm buildings and sitting on the grass by the barn is a large jet airplane, maybe a 737, with no runway in the area - am I having delusions?
Looking for cameras at the Duty Free store at Heathrow, London, I found the Minolta DiMage X50, 2 in LCD, 5 M pixels, 2.8 optical zoom and slightly smaller than the X I gave the pickpocket, and a good price too.
Was looking forward to my first ride on the 777, but it's totally unimpressive. Earphone connections keep falling apart, tray tables are flimsy, floppy, and not level so contents slides off onto you (me), can't put your arm on the are rest because all the controls are there making it uncomfortable, and if you do accidentally put your arm there you change volume, … and the channel!. And from my window seat I can see nothing but wing, why does this airplane have such a massive wing? Bigger than a 747 that hauls more people! I hope Honeywell didn't botch up the flight control too!