Maintaining a journal while travelling can be one of the most rewarding and difficult things at the same time, Its so difficult to remind yourself to write up about your day when you're busy taking in new sights, sounds and experiences but reading it back weeks, months and years later brings back all the small memories that you may have forgotten and is also a great way to keep note of places, restaurants, view points and stores that you loved and want to re visit!
Over the Winter, my partner and I took a pretty long trip and I managed to keep a journal the whole time, which I am going to share some little sneak peeks with you today.
We began by taking the Trains-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Irkutsk. This took 4 days and the only time we could get off was for about 10 minutes to grab food or Vodka from the platform!
Excerpt: 3/12/2013 - We've been on the train for 3 days now, sweating, drinking vodka and looking out the window. Russia is fascinating, saw a house on fire but there was nothing we could do as we were on the train and can't speak Russian. Hope they're okay..
Although there wasn't a lot to write about when you're on a train for 4 days, it was still really cool to read back and remember what we were talking about and what games we were playing when the photos were being taken!
When the train finally arrived at Irkutsk, we travelled to Lake Baikal for a couple of days, which was incredible, for those of you that aren't familiar with Siberia, Lake Baikal is not only the deepest lake in the world but it contains roughly 20% of the worlds fresh water!
Excerpt: 5/12/2013 - This evening we experienced a Russian Sauna, we had to lie down on our stomachs while Dmitry hit us with branches, then he made us run outside, jump in the snow and roll around while he threw cold water at us, I'm not sure if this is the Russian tradition or if he was just having a laugh!
After a couple of days hiking and sightseeing around this beautiful area, we were piled back onto the train for our journey into Mongolia!
I found all the border crossing documents fascinating. Mongolia in particular which was one of the strictest borders, I had a lot of trouble with my passport at every border, as the photo was taken when I was 18 and at University, a let me tell you, the growing up process between 18 and 23 changes your looks DRASTICALLY!
Mongolia is such a beautiful and inspiring country, the people were amazing and the culture was fascinating, I can't wait until I get the opportunity to go back!
This photo was taken in a Ger camp we stayed at, and it was COLD. We went horse riding in -40 degrees and I can't quite describe the intensity of the pain in my toes!
We also spent time in UlaanBaatar which is such a cool city, also very, very cold. One night, I didn't have time to dry my hair before dinner and during the 4 minute walk from the hotel to the restaurant, my hair froze solid into icicles!
Our train to Beijing was due to leave at about 7am which meant we had to leave the hotel at 5am.. and the night before, we decided to spend our last night in Mongolia at a karaoke bar until 3am.. Its fair to say we almost missed that train!
We reached the Chinese border in the evening as it took a day to get across the Gobi desert. We spent most of that day sleeping as the antics from the night before left us a little jaded.
When the train pulls into the Chinese border, the carriage has to be lifted up and has to have its 'bogies' changed, basically because the track widths are different between Mongolia and China. We were told that sometimes they let you off while they do this and sometimes you have to stay on board, unfortunately for us, we were not allowed off and were subjected to hours of the train being violently thrown forwards and backwards, which didn't help with the hangover!
Eventually we made it into Beijing! The next day we visited the Great Wall of China, I think we all needed to stretch our legs after the train ride!
Excerpt: 18/12/2013 - We went to Beijing Zoo to see the Pandas today, we were told by a guy at the hostel to go super early when its feeding time, because that is when they are most active, they were the cutest things ever, they were play fighting and munching on Bamboo it was incredible!
Our tour sadly ended in Beijing, and our group, who started in Moscow as strangers and left each other in Beijing as firm friends all went their separate ways!
Tim and I stayed in Beijing for a little longer and then flew down to Shanghai for Christmas.
When we touched down in Tokyo, I was beside myself with excitement. I had always wanted to visit Japan and we had a full month of exploring! We had planned it so we had a couple of days in Tokyo, then we took a night bus to Kyoto for a week, then over to Osaka for a week, down to Hiroshima and Miyajima for a couple of days then back up to Tokyo for the last part. It went SO quickly!
Excerpt: 30/12/2013 - Gave my seat up to an old lady on the subway and to saw thank you, she gave me an origami frog and a swan! I love Japan!
If you're ever in Kyoto, go to Japonica, they have THE BEST yellow curry ever!!
The Fushimi Inari Shrine - Miles and miles of these bright orange Torii gates!
Excerpt: 11/01/2014 Today we took a train to Arashyna and walked through a forest of Bamboo! It was so peaceful, afterwards we headed up the mountain to the Monkey Park, they were EVERYWHERE, I almost had a heart attack. Monkeys scare me.
Osaka Aquarium - home to the cutest seals ever!
Osaka was such a cool city to visit and the shopping was really great. The hotel we stayed in had a crazy policy that if you didn't use the towels, pyjamas, toothbrushes etc you could return them to reception and get free snacks and bottles of water! this happened everyday so breakfast was sorted!
On the 20th of January, we took a train down to Hiroshima. We visited all the memorial sites and the peace monuments which was really moving. Hiroshima is such a cool, friendly and welcoming place to visit.
After a couple of days in Hiroshima, we travelled down to Miyajima to see the Deer Island and also the Torii Gate in the water!
On the 26th January, we took the Hikari train back up to Tokyo as our flight to the UK was the 31st January, We spent the last couple of days walking around Tokyo and moaning that we didn't want to leave!
Reading the journal makes me want to go back so badly! There are so many more pictures and journal entries I wanted to share with you but its so difficult to cram 2 months worth of travelling into one blog post!
I hope you enjoyed reading this and I hope it inspires you to start keeping travel journals! Especially for the big trips like these, in 20 years we can look back and say, "Do you remember that time we were dog sledding in Siberia?"
Thank you for reading! Yasmin x
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