The Roof of the World

'Tibet'...just the name of the place ignites a flame of curiosity, enthusiasm and interest in everyone we meet. Everyone seems to want to go there and everyone has an opinion. For most it conjures up the image of a country that has endured years of turmoil and tyranny at the hands of the Chinese, a mysterious land that wants only to be permitted to live peacefully, in a Buddhist governed serenity; an ancient way of life that has been all but destroyed by the evil Maoists. The Chinese would argue that this life was in itself is a dictatorship of sorts, that they are freeing the Tibetan people from their religious shackles. I had always wanted to see it for myself and, as far as is possible, make up my own mind.

Foto Friday - Two weeks in One

You may or may not have noticed that there has been a distinct lack of activity on the blog of late...Chris and I are in China/Tibet and it is proving pretty hard to get around the Great Chinese Firewall.As a result I missed foto Friday last week.

I have finally managed to get onto blogger so here are a couple of pics from the last two weeks...we will upload many more snaps and posts as soon as we get to Nepal in the next week or so.

Train Tripping on the Trans-Mongolian

The train

It was one wintry London evening many months ago, over a few glasses of wine and dinner chez Mr and Mrs Tuppen, that we first contemplated embarking on this Trans-Mongolian adventure. Holly and Nick's inspiring stories of green travel around the world (check them out at www.3mphroundtheworld.com), and through Russia in particular, struck a chord. All we knew at that point was that we were going away, we didn't really know where to start and an epic train ride sounded just the ticket to get us on our way.