Taking the Train

X Play, f2.0, 1/1282, ISO 50, JPG

Handover

OPO, f2.0, 1/756, ISO 100, JPG

Back on my way to Hanoi for a few days. It will be nice to get a break and it's always great to be travelling.
Taking the train is one of the best ways to travel around here, by motorbike is best but also takes a bit longer.

Ga Hanoi

OPO, f2.0, 1/33, ISO 177, JPG

Hue to Hanoi

Having to go to Hanoi and get a new passport is actually quite good since it will allow me to meet some friends while there.

Instead of flying, I decided to take the more comfortable option and travel by train. I also put my motorbike on the rain to have it while in Hanoi and do some road rips.

The scenery is always very nice so taking the train is the best option unless you're in a rush where flying is faster and also not really more expensive.

Ga Hue

GR, f2.8, 1/60, ISO 18000, RAW

Rush Hour

OPO, f2.0, 1/1151, ISO 100, JPG

Waiting for the Journey Ahead

GXR A12-M, f8.0, 1/97, ISO 200, RAW, 21mm (Voigtlander Heliar 15mm f4.5 LTM) 

Day 350 - The California Zephyr to Salt Lake City

Today, marked the start of my final leg of the round the world trip and it's a journey across the US by train.
I will be taking the Amtrak trains from the west coast to the east coast and stopping off in some bigger cities on the way.

Day 35 - A Day of Travel

An old Chinese proverb says that 'When the crescent moon rises you should travel far distances without reaching your intended destination'. Ok, maybe it does not say this as I just made it up but it could say this and would fit well for today. ;)

To get to Xiamen was a bit of a mission and I had to take three trains, I guess if I would have planned it better I would have stayed in Suzhou first and after in Hangzhou as there are more direct trains to Xiamen from Hangzhou. But anyway, after taking the train from Suzhou to Shanghai Hongqiao, then onwards to Hangzhou East and from there to Xiamen, I arrived here at 18:50.

Now, while this was close it should still give me plenty of time to get the 20:00 ferry, especially after waiting only 10 minutes for a taxi and making it to the port by 19:25.
This looked all very promising and I was certain to make it until I got into the departure lounge.

Well, it was deserted and nobody was there. After finding someone hidden behind a desk I tried to find out what the situation was. After a bit of a struggle, she understood that I was after the Taiwan ferry but said that contrary to the website, it leaves at 19:00 so there is no ferry till Thursday.

This means I now have two days to see Xiamen so I did what I always do when plans change unexpectedly, I was looking for a bar with wifi to get a beer (earlier in the day it would have been a coffee). After consulting my Fonepad I found a few bars in a park nearby according to the maps app I use so I was headed in this direction.

Once I found a bar and I had a cold pint in front of me, I began looking for a place to stay and for things to do in Xiamen. The nice thing was that they also had a really good band playing so this made it even nicer.
If I learned one thing during my travels is that no matter what happens, always stay cool and get a coffee or beer as things will look much better with one in front of you and it will give you time to sort things out.

After enjoying the drink and live music, I set out to the hostel, it was quite far out but was really cheap and got good reviews. Unfortunately the taxi driver did not know how to get there and just left me out in a small side street to try and find the hostel.
After wandering for a while, I ended up at a different hotel where they were nice enough to phone the hostel and have the owner pick me up.
Finding places is quite a challenge at times but it's always interesting and a challenge.

Tomorrow, I will have time to explore Xiamen and see some more of the place but so far it has a different feel to the other cities and feels a bit more like Hong Kong.

In case you started to miss my pictures out of a train window, this post should have you covered. ;)

Day 28 - The Terracotta Army

This was the reason for me (and I guess most other people) to come to Xi'an and one of the things I really wanted to see. I mean, I have seen pictures and replicas but nothing beats the real deal and in this case it is very impressive.

After an hour in the bus you arrive at the parking lot and have to buy your tickets there, then head for another 5 minutes or so through souvenir shops and food stalls until you reach the entrance to the museum, then another few minutes until you reach the actual museums and the pits containing the Terracotta Army as unearthed so far.

One tip here, you will see groups of volunteers at the entrances, these are students who want to practice their language skills so you can 'hire' them for free to be your guide and help you translate or interpret anything you might wish. While I would be weary of 'students practising their language' in China, here you can actually make use of them as they are nice and you will do them a favour.

Nonetheless, no matter what you decide, make sure you have some time on your own and wait till the groups (who come in waves) have passed to really enjoy and get a feel for what you are seeing and look at all the details.

Seeing the scale of the different pits, which are not even fully excavated yet, it's hard to believe how much time and work must have gone into this. Then you realise that every single soldier has a different face and hairstyle and they were all fully painted, it is indeed hugely impressive.

I will have to research this exactly but it is said the Qin Emperor took 35 years to conquer/unite China but the same time building his tomb. This by itself is mind boggling, also once you realise that these pits you are looking at are just a part of his tomb and you can see more and his mausoleum by taking a free shuttle bus to another site around 1.5km away.
While you won't see much there other than a very large park and a mound/hill, if you imagine what lies beneath all of this it will be very impressive (at least it was for me).

If you ever get the chance, you have to come and see this, it's one of the things you have to see for yourself, like Angkor Wat and the Pyramids.

After taking the bus back and picking my stuff up at the hotel, I am now sitting in the very comfortable bullet sleeper train to Shanghai. So far I have a compartment for myself but this could change later on.

Tomorrow morning I will arrive in Shanghai and head after having some breakfast to Hangzhou for a few days before heading back to Shanghai and on to Suzhou.

Day 11 - End of the Trans Siberian and arrival in Irkutsk

When I woke up this morning I checked the time on my Fonepad and it showed almost midday, imagine my surprise when I realised I slept in so late. Then I went out to get ready and checked the time on the train and it said 8:50am. This is when I remembered that we did indeed cross a few time zones on our journey and will cross one more before we get to Irkutsk. The train however remains on Moscow time to make things really confusing.

Now I know what time my train ticket says we should arrive in Irkutsk but if I am not mistaken this is Moscow time so in Irkutsk it will be around 5h later. This will cut down my time there somewhat and will also mean I have a later (or earlier) start from Irkutsk to Ulaanbataar.
So should you take this journey, keep in mind that the train times are all Moscow time, irrespective from where to where you go and what time zone this might be. As if keeping track of time zones and the different days each train leaves would not be enough, you also have to keep track of the train times and local times not being the same throughout the journey.

This is getting a bit confusing, after all this time in the train without regard for time or day, I did not even realise it's Saturday. You do end up losing track of time here, it's almost as if time stays still. Which it actually does as it remains Moscow time.

It's a funny feeling being completely disconnected from the world for days at a time, no internet, no phone, no news or communication with anyone I know or even communication in English. Some of it is part of the journey, some of it is my choosing.
I have been tempted (more like an addict to be honest) at the larger station stops to go and look for free wifi to at least get my emails and some news but always stopped myself, I want to be immersed in this to full appreciate it.

This was taken through the window of my train passing one in opposite direction at high speed so I am very proud of the moment I was lucky enough to capture and thumbs up to the GR as I did not even this.

What still amazes me is how you can be in a train moving forward for days and days and still not run out of track. Sure, I read this when preparing for my journey and read other people's reports but unless you do this, it's difficult to really imagine or understand.

I have been keeping up with writing these posts every day as I did want to write down exactly what went through my mind and how I saw things on that day. I did not go back to edit them afterwards so some things might be a repetition or not always tie in together very well but this is how things were.

Arriving in Irkutsk on time at 15:57 train time or 20:57 local time meant there was not much left of the day. I also found out that I managed to book the furthest away hotel from the station so after getting annoyed with some taxi drivers decided to do some walking and see a bit of the city. I was mostly sitting for the past 3 days so I needed some exercise and air even if it meant carrying all my stuff on my back.

Not quite sure what to think of Irkutsk just yet but if you travel by train book a hotel close to the station and to the city centre. Some impressions are in the photos on this post.