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Wighty the Red Squirrel

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My quandary

Its a little while since I added to this blog, but quite honestly I have been arguing with myself about Indonesia. If we go all the way down Asia and to Singapore, then there is a very real chance that I am going to miss out seeing the Orangutans in their natural habitat. On the other hand, if we go see them in the north of Sumatra are we then going to get down Sumatra very easily to Jakarta and will we miss out on Kuala Lumpur and Singapore? Besides which, where to fly from to get to Australia and where in Australia will we fly to. The plan eventually is to get to Perth and stay a few weeks for a rest.

Almaty to Hong Kong

This is a big stretch of journey and whichever way we decide upon we have to go from Almaty in Kazakhstan to Urumqi in China. Our onward journey is then a matter of choice. We have, of course, taken the longest route with a detour to Tibet. I have given us 35 days to do this, but it may well take a little longer. The train to Tibet cuts across the route from Urumqi to Beijing and although we will eventually have to go to Beijing we can get off the train at Lanzhou and catch the train south west to Lhasa in Tibet. This train is the highest train in the world, it is modern, full and expensive and it also provides each seat with oxygen! The return journey will take us back to Beijing where we will have to catch a train to the coast and then ferry to South Korea, ferry to Japan and back to Shanghai and onward to Hong Kong. In Japan we hope to meet up with and stay with a friend of ours called Alice who lives near Kobe in the south of Japan.

Moscow to Almaty

As we have already 'done' the Trans Siberian we thought we would cross to Asia a different way. I wanted to go on the Silk Route, but unfortunately this passes through countries that are not too safe at the moment and although I want an adventure, I really don't want to take risks that may put us in danger. So a compromise was in order and we decided that we would go via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The train from Moscow will take us directly on this route to Tashkent and then pick up the Silk route on a small round route of Uzbekistan on the Golden Road to Samarkand - sounds so romantic, but the Golden Road to Samarkand is many travellers' Holy Grail.
We end up in Tashkent again and then we have to find our way to Almaty. I don't think this is going too easy and from my research there are infrequent, full trains and seats have to be booked. From locals it appears better to catch a bus to Chimkent and then a train to Almaty. So we will probably do that. Who knows!

First stop - Moscow!

Well here comes the first problem! Which way to go to Moscow? We can go various ways by train, but working your way through Europe is expensive and an extra transit visa is required to go through Belarus, so more unnecessary expense, just to go on the train through the country. We can go through Europe at any time so feel that we may start our trip by flying to Moscow. This will save us money, probably quite a great deal of money and enable us to spend more time in places that we are unlikely to visit again. Is that defeating the object? Well we shall see!
We have been to Moscow before, but want to give it another go, so will probably spend a couple of days there before catching our first train. I think one of my biggest thrills was to stand at the corner of the Kremlin. I just couldn't believe I was there, something I had dreamed about from being a young girl. I would like to make the dream I was in last time into more of a reality and appreciate all I saw. I know I didn't take it in before. I want to do that this time.

Started on the route and stuck it on the side of the kitchen cupboard door, for all to see!