http://gobigmike.net Mike Manning's personal site. I'm travelling the world starting August 2007. Sat, 13 Oct 2007 06:22:46 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en "I figured we'd survive the cold desert night with the van as shelter and our dry, warm gear. But a submerged van and wet gear out here cast that into serious doubt." [My pictures from Mongolia are here. Many are through the window of a wildly bouncing van.] The platform at Ulaan ... http://gobigmike.net/2007/09/06/gobigmike-vs-gobi-a-week-in-mongolia/ 28-30 August [My photos from the train ride are here. Most are crap, as they were shot through the dirty windows of a speeding train.] Happily reunited with my German friends from the long ride from Moscow to Irkutsk, I was feeling good about the ride into Mongolia. Then Manfred said to ... http://gobigmike.net/2007/08/30/the-slow-train-into-mongolia/ [My photos from around Lake Baikal are here. Some are shot from a bouncing van. Sorry.] "So here I am at midnight in a wooden hut just feet from the world's largest lake, with a blazing fire, surrounded by 5 Russian guys I just met, and everybody's naked. And then they start lashing me with ... http://gobigmike.net/2007/08/28/beaten-by-drunk-russians-at-lake-baikal/ [My photos from the train ride are here. Most are crap, as they were shot through the dirty windows of a speeding train. But at least there are a lot of them!] Vowing to learn from my previous mistakes with trains, I arrived early (again) at the station in Moscow on ... http://gobigmike.net/2007/08/25/the-fast-76-hour-train-to-irkutsk/ [My photos from Moscow are here. And yes, I groaned when I wrote that title too.] I arrived in Moscow with sore feet from St. Petersburg, so I planned to take it easy. The great folks at the Trans Siberian Hostel let me check in early, and I was able to ... http://gobigmike.net/2007/08/25/moscow-mania/ I'm about to head to the train station to get on the 3+ day leg from Moscow to Irkutsk. Might have access to update when I'm by Lake Baikal, but not sure. The photos are up from Moscow, text coming when I get a chance. UPDATE: I made it to Irkutsk, ... http://gobigmike.net/2007/08/21/limited-updates-for-a-few-days/ [ I added another 100 photos to my St. Petersburg photo gallery]   This will be a short post, to get caught up. On my final day in St. Petersburg, I managed to get up early to pack my things and make it to the meeting spot a few blocks away for a walking tour from ... http://gobigmike.net/2007/08/21/stunning-st-petersburg-part-2/ [ My photos from St. Petersburg]  I arrived into St. Petersburg just before midnight on Tuesday night, via an easy 7 hour train from Tallinn. Working with Alex, a travel agent in Petersburg, and boyhood friend of one of my friends in LA, I had pre-arranged a private apartment, and a ... http://gobigmike.net/2007/08/18/stunning-st-petersburg/ [My photos from Tallinn and photos from the train trip ] Tallinn wasn't on my radar originally. It only came up when I let friends know that I was really planning to do this trip, and that I planned to start my Russian adventure in St. Petersburg. Gooch and Greger both independently chimed ... http://gobigmike.net/2007/08/16/tallinn-tales/ Sweden is another extremely easy stop for me (and most Americans). I've got great friends--Greger & Fran--in Uppsala, everyone speaks English extremely well, and you can even basically read the signs and menus, without any knowledge of Swedish. My flight from Newark, NJ, was delayed on the ground there for an ... http://gobigmike.net/2007/08/12/fun-with-friends-in-sweden/