Test post by email

I haven't posted for a while because blogspot is
blocked in China, this is just a test post to see if
posting by email works. in the meantime, I've created
a LiveJournal blog which is not (yet) blocked here, so
I shall be posting there as well as here. The address
is http://wanderingjoel.livejournal.com.

Olkhon Island

The journey to Olkhon Island took about 6 or 7 hours. Once on Olkhon, the roads are dirt tracks, which is why it takes so long, although the road to the main village, Khuzhir, is almost a motorway compared to the rest of the island. I stayed at Nikita's, a guesthouse run by the former world pingpong champion, which was really nice, a great atmosphere, you get full board, a heated log cabin room, and the first night there I was given beer and vodka by random guests (and met Sally, the Australian, who left the next day, but who you shall all meet in my next blog entry...). Also, there are loads of cats, especially kittens, one of which sat on my shoulders for about half an hour on my last day there while I was writing postcards.

The first day I was there I took a tour to the north of the island in a Russian jeep, which looks like a dodgy mini-van, but is able to go up and down what seemed like near vertical hills, and over huge holes in the road, which is lucky as there were plenty of those. It was worth it though as there were great views of the cliffs, and from the tip of the island you can see both shores of Lake Baikal. We also so some strange fat goose-like birds, and had omul soup in the forest. For those who don't know, omul is a fish something like trout, and forms the main part of the Olkhon diet. I think I only had two meals without omul, and one was a packed lunch. In the evening I found that Nina, a Finnish girl I'd met in Moscow, and Adam, an English bloke who I'd met in Irkutsk earlier had arrived along with a Swiss guy, Sebastien.

The second day I went for two walks, one to get a view on the village, and another along the coast to the next one. It was strange, because there was a proper beach, and some small waves like by the sea, but the opposite coast was really close. In the evening, me, Adam and Sebastien went to the banya, which is a Russian sauna. First you add water to some stones heated by a stove and sweat like mad, then after about 15-20 minutes you go to the next room and pour cold water on yourself. You're then meant to whip each other with birch branches, but we skipped that bit, and went straight to chilling and have a cup of tea. Then you do it again, and again, though we only did it twice before our time was up, before washing with warm water properly. It was pretty good and warming, but I think I have some serious circulation problems as my feet got cold again less than 5 minutes out of being in the steam room.

For the third day, Nina, Sebastian and I decided to go to Lake Shara-Nur, a lake on the island several people had told me they tried to find and had failed. So we looked at a map that we weren't alowed to take with us, then I set off on my own route by foot, while the other two went my bike along a different route. Despite missing the turning I meant to take, I found it a bit before I expected to, and only 40 minutes after the other two (it took them 3 hours). The walk was really nice, especially before the woods when there was no wind and I was the only thing making any sound. In the woods there were woodpeckers every 5 minutes or so, and not afraid, I could walk write up to them and they wouldn't fly away. The walk back was even quicker as I found my shortcut, so I was very proud of myself...

On the fourth day, it snowed, so I didn't do much, I wrote a couple of postcards, which may or may not get to their destinations, and went for a walk to the pier. Then the next we had the long ride back to Irkutsk, where I was persuaded by Nina, Luca (an Italian guy I met in Moscow and who appeared again on Olkhon), Chris and Miia (a Canadian couple on the bus from Olkhon) to change my ticket and go to Mongolia for longer. How could I resist the lure of desert and camel riding? Then we had some great Russian food at the market, which seems to be the best place for it. Good dishes are borsch and the dumplings whose name I forget. Then we got on the train to Mongolia.

So, finally, my impressions of Russia: it is ridiculously bureaucratic, and those behind counters are often very unhelpful. Few people seem to speak English, and they don't make much effort to understand bad Russian, often those in authority have a similar attitude to speaking to foreigners as the English i.e. say it the same in you're own language but louder and slower, but on trains an so on, people are very friendly. And they have a strange way of making tea: they brew a pot really strong, then your pour about a shot into your cup and add hot water.

Going to Mongolia

I'm not going to write up Olhon Island yet, because I've got a train to catch to Mongolia in an hour, but it was fantastic. I've decided to stay in Mongolia for a while rather than just passing through, so already my itinerary has changed. I've uploaded most of my photos of the Golden Ring towns to my Yahoo! Photos account though, and I might be able to finish tonight or when I get to Mongolia. Anyway, hopefully I'll be going to the Gobi dessert for a week or more with some people I met, so I won't be able to post too much.

Trans-Siberian Railway

Ah, at last, the firm ground! The last few days I spent on a train, passing through 5 time zones from Moscow to Irkutsk in Siberia. It was alright actually, not too boring as I had plenty to read, and just staring out the window at the countryside was quite hypnotic. Most of Russia is fairly flat it seems, even the Urals were just little hills where the train passes, but most of it along the route is also covered in woods. I'm not sure if all of it or just some counts as taiga though. It was very beautiful though, with all the autumn colours, the occassional cluster of wooden houses, and from the Urals onwards, frequent sprinklings of snow.

For the whole way I was sharing the compartment with a Ukrainian guy and a Tajikistani (if that's the correct adjective) called Sergei and what sounds like Sultan respectively. Neither spoke much English, but were very friendly, the Ukrainian was even discussing the TV series about Nestor Makhno at one point, from what I gathered. And they hadn't brought any alcohol either, which I was very relieved about after all the stories of Russian drinking alcohol for whole journeys and being very offended if you refused to join them unless you claimed to be an alcoholic. The train wasn't quite as plush as the one from Novgorod, but it was fine, and there was a samovar at the end to keep me well supplied with Earl Grey and Jasmine Green tea.

At some point during the night of the 4th I passed over the geographic border between Europe and Asia, so I'm now officially in another continent. Siberia is cold, which I should have expected really, but so far at least my coat is perfectly sufficient. Tomorrow I'll be getting the bus to Olkhon Island on Baikal Lake, the biggest freshwater lake in the world (it has about 20% of the world's freshwater apparently) where I'll be staying until Friday, then I get the train across Mongolia on Saturday at 6 in the morning, so I probably won't be posting again until I reach Beijing on the 16th.

Photos!

OK, I've uploaded all my St. Petersburg and Novgorod Velikiy photos, and hopefully by the time most people read this I'll have done the Moscow and Golden Ring ones. You can see them here.

Moscow: Part II

Yesterday I go up late for a change, and went to the Red Square to try and see Lenin, but it was closed off again. Maybe I'll try tomorrow, or maybe I won't bother. Anyway, after lunch I spent to the afternoon at the New Tretyakov Gallery, which houses Russian art from the 20th century (there's an Old Tretyakov Gallery with older stuff, but I don't think I'll be going this trip). It was amazing, I was there for 3 hours, only saw one floor and was still rushing at the end before it closed. There are so many different styles, and nearly all have beautiful works in them, even the Socialist Realist stuff is pretty good. I think I should get a book on Russian art though, I'd only really heard of Kandinsky and Chagall before.

Today I also left late and spent a while at the Sculpture Park. This is where they stuck the old Lenin and Stalin statues, other retired sculptures and some new ones. It was actually very peaceful with water features and so on. Just beyond it is a massive 100m statue of Peter the Great on a ship, although my guide says some people think it's actually of Columbus but called Peter the Great because the columbus statue was refused in several US states on grounds of good taste.

From there I went to Novodevichy Cemetery, where various famous Russians like Chekhov are buried. I tried to find Kropotkin, but gave up after a while. Then I had to do a bunch of shopping for Trans-Siberian supplies, it's going to be cuppa-soup heaven for 4 days I think...

Right, this will be my last post until I get to Irkutsk. I leave tomorrow afternoon and it takes 4 days. I might not even post then, as the day after I arrive I'm off to Olkhon Island for a few days, which doesn't even have a telephone (apart from one satelite one), so maybe not until just before I leave for Beijing, or possibly even not until I reach Beijing.

The Golden Ring

So, my prrrrrrrecccciouseseses, my trip around the "Golden Ring", a series of towns near Moscow known for being ancient... I was following the itinerary suggested on Way To Russia.

First stop on Wednesday was Vladimir, which at first I thought was a mistake as the outskirts weren't too pleasant to look at, but once I reached the historic centre it was very nice. Ancient, white stone, carved churches and plenty of trees made it very calm, and as it was on a hill top there were good view of the surrounding countryside. I finished the visit off at the bus station café, which was disgusting, but only cost 60p.

Then it was on to Suzdal, a tiny town that has government protection from industrial development, so it is full of traditional Russian wooden houses, several convents and monasteries, and a church for every five houses (or so it seems). And goats. I had a brief look around the outside of one monastery but as the sun was getting low in the sky I decided to find my hotel.

Eventually I found it, and it was pretty posh, my room was small but clean and decorated with painted wood, and having my own bathroom made a nice change after 10 days of hostels. I booked it and accommodation in the other towns through Real Russia, and they're really very good, I just had to present a piece of paper and it was all taken care of, but if there had been problems there were telephone numbers to ring including and 24hr emergency hotline, so that was reassuring. The room also had a TV, but only Russian channels. I watched a bit of some American rubbish though, because it was dubbed in a really bizarre way, you could here the original voices behind, as if it was being done live.

I got up early hoping to see Suzdal as the sun rose, but unfortunately it was overcast so it wasn't so picturesque. Also my camera batteries ran out so I couldn't take as many photos as I'd have liked. I think Fujitsu cameras use batteries far too fast, though maybe this was a good thing as I've been taking far too many photos, I need to cut down. I saw plenty of free-range chickens though, wandering willy-nilly around the backstreets. After breakfast I got some new batteries and walked around the kremlin, which here consisted of a grass covered earth mound, but inside there were more beautiful wooden houses. I don't see how they can be warm enough for the Russian winter.

The itinerary I was following suggested going through Ivanovo as an example of an old Soviet town, though in the end I had no choice as I had to change buses there. I woke up (as I normally fall asleep when put in a moving vehicle) to see razor wire and grim burned out looking buildings, worse than anything from any dystopian science fiction film, you could smell the pollution. So I got out as soon as possible.

In Kostroma I stayed at an old Soviet hotel, which was pretty charmless, but had a great view of the Volga. In the evening I went for a long walk to the town centre, which was all quite old and grand, then along the river. I got a great view of the sun setting behind a monastery on the opposite bank as a sailing boat went past. I had hoped to get a hydrofoil on the Volga from Kostroma to Yaroslavl, but I couldn't find it on the timetable and the ticket office was closed, so I went by bus.

Yaroslavl is a big city, but off the main streets it's pretty calm and quiet. Right in the centre there's a monastery which is very peaceful. Some of it was covered in scaffolding, but it was wooden scaffolding so it didn't spoil the atmosphere. I was only there for a couple of hours though, before having to stand for over an hour on the bus to Rostov Velikiy.

It was worth it though, Rostov seems like a quiet village mostly, with tree lined streets, lots of carved wooden houses, the odd derelict grand looking building with a Lenin statue (the school apparently)... Then, at the centre, just before you reach the lake, there's a huge beautiful Kremlin, enough for a large city. Further along there were several monasteries, I walked to one in the evening along the lake shore as the sun set behind it, it was pretty idyllic. And the hotel was the nicest, in an old manor with a big room, though no international TV this time.

For once it wasn't overcast in the morning, so I had another walk around Rostov, going inside the Kremlin and so on. After that I decided to go straight back to Moscow to have a bit of a rest from churches, churches, and more churches. I went by train in third class, which wasn't so bad, all the compartments are open to the corridor. Unfortunately there was some kind of radio playing, and Russian pop is as dreadful and irritating as pop anywhere else.

2nd Day in Moscow

OK, I wrote this a few days ago before I left for the Golden Ring (which will be the next post).

The focus for today was the Kremlin. Unfortunately, I didn't find it nearly as impressive as I was expecting, in fact I was more impressed by the outside. Maybe two of the five churches inside being covered in scaffolding had something to do with it though. Costing even more was a visit to the Armoury, so I made sure I got my money's worth. It's where they keep all the booty the tsars used to collect: dresses, thrones, gold and silver dinner services, and anything else they could stick diamonds on. The collection includes some of the Fabergé eggs they used to exchange at Easter, which are pretty amazing. One had a tiny model train only about 10 cm long or less, but minutely detailed.

After that I finally got into the Red Square. I got a good look at St. Basil's this time, and also at the outside of Lenin's tomb, but it was too late so I'll have to go spit on him another day. Well, I won't, because that probably wouldn't be the sort of arrest I could get a nice holiday out of, but it's the thought that counts.

Later I went to the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, because they allegedly have a very good collection of Impressionist, Van Gogh, and other stuff that I like. They didn't tell me that ALL of the rooms with these in were closed while they move. So instead I had lots of the older bleurgh, a decent Egyptian and Babylonian collection, thousands of Classical sculptures, which I quite enjoyed, and a special Rembrandt exhibition. The latter was actually pretty good, maybe I'm getting to like his style from repeated exposure, but also it included a room of just black and white ink sketches, which impressed me far more than his paintings.

Novgorod Velikiy

OK, my advice to anyone planning to go to Novgorod by train from St. Petersburg is book accomodation way in advance (I think the hostels in St. Petersburg can do this, "All Seasons" certainly can). Then you can take the 3hr express train the night before, instead of the 5hr+ one in the morning like I did yesterday. It stops nearly everywhere, most places don't even look like stations, just a couple of wooden houses in a clearing in the woods (if that), although it did arrive exactly on time. You could take a bus, which takes about 4hrs I think.

Novgorod Velikiy itself is lovely, very calm after the big city. It was the first town of the Russian state, and so has lots of old buildings including the Kremlin (a fort), and a bazillion churches. The churches are nearly all small and simple, which I prefer to the more elaborate ones. I wanted to go inside one, but it was closed. Inside, there are apparently some very rare paintings, by some dude whose signature was putting war-like paint around the eyes and noses. So as I didn't see them, I imagine it looks like the gospel as if enacted by the Norwegian black metal scene in full corpse paint.

Anyway, Sunday was very relaxing, despite wandering when on earth the train would arrive. I ate at the best restaurant yet, call "Detinets". It was inside the Kremlin, in one of the towers and adjoining chapel, with a spiral staircase to reach it and gloomy lighting to make it extra medieval. The food was very tasty, fairly cheap, and I had "kvas" in a goblet. This is basically mead, as far as I could tell, some sort of honey based beverage anyway. It reminded me of some kind of yeasty medicine capsules I had as a child, can't remember what they were for though...

The train to Moscow was very comfortable, only second class but better than the sleeper I went on in France. Didn't sleep to well all the same, so today I was knackered. I managed to navigate the Moscow Metro at 5.30 in the morning, but I'm glad this hostel is only 10 minutes from the Kremlin because it was horrible. St. Petersburg only had about 5 lines, Moscow has about 10.

I'm not so keen on Moscow as St. Petersburg, it's much busier, and half of it seems to be a construction site. Also Red Square was closed off today, so I could only look in from the outside. But there was a good view of the Kremlin from across the river, St. Basil's was even madder in real life, and the hostel is really nice. I'm really, really tired though, I didn't walk around for too long, I'll see mroe tomorrow.

I'm going to try and upload some photos later, this computer is much better, but I'd better let others go on first.

Petrodvorets and the Aurora

Another two days in one post... yesterday I visited Petrodvorets, Peter the Great's version of Versailles, more or less, passing other pallaces along the way. The grounds of Petrodvorets are lovely and calm, full of fountains, with the main feature a cascade down from the Grand Palace, along a canal into the Baltic Sea. The day started grey and dull, but later the sun came out, so plenty of photos to see once I find a reliable computer.

Sadly my attempt at going to Kronstadt failed today, because I couldn't find the bus. I decided not to try the alternative route and instead visit the Cruiser Aurora, the ship that fired the signal for the start of the October Revolution. You can go on it and inside where there are some displays, all in Russian though. For lunch I went to a Georgian restaurant, Salkhino. The food was very tasty, a bit like Indian food, and came in similarly large partions. The bowl I got to serve myself from must have been metal or something similar, because it stayed so hot the food was bubbling for quite a while.

I'm staying a night longer in St. Petersburg than intended, because Novgorod is full, so I have to get a 7.55 train tomorrow morning. Oh, at the Metro station today someone tried to pickpocket me, but he chose my bag. Apparently my diary and Russian phrasebook aren't worth nicking, so it didn't matter. He wasn't very sly about it either.

Storming the Winter Palace

I'm doing yesterday and today in one post because I got a 2 day advance ticket to the Hermitage, a kind of Russia equivalent of the Louvre in Paris, based in the Winter Palace and two adjoing buildings.

I began with the Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman collections, which were pretty impressive. I then ran into a problem, which is that to me, with a few exceptions, Europe produced little of artistic value after the fall of the Roman Empire until the 19th Century. Romanticism was alright, but it's only with the Impressionists onwards that there's anything I can get particularly excited about. For people who like religious paintings of constipated looking saints, and the other things they liked painting back then, the Hermitage is paradise.

Eventually though, I found my way to the top floor where there is a collection of French art covering Romanticism to post-Impressionism (Picasso and so on), including some very pretty Monets and Renoirs. Sadly the area with most of the Van Gogh's was closed off, but there were still a few good ones. Then later I managed to locate a special exhibition with even more Impressionist paintings, which consisted of works seized from Germany during the Second World War, and this is the first time many of them have been publicly displayed. So that was most excellent.

Other highlights from the first day included an exhibition of oriental art, mostly from India, China and Japan, a taster for what's in store for me next month I suppose. Also, the rooms that the last Tsar and his family lived in are on display. He certainly didn't shop at Ikea. Or believe in minimalism. In a different collection of old royal treasures is a clock made of polished brass (I think), which looks like a sculpture of a woodland scene with a peackock, cockerel, and toadstool that tells the time. Apparently when it chimes, the birds come alive and the cockerel screeches, though they've stopped demonstrating to prevent wear.

On the second day I decided to see some works by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (ho ho ho), even though I'm not keen on the style. My opinion wasn't changed by either Leonardo or Raphael, although the only Michelangelo piece was a statue of a crouching boy, which was pretty good. While looking for them I saw plenty of pre-Impressionist works, and apart from a few decent landscapes and seascapes, despite my best efforts to appreciate them, they still pretty much all struck me as dull, lifeless and frequently just plain ugly.

There were some good tapestries, although I couldn't find the one of Australia mentioned in the guide, maybe it was in one of the closed off rooms. I'll have to alter my claim from yesterday a little too: it was only after they discovered perspective that art got boring in Europe. The few medieval paintings and ivory carvings were really good, even the religious ones. Also, just before and at the same time as the Impressionists, there was a movement in Germany of which there was a special exhibition (also made up of works seized during WWII). This was nearly all black and white drawings and sketches, but with amazing detail.

I rounded the visit off with another viewing of the two Impressionist exhibitions, the oriental art one, and a display of European arms and armour, including for knights mounted on stuffed horses. Then I had tea and cake, before wandering around Sennaya, the area where Dostoyevsky lived while writing Crime and Punishment, and whre most of the book is set. Also nearby is Yusepov Palace, which I went to see. This is where Rasputin (a mystic who preached salvation through sex and debauchery who was popular with early 20th century female aristocrats) was poisoned, stabbed, and shot several times before being thrown into the canal where he finally drowned.

Finally, reading my guide, I found out why some of the stations have those industrial doors, and also why they're so far underground it seems to take 5 minutes on the escalators to reach the platform: they were built to double as shelters in the event of nuclear war.

Exploring St. Petersburg

Today I decided to follow the walking tour in my Lonely Planet guidebook, only as I didn't know where I was when I got out the Metro, I ended up doing it in a different order, but it was still good. As well as various grand, continental European style buildings, bridges and canals that make up the historical centre, I saw the following: St. Isaac's Cathedral (not inside, because I'm not keen on the insides of churches, but there was a good panoramic view from the top); Church of the Savious of Spilled Blood - so named because it is built on the spot where the People's Will group blew up Tsar Alexander II - the outside is obscenely lurid and the inside (I went inside this one as the guidebook recommended it) makes Catholic churches look almost tasteful by comparison, although at least there was less gold, just mosaics... So let that be a lesson to all propaganda-by-the-deedists: all you'll achieve is tasteless architecture; the shop where Fabergé of jewelled egg fame used to be; and the Peter and Pauk Fortress.

After that I was pretty hungry, so I walked back to Nevsky Prospekt (the main street). On the way I met a Russian girl called Zheyna (the zh is pronounced like a French j, so the Russian equivalent of Jane). I wasn't entirely sure what she initially was trying to talk to me about, but apparently it was this: .www.worldcarp.org. Anyway, I didn't stop to talk, because I was very hungry, and also I didn't want to fall for one of those "help me practice my English@ scams where you end up paying stupid amounts of money. She wasn't one of those though, just very friendly, she kindly showed me the kind of Russian fast food place I was heading for, and helped me order my bliny (pancakes). Apparently she'd been all over the place, including 9 months in Korea. So that was cool, she even gave me this funny little Korean toy thing with eyes that change.

Oh, and I almost forgot: the great tea mission, to find new teas in other civilisations, to boldly drink tea as I have never drunk tea before. To begin with, for lunch I went to a posh looking café, which wasn't too expensive, and had smoked tea. This tasted a bit like drinking a bonfire, but in a good way. Then with Zheyna I had a cold tea with mint. At least that's what I thought I was ordering, but it tasted more like a syrup, so maybe it was fruit tea. It was nice anyway.

Last night I made a great discovery. At the airport I bought a world radio, mainly so I can listen to comedy programs on the BBC World Service. I've not found that yet, but what I did find whilst listening to see how bad Russian pop is, was... black metal! Glorious blast beats! Wooo! etc.

And finally, it turns out that not all Metro stations are designed as I described yesterday. In fact, so far only the two I saw yesterday are like that, the rest are like normal underground stations, but still not too many signs to tell you where you are.

Welcome to St. Petersburg

First of all, I'd like to say thank you to Jon and Kim. As a few of you know, I was dreading having to wait 9 hours at Heathrow for my flight, as my coach arrived at 21.25 when the flight was at 6.55 the next day. Luckily, they live near the airport, so instead I had a very pleasant evening of beer, pizza and youtubing, a comfortable place to lie until 3.15 when the txi was due, and tea and fruit to steal. Which was grand.

Secondly, I'd like to scream obscenities at whoever is responsible for the travel agent and BAA airport websites telling me that I needs to be there 3 hours before departure, so that I couldn't get anything resembling sleep and had to get the bus the night before instead of the one early in the morning, paying 2 pounds to change the ticket. Was the check in open 3 hours ahead? No, it didn't open until 5.15. Grrrr...

Otherwise the trip went well, fairly uneventful thankfully given how knackered I was. It took about 3 hours of actual flying, as apparently Russia is 3 hours ahead, not 2, with a brief glimpse of misty Swedish woods at Stockholm, then the first views of Russia: a fishing boat, what must be one of the palaces of Peter the great, then fields and woods, a huge long straight road disappearing into the horizon, and finally the airport.

The instructions to get to the hostel "All Seasons" from the hostel website and the guidebook were fine, I had no problems. The Metro is a bit wierd: there's no platform, everyone just waits in a corridor down which there are big metal doors like for lifts, which the doors of the train line up with, very grim and industrial. Then there are no signs to say what station it is, just an announcement in Russian. Generally, it's not that different from Western Europe, most things seem a little old that's all, though the plague of SUVs seems to have reached even here.

The hostel is alright, only just over 3 pounds 50. Not spectacular, and you'll have to wait for photos because this PC they've got is way to old for me to trust plugging my camera in to it, but comfortable enough. For some reason, someone thought it was a good idea to paper the dorm with bara-brick-effect wallpaper, so it looks worse than it is.

Thanks to the airport debacle, I'm knackered, so when I got here they took my passport to be registered and I had a nap for 3 hours, exploring the city can wait until tomorrow. When I awoke the pleasantly warm temperature had dropped to something pretty chilly, so I'm glad I lugged my big coat around with me already.

Just now one of my new dorm mates came in, a half-Belosusian half-African guy here for a breakdance competition. Apparently last night he and some friends almost got beaten up by some skinheads, but luckily he got away, though they managed to nick his bag with his passport and helmet for headspinning. Welcome to St. Petersburg I spose!

PS: For anyone going to Russia, the immigration card you have to fill in is not like the example on the Russian Embassy London website! It asks you for the name and address for your inviting organisation and the invitation number, and has no English translation, though luckily Scandinavian Airlines provided their own.

The Masterplan

Greeting everyone, this is my first ever blog post. I thought I would start by telling you all my intended itinerary so that you know roughly where I will be, and also explain some of my preparations for anyone else planning to make a similar trip. First of all then here is my route, as illustrated on the map:

Russia:

18th to 23rd of September: St. Petersburg
23rd to 24th of September: Novgorod Veliky
25th to 26th of September: Moscow
27th of September: Vladimir, Suzdal
28th of September: Suzdal, Kostroma
29th of September: Yaroslavl, Rostov
30th of September: Rostov, Pereslavl-Zalesskiy
1st to 2nd of October: Moscow
3rd to 7th of October: Trans-Siberian train to Irkutsk
8th to 12th of October: Olkhon Island
13th to 16th of October: Trans-Mongolian train to Beijing

China:

16th to 22nd of October - Beijing and around
23rd of October - Datong
24th to 25th of October - Pingyao
25th to 28th of October - Beijing and around
29th to 30th of October - Tai Shan
31st of October - Qufu
1st of November - Zhengzhou
2nd of November - Anyang
3rd of November - Kaifeng
4th to 6th of November - Song Shan (Shaolin)
7th to 8th of November - Luoyang
9th to 10th of November - Hua Shan
11th to 17th of November - Xi'an
18th to 24th of November - Chengdu and around
25th to 27th of November - Chongqing and Yangzi river cruise to Yichang
28th to 30th of November - Wudang Shan
1st to 3rd of December - Nanchang and around
4th to 5th of December - Lushan, 2 nights there
6th to 7th of December - train to Hong Kong

7th to 23rd of December - Hong Kong & Macau
24th of December to 7th of January - Taiwan
8th to 15th of January - Hong Kong

16th of January - Guangzhou
17th of January - Foshan
18th of January - Zhaoqing
19th of January - Dinghu Shan
20th to 24th of January - Guilin
25th of January - Ping'an
26th of January - Sanjiang
27th of January to 1st of February - Kaili and around
2nd to 4th of February - Anshun
5th to 9th of February - Kunming
10th of February - Shilin
11th to 15th of February - Lijiang
16th to 24th of February - Dali
25th to 26th of Febuary - Nanning
27th to 28th of February - Beihai
1st to 2nd of March - Guiping
3rd to 5th of March - Jingdezhen
6th to 9th of March - Wuyishan
10th to 11th of March - Xiamen
12th of March - Quanzhou
13th of March - Fuzhou
14th to 16th of March - Yandang Shan
17th to 18th of March - Ningbo and Putuoshan
19th of March - Shaoxing
20th to 21st of March - Hangzhou
22nd to 23rd of March - Huang Shan
24th to 25th of March - Juihua Shan
26th to 27th of March - Nanjing
28th of March - Yangshuo
29th to 30th of March - Suzhou
31st of March to 4th of April - Shanghai
(total: 75 days)

Japan:

5th to 9th of April - Okinawa
10th of April - Osaka
11th of April - Himeji-jo
12th to 14th of April - Kyoto
15th of April - Nara
16th of April - around Nara
17th to 18th of April - Kyoto
19th of April - Takayama
20th to 21st of April - Alps National Park
22nd of April - Jigokudani Yaen-koen
23rd to 27th of April - Tokyo and around
28th of April - Aizu-Wakamatsu
29th to 30th of April - Sendai and around
1st of May - Kanazawa
2nd to 3rd of May - Okayama & Kurashiki
4th of May - Hiroshima
5th of May - Tsuwano
6th to 7th of May - Kirishima-Yaku National Park
8th of May - Nagasaki
9th of May - Fukuoka

Korea:

10th of May - Busan
11th of May - Seongnamsa
12th of May - Tongdosa
13th of May - Tongyeong
14th to 16th of May - Jirisan National Park
17th of May - Gwangju
18th of May - Unjusa
19th of May - Yeosu
21st of May - Dadohae Haesang National Park
22nd of May - Duryunsan Provincial Park
23rd of May - Jeonju
24th to 26th of May - Moaksan Provincial Park and/or Daedunsan Provincial Park and Maisan Provincial Park and/or Gangcheonsan County Park and/or Naejangsan National Park
27th of May - Songnisan National Park
28th of May - Chungju
29th of May - Danyang
30th of May - Haeinsa
31st of May to 2nd of June - Gyeongju and around
3rd to 4th of June - Andong and around
5th to 6th of June - Juwangsan National Park
7th to 8th of June - Taebaeksan Provincial Park
9th to 10th of June - Samchoek and around
11th of June - Jeongdongjin
12th to 13th of June - Odaesun National Park
14th to 15th of June - Seoraksan National Park
16th of June - Chuncheon/Gangchon
17th to 26th of June - Seoul and around

27th of June - fly home

This may all change as I go along depending on money, chance, how I feel, the movement of the Earth's crust. But that's my plan at the moment anyway. Each stay includes traveling time from the last place or to the next, just so you don't get worried that I'm spending too long in one place and traveling 1000 km in no time at all.

OK, this next bit is just explaining how I prepared for the trip, so if you're not interested, skip it, it's probably quite boring.

Essentials:

• First of all I went to the doctors and found out what injections I would need. You need to do this a few months in advance, as the vaccinations can take a month, and some aren't available at the normal doctors. it cost quite a bit too, over £180.
• Next was visas. I needed Russian, Chinese, and as I am going through Mongolia, a Mongolian one. The Chinese one would probably be quite easy to get yourself, as the itinerary you give is not one that you have to stick to, just a general idea, although you can only get it a maximum of 3 months before you intend to enter. But for the Mongolian one, and even more for the Russian one, the process is more bureaucratic, so I decided to go through a travel agent. The one I used was RealRussia.co.uk. They have offices in London (which I went to in person, just to check they were real and not run out of a hotel room or something), and they got all three visas sorted for me in time, and were very helpful. It costs a bit more to do it this way, although not much more if you include the cost of traveling to and from each embassy.
• I looked around for a reasonable travel insurrance. there's a few for backpackers, which is probably what you would want for this kind of trip.
• Money - apparently the best thing to take to Russia is dollars, although Euros are easy to change too. So I have some dollars to change, and also some travellers cheques (in dollars as well) for emergencies. Even if getting the currencies for all the places I'm visiting was easy, I wouldn't want to carry around enough money for 9 months in any currency, so I'm mostly relying on getting money out with my Visa card. To do this, I got myself a Nationwide account because they don't charge a commission for drawing money out anywhere abroad.

Planning:

• To decide where to go once I'd chosen the countries, I bought Lonely Planet guides for all of them, and phrasebooks. I then spent ages planning a route based on them. It took ages, so it was lucky that I had plenty of free time when I went on holiday to Italy. I also used Way to Russia quite a bit. I also aimed to be where the weather is at least comfortable, so mainly this means moving gradually south for the Winter and then moving up to where there are beautiful blossoms and so on in the Spring.
  
• For accomodation I'm mostly going to be staying in youth hostels with my internation youth hostel card. Actually, booking through the official YHA website (HIHostels) charges you a booking fee, but HostelBookers doesn't, and seems pretty reliable as well, although I still tried to stick to booking ones that appeared on the YHA one as well. Some places don't have youth hostels, so for these I will either find one when I get there from the lists given in the Lonely Planet guides, book through one the youth hostels along the way, many of which have travel desks (and I try to stay in those which do), or through either SinoHotel or AsiaHotels, both of which are recommended in the Lonely Planet one. Real Russia (see above) have also booked 3 for me in towns near Moscow.
• I also used RealRussia to book my trains in Russia, which is especially important for the Irkutsk-Beijing leg, as that train is often fully booked in advance. Train tickets in Russia go on sale 45 days before departure, so I thought it was worth getting them in advance even if it cost a bit more. In China you can only get them 5 days in advance normally, so I'll do that myself or through a hostel travel desk. Buses I will also have to get myself, but the Lonely Planet guide is a great help. Seat61 and this site can also be of help when planning train journeys, working out journey times etc.
• Flights: I found a cheap flight to St. Petersburg just by searching (it's with a Scandinavian airline and stops off in Stockholm). Other flights that I will be taking I haven't bought yet, in case I change my itinerary, but the prices don't seem to fluctuate much, so I will get them a few months before I intend to make the journey, but later once I've travelled a bit. Expedia seems the best place to look so far. Try different days of the week when looking, often the best flight only seems to fly one of two days.
• I got three long sleeved "wicking" t-shirts. These apparently dry much quicker, which should be good for travelling, I hope.

OK, I can't think of anything else to explain. I hope that's of some use to someone.