Moscow, for starters, then a month travelling by train (and a few assorted boats, buses, camels and, when all else fails, pushbikes) to Beijing.
Stop-offs in Syktyvkar (because I have a friend there and I can't find it in any guidebook, officially making me an explorer!); Yekaterinburg, Severobaikalsk, Irkutsk, Ulan Baatur and hopefully Chengde during my week in China.
Advice will be listened to, and probably ignored in my usual fashion. If I'm feeling sad enough I'll arrange for photos of a Smoke and Mirrors T-shirt to be taken outside various key landmarks, just for chuckles.
It should be quite fantastic, but right now it's also quite terrifying. At the time of writing I have two flights, two visas and two nights in a hotel booked up. Something tells me more preparation is needed, if only to avoid being arrested at the Mongolian border. Project pincushion is busy turning me into a cocktail of unpredictable illnesses and I've come to the conclusion that Mandarin is not technically a language.
But still, a month of hiking in the Urals, sailing on Baikal, drinking on trains, womanising in Irkutsk
, watching traditional local sports in Mongolia and trying to explain the concept of knives and forks to the Chinese!I think I'm unfashionably excited. Oh well.
).
