Nystrom Adventures

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Asia, Blog, China

Songpan: Daily life

The bus journey to Songpan was a welcome antidote to the drabness of Langmusi. Climbing to nearly 4,000mthis road, crossing the border between Gansu and Sichuan, passed through some of […]

Asia, Blog, China, Monastery

Langmusi: A True Disappointment

The Lonely Planet Guidebook describes Langmusi as “an Amdo Tibetan village nestled among steep grassy meadows…a delightful place surrounded by countless red and white monastery buildings, flapping prayer flags and […]

Asia, Blog, China, Monastery

Xiahe: A glimpse of Tibet

Arriving by bus in Xiahe (there is no railway between here & Lanzhou) it was immediately apparent that we had crossed some invisible boundary into an altogether different part of […]

Asia, Blog, China, Cycling, Train

Xi’an: More than Terracotta Warriors

Xian is more than just Terracotta Warriors. With a much more lively and cosmopolitan feel than Beijing, it has at its centre the colourful and bustling Muslim Quarter. This is […]

Asia, Bicycle, Blog, China, Train

Pingyao: Ming & Qing Dynasty Kitsch

Pingyao is one of the cities China is most proud of. Its visitor information says that it owns more “AAAA” tourist attractions than any other Chinese city, and it is […]

Asia, Blog, China, Train

A Chinese train journey: Beijing – Pingyao

In recent years, China has pumped a staggering amount of money into its railways (the controversial QuingHai–Tibet line alone cost $5 billion). Unfortunately precious little of it seems to have […]

Asia, Blog, China

Beijing: Our First Impressions of China

1,300,000,000 people are never going to be inconspicuous, but in China the presence of humankind is overwhelming. Not surprisingly, Beijing is no exception. Such is the scale of this city […]

Asia, Blog, Nepal

Pokhara: Happy New Year 2070!

Happy New Year! The end of our trek coincided with the Nepali New Year festivities in Pokhara. The Nepali calendar is 57 years ahead of the Gregorian one, meaning that […]

Asia, Blog, Hiking, Monastery, Nepal

Annapurna Circuit: Part 3

CLICK TO READ PART 2… Day 11: Thorung Phedi – Thorung La Pass – Muktinath We set off at 4am and started up the hill. It was pitch-black and the […]

Asia, Blog, Hiking, Monastery, Nepal

Annapurna Circuit: Part 2

CLICK TO READ PART 1… Day 6: Upper Pisang – Manang Today it was a beautiful and relatively easy walk up the valley which afforded us great views of Annapurna […]

Asia, Blog, Hiking, Nepal

Annapurna Circuit: Part 1

Surprisingly, Josi was the one to originally think about completing the Annapurna Circuit. As John was a seasoned mountain trekker & climber, he was thrilled at sharing his love of […]

Asia, Blog, Nepal

Kathmandu: An assault on the senses

Evidently not many of the millions of tourist dollars that pour into Nepal every year get spent on infrastructure. The airport is chaotic, the roads are potholed, and littered with […]

Asia, Blog, Mongolia

Mongolian Nomads: Ger-to-Ger: Our first few families

DAY 1 We had found Ger-to-Ger in our guidebook, they described themselves as providing “’Social Enterprise’ comprised nomadic travel routes, rural cultural home-stay programs that aim to expand greater community […]

Asia, Blog, Mongolia

Ulaanbaatar: A modern gateway to an ancient way of life

Touching down at Ulaanbaatar airport was not the way we had planned to arrive, but it did at least give a bird’s eye view of the vast mountainous plateau that […]

Blog, Border Crossing, Europe, Flight, Russia

An unexpected change of plan!!

After a leisurely morning in Listvyanka, a chance perusal of our passports by Josi at 5pm revealed an alarming discovery. We had been diligent about planning our entry dates into […]

Blog, Europe, Russia, Top Ten

Josi’s Top Ten: Russia

These were our top 10 things in Russia (in no particular order) – obviously, they are not the top 10 things to do in Russia necessarily and perhaps they just […]

Blog, Europe, Russia

Things we walked past: Russia

We wanted to capture some things we walked past on our travels through Russia that didn’t fit a particular blog but gives an indication of some random things that you […]

Blog, Europe, Russia, Train

Irkutsk: & the Decembrists

After 17 hours in a 3rd class cabin (which translates as 54 bunks, 2 toilets and a host of aromas), we were relieved to arrive at 9.30am in Irkutsk. Having barely stepped […]