Ham’s World Tour
Hello All,
Yup! it’s off to Russia next to enjoy a Trans-Siberian Adventure of a lifetime! I’ll be trying to stay in touch through the same webpage - travel.HemantMistry.com/Asia I’ve also updated the site with photos, videos- & the emails- from Europe, which can be found by following the link.
So if you’re sitting comfortably, I’ll try and cast my mind back to nearly 3 weeks ago…….. …(if this was a film, this is where the screen would go all blurry & wobbly!)….
Sat 8th Jan 2005 - Riga, Latvia.
I’d grown lazy since Christmas, so this Stupid o’clock (7am) bus to Riga was a bit of a shock to the system. On the bus seemed to be Russia’s most talkative lady! For the whole 5 hour journey all I could hear in my ear was this old lady just gibbering and talking away about nothing in particular!!
Arrived in Riga and managed to sort out a nifty hostel (Elizabeth Hostle, Riga) for only £5! OptimoMaximo! Riga is a very attractive city, all the buildings look like brightly coloured fairy-tale houses! Little castles, towers, blue/green/yellow/pink/red buildings all over the place! I was feeling a bit unwell at this time (I’d self-diagnosed a lack of vegetables & greens), and managed to find a vegetarian Restaurant. When I walked in, I found myself in a ’Little India’. Yup, a proper Indian Restaurant in the middle of Riga! Can you imagine my surprise (even more so when I saw they served Masala Chai!!)!! I made the most of this and feasted on Paneer with loads of Masala Chai!
After that it the day all went a bit ’wrong’. A couple of hours later, for no real reason, I found myself eating again in another pub, before moving onto one of Riga’s ’trendy bars’. Slightly drunk at this stage, I used my blagging skills to get a few free samples from the bar, which in turned fuelled my ego! Before I knew it I was talking to the DJ there, and started off a lie about me being some sort of DJ!! It turns out he was trying to ’crack’ into the UK market, and so idiot-boy here, got out my phone and started giving out random people’s numbers who could help him get airplay & recognition in the UK. — so if anyone received a call/email from some DJ in Riga, I’m sorry! — He was so grateful, it led to more free beers!
Opps! I was starting to loose-the-plot at this point, and realised I’d better get back. My ego told me I could easily navigate the streets back to the hostel; my ego managed to take me through a dodgy/red-light district area before telling me the right way home!! This was also the day that the huge storm (that eventually made it’s way over to the UK) began to develop in the Baltic. The walk home was also a battle against very strong winds and bits of stuff being blown around the place.
Sun 9th Jan, Riga.
Waking up this morning was an interesting experience - a combination of not knowing if I was still sleeping or dreaming, or indeed if I’d woken up or not!! Humm, what could have caused that?!
I’d committed to properly ’having’ the city today (after it going all wrong the evening before!). Again, it was quite windy and I actually saw a drainpipe being blown all the way down this road and a swirling 8m tall thing of leaves!! Had all the sights, museums and attractions. Along the way I met an interesting character - an Italian Film Director, who’d travelled the world and had quite an interesting perspective on the world today based on the lessons of the past (to complex to explain here).
Later that evening I moved on to Tallinn- in Estonia. Now, from my Lonely Planet Map there was a hostel right next to the Bus Station. I arrived in Tallinn at midnight, and nowhere near the Bus Station could a see a hostel!! I realised that I was in a completely different part of the city to where I though I was! (The same thing had happen to me in Sarajevo, where I was several kms from the centre!)- Damm, Taxi!! Finally managed to get to hostel, and I learnt Estonian from the Cab driver on the way!
Originally I thought I’d go to Helsinki on Monday, but I found out about the storm and heard that all flights & ferry crossing had been cancelled! Hummm, I wonder what would happen with my flight on Wednesday…..
Mon 10th Jan 05, Tallinn, Estonia
I didn’t realise this at the time, but most place in Estonia are closed on Mondays & Tuesdays! So for most of the day I found myself walking around the city in the rain to find all the doors closed! Thankfully it wasn’t cold, in actual fact it wasn’t least than 5C - on one hand this was a good thing, on the other hand I wanted it to be cold to get practice in for Siberia!
Meandering through the streets I found a travel agents. I checked for tickets to Helsinki (Finland) because I wanted to go somewhere cold and with snow! (even in Poland and the Baltics I’d not had proper snow!). As luck would have it, there was an overnight Ferry to Helsinki for only £16rtn! Bingo, saves a nights accommodation cost! Stocked up on food at an all-you-can-eat buffet for £3.50! And headed out to the Ferry port later that evening. It turned out that I had to book a cabin (£10) before they’d let me bored (I wanted to just sleep in a seat, but they told me off!), which was fine because it was a proper sized ensuite room…on a ship!! And this Ship was packed with entertainments with cabaret shows, nightclubs & other weird stuff!
Tues 11th Jan 05, Helsinki, Finland.
It was kinda cool to wake up and think "I got bored of Tallinn because everything was closed, so I simply moved on to another city/country!!" Arriving into Helsinki harbour at 8am was a extremely beautiful sight (see the pictures on my site)-, the air was so crisp & fresh, the sun was just starting to climb over the horizon, over the sealine and up to the top of the massive harbour cranes! WuckArd!
The trouble with going to Finland after the Baltics, is that you’ve got so used to the cheaper prices everything suddenly seems so over priced! (5Euros for a slice of cake!!). My brother had been working in Finland at this time, I did ask at the Tourist Information office, but they’d had no sightings nor could they find him on any of their maps!!
Had the city again, including a Rock Church (actually built inside a huge rock outlet) and the main Cathedral.
One thing did bug me though, it was bloody warm here, no less than 7C!!! I’ve just been all the way through Europe up to Finland looking for snow, and I just can’t find it!!!! Helsinki, like any port-city, has superb seafood. I had some awesome fresh seafood, washed down with a big-burly Finnish beer - this was totally divine!
This was to be my last night in Europe!! The two months have just blitzed by!! The ferry arrived back in Tallinn at 23:00 and I found a hostel that was below a Strip-Joint. Well, why not! So my last night I spent sleeping under a Strip Joint, this is living to the max!!
In the hostel, I happened to meet this Dutch guy who was about to start researching his PhD on the "Swedish Army’s movements through Europe". Now this may sound boring, but somehow I found myself explaining to him all the stuff I’d learnt about this from the countless places I’d been to! I shocked myself by how knowledgeable I was about various aspects of it, and how much I could recall from all those museums/monuments/places I’d just been to!!
Wed 12th Jan, Tallinn to London.
Met an American in the hostel in the morning, who’d also been travelling the world in small pieces. He’d just come through Russian and introduced me to the most valuable Russian Commodity, "Russian Standard Vodka" . With regards to vodka, this is the Crème dela Crème!! Needless to say, a bottle of it came back with me from Duty Free!!
Back in the UK:
Funny not having to think about things like ’where am I sleeping tonight’, ’when’s the next train/bus/ferry leaving’ anymore! Also funny seeing signs in London proudly stating "Real Italian Coffee, only £6million!!", "Real Spanish Tapas, only $14,000!" yeah right! Been there, seen that, had the real stuff in the real countries!!
Getting geared up for the next trip now: Trans-Siberian across Russia into China, across for 1 month, then hopefully over Tibet (’The Roof of the World’) and via Kathmandu (Nepal) into India.
My aim is to join a volunteering program out in India to help with the cleanup/rebuild of areas following the Tsunami, either way I’ve got 3 months there to ’help’. And then who knows!? Maybe further eastwards, or maybe a return home…..
Only time is going to tell now! Watch this space…-
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