Back in Feb Simon and I set off on a bit of an adventure: we travelled overland to Hong Kong before returning home by sea. Well, almost. Although we had hoped to go all the way by train, getting from Exmouth to Moscow was so convoluted & expensive we gave up on that idea & flew with Easyjet to Moscow. After a few days in Moscow we took the train across Siberia, which was pretty amazing, stopping off at Yekaterinberg & Lake Baikal en route. We then headed South through Mongolia, where we spent several nights at a ger camp in the middle of nowhere & Ulaan Bator before getting back on the train to Beijing. After 3 days we caught our last train to Hong Kong. That part of the trip took about 3 weeks and was a real experience.... the temperature went down to below -30 degrees; the food was 'interesting' (I wouldn't really recommend the mutton for breakfast, dinner & tea in Mongolia, but the native Omul fish from Lake Baikal was delicious!) & we met some really interesting people on the train. We then spent 2 1/2 weeks in Hong Kong. Simon's brother & family have lived there for over 20 years & we'd never been before. We had a great time with Shane & Julie, visited the touristy places & I added quite a few Lifers to my List! Then the final leg of our adventure...which really wasn't very adventurous! We came back in luxury on P&O's cruise ship Adonia, which took 6 weeks to get us back to Southampton via another 14 countries. The cruise was a real eye-opener as we'd never been to Asia before & again we met some really interesting people. I took thousands of photos...hence the delay in posting - it's taken me this long to go through them! Here are just a few photos of the places we visited & the birds we saw...
Russia:
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| St Basil's in Red Square. We loved Moscow, one of our favourite places on the trip. |
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One of the Russian trains that pulled us across Siberia
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| At Lake Baikal. I was worried about the camera with temperatures below -25 degrees but managed to get my first Lifer of the trip, an Azure Tit. |
Mongolia:
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| Leaving the new Chengis Khan monument |
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| Home for 3 nights....freezing outside, toasty inside. A man came in every 4 hrs night & day to stoke the fire. |
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| My only Mongolian Lifer....a Mongolian Lark, taken through the dirty window of a moving train |
China:
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| A very smoggy Forbidden City, Beijing. |
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| Spotted Dove.....my Chinese Lifer |
Hong Kong:
I managed to add 40 Lifers to my list, which I'm very happy with as this wasn't a birding holiday.... I just took my bins most places, and had an outing to the Wetland Centre & Long Valley.
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| Hong Kong |
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| The Murphys on a day out at the Big Buddha....Shane, Julie & Simon |
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| Common Tailorbird |
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| Fork-tailed Sunbird |
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| Japanese White-eye |
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| The Wetland Centre amidst the tower blocks. |
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| The endangered Black-faced Spoonbill. Luckily numbers are increasing. |
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| Oriental Magpie Robin |
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| Hair-crested Drongo |
Then off on the next phase...
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| Heading for 6 weeks of luxury on Adonia |
Vietnam:
Halong Bay, Nha Trang & Ho Chi Minh City
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| Halong Bay in the mist |
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| Striated Heron....not what I expected way out at sea! |
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| Asian Brown Flycatcher |
Cambodia:
Sihanoukville
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| It's a man's world. Dad has safety helmet, son has gun. The most we saw on a scooter! Only noticed the gun afterwards.....hope it was a toy! |
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| Collared Kingfisher |
Thailand:
Laem Chebang
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| Shuttle to Pattaya....the pits! Found a park to bird/paint, then back to bird at the port. Got 13 Lifers. |
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| Asian Openbill |
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| Green Bee-eater |
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| Thick-billed Warbler |
Singapore:
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| Raffles |
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Black-naped Oriole
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Malaysia:
Kuala Lumpur, Penang & Langkawi
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| Kualar Lumpur from the KL Tower |
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| Penang |
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| Asian Glossy Starling |
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| Pacific Reef Egret |
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| Red-wattled Lapwing |
Sri Lanka:
Galle
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| Pulling in the fishing nets |
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| School or prison? |
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| Southern Common Babbler |
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| Brown-headed Barbet |
India:
Cochin, Mangalore & Mumbai
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| Fishing nets in Cochin |
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| The workshop! |
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| Laundrette in Mumbai |
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| Blue-tailed Bee-eaters |
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| Brahminy Kite: we'd been seeing them since Singapore, but not as many as here |
