Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
We provide all travellers with reusable bags and chopsticks in order to avoid waste and encourage use of “tea flasks” for drinking water (or tea, like the locals do!) so as not to purchase multiple plastic bottles. Safe drinking water available in all our accommodation and transport. Any bottles that are purchased are given to the community of waste collectors who rely on this for an income.
Food left over after group meals is collected and boxed up to be left where homeless/street people might easily find it and take it without them having to go through garbage for a meal.
All suppliers issued with RT recommendations in their local language and leaders and groups acting as “ambassadors” for spreading the RT message beyond just our travellers but also trying to involve the local tourism industry.
We include informal local language lessons to give our travellers a head start into understanding the culture and communicating with the people we meet along the way.
Wherever possible we take local transport in China and Russia. This can mean anything from public bus, trolley bus, tram or subway. We also have the opportunity to explore on bikes and on foot and travel overland on all our basix trips. When taking trains we travel 2nd or 3rd class (hard sleeper in China, kupe or platzkart in Russia) which is the way the majority of locals travel - this gives us maximum chance to meet and share stories, food, games and the journet with local travellers.
At the end of out journey we encourage our travellers to donate unwanted clothes, toiletries or other goods which we then distribute to local organisations.
Our tour leaders are all Chinese or Russian locals.
With the help of your leader and local guides you will explore 3 diverse countries (Russia, Mongolia & China) on this amazing overland journey, with plenty of opportunities to meet the locals and learn about their lives and culture along the way. You will truly experience the scope of Russia with places you visit varying from the modern cities of Moscow & St Petersburg to the quiet country life of Siberia. The focus is on really feeling how the locals live in each place we visit such as by using the metro as our way of getting around massive Moscow, shopping at the farmer's markets in Irkutsk and staying in home stays and local apartments in Irkutsk and Ulan Ude. You'll also be able to appreciate the diversity of religions and nationalities living in modern Russia through visits to Orthodox churches and monasteries to meeting some of the minority groups in Siberia and visiting the heart of Russian Buddhism at the datsans near Ulan Ude.
In the summer months you travel to Olkhon Island on Lake Baikal which is considered to be the holiest place in Russia by the local shamanist Buryat people. You'll learn about their way of life in the months where the Island is inaccesible too when you will stay at the lakeside village of Bolshoye Goloustnoye where accommodation is with local families in their homes. Meals are cooked by our hosts and most of the ingredients are from their farms and gardens such as fresh milk, cheese and cream, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers & eggs. While at Lake Baikal you will also get to see the effort being made to preserve the unique environment and nature of this area through conservation projects and ecological walking trails.
After crossing into Mongolia we spend a night in "gers" (traditional felt tent dwellings of Mongolians) located at a camp site in a National Protected Area near Ulaanbaatar where the lanscape, accommodation and local guides will give you a fantastic insight into what makes this country so unique. There may be the opportunity to go for a horse trek with local horsemen, an important part of Mongolian traditional life, or even try some of the local specialties such as fermented mare's milk.
Back in Ulaanbaatar there are many chances for activities that help keep local traditions alive such as attending a performance of traditional music, dance and unique throat singing or visiting the most important Tibetan Buddhist monastery of the country - Gandan. There are also many local industries such as felt goods and cashmere that travellers are encouraged to support.
In Mongolia travellers visit Lotus Children's Home - a centre for underprivileged and abandoned children in suburban Ulaanbaatar.You may have the option to visit to see the amazing work that is being done at the Home, something which many find to be one of the most worthwhile experiences of their whole trip.
Throughout the journey our main form of transport is of course train. Travelling this way not only allows you to cross the 3 countries covering huge distances but also being the way that most locals also travel gives you great opportunities to chat, share meals and get to know our local travel companions.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
