Describe an english journalist’s impressions of travelling through thevast spases of russia, China and Mongolia.

 

It’s no wonder that trains are a literary genre all on their own. Writers from Graham Green to Agatha Christie realized that there is nothing quite like curtain sleeping compartments quicken the narrative pulse. To board the train that crosses countries and continents is to feel that anything might happened.

From the first days of a journey on board a Trans-Siberian Express the journalist was fascinated by the changing countryside, by his first compartment which had the air of a slightly down-at-heel gentlemen’s club. The scale of the Trans-Siberian, the largest and the longest of rail journeys, it difficult to comprehend.

Food in the dining car was adequate, if uninspired. But the best food was to be found at the stations where the train made scheduled stops.

The towns they passed, indistinguishable from one another, were a blur of smoking chimneys and grey apartment block. They rattled across wide rivers and climbed into the Urals. But the very ease of the journey began to betray the journalist. He read, slept, ate and beginning to forget who he was.Then they crossed into Mongolia. For miles they saw nothing, then 2 or 3 yurts, a herb of horses grazing in a water meadows, a woman tending a flock of black goats.

In the Gobi desert the grass grew sparser, the red soil blew away in the wind and the track ran as straight as a drown line. Like Mongolia, Chine offered them a timeless landscape. But in China everything was man-made, every tree a planted one, every inch of land cultivated. At Peking they came to a half and emerged blinking into the real word again. For all the enticements of China the journalist was said to leave the train. For a week it had been home, secure and familiar.

 

TALK ABOUT UNFORTUNATE EXPERIENCEOF A HOLIDAY ARRANGED THOUGH A TRAVEL AGENCY.

First of all I’d like to say that traveling is necessary for all of us as it’s a kind of relaxation and a good opportunity to relax your body, renew your energy and refresh your spirits. Many people adore visiting beautiful places and look forward to going on holiday just to escape daily grind of work and day-to-day pressures and get away from their usual sources of stress. Sometimes you need a change and you are waiting for a holiday with some travel agency, which cost you a fortune, pack your suitcases, board the plane and get to the place of destination. But what you see there is far from your expectations. Your holiday turns out to be a complete disaster and you can’t avoid to get back home.

Fortunately, I personally have never experienced such holidays but I know that many people face a problem like this. Let’s take Ms Hopkins for instance. The Hopkins booked the holiday through a local travel agent. What they wanted was a quiet little hotel near the beach for their kids and their agent recommended the Hotel Solara which looked just they wanted in the brochure. But when they arrived at the airport they were met by the tour representative who was nice and apologetic, but she said that she was taking them to another hotel because the Solara was booked up. The Hopkins went along with it. But the hotel wasn’t what they wanted. Fist, it was far more expensive, but not a bit personal, just like a factory and it was miles from the beach and besides it was very noisy at night. The kids used to wake up and the hotel was not for a family at all. The Hopkins complained several times but in the end just came home early. What is more they had to pay extra for the flight. Mrs. Hopkins was very disappointed and thought that the travel agency ought to give her money back.

Mrs. Hopkins is not the only person who had such an experience. And in spite of the fact that there are so many travel agencies today, unfortunately, not all of them can guarantee that the hotel will not be overbooked.