Download from Smashwords (eBook) Womens Travel Adventures Wilderness Agencies Womens Travel Adventures Category:  Travel Publisher: Rensina van den Heuvel ISBN-10:  1476186227 Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 342 Copyright: 2008 ISBN-13: 9781476186221 Price: $5.99 (eBook) 21,000 kilometres overland from Australia to Switzerland. Camping in Korea, Siberia,Mongolia,kazahkstan,over the Black Sea, Bulgaria and on to Europe.  A womans experience on how to fast track your relationship with your new fella by living in a Land Rover and travelling across some of the remotest parts of the world together. And surviving. Daily life consisted of camping in cornfields, carparks, on the edge of Siberian villages, deep in the  forests of Russia, overlooking Lake Baikal and  by a frozen lake in minus 10C on the Mongolian steppe.   Through  the language barriers and diversity of many cultures, severe illness and incredibly amazing experiences, Allen and I learned about each other. Our individual abilities to cope were stretched to limits, our strengths and weaknesses tested to the maximum. The one fact always remained. We needed each other to see the journey through. Excerpt One sure way of getting to know your new partner is living in a land rover for five months on the other side of the world, in very unfamiliar territory. Korea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazahkstan were a few of the many countries in which we travelled overland and camped in. This is a story of one woman's experience of how to get stretched way out of your comfort zone.

Russian Documents Mongolian Dust
Russian Documents, Mongolian Dust is a travel memoir of the author's incredible journey driving from Korea to Switzerland through Mongolia and Russia. The story is told in the first person, in a loose diary style. Beginning with retrieving the four-wheel drive from a shipping container in Pusan, Korea, we follow Rensina and her companion Allen through their daily adventures driving across country, camping in the wild and negotiating a huge range of cultures and languages. From the rock hard and tasteless Mongolian cheese to the ten centimetres of makeup on a Russian vegetable-seller, the premise cannot be anything but compelling!

From the beginning, it was clear that the book had been written using diary entries made throughout the trip, which was made in the latter part of 2007. This brought a real immediacy to the writing, and punctuated with the author's personal style, Aussie colloquialisms and beautiful expressions, it was enjoyable reading. The idea of a trip of this kind is so interesting, but I must give credit to the writer's abilities and say that her style really did contribute positively to the pleasure of reading. However, there are many spelling, grammar and punctuation errors throughout, and some of the syntax is a little 'bumpy' with a few consistency issues making things a little puzzling at times. The author really does have a gift for words, though, and it would really detract from the story if her voice was in any way dulled by heavy editing.


Russian Documents Mongolian Dust
Russian Documents -Mongolian Dust tells the story of Rensina van den Heuvel’s and her companion Allen who embark on a trip from Australia to Russia in a Land Rover. Rensina shares details of people and places that they encounter on the journey through Korea Mongolia and Russia.
This journey was also a journey of self awareness and self understanding for the travellers, who have to face the challenges of navigating foreign nations, landscapes and languages, along with car troubles and physical illnesses. The descriptions of the landscape tell of harsh yet beautiful environments from deserts to snow covered mountains. During their travels they encounter interesting people and situations which are told in a clear and engaging style. Rensina shares with the reader elements of that trip that are ordinary and extra ordinary as they encounter different people and cultures, showing a great compassion and respect for those she meets along the way.
It was an engaging and interesting story told in an honest and open narrative style. Having an introduction that detailed the trip and the countries which were to be traversed along with a map would have added to setting the context of the story.
Thank you for sharing this book with me

Russian Documents Mongolian Dust
I feel exhausted – not quite as exhausted as Rensina after her travels from Korea through Mongolia, Russia, Bulgaria etc. to Switzerland and Amsterdam, upon completion of this book!
“Russian Documents” certainly transported me out of the comfort zone of my comfy computer chair in my safe Aussie world, to a world I knew nothing about! Rensina has shown me a very different world and its people. I had to go and get the atlas out to trace her epic journey with Allen.
I have decided this is something I will never even contemplate! It was good to read about it and not experience it. All congratulations to Rensina for surviving and relating the tale.
Her descriptions of the countryside, especially Mongolia are magnificent and enchanting. These were accompanied by the little capsules of the lives of the people and the starkness of their lives leaves a footprint on my mind.
I was caught up in the day to day struggles against the harsh terrain, especially the extreme coldness of the place. When Allen became terribly ill, I had my heart in my mouth hoping he survived and didn’t die and leave Rensina all alone in the desolation of a strange land with overpowering men! Thank goodness, he recovered enough to continue the journey.
What irony at the end, when the faithful land rover had conquered deserts and incredible harsh terrains of the largest continent on Earth, got smashed up back in Australia!
This was something informative to read and would excite the brave traveller to embark on a similar journey.