The music post

One of the weirdest things about travelling is that you get to hear familiar sounds in totally unexpected places.

Here's just a few of the bits I've heard since leaving home three and a bit weeks ago:

Sade - Hang On To Your Love
In the food hall of the League of Gentlemen inspired hotel/motel (Holiday Inn...) in Suzdal. Truly out of place, but just about the only thing that could have brought me back round at that point.

George Michael - Father Figure
I'm gonna whisper it, but I've always liked this. Hearing it on first waking up in Yekaterinburg, on chilled Sunday, all made sense. Just glad Katya didn't have it on the karaoke as I'd probably have murdered it for good.

East 17 - Let It Rain
A bit of an embarrasment to my part of London, the not-so awesome foursome sound even more hilarious when played on a Korean bus, full of Buryatians and me, on a border run from Ulan Ude in Russia to Ulan Bator in Mongolia. "Rain! LET IT RAIN! Rain! LET IT RAIN! Rain! LET IT RAIN! RAIN!... LET IT RAIN!". Ridiculous.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Walkabout
Always a good standby topic for when bored of standard traveller talk, is just how intelligent a thing Apple's ipod shuffle function is. I, for one, believe it is supernaturally gifted. And so it was this song, from the Chili's erratic "One Hot Minute" album, that my ipod chose to soundtrack my 6am walk from Irkutsk train station to the Baikaler Hostel (more on the fantastic Irkutsk later).

Max Romeo - I Chase The Devil
Perhaps even better known as the sampled base sitting beneath the Prodigy's stratospheric hit "Out of Space", it's still the line "I'm gonna put on an iron short / and the chase the devil outta earth" that best prepares me for the fun and games of ticket buying at Russian railway stations.