I’ve done it several times. First, when I was 6 and traveled from Irkutsk to Chita and saw fields out of windows. Next time, I was 9. I traveled from Irkutsk to Volgograd and it took me 5 days. THere me and my new friends ran around the train from one car to another and poked our heads out of windows to face the winds! Sometimes we ran with bare feet so our feet got black of dirt! We played monopoly and cards while our parents played making words out of the names of the stations we passed by. I also liked to sit on the garbage can lid that is usually located in the same block with WC.
THen I took some short trips and finally traveled from Moscow to Irkutsk for 4 days alone. There I bought crawfish on one of the stations and also mineral water and CakCak in Kazan, Tatarstan. One girl traveled with me and I suggested to drinks soda with me, she said no. Then I asked her what card game we’d play, she said we wouldn’t play, so she ignored even to play with me for a while. And it’s pretty typical for nowadays Siberian girls. But when we passed Angarsk, two drunk guys went into our place and started to talk to her and pretended I was sleeping on my packed daypack. She still was scared even of them but talked to them cause they were very persistent. It serves her right. The girl who doesn’t want to deal with good guys will have to deal with bad ones.
People doing this are also doing these things:
Entries
I might want to do the transib starting from Hanoi, since air tickets to hanoi is really cheap from Singapore. Then take Hanoi-Beijing Train.
I also want to take the Tibetan Train from beijing before or after doing transib.
Meanwhile, my transib route will be like this:
Beijing – Ulan Bator – Ulan Ude – Irkutsk – Vladivostok – Irkutsk – Harbin – Beijing. I’d rather have a loop than to continue to Moscow.
Then return to singapore by train to Hanoi and take Tiger Airways from Hanoi to Singapore.
Allocated time will be six to eight weeks to do Singapore – Hanoi – Beijing – Lhasa – Beijing – Transiberian – Beijing – Hanoi – Singapore. Target: Year 2009 or 2010 spring or summer.
Must travel in a group of four to save cost in getting soft sleepers cabins.
When: before i reach 35 year old
Route: Singapore – Beijing – Ulan Bataar – Irkutsk – Harbin – Tianjin – Kobe – Osaka – Tokyo – Kobe – Shanghai/Beijing – Singapore
Period: 3 weeks
Budget: ??
Questions: How about the kids?
I have done this 3 times now. It is really worth doing and a great way to see this part of the world – people, culture, scenery, food, etc. I would recommend via a well known travel agent so they can sort out the invite letter, visas, tickets etc. Read about my journeys and see my pictures on http://www.trans-siberia.com. Happy Travelling !!
