The Art of Misadventure

Kim's travel blog

Tag: railway

LON to BKK – Vietnam

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On May 7, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Ok yet again it has been quite a while since I updated this, I am now in Laos but we will get to that later on. First where we left off… after leaving Mt Emei I made my way back to Chengdu where I stayed for a couple of nights to chill out and eat the good veggie food at the Buddhist monastery. While in Chengdu I heard that the Chinese were going to re open tibet on the first of May, which was a bit of a shock as I had accepted that I wouldn’t be going, just incase it did open I decided to leave the country so I could reenter in May (just incase). So I headed down on the night train to Kunming to meet up with Beth and Nick (who I had perversely spent time with in Beijing) who were heading to Vietnam. Spent a couple of days in Kunming sorting out visas and headed for the border by sleeper bus, nowhere near as nice as the sleeper trains but it got us there and only broke down twice. Got into a town in the north (Sapa) which is meant to be a travelers haven but was a little disappointed as it all seemed a little fake and staged, maybe if we had gone trekking we might have found something a little more real. Spent two nights there but after me boasting all day about how I have never had food poisoning I spent the night throwing up and the following day in bed. After Sapa we headed south to Hanoi a lovely old city which we immediately got lost on arrival at 5am and walked for an hour in the wrong direction. Spent a few days sitting around Nick’s pool (as he was stating at a posh hotel) and then me and Nick set of on a 3 day tour to Halong bay.

Moving on south by bus (cheaper and quicker than the train) with Beth to the sea side town of Hoi An and my first beach of the trip. First night we hitched a ride with some Germans on mopeds down to the beach for the sunset and had a great swim. Spent 4 nights there swimming, partying and hanging by the pool.
At this point I discovered that Tibet would not be opening and aranged to meet my mum and dad in Cambodia in June so insted of heading south to Ho Chi Minh city, I travle west into Laos. Beth wanted to make it to Thailand asap so accompanied me as far as Savannakhet

LON to BKK – UB to Beijing and on to Shanghai

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On March 10, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Train from UB to Beijing was a 1 day 1 night  affair with a not too painful 5 hour border crossing in to China. I was sharing with a farther and daughter who were travelling to buy rubber and zips for there army book company and a man with boxes full of sample plastic bottles. On day one we passed through the Gobi desert and awoke the following day to more hilly landscape of northern china (a little late to see the wall).

We pulled into Beijing just after lunch, after checking in a had walk around town and went to buy my next train ticket. It was a pleasant 20 degrees c and I had a great walk around the busy Market streets where my hostel was located and around the eminence and sanitized T square. First impressions were good and I immediately felt at home. Had a brilliant night out with a load of people from the hosts on the first night, and had a good chilled out day in the hostel the following day. I am now in Shanghai for a few days before I head out into the country side and then back to Beijing

LON to BKK – Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar

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On February 24, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Ulaanbaatar mile 5519

The short journey of 700 miles to Ulaanbaatar some how takes 34 hours, but that is only 2 nights and one day so very manageable compared with my last journey of over 70 hours. The train departed at 20:45 local time so I had the day to cook lots of food for the journey (look at me making a packed lunch for the first time ever), on finding my cabin I was confronted by my Mongolian room mate asking me to pretend here bags were mine as she was over here baggage weight. I made it clear that how I did not mind putting here bags under my seat as I had room I was no way going to pretend they were mine at customs. After we had set off she gave some of here baggage to some other Mongolians in the next compartment. She came back in and we chatted about the deference in out cultures and at what age you are expected to be married by, and she gave me a cup of Mongolian tea which is tea with milk and salt!! I can only assume that someone was playing a trick on the Mongolians along time ago and they switched the salt and the sugar bowl.

On the trains the Provodnista is in charge of keeping every one in check, the place clean, the heater stoked up with coal and making sure you are awake up in time for your stop also plays here music over the Tony system, you can turn it off in your cabin but someone next door had theirs turned up full blast, the first night we were subject to what appeared to be the full Mamma Mia sound track in Russian and the second day a mix of Russian pop and hip hop.

We arrived at the Russian border town of Naushki at 13:00 which is when I started to understand why 700 miles would take so long. My Mongolian cabin mate enplaned that we would now sit at the station unlit customs arrived at 17:00. Passport control arrived at 16:30 and we were stamped out of Russia and customs arrived at 17:00, we eventually got moving at 18:00. After the short crossing into Mongolia we stoped at the Mongolian border town of Sukhbaatar where we went through the same process and then had to sit on the train until we were linked up to the 21:20 train to UB. The whole process tool a little over 8 hours. On arrival at Sukhbaatar all the Mongolians got off the train as apparently it is cheaper to buy a new ticket for the same train here, leaving only the unknowing Brits, Australians and Danes on the train.
We arrived in UB at just after 6am and I was grateful that my guest house had a free station pick up service.

So far along the way I keep bumping in to the same people, not surprising as there are only so many hostels along the route; but today I met a girl from the year below me at school!!! Talk about a small world. All together now “it’s a small word after all, it’s a small world after all, it’s a small, small world…”

P.S. My new phone dose not work here so please use my old number until I leave Mongolia.

LON to BKK – Moscow to Irkutsk

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On February 16, 2008

In London to Thailand 2008 (Train & Bus)

Irkutsk: Mile 4819

On Tuesday night I headed out with 5 other people from my hostel to the station for the first leg of the Trans-Siberian railway. Leaving Moscow at 21:35 and arriving at Irkutsk a little over 3 days later. Traveling second class you get 4 beds per cabin with the bottom bunk doubling as seats, I was sharing with an English guy who was traveling to Irkutsk like me and a Russian man and woman who were getting of at earlier stations. They were both very friendly, with the man (apparently an officer in the Russian army) very keen on English football, unfortunately neither myself or Ben (my cabin mate) know much about English football players so much of the first night passed with us agreeing that the players he liked were very good?. They both shared their food and drink with us and the lady gave me a horn from a buffalo that had been turned into a cup. As the train traveled through the Urals and into Siberia, we spent our time watching the world go buy, eating pot noodles, buying food from the locals at the station, drinking vodka and playing cards. The time passed quickly with our Provodnitsa making sure we were back on the train after stops, keeping our cabin clean and keeping the carriage heated to an overly warm 27 degrees (by shoveling coal into the boiler 24 hours a day). The view was a mix of snow, trees and industry. We pulled into Irkutsk at 5am local time which is Moscow + 5 (GMT +8), things must have gotten warmer as it was only -20 degrees centigrade.

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