Getting to Paris isn’t too difficult at all, thanks to the Eurostar, and to continue on to Berlin is also very easy. We have booked with the Germain Rail Operator DB Bahn, and were able to reserve our room on the overnight sleeper train “Perseus” online. DB Bahn also booked our onwards tickets to Moscow (another sleeper train), although we had to book this element by phone. Their call centre is helpfully located in Surbiton, an old haunt of mine, and they dealt with our request efficiently, sending the tickets out within 2 days of booking.
One thing to point out in case anyone considers going the same route to Moscow is that when our tickets arrived they did come in several parts. With the aid of a friend’s German speaking mother we think we’ve established that we need to leave the sleeping coach at some stage in Poland to take seats for the remainder of the journey, and then possibly change seats again in Belarus. We’ll see how that works out, although it would have been helpful to have been advised of this when making the reservation. It’s also worth mentioning that the train goes through Belarus, which means you’ll need to fork out £80 for a transit visa.
Of the more exciting parts of the planning process, working out a route to take through Russia was a highlight. The trans-Siberian is not the name of any one train, and there are several cities or towns you can choose to stop off in. For a while we considered adding an extra stop in Yekaterinburg, but eventually we chose to ride straight through to Irkutsk (6895km) on the famous Rossija train, before continuing on to Vladivostok (a further 4515km) a few days later. We booked our tickets with Real Russia, another European company with offices in London. If you’ve ever thought about going to Russia, this is a company I would recommend (I used them on my previous visit to Moscow & St Petersburg). They not only booked our train tickets, but also our ferry from Vladivostok to Donghae, South Korea, and were able to “invite” us to Russia - a necessary requirement for your visa).
However, their best feature is the extremely useful Interactive Trans-Siberian Journey Planner which you can use to enter which cities you’d like to visit and how long you’d like to spend, whilst showing you the distances and timescale involved. You’ll pay a little more than if you booked with the Russian Railways directly of course, but you’ll find it considerably better value than booking with a tour operator (in our case less than a third of the price of most tours). Also, their staff in the UK have been really helpful, Yuriy in particular for answering a catalogue of questions that I sent him.
The last thing I wanted to mention in this blog is arguably the most unexpected means of travel we have chosen to take, the container ship. Those of a certain age may remember Michael Palin’s TV Documentary “Around the World in 80 Days”, one of my favourite shows. Gemma & I recently re-watched the DVD, at a time when we were considering the problem of how to get from my preferred destination (Russia) to hers (Central America). I wouldn’t go as far as calling it the “Eureka” moment, but there did seem to be a certain Karma in the timing.
A quick google found several booking agents who knew how to make this happen so I fired off a few emails. Judging from most of the replies I got the distinct impression that customer service was not high on the agenda of most of these companies (I’d ask if they had a suitable route - they’d respond telling me to look at the website - I’d look at the website and it says “please contact our customer service team”!). Fortunately however Strand Travel stood out like a shining light, they offered a suitable route on a shipping line that would take us at a fair price. A few further emails (all promptly responded to) and we found ourselves booked in the owners cabin on-board the MV Hanjin Miami, sailing from Busan (formerly Pusan) to Long Beach at the end of September.
We’ll be spending eleven days at sea with no ports of call in-between, and this is one of the parts of the trip I am particularly looking forwards to. I know that some (sane) people would ask how we’ll amuse ourselves for all that time, and the answer remains to be seen. A chance to catch up on some R&R in the seawater pool, maybe the opportunity to clean our clothes and bags, or catch up on some reading (I’m thinking Poe’s Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, or perhaps Twain’s Following the Equator - both of which have been downloaded to the Kindle in expectation). On the other hand, we’ll be sailing during typhoon season so maybe we’ll have to blank out the whole experience with seasickness tablets!
There are one or two things you need to be aware of if you ever consider travelling on a container ship. The most important thing to be aware of is that cargo is above you in the ships hierarchy, which in practical terms means that you have to prepare for the ship leaving late (or early in some instances), up to 28 days either side according to our terms and conditions. Clearly flexibility is required, so this is not the right way to travel if you have to keep to exact dates.
Also, because we are arriving in the US by ship, we couldn’t use the Visa Waiver program. Fortunately we were granted visas relatively easily at our interview in the US Embassy, and despite the added expense it means that we are not tied into arriving (or leaving) on a specific date. Furthermore, you must get a “fit for travel” document signed by your doctor within 30 days of departure, which means Gemma and I will have to rush to the surgery a few days before we leave London, just another of those little things you have to remember to do before you set off!
However, with little over two weeks to go we seem to be just about set. A quick trip to the doctors later this week (to discuss the catalogue of diseases we could expose ourselves to) aside, the planning and preparation for the trip is pretty much done. We’ve both finished work now, so the remainder of our time will be filled up with packing up the flat ready for renting & packing our bags with all the stocks and supplies we’ve been preparing over the last year, and of course saying farewell to family and friends.
