In 2005 A. and decided to head over to England for the summer. However, we wanted a bit of an adventure so decided to do the journey overland by train. What an adventure it was.  Having lived in Russia, doing the Trans-Siberian had always been something I had wanted to do.  For the Trans-Siberian part we organised it through a tour company called Monkey Shrine who specialise in Trans-Sib East to West. Our journey took us through the following Places:

Hong Kong – Beijing, China – Ulan Bator, Mongolia – Irkutsk, Moscow, Russia – [transit through Belarus] – Warsaw, Krakow, Poland – Vienna, Austria – Budapest, Hungary – Bratislava, Slovakia – Prague, Kutna Hora, Czech Republic – Berlin, Germany – Paris, France- London, England.

View Hong Kong to London by Train in a larger map It was an amazing experience.  Mongolia was particularly interesting and it was also interesting to see how Russia and Central European places had changed since my previous visits.

The train journeys themselves were an adventure, sometimes long stops as they changes guages between countries, the longest and most difficult stop was between Mongolia and Russia where they locked the bathroom doors and we were in no-man’s land for 11 hours (between officially leaving Mongolia and officially entering Russia).

We documented our journey on a blog which you can look at: http://www.hongdon.blogspot.hk/

Highlights for me were:

The Forbidden City in Beijing,  sleeping in a ger (tent) in Mongolia, crossing a continent by train, tour of the salt mines in Krakow, tour of communist city Nova Huta in Krakow, the baths in Budapest, the spy museum in Budapest, the architecture of Vienna, Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, The Brucke Museum in Berlin, bicycle tours in Budapest & Berlin, Paris museums.

Nearly all the places we went through had undergone massive changes during 1989 and so it was interesting to compare all the different experiences, histories and views.

The Poles have a terrific sense of humour!

Practicalities & Tips:  As we were travelling in peak season we pre-booked all our accommodation to save walking around with our bags trying to find somewhere.

The trans-siberian bit (Beijing to Moscow) we also pre-booked – you have to, to go through Russia.

My friend gave us some disposable underwear as a parting gift. Laughing we packed them and I ended up using some pairs when a laundry place didn’t return all of mine.

Walking and cycle tours were a great way to get some insight into the history of places. The cycling tours were particularly good.

The weather in all places was changeable and I was glad we packed sun and rain gear.

Useful Links:

http://www.monkeyshrine.com/ (tour operator specialising in Trans-Siberian travel)

www.hostels.com (booking online)