Travels with Karin

Today is the day

Finally I’m on my way to Moscow.

After 6 weeks of preparing I think I’m ready. I decided to get my own visas instead of letting the travel agency handle it which I regretted a lot as hour after hour passed by in buses on my way to and from embassies, surfing the internet for informations, going back after the things I forgot and so on. Finally on wednesday I received my passport with all my visas and I finished packing, unpacking and re-packing!

I prefer to travel light but that is close to impossible when you are going from minus 20 to plus 40 degrees, from maybe 5000 m above sea level to 40 m under, through 4 countries and 6 time zones.

I will meet Sia, my friend and travel companion, in Moscow later today where she is arriving from Egypt where she has just spent one month in Dahab, lucky her!

Our schedule:

3^rd of Nov arrive in Moscow

8^th of Nov depart Moscow at 23.25 on train # 10

12^th of Nov arrive in Irkutsk at 9.16

19^th of Nov depart Irkutsk at 05.43 on train # 6

20^th of Nov arrive in Ulan Bator at 07.30

25^th of Nov depart Ulan Bator at 08.05 on train # 4

26^th of Nov arrive in Beijing at 14.31

We have one week in Irkutsk where the plan is to go to Lake Baikal. I wanted to go on a dog sleigh but it seems that that area is the only place in Siberia where the temperature is above 0 degrees… So we will see what happens on the train and then make plans as we go…

In Ulan Bator we have 5 days and there I wanted to go to the Gobi desert but that is the only area on the way where the temperature reach 20 degrees below 0… So again we will decide what to do when we are actually there!

In Beijing we will do the tourist-tour with the Great Wall, the Forbidden city, the Peking duck, the Olympic city and so on. You know: Please follow my umbrella and on your right you have a very famous monument and blablabla… When we have seen enough of Beijing we go to Xi-an by bus, train or plane, we haven’t decided yet, depends on the price and time. In Xi-an we will see the Terracotta-soldiers and maybe climbed the Hua Shan (I think that was the name of the mountain there) and watch the sun rise. After that we might go to the Yangtze River and sail through the three gorges before they are flooded in 2009 when the big dam is finished. Then we might go to Guilin to go on another boat trip. The 10^th of Dec we fly to Borneo where we will end up in Semporna with the Scuba Junkies where I have arranged to do my dive master course.

Nice plan, right? Well, I’ll be back later hopefully with some great stories from the trip!

Next trip is planned: The Trans Siberian Railway through Russia, Mongolia and China. So strictly speaking it is the Trans Mongolian Railway!

Travellers: Me and my friend Sia

The schedule is: 8th of November departure from Moscow and after four days on the train we arrive in Irkutsk where we will spend seven days exploring Lake Baikal and the surroundings, going on a dog sledge trip if the weather is permitting and otherwise see what fortune will bring. After a week in Irkutsk we continue to Ulaanbataar, capital of Mongolia, where we will spend five days. I want to see the Gobi desert but otherwise again we let chance lead us. The 26th of November we will arrive in Beijing.