Epic Trans Siberian Trip

1. Russia - Moscow -- 4 days – Peter One Hotel
2. Russia – Yekaterinburg- 2 days – Centralyni Hotel
3. Russia – Irkutsk – 4 days –
a. Russia – Irkutsk (Hostel Baikaler) – Lake Baikal – 2 days – (Usadba Demidova)
4. Mongolia -- Ulan Baatar – 4 days – Zaya Hostel
5. China -- Beijing – 3.5 days – Sunworld Hotel
6. China – Xian – 1.5 days – Bell Tower Hotel
7. China -- Shaolin Temple
8. China – Shanghai – 1.5 days – Central Hotel

Trans-Siberian trip was one of my dream trip for decades. I finally could do it during August2015. A month long trip which was exciting, emotional, adventures and a new linguistic born in me. Many were surprised, encouraged and dampening feedback when I said “Lone Traveler”, they said “Crazy traveler” . All thanks to Ravi and his planning and support for the excellent Trans-Siberian Train trip.

China
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Waiting in the Ulan Baatar station (Mongolia) for the Beijing train to arrive.
The train left the Ulaan Baatar station in the morning 8 AM and it was supposed to reach Beijing the next day morning 8 AM. The total train journey from Ulaan Baatar to Beijing was around 24 hrs.
The train stopped in the China - Mongolia border (Sukhbataar station) at around 7 PM in the evening. The immigration officers walked into each coach and collected everybody’s passport and all the passengers were asked to get down from the train and get into a station room. We were locked in that room for 2 to 3 hrs.
Later all the passengers were asked to get back to the train. Then the train left from that station around 1 pm and all the passports were returned to the passengers after verification. The train reached Beijing at 8 AM.


It took me 3 months of planning: Few tips for future travellers
• applying visas (Russia, Mongolia and China)
• train schedules (not all the trains run daily, the schedules are like once a week, bi-weekly )
• Stop overs
o Moscow to Beijing is 8 days travel ,
• 25 station stops - I took 4 breaks , booking tickets
o PS: Russia train ticket booking open 45 days before the departure date),
o Hotel and hostel (few palace give )


Here I have started writing my experience on China trip, and in another few days will update it with the other 2 Countries - Russia and Mongolia. Enjoy reading…
Phones and Data connection
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1. There are only 2 telecom companies in China
2. One China Mobile and other (…)
3. The China mobile is cheaper, I paid 50 yuan for 1GB and 150 mins talk time
4. But the China mobile network only supports 2G in the phones that are bought from outside China.
5. That means in my phone I got only 2G data connection, and so no Maps, no Translator nothing worked.
6. The other network company gives 3G even for phones bought from outside China, but was quiet expensive like Rs.3000 for 1 week.

Google not supported in China
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None of Google application were supported in China, which means no Google Translator, no Google Maps, no Face Book, no Google Messenger.
That made my life even tougher, since Google Maps was one application that saved me in most of the places in Russia and Mongolia – I dint have to ask people for the addresses, since hardly few people spoke English.
And Google translator was one other application which saved me in many places. Now that I have to find some replacement for Google Translator and Google Maps, thats when I got the Bing.com which was a translator and worked in China. This was quiet helpful in China travel.


Beijing
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This is when I landed Beijing station.


1. Landed Beijing in the morning 8 AM
2. I dint have money to take a taxi nor did my mobile worked to call the hotel for pickup.
3. I went out of the station looking for Money Exchange and could not find a single money exchanger. Then I got to know that Money exchangers are very rare in China. We need to exchange currency in Banks.
4. I checked with the staff in the station and she directed me to Beijing Bank which is located in the front of the train station (front means not right in front, it took me 30 mins to locate the Bank going around.)
5. Finally I found the Bank and went there and noticed most of my train passengers were waiting there.
6. I took a token and waited for 1 hour and then changed the Chinese currency.
7. Walked out of the Bank and took a metered taxi and reached the Hotel.
8. The Hotel was located close to Wangfujeng st (it was an happening st)

Train station info
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1. There are four train station in China. So when you buy ticket check carefully which station you need to board in.
2. Station names – North station, West station, …. – so when when you are boarding the train you should be very careful to know which station you need to go.


In wangfujeng st, there is a food street, this is a must see place where you get authentic Chineses food. People throng this place in the evening, you don’t even a get a place to stand.
You get everything from scorpion to snakes to sea horse to squid etc…
I could only try a squid over there.

My first view of Great Wall from the train.
This is the picture I took from the train, before it reaches the Badaling train station.
You need to buy 100 Yuan ticket to take a winch to the top of Great wall, and with the same ticket to can use it to come down also.
After buying the ticket there is a big queue to take the winch to go to the top of Great Wall.
You can walk arround for some time and while coming down take the same winch to come down.

1. There weere 2 options to go to Great Wall
a. Book a tour from Hotel which costs Rs.4000 (with ac bus pick up, lunch, tour guide and drop back to hotel) or
b. take a train yourself (which would be lil more adventurous).
2. I wanted to explore myself so chose the second option which I guess will be better for you as well.
3. In the early morning I went to the train station to buy the tickets for 8 am train but it was sold out and they had tickets for only for 11 am train. I took the ticket for 11 am train, the cost was Rs.60.
4. I had to wait in the queue for 2 hours after which they allowed us to get into the station.
5. In the station we had to wait for an hour. During that time I met this girl called Xang, she was a student and had come from Xian to visit Beijing, it was the first trip to Beijing for her too.
6. She was a nice company and I went arround with her in The Great Wall of China.
7. The Badaling section of Great Wall of Chine was very crowded.
8. In the evening tagged along with her to Birds Nest.

This is the market area in the Summer Palace. There were lot of soveigner places and you get very nice stuff, but it is highly priced in this place. I did buy quiet a few items, and later found that they are much cheaper in the other places.

1. Next day Xang was suppose to go to Summer Palace, I told her that I too would join her.
2. Next day we both decided to meet in front of a metro station near her Hostel.
3. When I reached there my phone dint work, with a great difficulty I met her.
4. I did take a pass for 30 yuan, with which I could use it in Train , Bus etc…
5. The Summer Palace was an amazing place.
6. On the 4th day I wanted to see the Mutyanu section of Great Wall of China.
7. Since I had a train to Xian in the evening, I decided to go with tour operator.
8. In the AC bus they picked me up from the hotel in the morning 8 AM, take you to Great Wall and provide luch and drop u back in the evening for this they charge Rs.4000. I feel if you don’t have time to explore yourself this is the best, since it is hastle free.
9. The tour guide claimed Muthyanu section of Great Wall was 600 yrs old and all other sections were 26 yr old rebuilt ones.
10. The guide advised us to climb to Tower 6 and walk till Tower 1, it was quiet a hike, but was good.
11. In Tower 1 you can see the old trees and plants grown on the Great Wall which implies this section is very old section.
12. In the evening, I could reach the train station on time to take the train to Xian


This is the Tower 1 section where you can see the trees and plants grown on the Great Wall of China.
This is the section that was done by Michelle Obama when she visited China. This became a good marketing point.
I would suggest going to this Mutyanu section, there were hardly any people there, and quiet good to walk on this stretch.
I think the main reason for not many people is that the access to this section not very easy and it takes time, so good idea is to go with Tour guides.


Xian – Terracotta Warrior
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1. I was supposed to reach Xian station at 8 AM but the train was delayed by 2hrs and I reached at 10 AM
2. I got out of the station and took a taxi to the Hotel.
3. Quickly freshened up and started to go to the Terracotta Warrior.
4. I got all the information’s like where to take a bus? How long it takes to reach?, etc…
5. I got the Receptionist to write down in Chinese for the sentences like ‘ Where is the 420 bus stop?’ ‘where is the return bus stop’, ‘what time the bus will start’
6. With these details it was quiet easy to identify the 420 bus stop which goes to Terracotta warrior
7. It took 1.5 hours to reach Terracotta warrior
8. It was an amazing place, there were 3 Halls, Hall 1, Hall 2 and Hall 3.
9. Hall 1 has around 6000 life sized soldiers – it was an amazing experience.
10. Got back to the hotel at 6 PM and later went out to visit Muslim st.
11. The muslim st, was similar to wangfu jeng st. in Beijing but arroung 10 times bigger than that place. Here you get chicken, mutton, squid, scorpion etc
12. Next day morning I had a train to Luoyang at 6.30 AM.


Shaolin Temple
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Everyone would be familiar with this place. Yes it’s the Shaolin Temple where many movies had been shooted.
I got a chance to see the Kung Fu show done by the Monks themselves.
In the very less time I had, I was lucky enough that there was a show happening at that time and I could see the show. The show happens one a day at 2 to 3 PM.
We need to buy separate ticket for the show apart from the entry to the place itself.

1. Shaolin temple was an experience by itself.
2. The plan was to reach Luoyang by 8 am, leave my luggage in the Drop Luggage facility in the train station, take a bus go to Shaolin which will take 2 hours and see the place and come back and collect by luggage and my last stretch of train to Shanghai at 11 PM.
3. When I reached the Luoyang I came to know that the luggage facility is only available till 6 pm.
4. I had to take a decision whether to drop the Shaolin temple or take a risk and go to Shaolin temple because I need to reach back to the train station by 6 PM or my luggage will be stuck in the place where as I have a train to take at 11 pm.
5. I decided to take a risk and go to the Shaolin temple.
6. I quickly left the luggage where the security man was confirming if I will be back by 6 PM?, I promised I will be back and took a bus to main bus stop and the time was 10 AM.
7. When I reached the main Bus stop one man asked me if I need to go to the Shaolin temple, and was trying to sell a ticket, when I demanded to show the bus, the bus looked very old mini bus, so I denied to buy the ticket from him
8. I went to the Ticket counter, and there was a lady who helped me , buy the ticket and showed me the bus which goes to Shaolin Temple, this bus was the same one which the other guy showed me. Without having any option got into the bus and it was 11.30 am and I was tensed when the bus will start, finally the bus started at 11.45 am
9. The bus was very slow and stopped in many places collecting some parcels and dispatching it to other places.
10. At 1 pm the bus stopped in a place and the conductor told me to get down. I had a major fight with her saying I cannot and I wanted her to arrange a taxi for me, she could not understand what I said and I could not understand what she said. I tried to take help from BING.com and tried to translate what I wanted to tell. Nothing helped, and she told me get into another Bus, I dint have an option after confirming that it will start in 15 minutes I got into the bus.
11. The bus finally started at 1.30 PM, this bus was even slower and there were fumes from the engine, the driver stopped in a workshop and filled water in the bucket and pouring on the engine.
12. This place was in the center of nowhere, I thought if I should get a hitch hike and carry on since it was already 1.50 PM, but dint do so since the place looked very lonely and at least the Bus I was in was a Gov. Bus.
13. Then by 2.10 PM I reached the Shaolin temple, my dream place, but I had to reach back by 6 PM to the train station, calculating the time I took to reach this place it was almost 3 hrs. So by that calculation I had to leave by 3 PM, which leaves me with 50 mins.
14. This place was on a foot of a hill, and not much vehicles could be seen. It was quiet an isolated place.
15. Before going into the place I decided if there is any other option to travel back other than these horrible buses, and I noticed a Taxi waiting. I spoke to Driver telling that I would pay double the amount if he can drop me in the station for which he did agree.
16. I told him I will be back by 3.15 PM, and he had to drop me back, with that agreement ran into the place and to my luck there was a Kung Fu show that was happening which was performed by the Monks and I could see that show.
17. I Came out of the show, and the place was so huge and I wanted to see the Damo cave (where Damo from India went to China hundreds of years ago and taught the monks Kung Fu and he meditated for 7 yrs in that cave and his face was engraved in the wall) which was 1.5 km away and the time was 2.10 PM.
18. I had to take a decision if I had to return back or take risk and go to the Damo cave.
19. I decided not to take a risk because tonight is the last stretch of my 1 month journey and my flight was on next day from Shanghai which I can’t afford to miss.
20. Ran back to the taxi, thankfully that person was waiting for me, and to my surprise he dropped me in the station at 5 PM. I had my food in a small place outside the station and took my luggage from the station and headed to Shanghai.

Shanghai
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1. Shanghai was an amazing place, particularly the Bund was awesome. This is the Bund picture at night. Bund was nothing but a river side view.
2. Next day my flight was at 4 PM, the airport is out of the city and it takes Rs.2500 by taxi and by metro it is Rs.30, but you need to carry your luggage till metro station. With great difficulty carried my entire luggage and went to the station.
3. I came to know that the flight was delayed, which means I will miss my flight from KL, because I had only 1 hr time for my connecting flight from Kuala Lumpur.
4. When asked for the next flight to Bangalore from KL, it was after a day.
5. Reached KL, and demanded the Malaysian Airline guys to give me a hotel outside airport with a transfer visa, which they did.
6. Had a paid holiday in a 5 start hotel and roamed around in Malaysia Bukit Bintang st. for a day and blew up some more currency in shopping.
7. Returned to Bangalore after a nice day break in Malaysia.
Shopping Tips
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1. I noticed shopping in China was very expensive for branded stuff, where as other things were cheap. Though people told me to bargain, the sellers were not ready to reduce the price much.
2. I found Malaysia was very cheap to shop for branded items.

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Trip Length: 4 weeks
Blog Entries: 1
Photos: 18
Words: 4295

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Blog Entries

Date	Blog Title	Location
August 5th 2015	Epic Trans Siberain Trip	Asia » China » Beijing » Great Wall of China