Eddie77

Hola! My last and final entry of my travelblog as I returned home last saturday and facing the expected huge jetlag! Our departure from Ussuriysk, Russia, was a pretty early one but that didn't matter as we all wanted to head out the country asap and enter China just as quickly :o The busride itself was a pretty comfy one with mainly russians and chinese, and 3 dutchies! Thanks to the very thoughtful guide who helped us filling out all the details on the exit/entry forms minutes before arriving at the border. It took us about 2 hours waiting before we were allowed to make our way through customs, it went pretty quickly afterwards as we received a special foreigner treatment! We were picked out of the massive queue and after a thorough examination of our ... read more

Hi Folks, It's me again :) I know, it has been a while but finding access to the web in Siberia is like finding a needle in a haystack......Rite, we arrived in Irkutsk saturday week ago after 78 hours on the train which was quite an experience! Moscow has treated us very well and it was pretty emotional saying goodbye :p Our train departed at 23.30 sharp so we were there at least 30 mins in advance - don't want to miss this one aye:p Our compartiments were very basic with 2 bunks on each side and our gear was supplied by our very own provenitsa - they weren't as grumpy as people told us :) After a few miles we decided to go for a short recon stroll but we stranded after a few meters ... read more

Dear all, Just a few days before I head off to Moscow where I will meet my 2 buddies Jay and Honza to take the train all the way down to Beijing! And yes, it's the mother of all trainrides: The Trans Siberian Express!! A big dream is finally coming true - making an epic trainjourney that is :) Preparations started basically after Paddy's day this year(thought it was more bartalk than becoming reality) and took about 4 months in total until I've collected my necessary visa for both Russia and China so that I could book outgoing and returning flights. The russian embassy was already challenging enough as it took me about 3,5 hours to get my visa sorted....gotta love communism. Chinese visa on the other hand took about 10 minutes in total, chinese efficiency ... read more