For me, the most exciting way to travel is arriving at a bustling railway station, looking for your platform, finding your carriage, boarding your train, listening to the whistle as your train leaves the station and then settling down, looking out the window, watching the world rush by…
We’re longterm fans of overland travel in the Halfpintpixie household. For us, the journey often is the destination! Since reading Around the World in 80 Days as a child, I have always loved big journeys!
In 2001, we travelled across Australia by bus. It took us a couple of months, camping by the roadside, sleeping in swags under the stars, melting hot by day, freezing cold at night, sitting on deserted hidden beaches, watching the desert sunset each night, greeting the swarms of flies each morning, seeing a deluge turn the “red centre” green, trekking through deserts, rainforests and cities.
We travelled across the Nullarbor Desert from Perth to Adelaide, up through the centre to Alice Springs, across to Cairns, then down to Sydney via the Whitsundays, Byron Bay & Brisbane.
We followed this with a 2 month bus adventure around New Zealand, we saw temperate rainforests, glaciers, mountains, fjords, amazing hiking trails and more cities!
And then we went home again… to plan our next adventure… South East Asia.
We arrived in steamy Bangkok in 2004, travelled by 3rd class (standing room only) train to the ancient capital Ayutthya, then by first class sleeper to Chiang Mai, later back to Bangkok, then 2nd class sleeper to Koh Samui, and later onwards to Penang in Malaysia. A week later, it was a 1st class sleeper to Kuala Lumpur followed the next week with a first class seat to Singapore. It’s worth mentioning that first train class travel is very affordable here, cheaper than travelling Galway to Dublin in Ireland.
The amazing seat61.com has timetables and all the information you need to plan your train journeys. We used this throughout South East Asia and found it invaluable.
The big one is currently in the planning stages.. London-Japan overland via the Trans-Siberian Railway. Mr. Halfpintpixie has graciously obtained the new edition of Bryn Thomas’ Trans-Siberian Handbook which is very exciting reading.
As our daughter is only 9 months old, this is very muchly a long term plan, probably 2013 or 2014 at this stage (allowing for the arrival of a brother or sister!).
It has been a longterm dream of mine to travel on the Trans-Siberian; to see Russia, Mongolia and China all on one train journey (the train actually goes through The Great Wall!)
To get the whole way from Galway to Tokyo overland (yes, I’m counting boats as overland) will be such an adventure.
As the man in Seat61 rightly says
Flying to Moscow to pick up the Trans-Siberian Railway is like agreeing to run a marathon then accepting a lift in someone’s car for the first mile… Don’t cheat..! If you’re going to go overland to the far East, do it properly, starting at London Waterloo and staying firmly on the ground.
As a vegan family, travelling through Russia will be challenging, but I’m sure it’ll be lots of fun! I’ll be keeping an eye on these folks and their adventures to get hints on food and the journey through veggie eyes.
Let the research and planning commence!!
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If you think the Trans-Siberian sounds exciting, have a read of this excellent account of Isabelle Around the World’s journey in 2004.
I love her motto “It is far more better to have seen it once than to have heard about it a thousand time.” (Mongolian proverb).
Hi
Many thanks for taking the time to read my blog and leave a message.
Many thanks for adding the link to your site.
The Trans Siberian was really an amazing experience and adventure. You will love it!
As a Vegan, Mongolia will be very very very hard on you as the locals live only from yack/sheep/goat meat and yack or hare’s milk.
In Russia you might get by, but good luck!
China should not be a problem at all.
If you have any questions don’t hesitate, as I am still updating my site.
I really loved Mongolia, the locals were really great!
(The litlle story behind seat61.com. That guy loved to travel on Eurostar (London to Paris high speed train) and always ask for seat 61 which is the best seat in the house. It is the bible of Railway Travel!)
I forgot to mentionned it in my website I might ad a quick link on it, thanks for the reminder!
Take care
Isabelle
Not sure if you’ll get this post, but I stumbled upon your plans and had to read more. You’ve done Oz, too! We did the camper van thing from Sydney to Tasmania, Melbourne to Adelaide, across the Nullarbor to lush SEastern Coast of WA and up thru Perth to Darwin, down to Alice/Uluru, up and across the Barkley to Townsville, up to Daintree and back down to Sydney in 2006. It was so awesome!
Before that we’d hoped to do an around the world tour that included an overland from Istanbul to Cairo. That never panned out. But, the overland from Ireland to China sounds VERY TEMPTING! Perhaps if I start working again we could be ready by 2013 ish to meet you along the way!!
@ Inanna Mama, I didn’t realise you were another wanderer! I will see you in Beijing sometime in the next decade for a vegan Peking Duck, it’ll be delightful
We can introduce our lovely children to each other! Now, to start saving for the trip!
[...] will remember my dream trip is to cross from Galway to Japan overland, by train, specifically the Trans Siberian, ahhhhh…. will we ever do it? Yes, we will and Jumbleymama, someday we will meet at the foot [...]