Trans-Siberian/Mongolian Departure

Post date: 22-Oct-2009 12:01:23

In less than an hour, Serena and I depart on the Trans-Siberian Railway destined for Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and Beijing, China. We will be offline for the better part of the next 10 days, but we'll be quick to catch up once we're in China with a little internet time on our hands - and something faster than Russia's 15kB/s down speed!

While the true Trans-Siberian Railway travels all the way to Vladivostok at the far East coast of Russia, we will be taking a different direction. At Ulan Ude, approximately 3/4 the way, we will be diverting to the Southern route taking us into Mongolia and eventually China. This is called the Trans-Mongolian Railway and is considered by many to be the more interesting route.

The Trans-Siberian Railway is important to Serena and I for two reasons. First off, it's a monumental journey taking us along the third-longest single continuous railway service in the world. The Trans-Mongolian line measures at more than 8000km long and is very much one of those "once in a lifetime adventures" that must be endured to be appreciated.

The second reason is that it marks the halfway point both physically and chronologically in our 6 month trip around the world. We are now 3 months into our journey and have explored a lot of Europe creating many, many great memories. We have 3 more months ahead of us and large parts of South-East Asia to explore - China, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines await.

The Trans-Siberian Railway marks a great milestone for us; we can now say that our trip has a very distinct past, present and future. We've tasted wonderful cheeses in France and sailed around the Greek Isles; we've been taken in as family in Italy and slept on airport floors in Switzerland; we've seen distant relatives in England and met new found friends in Germany. Throughout the past 3 months we have made a great many wonderful memories. If the past is any indication of the adventures to come during the next 3 months, we are in for a great time.

See you in a couple weeks!