This travel report describes the travel from the Lao PDR to Germany/England on the overland route. The tour started in Lao PDR and went over Vietnam, China, Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany. Most of the distance was covered by the transiberian railway, a comfortable, safe and relatively cheap way for moving forward. The starting date was the middle of May 2010 and the complete travel took about 30 days. In this introduction part I would like to present some dry statistics about the trip and some information about preparing the trip such as logistics, visas etc. Later on I will present some pictures and descriptions about places I visited.
The motivation of traveling back landward was rather simple and not concerned by environmental or volcanic caused issues (greetings to Iceland at this point!). It was rather the opportunity of doing simply nothing besides thinking about past, present and future, learn about new cultures, enjoying the drinks and and and – that’s it. Additionally I have to mention that the idea wasn’t born by me. I rather heard by accident that my colleague Sam who volunteered at LIRE for almost a year wanted to leave homewards at the same time on the overland track. Therefore the decision was much easier to make and we traveled together back to Europe. This blocks contains following chapters:
Introduction
about myself
Travel preparation
Travel statistics
Hanoi; Nanning, Shanghai, Bejing, Ulan-Bataar, Irkutsk/Baikal Lake, Moscow, Berlin
About myself
My name is Jakob and I lived in Laos for two and a half year working for the Lao Institute for Renewable Energy (LIRE; www.lao-ire.org ). I started the job directly after my graduation as an Energy / Environmental Engineer. Before my study I made an education as a chemist in Germany. My working field in Laos included research on biomass related energies such as biofuels, biomass gasification and other kinds of renewable energies. Since the LIRE Institute was a start-up project without settled structures and directions the daily work was exciting and challenging. At this point I would like to express my sincere thanks and best wishes to my fellows and colleagues for the great time in Lao PDR and hope that we can see each other in future again. Here comes Sams´ introduction:
I am Sam and I volunteered for 8 months as technical advisor intern on LIRE’s pico hydro team. I began this role shortly after graduation and wanted to gain some new experience and face some new challenges. I had a great time, really enjoying my work and getting to see some very remote parts of the country. This trip back is an extra bonus, not having to be abruptly back in the UK and getting a understanding of the real distance involved by seeing a cross-section of the countries between the UK and Lao.
Travel preparation
Visa:
The preparation started about one month before departure, mostly by organizing the demanded visas. Vientiane is a great place for getting the visas done, since embassies in the Lao capital are much less busy than in Bangkok, Phnom Phen, Hanoi or Beijing. All embassies were quite helpful and cooperative. Besides the passport and one passport picture some dollars were needed to get the visa done. The table below summarizes the visa fees for German citizens which needed to be paid at the embassies in Vientiane:
The visa proceeding took on average 3-4 days. Most embassies offeredalso the rush service within one working day, however the service fee mostly doubled then. For the Russian visa, it is necessary to organize the invitation letter in advance which several internet travel agencies offer . With a credit card and 3-5 working days the invitation letter arrives per Fax and email which is sufficient for the Russian embassy in Vientiane. It should be noted that Visa regulation varies from nationality to nationality. Especially the Russian embassy in Vientiane provides only Russian tourist visa for people working or staying for a longer period in Laos, so it is advisable to contact them in advance since regulations can change from time to time. At all visa procedures you have to declare days for entering and leaving the country, so you need a rough figure about your planned travel periods before applying for the visas. The Belarus visa was arranged at the very last opportunity at the embassy in Moscow (arriving Friday morning in Moscow and booked the train on Sunday via Belarus...) . You need following items when applying:
· Passport
· train ticket
· copies of your passport; Russian immigration card; train ticket
· and money
Opening hours at the Belarus embassy in Moscow is 10:00–12:00 and 16:00 – 16:30. Make sure that you pop up at the embassy around 9:00 since its quite busy and slow progressing there. The visa fee for British citizens is simply ridiculous, however be aware that the British charge the same amount to Belarus citizens when traveling to the UK. Anyway, the Ministers of foreign affairs should do their homework and solve this issue, since paying 158 USD for just using the Belarus train tracks for 10 hours is a joke!
Besides the visa, not much else was needed. I was lacking a proper backpack since I was too sticky buying a proper one. As a result my 15 Dollar Chinese bag broke around 5 times and I was at some point tired with my Chinese sewing kit… Don’t forget to bring some cards and games like chess for all those long, long journeys!
Dry statistics of the travel
For those who wish a short overview about costs, distances and travel destinations, here is a quick summary about it. Starting with everything transport related the chronological summary is listed below:
For calculating the distances I used a GPS program so there might be little variations with the exact length between the cities. Same with the recorded travel time which consists also waiting times at the border and is therefore not really accurate. However the time reflects more or less the duration between stepping in the transport vehicle and getting of it. The ticket price reflects what I paid for it, sometimes including a small commission for the guest house, ticket agent etc. All train tickets were purchased at the train station or at a licensed ticket office which was e.g. necessary for international routes going from China to Mongolia. The next table provides an overview about the place visited and approximated costs related with it. The table didn’t includes expenses for food and liquid food stuff such as Beer Hoi, Vodka, water etc… but can be approximately accounted with 10 USD per day.
Hanoi
The 24 hours bus ride from Vientiane (southern bus station) to Hanoi was relatively pleasant on the sleeper style bus. Well it would have been if not for quite a large fire in the luggage compartment directly below our seats and a distinct lack of fire exits for those at the back (our poor souls). Furthermore, about 20 minutes after the Lao-Viet boarder which was obviously frequented by wildlife traders and suspicious steel boxes, a dog transporter must have been slipped from the road about 100 m down into a valley. A lot of spectators and more or less alive dogs rested at the scenery and we crossed the fingers for our bus another time.
We only had a very short time in Hanoi but wished it could have been longer. It’s very lively, maybe too lively on the traffic front. However the deliciously refreshing Beer Hoi, available from vendors on small plastic stools, was definitely worth carefully crossing the roads for. We enjoyed hopping from place to place drinking with an old college and recounting stories. Also try smoking a traditional bamboo pipe. We also met Neri who volunteered at LIRE in 2008/2009 and introduced Italian offensive and defensive tactics to LIRE s´ football team and contributed to the Biofuel program. The idea of putting a tiger in someone’s bed on recent companies’ vacation was originated from him (Cheers Neri for the good times and all the best for your diplomatic career!)
Pictures: Tea Pipe, crowded streets, Beer Hoi and the crafty diplomat
Nanning (China)
The bus from Hanoi to Nanning was easy to arrange through our guesthouse (Blue sky hostel, recommendable!) and relatively pleasant. It was an incredible feeling coming from spending so long in the quite smallness of Lao to the enormity of Nanning, with its row after row of skyscrapers intertwined by superhighways. Nothing prepared me for the sheer difference in scale. A night was spent in transit in this huge city was probably enough. The very popular evening ballroom dancing in the parks and the night market were worth the stroll though.
Picture: Train Station Nanning
Shanghai
A 30 hour train ride later on hard seats the gigantic theme continued in Shanghai. The primary reason for being there was to catch the World EXPO which had opened just over a month ago. The expo was worth braving the crowds for some interesting pavilions and structures. For once the Brits got it right with an interesting and original design, complete with artificial lawn to relax on. However Jakob was perfectly happy with his German Beer since the queue in front of the pavilion was extraordinary long and waiting time was not under 6 hours! The EXPO organizers choose the topic green cities and had some thematic pavilions, sculptures and other interesting things in place. Furthermore around 200 countries were represented.
There are some great small places of the main streets of Shanghai for very fresh noodles and extensive selections of kebabs. Furthermore it should be said that the public transport system and particularly the subway is excellent developed and understandable for foreigners, tickets costs around 0.5 US$ per ride.
Beijing
The fast train onky needed 10 hours for the 1300 km distance from Shanghai to Bejing. Unfortunately we bought seatless tickets and indeed that meant a seatless night. The hostel in Hutang was excellently located in an old courtyard, if a little pricy. Tickets could be brought for the Beijing-Ulan Bataar train trip only from the International Hotel you can ask for information here: 010-65120507. You need to pay in Yuan but there is a exchange in the Hotel. Unfortunately since time was quite limited on this trip we just could stay for one night and didn’t see much of the city.
Ulan Bataar
The train journey from Beijing to Ulan Bataar was one of the most interesting. Much quicker than expected out of Beijing the landscape becomes barren and more and more of a desert. Vast amounts of empty space are hardly occupied apart from a few wind farms and brick houses. The custom at the Chinese – Mongolian boarder took about 7 hours since the wheels of the train needed to be changed for the proper Russian size. At the departure from Chinese boarder the national song (at least I guess so… was played.
Pictures: Landscape on the travel Bejing - Ulan Bataar; Sand storm in Ulan Bataar
Arriving in Ulan Bataar where a sand storm blowed the surface around we were immediately met by countless people offering free lifts to their guest houses. One of which we were very happy to have accepted as we arrived at the excellently located, and very friendly, family run Golden Gobi. Taking advantage of their services we soon booked onto a 3 day tour of the Terg National Park and booked our onward train to Irkutsk as well. It´s well worth, even if just staying for a short time like ourselves, getting out into the countryside and staying in a ger. The tour organized was perhaps a little empty on the itenary but we managed to go on some walks and helped some people put up a ger which was great fun.
Picture: Horse ride to an old monastry; in front of the black market in Ulan Bataar
Irkutsk / Great Lake Baikal
The train from Ulan Bataar left at 13.00 arriving around 21.00 at the Russian boarder. At the very last stop before the boarder the train was doubling its passengers with loads of smugglers. In our cabin smugglers tried to bring 50 pairs of finest Chinese blue jeans across the boarder which were more or less creatively hidden in the lagguage and by simply wearing 5 pairs plus taping countless others on the body. We wished them for such great efforts success however the Russian custom officer confiscated around 20 pairs of the jeans so they went fairly successful this time. Another very enjoyable leg of the journey, particularly after Ulan-Ude where the train transverses the coast of the clear blue lake Baikal. Irkutsk was a great surprise too, easy to navigate by foot and full of interesting old wooden houses. The busy public spaces make and excellent place to enjoy a beer if the weather is good and the weather was good!
Picture: Great Lake Baikal seen from the train; old wooden house in Irkutsk
A mini bus can be caught to Olkhon Island at the Baikal Lake from the bus station which is around 5 km from the train station located. It takes about 7 hours including the short ferry ride. At this point its worth to mention just some of its stunning numbers: The lake is the world oldest and deepest lake (1642m) and contains one fifths of the worlds liquid fresh water reserves! It is surrounded by mountains and due to its age and isolation contains endemic flora and fauna e.g. the only known fresh water seal. During November until the end of April the lake is covered with ice and capable of carrying trucks and cars. Below are some nice shots of the Baikal.
Picture: Sunset at the Baikal; artist capturing the magical cliff
We stayed in the Nikita’s guesthouse, which is a large and efficiently run compound of accommodation. On our third day on the island an excellent bike ride to the north made us regret not doing a small camping tour on the island. Bike can be hired along with tents and excellent advice from Arthur (ratna (at) mail.ru) who is just behind Nikitas guest house located. After watching the opening match of the world cup we started with vodka in veins and lead in legs to an ambitious 80 km sandy grounded mountain bike trip, trying to reach the northern end of the island. The track was marvelous with sand dunes, forests, flower fields and great beaches. Unfortunately due to lack of food, drinks and late departure we had to give up right before the last kilometers and return back to the guest house. Its just another reason coming back one more time to this great place.
Picture: Fantastic scenerie at the lake
Picture: Mountainbike tracks trough colorfoul forests
Irkutsk - Moscow
Once you should experience the Trans-siberian railway feeling sitting for a longer period in the cabin and simply do nothing besides chatting around with your cabin neighbors, playing chess, cards and watch out the window. It was a pleasant trip and an excellent opportunity watching the greatness of the country, its incredible distances and to follow the changes of landscape.
Picture: Catharina the great, Babuskha and lucky Sam; happy Jakob and typical transsib food
Moscow
The more or less last destination of trip brought us to Moscow. Arriving at 4.30 am it was pretty cold and felt like a jump in the cold water. The first thing was to arrange the Belarus visa since the train to Berlin was booked already for Sunday. We left the luggage at the train station and waited at the embassy for the visa procedure. After sorting this out we went to the hostel called Chocolate which was an excellent place and worth its fees (25 USD per person in 6 bed dorm).
The metro system in Moscow is incredible, you can go anywhere you want in Moscow and have to pay always the same rate of 23 Ruble (around 0,60 USD). We managed to visit the Kremlin, several parks and museums and and and. However only two days in Moscow its far too short and again worthwhile to come back again.
Picture: Military parade at the kremlin, Sam at the Basilika
Picture: One of many Lenin statues in Moscow; Rocket man
Moscow – Berlin
Another 30 hours drive on the train traveling through Belarus and Poland, Berlin was the end of the travel. In our cabin the brave Russian officer Konstantin entertained us with his Russian English skills. He was capable of several fighting techniques such as Judo, taekwondo and other Russian disciplines. Moreover on breakfast time he got his three beers already, quite impressive!
Picture: wheel change at the Belarus - Poland border
