1. Planning the Trip

My last trip was two glorious weeks travelling around Japan last month and I am ready to begin my next one. I was going to break my golden rule of travel and return to Japan, but suddenly from somewhere I thought, wouldn't it be great to travel across Russia by train?

This trip will be a long time in the planning, but that doesn't matter because the kitty is empty and will take time to refill. A journey like this will take more work than my previous holidays, this one will involve much detailed precision planning due to the type of trip - the Trans Siberian Railway! Rattling along by train across China, to places one only hears about on travel shows, or see written on maps - where people wear funny clothes and sleep in round, white tents, or ride camels and race across the Gobi desert or wear big fur hats in a snowy white world and say “Na Zdorovie”!

Just from my foray into the world of Trans Siberia websites, there are many and varied ways to do this. The easiest way would be to do a tour (normally I do not do tours, I book everything myself and plan everything myself, I like to travel independently, I can stay as long or as short as I like and choose the places to visit). But ... this one would, I think, be better executed as a group tour. I wouldn't want to get stranded in Outer Mongolia all on my lonesome or get lost in the middle of Russia on my pat malone! Getting lost in Japan or France is one thing, but getting lost way, way far away, thousands of miles away could put a damper on things a bit. But, and here's another but, the tours are not cheap, some costing thousands and thousands of dollars. For someone who doesn't even own a house, spending thousands of dollars riding a rain for two weeks - I can hear the family now, "You want to do what"? "You want your head read"!

There are cheaper options and these are what I will be exploring while I'm saving. But there, this is really only the first day and I have a long way to go before it becomes a reality.

I will probably post some useful website in the side bar at some time or other. As they say in Russian - До следующего поста (Do sleduyushchego posta)