The last Big Trip™: Goodbye Britain! The epic trip back to Australia
As we all know, I've been planning to return to Australia by the end of this year. But it's only now, a week before I start out, that the last parts to this truly epic trip has fallen into place and I can now publish my final itinerary.
Plans started back in February this year, when I was still a Support Manager at work and hadn't been made redundant yet. I had begun to make plans for a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway, booking early to get a decent discount, and it all blossomed from there, ultimately turning into a core part of my trip back home to Australia (and therefore fulfilling one of my last wishes, made several years ago). My trip is ultimately broken down into the following parts:
The first part starts with the physical departure from London - my home for over the last nine years - by Eurostar to Brussels late Friday morning of the 15th, staying in Belgium for the weekend for one last gathering with my extended family, before crossing into the Netherlands and stopping in The Hague for a two-day break, and then Amsterdam one last time (as Amsterdam was the first European city I ever visited over 9 years ago, so I think it's fitting it's one of my last), before a quick dash to the German capital of Berlin on Thursday to switch trains to the Sibirjak service, taking the next 1.5 days to roll through Poland (via Poznan and Warsaw) and Belarus (via Brest and Minsk) through to Russia, arriving in Moscow during the early hours of Saturday morning.
After a day or two stay in the Russian capital, the big adventure begins: 3 weeks on the Trans-Mongolian Railway, rolling steadily east through European Russia to visit Suzdal on the Russian Golden Ring, the Tatar capital of Kazan, through the Urals and past the physical border of Europe and into Asia, through Siberia for a few days (living completely on the train for days) to a few days at Lake Baikal, then south via Ulan-Ude and over the border to the Mongolian capital of Ulaan Bataar. Here I will stay for a week to explore the deserts, yurts and plains of traditional Mongolian nomads. Then it's back on the train for another few days, eventually crossing the border into China and eventually finishing at the Chinese capital, Beijing.
After a few days exploring the Chinese capital and seeing the Great Wall of China, it's more trains! This time down the coast to Shanghai for a few days, then back west to Xi'an, then tracing down south via Guilin eventually to Hong Kong for a few days, with good potential for a side-trip across the mouth of the Pearl River to Macau on the other side for a day-trip.
Saturday 5 October has me taking the first flight of the trip, 1.5 months into it, with a quick hop courtesy of Air Asia from Hong Kong over to Bangkok.
With a day or two in Bangkok, I set off on a month-long loop of Indochina, heading north to Chiang Mai, on a boat along the river Mekong into Laos and eventually to Vientiane, a quick hope to Hanoi for a few days (including a visit to Halong Bay), then an overnight train to Hue and Hoi An, another aerial hop to Ho Chi Minh City for a few days, then back west over the border into the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, a few days at Siem Reap and the Angkor Wat, and then back via Battambang back into the Thai capital of Bangkok again a month later at the beginning of November.
With another day or two in the Thai capital, it's now down south towards the Malaysian border for a few days in national parks and beaches in the Krabi region, before crossing the border and spending a few days in Penang on the western Malaysian coast, before heading further south via the capital Kuala Lumpur and Melaka, before arriving in Singapore for a few days. A aerial side-step to Brunei will follow, staying in its capital Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB), with another one into Indonesia, staying in its capital Jakarta, moving east across Java to Bandung, Yogykarta and the Borobodur complex, a climb up Mt Bromo, then crossing the Java Stait to Bali, ending in Ubud and Dempasar for a few days.
Saturday 6 December has me taking the last flight of the trip back to my home country for the first time in over 3.5 years, with another quick hop courtesy of Air Asia from Bai to the Western Australian state capital of Perth for an overnight stay.
The last hurrah! Sunday morning has me board the Indian-Pacific, for another trans-continental rail-trip (the second one for this trip!) across southern Australia from the western coast to the eastern, three days across my home country's deserts with a halt in Cook, Adelaide, Broken Hill and eventually into Sydney, for a three-day stop-over, before the final JetStar aerial hop back to my hometown and into the arms of my family, in Melbourne.
One hell of a itinerary, hey? But I did say it would be, considering it may very well turn out to be one last truly epic backpacking trip before grounding myself semi-permanently in Melbourne for who knows how long!
I already had leave from work to take the above holiday from London to Hong Kong - my initial arrangement would have been to fly back to London from HK, but due to permanently leaving the UK and with some extra funding care of my redundancy pay-out, I'm able to extend the original arrangement onwards to Australia - which means that not long after booking the Trans-Mongolian Railway in February, I was already able to start making arrangements regarding visas and hotel/hostel booking. Most of the hard part was actually hashing out an official itinerary, plotting possible dates for everything among multiple departure dates and planning backwards from there (constantly changing as new trips were discovered and I had to adjust to connect them all, and then majorly rehashed when I was made redundant), then dashing around central London during June and July acquiring visas (a transit visa through Belarus, and official tourist visas through Russia, Mongolia, China and Vietnam); I'm travelling on my Australian passport for the entire trip instead of my British one (visas were cheaper, surprisingly, and it turns out easier travelling through southeast Asia). With most of the trips being inclusive of accommodation and transport, it was only stitching together each part and getting everything arranged which was the final challenge.
I've never taken a trip this long - or this involved - before, so it will certainly be one to remember. So will the price: I've broken all records and spent just over £10,000 pounds on this epic adventure - 5 different trips, accommodation, train tickets and air flights - but that's for 17 weeks (or 4 months) of solid backpacking across three continents and 18 different countries.
So.....who wants a visit once I've returned to Australia in the New Year of 2015? :)
This entry was originally posted at http://mnemonia.dreamwidth.org/338234.html. Comments may be left on either entry.
Plans started back in February this year, when I was still a Support Manager at work and hadn't been made redundant yet. I had begun to make plans for a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway, booking early to get a decent discount, and it all blossomed from there, ultimately turning into a core part of my trip back home to Australia (and therefore fulfilling one of my last wishes, made several years ago). My trip is ultimately broken down into the following parts:
The first part starts with the physical departure from London - my home for over the last nine years - by Eurostar to Brussels late Friday morning of the 15th, staying in Belgium for the weekend for one last gathering with my extended family, before crossing into the Netherlands and stopping in The Hague for a two-day break, and then Amsterdam one last time (as Amsterdam was the first European city I ever visited over 9 years ago, so I think it's fitting it's one of my last), before a quick dash to the German capital of Berlin on Thursday to switch trains to the Sibirjak service, taking the next 1.5 days to roll through Poland (via Poznan and Warsaw) and Belarus (via Brest and Minsk) through to Russia, arriving in Moscow during the early hours of Saturday morning.
After a day or two stay in the Russian capital, the big adventure begins: 3 weeks on the Trans-Mongolian Railway, rolling steadily east through European Russia to visit Suzdal on the Russian Golden Ring, the Tatar capital of Kazan, through the Urals and past the physical border of Europe and into Asia, through Siberia for a few days (living completely on the train for days) to a few days at Lake Baikal, then south via Ulan-Ude and over the border to the Mongolian capital of Ulaan Bataar. Here I will stay for a week to explore the deserts, yurts and plains of traditional Mongolian nomads. Then it's back on the train for another few days, eventually crossing the border into China and eventually finishing at the Chinese capital, Beijing.
After a few days exploring the Chinese capital and seeing the Great Wall of China, it's more trains! This time down the coast to Shanghai for a few days, then back west to Xi'an, then tracing down south via Guilin eventually to Hong Kong for a few days, with good potential for a side-trip across the mouth of the Pearl River to Macau on the other side for a day-trip.
Saturday 5 October has me taking the first flight of the trip, 1.5 months into it, with a quick hop courtesy of Air Asia from Hong Kong over to Bangkok.
With a day or two in Bangkok, I set off on a month-long loop of Indochina, heading north to Chiang Mai, on a boat along the river Mekong into Laos and eventually to Vientiane, a quick hope to Hanoi for a few days (including a visit to Halong Bay), then an overnight train to Hue and Hoi An, another aerial hop to Ho Chi Minh City for a few days, then back west over the border into the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, a few days at Siem Reap and the Angkor Wat, and then back via Battambang back into the Thai capital of Bangkok again a month later at the beginning of November.
With another day or two in the Thai capital, it's now down south towards the Malaysian border for a few days in national parks and beaches in the Krabi region, before crossing the border and spending a few days in Penang on the western Malaysian coast, before heading further south via the capital Kuala Lumpur and Melaka, before arriving in Singapore for a few days. A aerial side-step to Brunei will follow, staying in its capital Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB), with another one into Indonesia, staying in its capital Jakarta, moving east across Java to Bandung, Yogykarta and the Borobodur complex, a climb up Mt Bromo, then crossing the Java Stait to Bali, ending in Ubud and Dempasar for a few days.
Saturday 6 December has me taking the last flight of the trip back to my home country for the first time in over 3.5 years, with another quick hop courtesy of Air Asia from Bai to the Western Australian state capital of Perth for an overnight stay.
The last hurrah! Sunday morning has me board the Indian-Pacific, for another trans-continental rail-trip (the second one for this trip!) across southern Australia from the western coast to the eastern, three days across my home country's deserts with a halt in Cook, Adelaide, Broken Hill and eventually into Sydney, for a three-day stop-over, before the final JetStar aerial hop back to my hometown and into the arms of my family, in Melbourne.
One hell of a itinerary, hey? But I did say it would be, considering it may very well turn out to be one last truly epic backpacking trip before grounding myself semi-permanently in Melbourne for who knows how long!
I already had leave from work to take the above holiday from London to Hong Kong - my initial arrangement would have been to fly back to London from HK, but due to permanently leaving the UK and with some extra funding care of my redundancy pay-out, I'm able to extend the original arrangement onwards to Australia - which means that not long after booking the Trans-Mongolian Railway in February, I was already able to start making arrangements regarding visas and hotel/hostel booking. Most of the hard part was actually hashing out an official itinerary, plotting possible dates for everything among multiple departure dates and planning backwards from there (constantly changing as new trips were discovered and I had to adjust to connect them all, and then majorly rehashed when I was made redundant), then dashing around central London during June and July acquiring visas (a transit visa through Belarus, and official tourist visas through Russia, Mongolia, China and Vietnam); I'm travelling on my Australian passport for the entire trip instead of my British one (visas were cheaper, surprisingly, and it turns out easier travelling through southeast Asia). With most of the trips being inclusive of accommodation and transport, it was only stitching together each part and getting everything arranged which was the final challenge.
I've never taken a trip this long - or this involved - before, so it will certainly be one to remember. So will the price: I've broken all records and spent just over £10,000 pounds on this epic adventure - 5 different trips, accommodation, train tickets and air flights - but that's for 17 weeks (or 4 months) of solid backpacking across three continents and 18 different countries.
So.....who wants a visit once I've returned to Australia in the New Year of 2015? :)
This entry was originally posted at http://mnemonia.dreamwidth.org/338234.html. Comments may be left on either entry.