Tickets

“They’re here!”, shrieked Karen excitedly as she eagerly tore open the silver package that she had just signed for. Even before the postman had reached the end of our garden path we were thumbing through the contents – a complete set of train tickets that would enable us to travel from Moscow to Beijing on the Trans-Mongolian Express.

As we had come to expect from Real Russia, everything was in order – everything was as discussed. They had even enclosed a summary of our itinerary in English, which as all of the tickets were printed in either Cyrillic or Mandarin characters, was particularly useful to us! It read:

Moscow - Yekaterinburg, train no 44.
Leaving on 29.01 at 0035, arriving on 30.01 at 1135. Running time is 33 hours. 2nd class without services - £86.00 per ticket.

Yekaterinburg - Irkutsk, train no 64.
Leaving on 31.01 at 1434, arriving on 02.02 at 2237. Running time is 53 hours. 2nd class - £116.00 per ticket.

Irkutsk – Ulan Bator, train no 4.
Leaving on 07.02 at 0513, arriving on 08.02 at 0730. Running time is 13 hours. 1st class - £175.00 per ticket.

Ulan Bator –Beijing, train no 4.
Leaving on 15.02 at 0805, arriving on 16.02 at 1404. Running time 26 hours. 1st class - £210.00 per ticket.

Sorted. Now, with that taken care of we could turn our attention back to the event of the day. After all it was New Year’s Eve and we had a party at Steve and Clair’s to prepare for. Many of our friends from the village would be there and between us we were all contributing to the evening’s festivities. Amongst other things, Karen and I were preparing “Russian Salad” which seemed quite appropriate given our plans for 2009.

Now, where did I put that party wig and false beard?

Inoculations

“The best form of prevention against rabies is make sure you don’t get bitten by a dog”, said Doctor McIntyre, without the faintest hint of a smile and without lifting her gaze from the array of medical text books on her desk. Fantastic. I love the NHS: Pragmatic, common sense advice!

We had travelled the short distance to our General Practitioner’s surgery in the neighbouring village of Ashwell to find out what inoculations we would need to safeguard us during our forthcoming adventure. The list was a long one, but fortunately for both Karen and me, previous holiday destinations had meant that we were already quite well protected against the major risks.

Doctor McIntyre reviewed our Vaccines Record Card, “Hepatitis A – you’re OK there; Typhoid – OK; Tuberculosis – that’s fine; Diphtheria, - you have that; Cholera – up to date; Tetanus – David, you’re OK but Karen will need a booster”

Karen rolled up the sleeve on her right arm whilst the Doctor carefully analysed the contents of her medicine cabinet for the appropriate vaccine. Karen flinched as the doctor purposefully administered the inoculation. “That hurt more than the Belarusian Visa!”, Karen joked as the doctor applied a sticking plaster to her upper arm.

By this stage Doctor McIntyre seemed quite exited as she eagerly thumbed through the pages of her reference books, “It says here”, she continued, “That you may also want to consider additional vaccination against Hepatitis B, Japanese Encephalitis and Tick-borne Encephalitis. But that will be very expensive for you and if I were you I’d take the risk”. Excellent, I thought – that’ll help with the budget. (By the way does anybody know what Tick-borne Encephalitis actually does to you? Oh well, never mind!)

“Malaria prevention – that’s something you do need. Let’s see – you’ll be at risk from China onwards. Start the course 7 days before you get into an infected area, one-a-day whilst you’re there and then 28 days after you return. So all in all, I’ll prescribe you each with 105 days supply. That should cover you nicely”

All things considered – not a bad result then. Mind you, as Karen and I made the short journey home, I couldn’t help thinking that I would be spending a third of next year popping malaria tablets. Nice.

Trans Mongolian Express

“Many thanks for you help, Natasha. I think we’re about there now.” I hung up the phone and breathed a sigh of relief. For the past month, Karen and I had spent many hours on the phone and in email conversations with Natasha in an attempt to book the train journey that would take us from Moscow to Beijing on the Trans Mongolian Express. Natasha had done an excellent job. So patient and so tenacious – like many of her colleagues working at Real Russia.

Since we initially decided to use the Trans Mongolian Express as part of or Overland Adventure, Karen and I had been wresting with the dilemma as to whether or not we should pre book any of the train tickets. In keeping with the overall spirit of our trip, we wanted to travel and live as spontaneously as possible, only working the detail of our trip as and when we needed to. However, in our research into this epic intercontinental rail-road journey we had learnt that the trains were often over subscribed. In principle that wouldn’t be a problem to us - we could just get the next train, but with the Trans Mongolian Express, the trains were sometimes days or even weeks apart and we would be encountering temperatures en route as low as minus 30 or minus 40 degrees Celsius!

To be honest with you, the prospect of getting stuck in central Siberia for a week or so and having to endure day time temperatures lower that we had ever encountered in the heights of winter during one of our alpine skiing trips, didn’t really feel like the ‘perfect experience’. A little reluctantly therefore, we decided it was probably best to purchase some of our train accommodation in advance; thus guaranteeing our passage through the Russian Federation, Mongolia and into China.

Conscious of the fact that booking tickets on the Trans Mongolian Express wasn’t that straightforward we asked Real Russia, the Moscow based travel agency processing our visa applications, to help us. And we’re pleased we did!

It wasn’t so much the huge variety of trains that travel this mammoth route; ranging from slow local commuter trains to international express trains, or indeed the huge array of ticket types and travel classes on offer. It wasn’t our lack of understanding of the ‘international’ tariff, available if certain train permutations were combined together and it wasn’t even that each leg of the journey was undertaken by potentially different service providers operating under different regulations in different countries. No, the biggest problem we faced was determining whether the trains we wanted to use actually existed or not! Our approach had been to select trains that best met our needs from the published timetable, thinking that would be the end of it. “Not quite so simple!”, Natasha remarked as she tried to establish whether the trains we had chosen did in fact run between the towns, on the dates and times specified.

After a conversation with one of the stations along our proposed route she wrote, “Sorry for this confusion but as it turned out it is still under a big question whether the train days are changed… and this is what we are trying to find out now… And I will get back to you as soon as we receive an official information… nobody seems to know about it at the moment.”

Russia sure is going to be an interesting experience!

Visas

“All, I can say is I hope Belarus is worth it”, Karen exclaimed as she closed the lid of the laptop and placed it back on little wooden table at the foot of the stairs. We had just completed our first major round of visa applications and the money was starting to add up.

A week previously we had received a Special Delivery package from the Vietnamese embassy in London containing our passports and visas for legal ingress and egress to that country. However, due to the complexity and dependencies of the visa applications for Belarus, the Russian Federation, Mongolia and China, we had decided to engage a specialist visa application agency. We would apply for all other visas en route.

Having read Bryn Thomas’s excellent reference, ‘Trans Siberian Handbook’ we were completely aware that obtaining visas for some of the aforementioned countries could be particularly challenging. For China, we needed evidence of entry and exit to the country – but as yet, we had no idea of how and when we would cross the country. For Russia, we needed a detailed itinerary of our journey including details of our proposed accommodation – but for us, the whole point of this trip was to be spontaneous - consequently, the required level of detail is something that we would only have once we were actually there!

Oh yes, and then there was Belarus! If you look at a map of eastern Europe you will see that to get the Russian Federation overland you have two main choices: The direct way through Belarus or the long and costly way through the northern Baltic States. As we wanted to travel through Europe as functionally as possible so that we could maximise our time in the more ‘interesting’ places we were keen to pursue the most direct route. However, just for the privilege of passing through Belarus over a 48 hour period, the embassy wanted £166 from us and even then, we had to stipulate precise entry and exit dates – something that we were unable to do. Therefore, our only option was to ‘upgrade’ to a full tourist visa at the bargain price of just £253 for the pair of us! Karen quipped, “At that price - I’m determined to say at least one night in Minsk – just to get my monies worth!”

To help us progress through this sea of red tape we sought the help of Real Russia, a specialist travel agency with a wealth of experience in visa processing. Using there excellent event-driven on-line service we could monitor the progress of our passports as they passed from embassy to embassy.

Whilst we were very happy with the services provided by Real Russia, and whilst we would certainly use them again, writing the cheque still hurt. In total our visa application costs so far have amounted to over £840: Belarus, £253; Russian Federation, £170, Mongolia, £120; China £171, Vietnam, £130.

Ouch!

Resigning

I wasn't looking forward to resigning from my job one bit. But as the early morning autumnal sunshine streamed in to my boss’s office, the conversation was a lot less awkward that I was expecting it to be.

After all, this wasn’t about me being unhappy in my job. It wasn’t about me wanting to work for a competitor. It wasn’t about a bigger salary or a better car. This was about Karen and me. It was about wanting to change our lifestyle; it was about wanting to see the world and it was about wanting to experience new experiences. And there’s not a lot you can say to that.

Indeed, my boss was actually very understanding. After his initial reaction of disappointment, he was soon questioning me eagerly about the detail of our plans – something I was more than happy to share with him; the countries, the transport, the hopes, the fears.

As I left the room he shook my hand, wished me luck and joked how envious he was. So that was that. There would be no going back now. Thirteen weeks of notice and our plans would turn into reality.

Huffkin & Chudleigh

So, we were making progress. We now knew where we were going (roughly!) and when we would go. The next question was - for how long?

Because our travel plans were part of a much wider ‘lifestyle change’ there were only a few constraints that really affected our decision; money and cats. Huffkin and Chudleigh were those cats and today they could be found in their usual daytime spot – in the living room of our little house stretched out on the back of the sofas. These two beautiful British Blue cats were twin brothers which became part of our ‘family’ when they were just kittens. Clearly it would be a huge wrench to leave them, but cats are fairly independent animals and provided they had someone to look after them whilst we were away, we were sure they would be OK. Never-the-less, we didn’t want to leave them for too long.

Over the past couple of years, I had amassed a large number of frequent flyer points gained on my various business trips whilst working for a large international retailer. We had decided to use these to get us back from Thailand at the end of our Overland Adventure and so today we were browsing the British Airways site looking for flights that may suit our needs.

All things considered; the journey that we were embarking on, the money we had available, our concern for Huffkin and Chudleigh and the things that we wanted to do following our return, it felt that this, our first travel opportunity should last about three months.

That decided, we soon found the perfect flight: A midnight departure from Bangkok to London Heathrow in mid April, allowing us to be back at home in Steeple Morden by Easter.

A couple of mouse clicks later and it was done. For 80,000 Airmiles and £245.20 in taxes we had reserved two seats on flight BA0010.

A shriek of excitement from Karen startled Chudleigh enough that he half opened an eye. But with a large sigh, a stretch and a yawn he was soon fast asleep again.

Summer Barbeque

As we approached mid August at least the summer rains seemed to have eased off. However, sat out in the garden of Andy and Ange’s beautiful thatched cottage, I couldn’t help feeling that it was still cold for the time of year. Which in some respects was appropriate, as we were here to talk about skiing of all things!

We have been friends with Andy and Ange since we first moved into the village and when they suggested back in March that we should do a skiing trip together, we jumped at the chance. However since then, Karen and I had floated the idea of the ‘Overland Adventure’, and in order for those plans to progress, we needed to firm up the details for our snowy excursion.

Fortunately, the decision making process for the skiing trip had been made considerably easier by a mutual friend who lives in the next village. A seasoned skier, she had lent us the brochure of a small company that she had used before, specialising in select chalets in Val d’Isere. After a little research, we discovered that Val d’Isere would meet our requirements perfectly; a vast and varied ski area providing a selection of exhilarating runs for our differing abilities, world-renowned, easily accessible off-piste skiing along with good food, vibrant bars, tons of atmosphere and a rather charming old village. On top of that, we had the lure of the chalet itself. We selected ‘La Croix’ a refurbished farmhouse dating from the 1620’s complete with wood panelling and an original stone fireplace for us to congregate around in the evening; sharing a bottle of wine or two and recounting our stories of the day.

Andy and Ange were quite flexible on travel dates, and so we opted to go quite early in the season. After all, Val d’Isere is pretty snow sure with its high altitude and glacial skiing and if we could return before the end of January then Karen and I could depart on our ‘Overland Adventure’ that same month.

So it was set: Andy, Ange, little Oscar of course, Karen and I would head for the French Alps, returning to Steeple Morden by the third week of January. That decided, we could now turn our attention to our wider travel plans.

Googling Around

Peering through the gloom at the rain bouncing off of the patio from the warmth and dryness of our kitchen, it feels more like April than mid July. Never-the-less, this continuation of the awful summer of 2008 gave Karen and me the opportunity to spend time thinking about our plans. Huddled around the laptop, we spent a couple of hours Googling random travel related searches. But this wasn’t as unstructured as it sounds. After all, we had the notes that we made at the pub the previous month which described how we wanted to feel about the trip:

Life changing experience
Challenging
Culturally diverse
Outside our comfort zone
Live and travel like locals
Have a story to tell
Simple existence

I think we had decided on Asia at a very early stage of our planning. It certainly ticked many of our boxes. Despite our travel history to date, Asia was still pretty unknown to us. Sure we had both travelled to India on business and yes we have been to places like Singapore and Hong Kong on holiday, but we wanted to see the ‘real’ 'Asia. The Asia of the spiritualist, the simplist, the culturist and the gastronomist.

Karen read aloud from the contents of a web page. She had found an article describing how it was possible to travel from Moscow to China on the “Trans Mongolian Express”. The intensity of our Googling increased and within half an hour we had it.

We were to embark on a 12,000 mile overland trip from Steeple Morden to Bangkok travelling through Western Europe, Poland, Belarus, the Russian Federation, Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand; utilising public transport and staying with local families wherever possible. Game On!

Pub Lunch

Sunday lunch with Karen at the Waggon & Horses: Roast beef, horseradish sauce, Sandra's Yorkshire puddings and an excellent bottle of Rioja. Normally, I’d be pretty content with this. Normally, I’d eat my pudding and think life doesn’t get any better that this. But today was different. This wasn’t just another Sunday lunch. This was the Sunday lunch were we had agreed to make some pretty fundamental changes to our lifestyle, and as a consequence, took the first step towards our ‘Overland Adventure’.

Karen and I moved out to Steeple Morden, an idyllic village in South Cambridgeshire, a couple of years ago. Instantly, we achieved many of the things in life that we had always dreamed after: A lovely house, beautiful surroundings, great opportunities for outdoor activities, a sense of community, a new set of like minded friends. The only blot on this seemingly perfect landscape was that we both remained in relatively high pressure careers and so the time we had available to enjoy this utopia was limited.

But today was to change all of that. After much soul searching (and drinking of Rioja!) we decided to put our careers on hold and to spend our time in the pursuit of much more rewarding activities – the first of which was to be a period of extended travel.

To date, Karen and I had been very lucky. We had been on some wonderful holidays to far flung places across the globe: America, Canada, Australia & South Africa to name but a few. Fantastic and memorable though these trips were – they were just ‘holidays’ rather than ‘cultural experiences’: Two to three weeks at most – and because we wanted to ‘see’ as much of our destinations as possible – usually performed at break-neck speed with very little time to really ‘understand’ the culture and the people that we met along the way.

The first time that we ever discussed the concept of travelling was back in 2002. We had just returned from a three week trip to Hong Kong, Australia and Bali; covering as usual, about as much as it is possible to do in three weeks without suffering from stress or sleep depravation! When we returned, we started to reminisce about the holiday saying things like, “Wouldn’t it have been great to have camped out at Ayres Rock”, “Wouldn’t it have been great to spend more time talking to those Balinese farmers” or “Wouldn’t it have been great just to spend an afternoon in Perth watching the world go by!”.

It took a long time though for those early ideas of travelling to come to fruition. As most people tend to, Karen and I could always find a thousand reasons not to embark on such an adventure – “I just need to finish this project at work – then we can talk about it”. “We just need to get a bit more money behind us”. “Let’s see what happens to the economy next year”. Indeed, it took us 6 years to realise that the number of reasons not to do a trip like this never decreases. If you think about it long enough and hard enough you can always find new reasons to convince yourself that now is not the right time to achieve your ambitions.

Of course, we know now that for those six years we were having the wrong conversations. We would devote our time and energy to discussing why we shouldn’t do it rather than why we should. And that’s why the 29th June was different: For the first time ever our conversation focussed on the reasons why we should go travelling and why we should do it at this point in our lives.

So that was the hard decisions made. All that was left to do now was to work out where to go, when to go and for how long. Simple.