So says Time Out's Great Train Journeys of the World about 5000 mile journey on the trans-siberian railway. This is a journey I took this year. We left home by bus, then first class train to London, where we had a champagne (not very ethical I'm sure!) in the longest champagne bar in the world. We boarded Eurostar that lunchtime, and arrived in Brussels in the afternoon. A short train ride later and we were in Cologne for dinner and the rest of the evening.
Later on day 1 we boarded our first sleeper, bound for Warsaw
Day 2 we arrived in Warsaw, and had lunch and some chill out time there, before boarding our second sleeper train to Moscow, through Belarus. So, 48 hours of travelling time and 1924 miles later and we were in Moscow for 3 days.
Then we started the third day of travel. Yaroslavsky station in Moscow saw the start of, arguably, the greatest train journey in the world (and said to be the longest, except we went trans-mongolian, which is slightly shorter. At 21.35 Moscow time we boarded Train number 4 bound for Beijing.
The train travelled through western Russia and into Siberia, and then into the steppe land of Mongolia. You go to bed one night and wake up the next to the rolling green hills, desolate except for the occasional ger
Then gradually the scenery shifts as you enter and traverse the Gobi Desert
We were even lucky enough to see wild camels. I had pretty much given up hope, and then there they were!
The sunsets on the Mongolian plains
Later that same night we arrive in China to a fanfare! Literally. The bogies then need to be changed, which is a lengthy process. We then have a quick shop in the station shop, which is possibly the most exciting thing I had ever done in my life before that moment. Words cannot describe how excited I was to be in China. Then I somehow managed to sleep, and woke up to China proper. People in conical straw hats line the edges of the railing, digging and planting and tending to things
Later that same day we arrived in Beijing station. So 6 days and 4735 miles later and we are at our destination of Beijing (this so far makes 8 days of travelling and 6659 miles totally)
After 3 days in Beijing the journey begins again with an overnight train to Shanghai
10 hours and 914 miles later and we are in Shanghai (total so far 8.5 days and 7573 miles)
The next day we left China on a ferry found bound for Kobe, Japan
So, 2 days and 1093 miles later and we were in the land of the rising sun. So far we have spent 10.5 days travelling and 8666 miles have been traversed. What an adventure!
From Kobe we travelled to Kyoto, and then after a couple of days in Kyoto we travelled by Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo
On the last day we took a private railway line up to the lakes of Fuji. Unfortunately Fuji was surrounded in low lying cloud that day, so despite climbing some metres upwards, on foot, not cable car, we could really only see the foothills of Fuji, and the space in the sky where the summit would be
It's hard to be precise, but I think we travelled about 1636 miles within Japan on trains
So about 10.5 total days of travelling time, plus odd couples of hours here and there, and just over 10000 miles travelled, by train, bus, underground train, boat, ferry, monorail, coach, minibus, rickshaw and pink swan shaped peddle boat! And that gets you half way round the world!
Unfortunately we didn't have time to make the same journey home again, so we had to fly. But I am committed to eradicating flying from here on in!
Of course this does still have a carbon impact, but it is lower than by flying, and happening at ground level, and is not compounded by some of the additional gases in aviation pollution.
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