Job Discussion Forums

[zaneth]

Waxwing, you weanie! The train? Hitchhiking, man, hitchhiking. And you call yourself a Russia vet...

When I was first here and still planning to take the train to China, a number of my Russian acquaintances were somewhat incredulous. They just don't see the romance in it. Reminds me of when I was in England and going on about the fields and hedges and stone walls and sheep.

I hope you'll at least be taking the open car ticket (platzkart is it?). Last time I checked it was still dirt cheap, even though the guide books were talking about it increasing in price.

[waxwing]

Kinda difficult to hitch from Chita to Khabarovsk dontcha think?

To be honest, I've done a couple of 1-2 dayers in купе and I don't see it anything particularly romantic either. Certainly nothing romantic about those friggin toilets.. bleach.
3rd class you must be taking the michael
It's cheap enough kupe. I'll either get some kind of bargain airfare (hah) to Vladivostok if I'm lazy, or if I'm feeling adventurous, energetic and not as ridiculously poor as usual, I'll do it in 3 trains, one to maybe Omsk (or Yekaterinburg) and then one more stop for Irkutsk. Apart from many other disadvantages with that plan (e.g. middle of August), there's the trickiness of having to book tickets separately.

I am basically very lazy but I'll be kicking myself for some time if I don't take the chance to do it now.

PS I'm quite tempted by the BAM, I can change at комсомольск-на-амуре and switch down south. There's even a hydrofoil to хабаровск down the Amur river. But I'm not really up to the 'extreme traveller' lark so prob. not.

PPS. Actually the stone walls in England are very nice, I agree. I rather miss them. No jokes about sheep please

[cheekygal]

a man with a plan just be careful

[waxwing]

Moskva-Beijing in one shot, 6 days (stupid but I had no choice in the end). My travelling companion was a North Korean teacher of Russian.
Had a great trip actually.
Baikal was just stunning.