Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mortundo]

Has anyone taken the Trans Siberian Railway from either China or Russia back to Europe. I've been looking at this as a possibility once my contract in Korea ends and was wondering how easy it is to do.
Any advice/your experiences would be appreciated.

[soviet_man]

I've answered this question many times, let me give you the basics:

First, you need to get from Korea to either Beijing or Vladivostok:
Assume $800US oneway for a flight to either including tax.
OR $300US oneway for a ferry + land connections.

Then there are three *direct* trains to choose from:
Vladivostok to Moscow (Train #1) Every 2nd day.
Beijing to Moscow (via Mongolia) (Train #3) Once weekly.
Beijing to Moscow (via Manchuria, avoiding Mongolia) (Train #19) Once weekly.
All cost about $400-500US for foreigners. All take about 6 to 7 days.

Then add Visas:
Russian Visa (assume $100US)
Chinese Visa (assume $80US)
Mongolian Visa (assume $80US)

Then add Accommodation:
Beijing (assume $70US per night)
Vladivostok (assume $120US per night)
Moscow (assume $150US per night for hotel or $40US for a hostel).

Then add Onward travel from Moscow:
Fly to London/Western Europe (assume $300-350US oneway).
Train Moscow to Kiev/Helsinki/Minsk (assume at least $50US oneway)


All up your budget would be $1800-2000US for a bare-bones straight shot trip. Nowadays it is not cheaper than flying direct to western Europe from Korea. It used to be. But there ARE discounts to be found if you really plan well and economize heavily

The shortest possible overland time Seoul to Moscow would be 10-11 days, but 3 weeks is more realistic to do it properley. Stops in Siberia (or anywhere else along the way) would involve extra costs.

[mortundo]

Cheers Soviet-Man that's really helpful, I appreciate it. Have you done the trip before yourself?

[Slaps]

Check out this site http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm for all the info you could ever want about train travel.

[crazyforeigner]

I am totally doing this when I go home. Yes it is much more expensive than just flying to europe but the point is not to save money, the point is the experience of going on an epic train ride. And checking out mongolia and lake baikal will be cool.

My plan is to fly to singapore then travel up to vietnam and beijing and take the trans-siberain from beijing to Moscow. Its going to be a very long trip.

Check out vodkatrain.com if you are intersted in an organized package tour on the trans-siberian, but it costs much more than doing it yourself.

[oskinny1]

I did it last year. There is a hostel right across the street from the Beijing station and the hotel where you buy the tickets is only a 5 minute walk away.

I chose to go the 4 beds per cabin route. The first night a Russian girl I was sharing the room with had sex right next to me with some guy that she met in the restaurant car that afternoon. After that I was with some Aussie guy who was good people. The rest of the car was half full. Some Chinese and the rest Polish who sang anti-communist songs and drank a lot.
In the first class cabins it's all western Europeans. It would have been nice to have a shower, but taking one with a coffee cup for a hose added to the trip.

The most important advice I can give you is to stock up on beer BEFORE you reach Russia. Get it from the Chinese meal car (they change at each border) or get it at the Mongul border when they change the train gauge. Also, try to get rubles from somewhere. There was a group of us who went out ATM hunting every stop but weren't successful until the second to last stop.

I went straight from the train station to the airport which cost about $70 by taxi.

[KoreanAmbition]

I'm not sure where soviet_man got his flight information, but I find something far different.

In September, for example, I'm getting one-way flights from Seoul to Beijing coming in at about $468 USD.

I found it on several days actually, and not sure if it could have gotten cheaper with a thorough search. Possibly other days of the week (I only checked Mondays and Tuesdays) or other months might have provided better flight prices.

So anyways, that just knocked $350 off your total price.

[Cheonmunka]

I once thought it would be romantic to take a train across the steppes but then I saw that movie 'TransSiberian' and thought how yucky and dirty it would be to travel that way with people crammed in with the smells and noise.

[Tobias]

Man, how I'd love to do this trip. I'd do it in these stages:

Finish my contract and then.....

1. Catch the Vlad ferry in Sokcho.

2. Hop the train in Vlady and head for Lake Baikal.

3. Hang in the Baikal area for a few days doing hiking and such.

4. Hop another train and head for Moscow.

5. When in Moscow, hang for a day or three.

6. Hop a train to the Ukraine.

7. Buy a motorcycle in Ukraine and bike the rest of the way to London over the next two weeks.

8. Hop a jet to NYC from London.

9. Hitchhike across the US. Probably catch a ride with a trucker going west to San Francisco.

10. Head north to Alaska, travel around for a month or so, and then cross the Bering Strait.

11. Tour Kamkatcha for a week or two.

12. Head southwest to Vlady and catch the Sokcho ferry.

13 Return to Sokcho.

14. Get another job teaching English in Korea.

Talk about an awesome trip. It'd be one for the ages.

[Rob'sdad]

Here's a cheaper way.
1. Kill and stew your dog.
2. Mount pontoons on the dog house and a fan then hydrofoil to Vladivosok.
3a. Strip the pontoons and put RR wheels on the dog house and tie it to the caboose.
3b. Ride in the dog house across Siberia with a freaky Russian gal. Make dog sounds together to ward off grizzlies and tigers
4. Arrive in Moscow and steal a Mig-21 using a broken bottle of vodka. Rip out the cockpit and intstall the dog house. Fly the Mig/dog house to Le Bourget and declare that you are the heir to Lindburgh.
5. Get freaky with as many French chicks as possible and catch syphillis.
6. Beg some money from sketched out US college students in Paris.
7. Load up the dog house and take the train to London, go move in your mum's basement, write a classic internet novel that no one will read.
8. Occasionally run out in the yard, pee on the tree and bark at the neighbors

I think that about covers everything....Any contributors?

[Capo]

be warned some infor on russian visas I recently went to the embassy to get russian visa you need atlest 3 months left on your ARC, but you can't apply for the visa more than 3 months before you plan on entering. Anyway I got refused and its too late to sort out because extending my ARC more than 1 month would involve a criminal check and health check. my advice to anyone wanting to do this apply is extend your arc in the final 2 months and then applyt for your russian visa.

[kkrumrei]

Capo, tell me you're kidding. That might be the final straw that kills my plans next year. how does that make any sense whatsoever? i mean that in all sincerity: I'd love to know why Russian immigration would want me to have three months left on the arc when a Russian visa has to be used within three months of its approval.

my wife and i are planning to spend six weeks in SE asia next year, starting in thailand and making our way to Beijing. we were then going to hop on the transmongolian to Moscow. But even assuming we go thru the hassle of getting the arc extended, it still takes 15 business days minimum for a canadian to get a russian visa. that's three weeks without a passport. after i get us invited to apply...

so we'd need a month to get the russian visa while we're in korea, before we take six weeks in SE asia, and still use the Russian visa within three months of it's approval. not to mention any possible difficulties in getting chinese and mongolian visas. that's starting to sound like too much of a nightmare to plan.