Korean Job Discussion Forums

[travel zen]

I plan to take a long trip in 2009. Long awaited Russian and Germany trip.

I'll start by flying to India to see my Tibetan squeeze
Then Fly to HK and into the mainland China to see old friends.
To Korea for a week
To Mongolia for 4 weeks of riding...horses
Plane to Moscow to take pictures
Plane to St. Petersburd for same.
Train to Ukraine Kyiv and Odessa.
Train to Poland capital
Train to Hungary/Rumania capitals
Stop over at Chech Republic ?
Train to Germany Berlin and other places
Train to France Paris and Southern area
Plane to England London and Birmingham (my father lived in B. for 10 years)

Home

I'll have $10 000 to use, I have 4 months to burn before back to University, and I have 'internet friends' in every place to dinner with at least.

What do you think?

[soviet_man]

Transport would be the killer.

Ballpark figure about $3500 all up for transport:
Korea to India = US $700
India to HK = US $500
HK to Korea = US $500
Korea to Mongolia = US $500
Mongolia to Moscow = US $500
Moscow to St Pete = US $200
Train onward = let's say $600

The remaining $6500 divided by 120 days = $54

You could get by in mainland China, India and perhaps Mongolia on that budget.

But you won't find much of a hotel for that price in Moscow, St Pete, Paris or Hong Kong.

[Rae]

http://www.airtreks.com/

You'll be in transit at least 3x a month on average. Definitely do-able but wouldn't you be sick and tired of planes and trains by month 2? Especially taking into account all the meet-ups. I guess the question would be, would you want that type of schedule for 4 months?

[Hank the Iconoclast]

I am planning on taking the Trans-Siberian Railway from Beijing to Moscow in 2009 and then to Berlin via St. Petersburg. I am also planning on taking a train to Stuttgart and then Paris and London. I wonder what the cost of that will be.

[samd]

Do it!

You can probably score some free accomodation from 'internet friends' too if you've set it up well.

[VanIslander]

Hell to the costs! So what if you only get done 80% before the money runs out and you have to hightail it home early?

You won't regret it.

[travel zen]

Thanks for the input.

I agree that travel costs will be high. I jumped from India to HK and from Korea to China on my last (2005) and prices were a few hundred higher than quoted here

But I need to go again and yeah, costs be damned. Many of my friends say they will put me up, and that saves hundreds.

I've been travelling on average every 5 days for 3 months in India, and that knocked me flat when I arrived in China, but Europe is an easy travel ( I don't think anyone travels by elephant or camel there like I did in Jaipur and Jaisalmer).

I've heard that the Ukraine is very expensive, and te Euro isn't cheap either, but I'm going put up a website dedicated to pics of my trip as I move along. I'll make it available for all to see when it happens.

[ajgeddes]

Sounds awesome, DO IT! I wish I could do something like that... who knows, maybe some day I will be able to. If you have no problem spending that much money, that's great. I would love to see your site too, when you make it.

[Tiger Beer]

[travel zen]

Yeah, those are pretty fine jewels to see. I've always wanted to see Samarkand and Tashkent, and I've heard some crazy stories about Baku and the women there...dunno if its still true.

The people I've met in Toronto from those places are very friendly, so who knows.

Money? I've had a friend who said that I wasted thousands travelling, then I'd asked him what he'd do with that money. He said he's suup up his car

[tyleranthony]

i would like to recommend airtrecks to anyone considering a world trip like this. leaving in april for:

beijing > HK > thai/laos/viet > egypt > greece > italy > england > usa

back to korea in august. similar budget of about 10k. should be a pretty exciting trip.

i've got a couple $50 discount coupons they gave me with my purchase that I'll put up for grabs. Shoot me your address and I can mail one to you.

[Natalia]

What I would be most worried about is being burned-out halfway through.

I would highly recommend Prague (Czech Republic), but you've already got yourself quite an overloaded itinerary there....




But thank you for spelling Kyiv properly. Odesa is spelt with only one 's' - the double 's' is Russian, and therefore incorrect.

[travel zen]

Ah, yes.

Do you recommend any other place in the Ukraine ?

The overload would really depend on how long or short a stay at each place. I went to just aout every city in India and I know that a good long stay at a very relaxing place (Goa or parts of Mumbai) can re energize any fatigue. So I'm hoping that I can find good warm places along the way to relax