Now that I’m in a different country, I feel like the journey has really begun.
A little background. I’ve quit my job (eek!) of the last 2½ years as a climate campaigner and for the next year I’ll be travelling, mostly around Europe. I’ve elected to get there the hard way (also, the fun way and the least carbon-intensive way). Here’s a little outline of what the journey involves:
- Sydney to Melbourne by bus
- Melbourne to Adelaide by bus
- Adelaide to Darwin via the Ghan railway (53hrs)
- Darwin to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam on christmas day by plane (the only flight)
- Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi by train
- A week in Hanoi, and hopefully Ha Long bay
- Hanoi to Bejing by train (with a 1am border crossing)
- Beijing to Ulan Bator, Mongolia by train
- A week in Mongolia
- Ulan Bator to Moscow via the Trans-Siberian Railway
- Moscow to Berlin by train via Belarus and Poland
- Berlin to Paris by train
- Paris to Rennes, again by train
This map is actually a little out of date – the complex bit around South-East Asia has been simplified because originally I was going through Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia, but for various reasons, I’ve now popped right into Vietnam by plane from Darwin. In fact, before that, I was going to be on a cargo boat from Melbourne to Singapore, but that fell through. Rennes will be by base from which to explore Europe and the first task will be to find a decent bike to get around on. At the moment, my only firm plan for the year is to be in Copenhagen during the UN Talks on Climate Change in December 09.
Anyway, right now I’m in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and I’ve got about 8 hours until I leave on my train to Hanoi. I was here 11 years ago with my parents, but so much has changed. They were so few tourists back then compared to now and Ho Chi Minh itself was a lot smaller. I also remember a lot more evidence of the after effects of war here, but now it seems much like any other crazy, bustling South-East Asian city.
Well, no use sitting behind a computer when I’m in a new country. Back soon.
UPDATE: I’ve got to credit seat61.com for help organising the overland journey – seriously, check it out.
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[...] at the beginning of my trip this year, I wrote a little about my plans to get to Europe in a low-carbon way, but I didn’t give a lot of background. This year, my [...]