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heading out on the trans-siberian

i am a few minutes away from heading off to the train station to catch my 88-hour train to Moscow, which involves travelling thousands of kilometers across Russia and crossing five time zones. given the extremely high cost of a kupe (2nd) class sleeper ticket, i've opted for platskartny or 3rd class, which is described by lonely planet as a "refugee camp", and my handbook as "not advised for long journeys", but it's the mode of transport that most backpackers are now favoring, given that it's 20% of the cost of a 2nd-class ticket. and i hear good things about it, despite the bad press from the guidebooks.

there won't be any blog updates for the next 4 days until i reach Moscow. looking forward to experiencing one of the world's most famous train journeys, and the longest train journey of my life!

Comments (2)

Esther:

Wow, that sounds sooo wonderful. Good luck! Stretch a lot! :)

pomor:

Hey, I am originally from Russia (it's north-western part -- over by Finland (as my name might also suggest), and I have taken similar train rides a lot in my life. (Never a 4-day one though -- the longest was about 2 days from Arkhangelsk to Moscow and then on to St. Petersburg).

Have fun and be careful as I was robbed on a train once! Don't go into any kupes where strangers offer to play cards with them as you will definitely be taken advantage of.

P.S. I have been coming to your website over at downtempo.org for the past 3 years and have enjoyed it a lot. Again, good luck and take care!

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on July 28, 2006 6:42 PM.

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