‘You had to be there' Moments

I love photography; I love the ability to capture a moment, a point in time. I love the fact that pictures are immediate ‘postcards’ on my life, where I have been and what I have seen. But more importantly I am attracted by the unlocking of emotions and thoughts that photographs give.

You look at a photo you have taken and immediately the door to that memory is thrown open. Long after the immediate reaction to the pictures content vanishes, you are left with the thoughts and emotions of the experience, my mind wanders in and around the picture, what was going on in the scene, who was there and what could I hear and smell.

An example if this is my 2 current favorite pictures I have taken – a simple shot of my hero Sachin Tendulkar and a sunset scene of Chicago. Neither are going to win awards and neither are perfect, but each time I see them I recall and unlock so many thoughts.



The Chicago sunset was my first taste of real freedom, I was on a summer vacation in the US, and I had gone to Chicago, alone but so excited. That boat trip came at the end of a long balmy summers day and the shot represents the new period of my life I hoped would start – independent, aspirational and ambitious.



Sachin Tendulkar, the God on this earth, up close and personal. I took this shot when india were playing in Birmingham, and in taking this shot I got so close to the little master, and he actually looked at me. Sounds so ludicrous, but any sense of connection can be powerful.

These are real “you had to be there” pictures, where the full impact is not contained in the prints, it is contained in the moment.

I will continue to take photos - I hope throughout my life - but I hope even more that I have more of these types of moments where the photo is just the start and actually it is the experience that holds the value. I hope that this world trip is just full of these times.

Less than 10 weeks to go...

Not long now, we have done loads since the last update. Some of the highlights:

• All shopping is done (I hope!) – We bought all the required items between our trip to see Ashish last November [2008] and the New Year sales in the UK. Nothing else to buy
• We have done a trial pack – all the stuff fits, and the packs are not as heavy as we thought, that is a good sign, but we still need to trim a few things out I think.
• We have bought our flight tickets from Birmingham to St Petersburg – so if nothing else we can go on a city break there!!
• We have booked our Trans-Siberian railway tickets (see previous post)
• We have applied for and received our Russian Visas and Australian permits – the bureaucracy did not defeat us
• We have applied for our Chinese, Mongolian and Vietnamese Visa’s
• We have opened all the credit card, and current accounts we need for the trip and have set the trip budget – a big deal looking at what all we want to do!

Will update again in some weeks, when hopefully nothing else will be left, other than to pack (I wish!)

Trans-Siberian tickets and planning

A few tips if you are planning a trans-Siberian journey

Think about the season you want to go in – we are going in spring time, it will be nice but it won’t be snowy, if you want to witness the real real Siberian world, go when there is snow on the ground. Late winter and early spring aren’t great as the melting snow leaves slush and mud everywhere!

Decide which way to go – you can go eastwards or westwards. For us this is the start of our trip (good for visa planning etc) so were are going Eastwards

Trans-Siberian, Trans-Mongolian or Trans-Manchurian? – There are actually many options and routes


We taking a fairly traditional trans-Mongolian route – as it says through Mongolia.

1st class, 2nd class or 3rd class – personally keep it simple go 2nd class, 1st class you will get a coupe for 2 and sometimes a ‘shower facility’, 2nd class is for 4 people and I think 3rd class is for 6, and is a little open.

This is 2nd Class - better than many hostels!!!



Stop or Non-Stop? – There are trains that will leave Moscow and go all the way to Beijing or Vladivostok, and people often buy a ticket that will take them all the way there. However it’s my opinion that this is for the rail geeks amongst us, and if you really want to get the most out of this trip, take a couple of stops. We are stopping at Irkutsk and Ulaanbaatar. Each time we will take a few days out, and explore the local areas around Lake Baikal (the deepest lake in the world) and the Mongolian Gobi desert.

It is important to note that you can’t buy a single ticket which allows you to make stopovers, so you will need to buy separate tickets. This makes the coordination of the trains to fit your schedule really crucial and therefore makes the next bit of advice important.

How do I get a ticket? – 3 main options, buy them yourself in Russia, buy the tickets through an agent, or buy a ‘package journey’ from a western agent.

1st off, I would not buy a package trip. They cost significantly more and ultimately you don’t get much more for your extra £s. The trains used are the same (unless you go for a really exclusive package costing £1,000s), you may get some excursions, but then exploring yourself is fun (as long as you make it back to catch the train!).

I also would not wait to buy tickets in Russia – unless you are flexible with your times/dates, and possibly unless you want a single ticket to take you through to the destination directly, tickets are hard to get hold of. Tickets are released 45 days before the departure date of the train, and most get snapped up by the agents (option 2!) therefore unless you are in Russia for a while, or can be flexible getting your own might be tough.

We are taking option 2, and buying our tickets only through an agent. As with most of these things Seat61 has the best advice. We selected RealRussia as the agents we would use as they seem to know everything about anything to do with the trans-Siberian! They are the best in the business and thus far have been fantastic for us, in particular Alla has been the agent I have been talking with and she is great. The biggest benefit about realrussia.com is that they have a UK presence. The prices they quote are in £s and you will get your tickets posted to you in the UK. There are of course others that you should look at.

All in all our tickets cost about £500 each for St Petersburg-Moscow-Irkutsk-Ulaanbaatar-Datong. I am sure the official price may be much less than that in Russia, but I am mentally prepared for that, and have the peace of mind that I have a ticket. Also a similar package (with stops, and therefore accommodation) costs about £1500 (!), so unless you stay in top notch accommodation throughout the trip, the agent sourced price is still a bargain.

Not much more to say, would love to hear others experience of the Trans-Siberian, and of course we will be blogging the whole way round, so I will update you on how much coffee I drank!

Taking the longest railway journey in the world

Ok! To be accurate the longest railway journey you can take is from Portugal through Europe, Russia, China and down to the tip of Vietnam, this is one hell of a journey and would take about 19months (!).

However the trans-Siberian is the longest single country journey you can do by train, and is possibly the most well known and inspiring. I am no train geek, but in line with my trip philosophy of doing as many ‘you had to be there’ experiences, it was high up the agenda of things to do. Nowhere near shark diving! but high up the agenda nonetheless

We will be arriving at St Petersburg at the start of our trip and then travelling to Moscow, where we will catch the ‘Rossiya’ (even the trains name sounds perfectly authentic!). From there it’s straight to Irkutsk and Lake Baikal, where we stop over for a few days, before carrying on to Mongolia. We will be in the desert for a few days and then on to Datong, China before arriving in Beijing.

Many people would ask why do the trans-Siberian? It will take 7 days pure ‘train time’ to trundle across Russia, Mongolia and arrive in Beijing, the trains are not luxurious and you have to pass the days peering out of windows over scenes that could be said to be barren and bleak.

I think the trans-Siberian is reflection of life and times gone by, and soon to disappear altogether. Communal travel that is not all about the end destination and getting there in breakneck speed. This journey, more than any other is about what you see do and experience on the way, we will see the real Russia, we will meet real people and others from other countries, we will have time to share a coffee in the dining car, and yes, gaze aimlessly at what I would class as achingly beautiful barren landscapes.

Luxury can be a false veneer that covers the authentic beauty and individuality of a country. You have to just look at the range of 5 star hotels out there, they all look the same and they all feel the same. The trans-Siberian is going to feel different because it is different. I can’t wait to feel the hum of activity as we get lost on the platform in Moscow, I can’t wait to bedding down for a relaxing snooze as you are rocked gently by the train.

I know this sounds a bit too poetic and probably the experience is going to be challenging and uncomfortable, if so, then so be it!

We have a plan….!

We now have a pretty much fixed thought of the route that we are planning on taking and some idea of the rough timings. These are flexible apart from a few (which I have marked in Bold) UK depart date, New Years in Sydney, Rio Carnival

Depart…	Country	Days
02/05/2009	UK	0
07/05/2009	Russia	5
22/05/2009	Mongolia/Trans Siberian	15
05/06/2009	China	14
19/06/2009	Japan	14
03/07/2009	Tibet	14
06/07/2009	Hong Kong	3
20/07/2009	Vietnam	14
03/08/2009	Cambodia	14
10/08/2009	Laos	7
31/08/2009	Thailand	21
10/09/2009	Sri Lanka	10
01/10/2009	Nepal	21
05/11/2009	India	35
19/11/2009	Malaysia	14
21/11/2009	Singapore	2
28/11/2009	Indonesia/Borneo	7
12/12/2009	Travel/Flexi	14
02/01/2010	Australia	21
07/01/2010	Fiji	5
28/01/2010	New Zealand	21
17/02/2010	Brazil	20
17/03/2010	Argentina	28
31/03/2010	Chile	14
18/04/2010	Peru	18
02/05/2010	Ecuador	14
05/05/2010	Panama	3
09/05/2010	Costa Rica	4
12/05/2010	Guatemala	3
22/05/2010	Cuba	10
04/06/2010	Mexico	13
06/06/2010	NYC	2
09/06/2010	Dubai	3
23/06/2010	Jordon	14
30/06/2010	Israel	7
14/07/2010	Egypt	14
28/07/2010	Tanzania	14
04/08/2010	Zanzibar	7
18/08/2010	Mozambique	14
08/09/2010	South Africa	21
08/09/2010	UK	0

Of course there will be places that we need to spend longer in, and places that we decide to reduce the time, but this plan gives you some idea of where in the world we will be during the next months, sure does beat bein at work!!

The two key purchases that you must think about

This is our first major travel for a long time and definitely the longest duration we will be away. Therefore we didn’t have some of the stuff you need; in particular the key things that we really needed to get are the right bags and the right shoes.

I know this is a bit of a boring post, but if you think about it, the shoes we buy are going to be used for other 16 months! And hopefully will see us through a number of treks and 100s of miles. The bags will be our ‘room’ for this time, everything we need will be packed in them and we will need to carry them everywhere. It was therefore really important to choose correctly.

Bags

We decided to go simple on the bags, one main bag – that we could check in, and that we could carry. I really wanted to be as flexible with this bag, as we actually are not doing that many unguided treks, without porters, so for me a classic rucksack was not the best option. Based on the fact that we were going to be in cities for quite a number of days also, a travel pack, that could be wheeled, carried or used as a backpack would the ideal spec. And it exists!!!

Urvi found the Berghaus Jalan range, and unless you live in the US (they don’t seem to be available in the US) this is the best we have found, the bags we bought are 70 litres for me and the 65 litre ladies version for Urvi. We will see what happens through the trip and if they last (!) but on first inspection they are strongly made, light weight, do have lots of cumbersome mechanics etc and most importantly have really good rucksack straps.




We then will use approx 25 litre smaller rucksacks. These packs will be used on a day to day basis, used on the treks and also taken as carry on, to store all the valuables whilst travelling etc.

Our basic advice is to MAKE SURE you buy bags that you can carry, DO NOT buy the biggest bag you can, just so that you can take more stuff. Remember on budget airlines the check in limits can be as low as 15kgs, which is far less than you may be used to.

Keep the bags simple, check the quality of the zips and don’t be afraid to invest in good products, they need to last you,

Shoes

For me it is simple – buy the best quality boot your budget allows, and buy boots that suit the most difficult conditions you will face – not the most common conditions. We will be doing a few hard treks, and therefore a simple light walking shoe will not be enough, it might not the height of fashion, but I can easily wear proper hiking boots in the city, but not wear simple shoes in the Himalayas.

We are going to take 2 main sets of shoes, one per of solid hiking boots – Urvi Asolo Styner GTX, Anand Vasque Wasatch. The second are sturdy hiking sandals, with solid soles but still sandals – Urvi a pair of Keens, and I am taking my existing pair of Tevas, that have lasted me 8 years thus far.






Finally we will take a pair of cheapo flip flops for use in hostels, and chilling out by the pool!

The World Trip gadget bag

As most people will know i love my gadgets. Whether its IPods or home cinemas, i love them all! Therefore when the world trip was confirmed I immediately began to think about what we ‘needed’ in terms of technology.

You do need to be careful about wasting money on gadgets you don’t need, and also turning into a big attractive target for thieves and other undesirables! Therefore I think that curbing ones enthusiasm when it comes to how much kit you pack is crucial. I am not sure we have completely got it right yet, but to date this is what we are taking:

• Sony A350 Digital SLR, with 18-250 travel lens
• Fuji Z100fd Ultra compact simple Digital camera – i don’t want to be heaving the main camera around in the middle of Bangkok etc!!
• Asus Eee PC 1000 – ultra compact PC, for emails, photos, making bookings etc etc
• 320 GB External HD – to back up all the photos we take, and also to store all the music etc that we would want
• Cheap, simple mp3 players to use whilst travelling – don’t want to take the full ipod
• Nintendo DS – just because!!
• Mobile phone – for emergencies

It does not sound a lot when you look at it, but just remember the associated cables, chargers etc. It all adds up. I may remove some stuff, especially because, one of my main objectives for the world trip is to get away from all this technology and dependence on TV watching etc.

Having said that, when we were planning the shopping I did decide to go for the best camera kit we could justify. This is going to be one of the highlights of the trip for me – taking photos and documenting the trip through them. Therefore the Sony A350 kit with the 18-250 lens, a 2x convertor and a 50mm standard lens, seems to be the perfect kit for me.

We will be putting our whole packing list on the blog soon, and i will be also blogging some of our other purchases in a bit.

East or West which way is the best?!!!

Might sound like a random question but if you are going to do a ROUND the world trip, then you really must decide on which way round you are going to go! We have found that it is actually pretty important.

For the last 18months we have been planning to essentially go westwards, travelling through Africa - South America - Central America – Pacific – South East and South Asia – and finally Tran Siberian. This was based on some consideration of seasons but essentially not based on a whole lot of logic.

We have now decided to go eastward (the more traditional route). Essentially the final choice should be based primarily on the following things:

Seasons that you will encounter as you travel – some places you will really want the best season, like the trekking season in Nepal and Peru the best time to visit the glaciers of Patagonia and Summer/Christmas in Australia. There will then be other places that you MUST avoid at certain times, such as the hurricane season in Cuba (we made that mistake in our first plan!) the heat of the Middle East, and the monsoons of India/Sri Lanka. The only thing is that you can’t fix a logical route AND get the best weather everywhere; therefore the trick is to prioritise!

Specific events that are unmissable – it an obvious point but again the route, and the direction you travel should enable you to be in the right place at the right time for specific events. For example we will be taking in the New Years in Sydney, the Rio Carnival the Wildebeest Migration and hopefully the football world cup. Of course if you are not a football fan then being in South Africa during the world cup is probably not a good thing!! And in general be careful, as specific events push accommodation prices through the roof.

The most efficient travelling route – don’t try and get to every destination at the perfect time, otherwise you will find yourself travelling some really silly routes and criss-crossing around the world, clearly not good for the wallet or the environment.

The Jet Lag factor – if you travel eastwards you continually lose time (travel from NYC to LON and the 7hr flight seemingly takes much longer -12hrs) this continual jet lag could be a problem, as compared with the Westward journey where you theoretically gain hours as you go round. As we have not done a world trip before it is difficult to say how much of an issue this is, but possibly more of an issue is simply the number of travelling legs you do. Keep it to a minimum and allow time in between, I guess the biggest thing we have learnt is just how little time we feel we have, despite going away for 17months!

So in conclusion we have decided to go eastward, taking on the Tran Siberian first, then China, Japan, Tibet and you can see the rest….!

We will be doing a detailed route post very soon, but please do ask any questions!

Less than 300 days to go!!

As of today we have less than 300 days to go!!!



We have to get busy reading...!

Urvi has been busy and has already gone through the whole of South America, she has south Asia to go. Anand has yet to even select a book to read, but you know he is instinctive and is not so much into planning stuff... :)

Bye Bye Micra

In line with our plan to move to Mum and Dads as early as possible, we pondered about selling the car also. To be honest to have 3 cars in a family with 3 Drivers and a baby driver (Sorry Urvi!) made no sense. Of course we loved the car and would have wanted to keep it, however we calculated that for it to simply be in the driveway – and keep it in a road worthy condition would have costed in the region of £500 per year. It is worth a serious think. If you are going away for a year or more, then the cost is a bit prohibitive

Who knows we could come back and buy the same car at a bargain price!!