My ticket out of Singapore

The ticket for the very first leg of my six week journey has been bought... on July 3rd I'll be taking my seat 5D on the train from Singapore's Tanjong Pagar Station on Keppel Road for the 14 hour ride to Butterworth in Malaysia!!

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моей русской визы!!!

Translation: "my Russian Visa is in!!!"

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Tentative list of dates and locations

Here's a preliminary list of the location's I'll visit this summer and the approximate dates I'll be there:

• Singapore:
• [03 July] Leaving Singapore
• Malaysia:
• [03-04 July] Butterworth
• Thailand:
• [04-06 July] Bangkok
• India
• [06-08 July] Kolkata
• [09 July] Raxaul
• Nepal:
• [09-13 July] Kathmandu
• China:
• [16-18 July] Lhasa
• [19 July] Golmud
• [20 July] Xining
• [21-22 July] Xi'an
• [23-24 July] Chengdu
• [25-26 July] Kunming
• [27-28 July] Guiyang
• [29-31 July] Shanghai
• [01-03 Augustus] Beijing
• Mongolia:
• [04-06 Augustus] Ulaanbaatar
• Russia:
• [06-10 Augustus] Trans-Mongolia Express
• [10-12 Augustus] Moscow
• Poland:
• [13 Augustus] Warsaw
• The Netherlands:
• [14 Augustus] Arriving in Amsterdam

If you happen to be at any of these places around these dates, drop me an email so we can meet up!
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Got my invite to Russia today...!

My official invite for my visit to Russia came today, guess I'm ready to get my visa at the embassy tomorrow!!

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India visa is in!

Yesterday, I've picked up my Indian visa! With this one out of the way, I only have Mongolia, Russia and Belarus to go...

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From Singapore to Fontainebleau, overland...

This summer, I will be traveling from INSEAD's Asia campus in Singapore to the European campus in Fontainebleau, France by train, bus and car. During my six week trip I will cover roughly 20.000 kilometers and visit 12 countries.

I will try to keep you informed of my progress on this website, where ever I find internet access I will drop a couple of lines on my trip and upload some pictures of the previous stage of the journey.

To start off with, here's my planned route for this summer:

(click on the picture for a larger view)

I will start off by traveling from Singapore to Bangkok by train, a journey that takes almost 48 hours to complete and takes you along some of Malaysia and Thailand's most beautiful coastlines. From Bangkok, I will (unfortunately) have to take a plane to Kolkata, as overland travel from Thailand to Bangladesh/India is not possible because all border crossings with Myanmar are closed to foreigners.

From Kolkata I will travel by train to the border with Nepal where I will transfer to a local bus for the final 9 hours to Kathmandu. Here I will spend a couple of days to sort out my visa for China and Tibet (unfortunately, a Tibet Tourist Permit can only be obtained in Kathmandu). From Kathmandu I will travel onwards to Lhasa in Tibet through the Himalayas, stopping over for one night at the Mount Everest Base Camp (EBC). The whole stretch from Kathmandu to Lhasa will take me approximately 3 days by car (4x4).

Next I intend to spend a couple of days in Lhasa before I continue my trek onwards to central China. I will have roughly 10 days to get from Lhasa to Shanghai and this part of the trip is still a bit fuzzy. However, Xi'an and Kunming are high on my list of places to visit in central/western China.

After arriving in Shanghai and meeting up with everyone staying there this summer, I will go on towards Beijing where I will have to catch my train to Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia. I will spend a good two days checking out Mongolian culture before embarking on the (hopefully) longest non-stop train ride of my life. 100 hours exactly will stand in my way between Ulan Bator and Moscow.

Once in Moscow, I will take some time to refresh myself after the Trans-Mongolian Express experience and explore Russia's capital for a day or two. Once I feel like hopping on a train again I will catch the overnight express from Moscow to Warsaw via Belarus. With only 12 hours in Warsaw I hope I'll find some time to meet up with some of you who'll be staying there before I check in on another sleeper train. This leg of my journey will take me home to Amsterdam! Arriving somewhere mid August, I'll have another two weeks to complete the final part of my trek to Fontainebleau. How I'll get there I'll decide somewhere along the way...

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