Beginner's Mind

 A.K.A. 4 Days nonstop on the train.

The first thought of making such a trip can be daunting, but it wasn’t that complicated. If you are considering making this trip, then this for you.

Pre-Trip

Visa: You need to apply for Visa beforehand. We both needed a visa for Russia and China which took about three weeks with a visa service agency. Italians do need a visa for Mongolia; Germans don’t.  

Train tickets: We booked on the official website of the Russian Railway. Only two journeys we were unable to book. We booked these via RealRussia.com. Try to reserve the lower seats in the 4-bed compartments not close to the toilet. The Reason being many locals tend to avoid upper seats, so your chances of having the compartment all by yourselves increase. At least that was our experience.

Accommodation: We used Booking.com due to their generous cancellation policy and the app which works offline. We had no mobile data throughout our journey. Also, print your travel schedule with hotel addresses.

Bring the following: Medicine (headache, fever, diarrhea, mosquito), multi-purpose disinfectant spray, headphones, toilet paper, travel guide (no one speaks English), books (kindle), diary, mugs, cutlery, power bank, multiple plug, currency app with offline mode like XE Currency (unless you know the conversion rates from Russian Rubles to Mongolia Tugrik or Chinese Yuan), some cash in small notes for emergencies.

We brought clothes for two weeks and found laundry services almost everywhere. What we didn’t book before were the following tours: Lake Baikal in Russia, Semi-Gobi in Mongolia and Great Wall in China. The tours we found online were quite expensive, especially the ones going to Lake Baikal. Our rationale was that these are touristic places where it shouldn’t be a problem to book after arrival which turned out to be the correct. This may differ in winter.

The Trip

Before hopping on the first train from St Petersburg to Moscow, we bought water, instant noodles and cookies. Hot water is provided for free in every coach. Every coach also has two stewards who hand out fresh sheets and blankets for every passenger. They even hoover the aisle daily and wake up passengers when their stop is at night, at least in Russia.

To have a true Trans-Siberian experience, we decided to go nonstop from Moscow to Irkutsk in Siberia. Even if the train stops every day at least twice for a minimum of 30 minutes in which we bought groceries at the various shops on the platform, this meant we lived in the train for four days. Quite an experience! In our coach were a German family with two small children, a French family and a lot of Russians. During the four days, we shared our compartment with four different people, all Russians who didn’t speak English. They were all very friendly, but contrary to my imagination no one drank Vodka. Only one guy wasn’t great. He snored so heavily, I could only sleep with my headphones. I felt like laying in a coffin which was kind of scary.

So what’s it like to be on a train for four days? It’s a unique opportunity to slow down. You have to be comfortable being with yourself. That’s one thing I tell people who are thinking about making this journey. Self-reflection, talking to each other, reading and writing were our main daily activities. We had no internet, just our books and music. We enjoyed it and the four days passed by faster than expected. We had one dish per day in the restaurant coach which meant we didn’t have to eat instant noodles all the time.

We didn’t expect much from Irkutsk, but when we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised. It felt like we finally explored a “real” Russian city, not Moscow or St Petersburg even though we enjoyed both of them. From there we took a 7-hour bus to Olkhon Island in the Lake Baikal which contains about 23% of the world’s freshwater surface water before crossing the border to Mongolia, this time by bus. Mongolia is a great place for adventure seeker and nature enthusiasts. Doing a tour and sleeping in these traditional nomad tents is a must-do before embarking on the journey through the Gobi Desert to Beijing. There is so much more I could tell about this journey. Just message me your questions if you have any.

Downsides

Well, you need to be ok with not showering for days and, tell me about a single pleasant experience in a train toilet anywhere in the world. This trip is not for you if you seek a relaxing holiday. Even though it’s not stressful to be on the train for days, you would miss the amenities of sufficient space and nice bathroom in your time off work. There is a difference between vacation and backpacking.

Would I recommend it?

We enjoyed the trip a lot, but it depends. How would I know what you want, where you’ve travelled in the past, and you are looking for? To give you an example: When we arrived in Listvyanka at Lake Baikal which is advertised as the “Russian Riviera”, we were a bit disappointed because we’ve been to beautiful beaches elsewhere before. Lake Baikal is for most Russians the only lake they know, so they are enthusiastic about it which is great. However, they can’t know what where we’ve been in the past. It comes down to expectations. This is general advice I’ve been living by for years. Just because someone you like enjoyed a place or activity, doesn’t mean you would too.

Also, leave your cultural judgement at home. In Europe, we make queues. When we were crossing the border from Russia to Mongolia, a lot (and I mean a lot) people jumped the queue. So did most people in Beijing. It was chaotic and took in total about 5 hours. So be patient and accept that people act differently around the world. Don’t forget: If Chinese or Indians would always let other people go first, then wouldn’t get anywhere. It’s just too crowded in these countries. If you are willing to adapt to this, have curiosity and flexibility, this is a trip for you.

We didn’t fly straight home from Beijing but travelled to Myanmar which I highly recommend, ideally in low season.

I carry many great memories from this trip. One of them being: While travelling from Ulaanbaatar to Beijing, my girlfriend and I were alone in a 4-bed compartment. We talked about all kinds of things until we realised it'd been 8 hours. When was the last time you spoke with your partner/ friend for hours without interruption?

For photos and stories check out Instagram. This video gives you a great impression of what’s like.