Overland To Thailand?

[honkytonklagoon]

Have any of the more adventurous souls on TV ever travelled overland from Western Europe (UK) to LOS?

If so, what transport did you use and what route did you take? And did you make it in one peice?

I have decided I want to go overland for my next trip, Airplanes are for wimps. Any advice on the cheapest and safest way to go about this would be appreciated.

Cheers. :jap:

[craigt3365]

What a great adventure. You'll have a great time.

I have traveled from Singapore to St. Petersburg mostly overland...though did fly a few small sections. From Beijing to St. Petersburg was via the transsiberian train. Fantastic experience...just don't do it all in one go. I spent around 6 weeks doing it.

My next trip will hopefully be the silk route. Istanbul to Xian. Working on it right now and hope to do it in the spring or so of next year. I want to do it in 2 parts, spending around 3 months to do the entire route.

Lonelyplanet.com has the Thorn Tree forum. Pretty good place for info.

Start a thread somewhere on your adventures. I'm sure plenty of people would love to follow your adventures.

[afarang]

It was well reported on Thai Visa, last year a group of Finns bought a bus and drove from there to here. Rail is possible . In short England - Russia - China - Vietnam - Cambodia(No rail. bus) -Thailand, A great adventure. From memory ,many years ago , I think Double deck tours used to run From England to Thailand, via the Middle East. Quite a few options available for the more intrepid amongst us, Great fun, love to do it , but in my dotage ,now.555555

[phuketrichard]

Did that a few times in the late 70's but since i am American it would be very difficult to get thru many of the countries i went thru before.

Did it one time using all local transport, ( bus's/trains,boat, donkey cart)

Then worked for Magic Bus for a year if any of ya recall that company out of Amsterdam They were great trips thur Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan to India then you had to travel by boat or fly over to Thailand from Calcutta.

If u want to do it all on the ground, you'd have to travel thru Russia and China

Edited July 2, 2011 by phuketrichard

[lazygourmet]

Dragoman has also some good itineraries...

[dutchguest]

I have traveled from Holland to Thailand two times without flying.

One time by train via Moskou, Ulan Bator, Peking, Hanoi, Saigon and Pnom Phen to Bangkok (only between Saigon and Aranya Prathet I traveled by bus). This trip I have done in a little more then 3 weeks, without hurrying too much. In the places mentioned above I stayed a few days in hotels. Before going I had already arranged visa for Belarus, Russia, Mongolia, China and Vietnam and train tickets up to Peking. There are offices that can help you with that. This website has a lot of useful info.

One time I went by freighter boat from Rotterdam to Singapore via the Suez canal in about 3 weeks and from there overland to Thailand. If you google on "freighter" you can find all the info you need. I paid about 2000 euro for the 3-week trip, included everything, a comfortable own cabin and 3 meals a day.

[bikerlou47]

Yes I have done it from Eastern Europe,train to Moskow and take the transSiberian RR to Ulan Batar than onto Bejing

great trip..dont forget to spend a few days in Irkusk (Lake Bakal)

[Diablo Bob]

From http://www.seat61.com/Thailand.htm

London to Thailand overland

If you have the time (we're talking a minimum of 3 weeks one-way), you can travel from London to Bangkok overland. The links below cover travel in either direction, from London or to London:

Step 1: London to Moscow by train. Daily departures, 2 nights, from about £160 one-way with sleeper. Spend at least 1 night in Moscow.

Step 2: Moscow to Beijing by Trans-Siberian Railway Two trains a week, 6 nights, from about $450 one-way in 4-bed sleeper. Spend at least 1 night in Beijing.

Step 3: Beijing to Hanoi by train Two trains a week, 2 nights, about $150 or £75 one-way in soft sleeper. Spend at least 1 night in Hanoi.

Step 4: Hanoi to Saigon by train Several trains daily, 2 nights. Why not stop off to see Hue or Hoi An? About $80 or £40 one-way in soft sleeper.

Step 5: Saigon-Phnom Penh by bus Daily, 1 day. Spend at least 1 night in PP.

Step 6: Phnom Penh-Battambang by train or bus, bus to the frontier, train to Bangkok.

There aren't any travel agencies who can arrange the whole trip, so you will need to plan it out and arrange each stage of the journey yourself. It's an exercise in project management! Unless time is absolutely no object, you should book the key sections in advance through various travel agencies, for example, book London-Moscow through a UK European train ticketing agency such as DB's UK office or europeanrail.com, then book Moscow-Beijing & Beijing-Hanoi through a local Russian agency such as Svezhy Veter or www.realrussia.co.uk. Tickets for other parts of the trip, for example, Hanoi-Saigon-Phnom Penh-Bangkok can all be bought locally, as you go along. You'll need to pre-arrange visas for Belarus, Russia, possibly Mongolia, China & Vietnam, and in many ways complying with the various visa requirements (and in some cases, requirements for confirmed onward tickets to be held) is actually the biggest hassle, not buying the tickets for the trains, so check this out carefully using the relevant embassy websites.

Where do you start? First, read through the seat61 pages linked above. Then sketch out your itinerary using a simple spreadsheet like this, deciding where and for how long you want to stop off. Next, check out the visa situation for each country. Finally, follow the advice on each seat61 page to buy tickets for each train journey that you want to pre-book.

Enjoy your 3 weeks+

[craigt3365]

Depending on when you are traveling (i.e. high season), there's little need to pre-book. I went from Shanghai to St. Petersburg in May. I only pre-booked the Beijing to UB route as most sites/guide books said that's the toughest one to get. Even then, there were seats available on the day I traveled.

For the rest of the trip, I booked the next leg when I arrived at that station. Which worked out great as many runs are not listed by agents or on the net...especially the local ones.

Never had a problem...other than an incredible lack of English speaking train employees!

One of the best trips I have ever taken...give yourself plenty of time. It's amazing.

[honkytonklagoon]

Thanks for the great replies chaps!!! Some good stuff to go on.

[gk10002000]

Interesting travel notes. I was wondering if it is possible or desirable to go a bit more southern and go through India? Seems like the pakistan Iran or Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan or other "..trans" transits might be a problem. I personally like the china route, but just thought I would ask about the Indian route. Phileas Fogg boat from coast of India to the middle east? Not quite the overland route but...

[craigt3365]

Interesting travel notes. I was wondering if it is possible or desirable to go a bit more southern and go through India? Seems like the pakistan Iran or Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan or other "..trans" transits might be a problem. I personally like the china route, but just thought I would ask about the Indian route. Phileas Fogg boat from coast of India to the middle east? Not quite the overland route but...

Turkmenistan, Uzbek, Tajik, etc. are all "fairly" easy to transit. Pakistan and Iran are not. I saw a show with Michael Palin where he traversed the Himalayas. His biggest problem was Pakistan. Without his support from the BBC, it would have been extremely difficult for him to make that trip and see the things he did. But it did look amazing.