On Saturday the 2nd of May 2009, my father and I will leave on a long overland journey with the famous TransSibirian/TransMongolian railway across Asia, starting in St. Petersburg and finishing in Shanghai, traveling via Moscow, Irkutsk, Ulan Bator, Beijing, and Xian.
This is an overland journey, which follows the old Siberian tea route. The overall distance is 11274 km, which will take about a month to travel along, and we plan to set foot on Danish soil again the 28th of May. But before that, we will surely have many adventures ahead of us. Below is a more detailed description of the route, maps, itineraries, plans, etc.


The route: (see also map and route page.)
The route naturally follows that of the railway, with the choices of visiting the following cities:
Russia: St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Irkutsk
Mongolia: Ulan Bator
China: Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai
The train stops in many other places for a shorter or longer period of time, and especially in Irkutsk and Ulan Bator do we plan to make extensive excursions. For a more detailed description of the route, please consult the map and route page.

The team:

Lars Erik Petersen

Long time explorer (though mostly at sea), an accomplished map reader, keen bridge player, and mostly in for new experiences, as long as they don't includes heights.

Troels Christian Petersen

Insatiable adventurer, particle physicist, photographer, and (wannabe) poet, taught map reading and playing bridge by father (above). For further (sailing) details, see the Skardu crew listing.

The short movie:
Using my tiny Canon IXUS camera, I managed to record a few scenes from the trip. Upon return, a friend of mine and I sat down and managed to select the best parts and put them together into a short movie (8:12 minutes), which can be found here (.wmv format):
Smaller version (31.6 MB)
Large version (192.7 MB)


The photos:
A few pictures of what to expect are shown below (click for large photo). Upon return, these images will of course be exchanged with photos from the trip (eventually).


The weekly logs:
If possible (and this is not very likely), logs with progress, position, and experiences will be posted below:
St. Petersburg, Moscow, and the TransSibirian: 2nd - 9th of May 2009
Irkutsk, Baikal, and to Mongolia: 10th - 15th of May 2009
Ulan Bator, Mongolia, and to China: 15th - 20th of May 2009
Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai: 20th - 28th of May 2009

The following links are exceptionally good sources on the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Mongolean railways:
The man in seat 61.
Way to Russia.
TransSiberian Handbook.