Aberdeen to Aberdeen

After working for a couple of months to find the border crossing restriction, work out my sightseeing plan, and arranging accommodation, the finalized itinerary is here. Rules: 1. Use railway when there is a possible and "legal" connection. 2. Otherwise, use other means of transport (or walk) to the nearest railway station, which allows possible and "legal" connection. The details are as follow: Day 1: The journey begins at Aberdeen, which is on the southwest Hong Kong Island.  Crossing the Aberdeen Harbour to Ap Lei Chau by 5 minutes ride Kaito, and another 5 minutes walk to MTR Lei Tung Station.  At there, catch the MTR to Hung Hom Station. Catch the intercity through train #Z98 to Beijingxi (Beijing West) Station at 15:15.  Day 2: Arriving BeijingXi at 15:30, after immigration and customs check, stay at Beijing for two nights. Day 4: Goto Beijing Station, and take the Trans-Siberian train #K3 at 10:00.    The train will run through Mongolia before e

Just created a Twitter account  @Trains2Aberdeen  for the latest update during the trip.  Feel free to follow.

While the itinerary of my upcoming trip takes over twenty days from Aberdeen to Aberdeen, what is the fastest way to travel from Aberdeen to Aberdeen by rail?  While I am waiting for my ticket confirmation, I've tried to work out the ideal itinerary based on information as of mid-February 2018. Ideal itinerary from Aberdeen to Aberdeen, in 11 days The fastest possible itinerary is a bit tricky, as you will need a Russian or Belarusian passport to directly cross the border between Russia and Belarus on the rail. Day 1 (Tuesday): On Tuesday morning just after 7 am, catch the Kaito from Aberdeen to Ap Lei Chau for Lei Tung Station, or take 20 minutes walk to Wong Chuk Hang Station, follow by MTR journey to the border crossing at Lok Ma Chau, the journey will take around 80 minutes. After crossing the border control between Hong Kong and mainland China, take the Shenzhen Metro to Futin Station, change here for the high-speed train G6506, which depart at 09:34, and arrives Guang

After some Google, and "seek for advice" in TripAdvisor's forum, it is almost confirmed that it is "illegal" to cross the Russia-Belarus land border no matter if you have the visa or not (Maybe some hope if you are just transiting through Belarus, without getting off the train).  The reason behind is political, and I won't address this in details.  While applying a Belarus visa doesn't help, and it is less preferable to re-route through Ukraine, after checking all possible railway connections, Rīga is selected, and I don't need to apply a Belarus visa. It is costly to re-route through Rīga, as there is an overnight train from Moscow/Saint Petersburg to Rīga, and from Rīga to Minsk.  I have to revise my overall plan so far. Once again, hope I can complete my plan in 24 hours. Sleeper Train from Lativa to Russia, from Rīgas Centrālā dzelzceļa stacija

As discussed in the last post, my trip from Aberdeen to Aberdeen was almost finalized.  Unfortunately, Murphy's law always applies when something seems nearly complete. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong... While Belarus offer HKSAR passport holder with 14 days visa-free access (different from 5-days visa-free access offered before), there had been a report (Ref:  背包客棧自助旅行論壇  content in Chinese) that the border control denied the entry if you came from Russia.  While I will still keep monitoring the report, some alternative plans are in my mind. 1. Apply for a Belarus visa.  While there is no embassy in Hong Kong, and I don't have enough time in Beijing, I have to apply it in Moscow. 2. Skip Belarus, and visit Ukraine instead. 3. Re-route through Riga, which makes me not enter Belarus from Russia.

Over the weekend, I tried to finalize the itinerary of my trip up to Berlin of Germany.  It is still a question of how to design the journey from Berlin to Aberdeen.  While it is technically feasible to travel within 24 hours by trains, but as far as British style is concerned, it may be too risky to perform such movement.  Some cities are considered for the technical stop, Köln, Brussels, Paris or even London.  Anyway, while the first half of the journey was finalized, the critical path is identified.  The train K3, operate by Chinese stock from Beijing to Irkutsk (and terminate at Moscow), operate on every Wednesday.  It is not possible to book from any China Railway office or 12306.cn.  Instead, you can only book the ticket through the agent.  It's time to start communicating with the agent for the train ticket and prepare the Russia visa.