The Big Trip East: 2005
In April 2005, my partner Christiane and I quit our jobs, rented out our flat in Manchester and flew to Hong Kong. We spent the following six months travelling through China, Mongolia, Russia, and Eastern Europe until we reached Berlin, from where we flew back home. This page contains various stuff related to the journey, such as photos, emails home and an itinerary, which may be of interest to anyone considering something similar. Even if you're just thinking about it, my advice is to do it if you get the chance. The only problem might be that you spend most of your future looking for opportunities to do it all over again.
Emails Home
At various points along the way I persuaded myself to sit down in an Internet cafe for an hour and send an email home to family and friends. I've attached them here in their original form. I was usually in a hurry, so please excuse the spelling and grammar.
Itinerary
The Google map below highlights all our major stops and journeys:
Before we set off I spent innumerable hours online researching, and received a great deal of assistance from members of the Thorn Tree
forums. When we returned I thought I should try and give something
back, and so I posted a kind of retrospective itinerary:
basically a brief summary of where we went, where we stayed and how much
everything cost. It was intended to assist anyone planning a similar
trip, and although it's now a few years old it might still be of
interest, so I've attached it here.
