My travel updates

My June trip is getting closer so now is a good time to update my itinerary. I spent much of today planning and booking my trips to and within Russia.

Since the last update, I have discovered and booked a cheap flight from South Africa to Europe on Expedia, a third party travel site. I have used Expedia previously and found it to be reliable for flight bookings, so I decided to book with it again.

I had been looking out for cheap flights from South Africa, either Johannesburg or Cape Town to anywhere in Europe. The cheapest I had came across was on Iberia for ~S$333, from Johannesburg to Barcelona one way. Unfortunately, the fare was soon gone and the next cheapest was above $400. 

Just the other day, I chanced upon a set of three full service flights from Johannesburg to Frankfurt, Germany at ~S$300 one way. Definitely a bargain. It involves two transfers, starting with Kenya Airways flight from Johannesburg to Nairobi in Africa, then Air France long haul flight from Nairobi to Paris, France, finally another Air France short haul flight from Paris to Frankfurt. The stopover was reasonable at about 1.5 hours to 2 hours. I booked this flight itinerary soon after.

There was another flight option for the same price. It involves taking two flights with Kenya Airways (including the long haul), connecting at Nairobi and Amsterdam. The stopover was as short as 50 minutes. 

A 50-minutes connection time might be too tight for me, especially if the first flight was delayed. Moreover, the checked in luggage most probably wouldn't make it to the second flight, from my unfortunate prior experience.

Comparing between Kenya Airways and Air France, both of which I have yet taken, I would prefer Air France personally. So with that, I went ahead with the first option.

Once in Europe, my next stop would be Russia. But before that, there is one country in western Europe that I would like to revisit: Germany. 

I have transited Frankfurt airport numerous times but have yet to visit the city proper. So I thought this upcoming trip would be a good time to visit Frankfurt and Berlin, another city that I have long wanted to visit. 

It helps that Easyjet, an European budget carrier has reasonable fares from Berlin to Helsinki, Finland, for the date I need to travel. Due to lack of budget carriers flying to Helsinki, flight prices between other European countries and Finland has always been expensive. So quickly, I booked this Easyjet flight to get me to Helsinki.

From Helsinki, I was hoping to get to St Petersburg, Russia. Either by overnight ferry, or by train taking a couple of hours. Due to my limited travel schedule, I will be taking the day train. From online review, it seems that immigration formalities are carried out on the train, so hopefully less waiting time and longer tour time !

From St Petersburg, I will be taking the overnight train to Moscow. There are numerous daytime and overnight timings so I chose the cheapest timing. I booked a third class berth for myself at a price of S$28, simply for the experience. There are cheaper seat options too, but since it is an overnight journey, a bed option for sleeping would be more comfortable. There is also the more expensive second class compartment, the difference, from my online research, is that it is enclosed for quiet and privacy. This is the main and probably only difference.

Russian train tickets can be bought online at the official Russian railways website offering the cheapest rate, or at third party travel sites but often with higher rates.

At Moscow, I hope to visit the main attractions: Kremlin and the St Basil Cathedral. They have appeared in many travel commercials and have enticed me to visit over the years.

After Moscow, I would like to embark on the famed tran-siberia railway, a six-day continuous train journey, from Moscow, passing through Siberia, which is Russia's hinterland, to either Beijing, Mongolia or Vladivostok in the Russia far east. I chose to travel to Vladivostok mainly because of price. It is far more expensive to travel to Beijing, which sees more tourists. The date didn't work out for me to get to Mongolia either, a country I would like to visit as well. But probably for another time.

The tran-siberia train stops in many Russian cities. I can choose to get off and explore these cities, but I will need to book separate train tickets to continue my journey. After doing some combinations, I realise that it is much cheaper to do the continuous journey than to make stops. And the more stops I make, the more expensive the journey becomes. As budget is a big concern for me, I decided to ride the train without stops. On the comfort level, I decided to book myself in second class. First class is beyond my reach, financially, so second class it is.

The Russian railways website is quite easy to use and book train tickets. There is an option for English, so no need to use google translate. I can select the seat number I want without extra charge.  There is a train schedule which lists all the stops en-route and how long each stop is. Hopefully the train will be on time.

I have yet to finalize my travel plans beyond Vladivostok. But by then, I guess it will be time for me to return home. Otherwise, I will be over my travel budget. Haha!

From Vladivostok, I am planning to take the weekly ferry from Vladivostok to Donghae, South Korea or to Sakaiminato, Japan. I have yet to make up my mind, though I did prefer heading to Japan. I realise that Sakaiminato is near Tottori, a place that I recently just thought of visiting. So why not visit it if it's on the way?

So I'm getting really excited about this trip. Quite some unique experiences waiting.. Visiting my sixth continent, first time visiting South Africa and Russia, taking the tran-siberia railway. As well as taking a number of airlines for the first time.

Hopefully in time to come I can finalise the last segment of my upcoming trip. 😀