The long way home - Prologue - 17500 km overland to reach my hometown!

Tripoto
16th Apr 2016
Photo of The long way home - Prologue - 17500 km overland to reach my hometown! 1/4 by Yubanaswa Chakraborty
This summer me and my wife took a overland journey from London to Siliguri (my hometown in India)

On the 14th day of our travel, we were looking out of our train window and enjoying the view of the semi frozen lake Baikal. We were on a day long journey on a slow Russian passenger train. Everything moved backwards towards the west, slowly. Pine trees, snow on the ground. The towering snow clad peaks behind them.

We had come about 8300 km since we started. A little over half the distance we were covering. This is not my usual route to go home. This is not the usual route people travel from Europe to India. But this is one of the most feasible overland route to complete this journey. Although very few actually travel this way. Our inn keeper in the town of Listvyanka by the shores of lake Baikal told us - "The last Indian tourist I saw here was about five years ago"

Ever since I moved to London, I have been toying with the idea to travel overland to India, by means of public transport - i.e. trains and road transport. After years of waiting, I finally got myself to travel.

Photo of The long way home - Prologue - 17500 km overland to reach my hometown! 2/4 by Yubanaswa Chakraborty
On the train to Tibet

In April-May, me and my wife Beena, traveled from London to Siliguri (India), mainly by trains.

Photo of The long way home - Prologue - 17500 km overland to reach my hometown! 3/4 by Yubanaswa Chakraborty
The town of Listvyanka on the shore of Lake Baikal
Photo of The long way home - Prologue - 17500 km overland to reach my hometown! 4/4 by Yubanaswa Chakraborty
A setting sun across the semi-frozen lake

Although we had crossed over from Europe to Asia long way back near the town of Yekaterinburg, the real Asia doesn't start until you cross the deepest lake of the world.

Let me now tell you about the trip we concluded.

Our trip in numbers - 10 countries, 32 days, 17500 km, highest altitude 5400m, lowest altitude 100m below MSL.

Outline of the trip:

Day 1 - 4 : London-Brussels-Koln-Warsaw-Minsk-Moscow

Day 4-10: Moscow-Yekaterinburg-Novosibirisk-Irkutsk-Listvyanka

Day 11-14: Lake Baikal-Ulan Ude

Day 15-19: Mongolia / Ulan Bator

Day 20-23: Beijing

Day 24-30: Beijing-Lhasa-Shigatse-Quomolangma (Mt Everest) Base Camp

Day 31-32: Lhasa-Kathmandu-Siliguri

Day 1

Eurostar in Brussels

Photo of London, United Kingdom by Yubanaswa Chakraborty

Koln station

Photo of Cologne, Germany by Yubanaswa Chakraborty
Day 2

Warsaw

Photo of Warsaw, Poland by Yubanaswa Chakraborty
Day 3

Gauge change of trains to the Russian system

Photo of Brest, Brest Region, Belarus by Yubanaswa Chakraborty
Day 4

Moscow Belorusskaya terminal

Photo of Moscow, Russia by Yubanaswa Chakraborty
Day 8

The Trans-Siberian journey

Photo of Novosibirsk, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia by Yubanaswa Chakraborty
Day 11

Lake Baikal

Photo of Lake Baikal, Irkutsk, Russia by Yubanaswa Chakraborty
Day 15

Horse traders in Mongolia

Photo of Ulan Bator, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia by Yubanaswa Chakraborty
Day 21

The great wall of China

Photo of Beijing, China by Yubanaswa Chakraborty
Day 26

The railway station in Lhasa

Photo of Lhasa, Tibet, China by Yubanaswa Chakraborty
Day 29

Mount Everest base camp

Photo of Shigatse, Tibet, China by Yubanaswa Chakraborty
Day 31

Purple Haze, Thamel, Kathmandu

Photo of Kathmandu, Central Region, Nepal by Yubanaswa Chakraborty
Day 32

Good old Indian Railways, after travelling 192 hours on foreign trains

Photo of Siliguri, West Bengal, India by Yubanaswa Chakraborty

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Read about the first leg - London to Moscow, the second leg - Trans Siberian, the third leg to Mongolia, the fourth part over to Tibet and finally the concluding leg of crossing the Himalayas into India.

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