Edinburgh to Singapore
Building on my Shanghai experience, I travelled once again through Siberia and Mongolia on the Chinese 004 service, then headed south to Singapore. The 18440 km journey took me through China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia.
This journey was much longer and more complex than the previous one. Beyond China booking and organising trains in advance proved challenging. There is currently no operational railway in Cambodia, so I spent several days on busses connecting the Vietnamese and Thai rail heads.
Leg 1
UK – Holland
From Newcastle to Amsterdam
DFDS ferry
Commodore class
401 km, 17 hours
Leg 2
Holland – Germany – Poland
From Amsterdam to Warsaw
EN447 “Jan Kiepura”
1st class sleeper
1094 km, 16 hours
Leg 3
Poland – Belarus – Russia
Warsaw – Moscow
D10 “Polonez”
1st class sleeper
1502 km, 20 hours
Leg 4
Russia – Mongolia – China
From Moscow to Beijing (Trans-Mongolian route)
Train 004
1st class sleeper
10823 km, 6 days
Leg 5
China – Vietnam
Beijing – Hanoi
T5 train
2nd class soft sleeper
2995 km, 3 days
Leg 6
Vietnam
From Hanoi to Da Nang
SE1 train
2nd class sleeper
763 km, 15 hours
Leg 7
Vietnam
From Da Nang to Saigon
SE3 train
2nd class sleeper
961 km, 15 hours
Leg 8
Vietnam – Cambodia
From Saigon to Phenom Pehn
Mekong Express bus
240 km, 7 hours
Leg 9
Cambodia
Phenom Pehn – Siem Reap
Mekong Express Bus
314 km, 6 hours
Leg 10
Cambodia – Thailand
From Siem Reap to Bangkok
Taxi/foot to Poipet, then train aka “Cambodian Express”
3rd class seat
407 km, 11 hours
Leg 11
Thailand – Malaysia
From Bangkok to Butterworth
Train 35 “International Express”
2nd class sleeper
926 km, 23 hours
Leg 12
Malaysia – Singapore
From Butterworth to Singapore
Train 1 “Rakyat Express”
1st class seat
1058 km, 14 hours
18440km, with stop offs, 45 days door to door.
The journey was hugely satisfying, and allowed me to adopt a slower pace and more adventures along the way.
From my travel journal
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Matthew Woodward @ 2022