May Day, May Day… almost the 1st of May. Aside from that being Inese’s birthday, it’ll mark 6 months since I’ve come full-circle back to Blighty after my travels, which according to Google Earth was some 58856.68 kilometers (give or take a bit ;)) in distance!
Whilst I’m certainly itching to get back to 香港 (Hong Kong) for a whole host of reasons, I don’t think I’ve got enough “green karma” left after all those flights during 2005 to get me back there, even though since the age of 17 I’ve had no intention of car ownership and went by public transport to everywhere assuming I didn’t walk or cycling it first.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way!
The most obvious and less polluting would be going over land by train. Having had a little dig around on the Internet, the route would go something like this:
- Northampton, UK to London, UK
- London, UK to Brussels, Belgium
- Brussels, Belgium to Köln, Deutschland
- Köln, Deutschland to Москва, Росси́я (Moscow, Russia) (via Санкт-Петербург, Росси́я (Saint Petersburg, Russia))
- Москва, Росси́я (Moscow, Russia) to 中國大陸北京 (Beijing, Mainland China) (via Улаанбаатар, Монгол Улс (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia))
- 中國大陸北京 (Beijing, Mainland China) to 香港 (Hong Kong)
Good points are that I’ll travel through Brussels meaning I can drop in on Inese and Arta, I will actually go through Санкт-Петербург (Saint Petersburg) which was an intended stop back in 2005, though things actually worked out a little differently and lastly I might be able to squeeze in some gallivanting around Монгол Улс (Mongolia)!
Bad points are that it’ll cost about double what a long haul flight from London to 香港 (Hong Kong) would plus the train journey times totals up to something like 10 days (perhaps a hidden blessing) on their own.
I guess I’ll just have to wait and see if this particular bout of lunacy becomes real… :)
Aside from the fact that the trip by trains would cost more than by plane, the idea sounds just excellent! This would be a very special and I am quite sure an unforgettable journey. And I am not even hinting to the stop in Brussels. ;-))
Comment by spoxy — 10:15:32 UTC on the 2nd of May, 2006
It would be rude of me to literally go through Brussels and not do a stop to visit you and Arta. ;)
Comment by Jonathan Stanley — 15:54:44 UTC on the 2nd of May, 2006
If you’re going to insist on calling it “中國大陸北京” then you should be referring to Hong Kong as 香港特別行政區, because that’s what it is now. And if your intent is going with local scripts, it should be 中国北京, because we use simplified characters.
Comment by Mister Moy — 02:29:08 UTC on the 12th of July, 2006
Tsk tsk Mister Moy, since this (my) blog uses British English, as yours truly is a Sino-Limey born in (British) Hong Kong, which then and now uses 正體字 (Traditional/Proper Characters), that is what I’ll continue to use. Hence 中國大陸 (Mainland China) as “大陸” is too much of a colloquialism. 中華民國 (Republic of China) incidentally also use proper Chinese. ;)
The day I’ll start using 簡體字 (Simplified Chinese) will be around that day I start writing in text-speak/retard-speak/American English… which will be around about never. ;)
Comment by Jonathan Stanley — 03:02:11 UTC on the 12th of July, 2006