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Old 12-03-2009, 07:47 PM   #31
Daymoe
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,082
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva
Ok then. Went from Sth Korea to London overland / water through Asia and Europe / Russia first stop Vladivostok via rusty transport ship.

None of that travel was done with any tours or pre-booked tickets. I was the one that lined up to buy tickets, was totally done with generic local public transport, all 3rd class (when there were 'classes') and 90% of the time alone.

I worked out that I did 22,000km in total. Took about 9 months.

The ship to Vladivostok was interesting. Of the 400 passengers I was the ONLY westerner. The rest of the ship was Korean / Russian businessmen, their partners and a large amount of Russian 'working ladies'...

3rd class was a mat on the floor of what used to be the main dining room (was an old cruise ship).. That room probably had 200 people sharing the space.

Vlad is not the most hospitable of places.. the end of Winter, not a tourist in sight.. The accommodation I found was a condemned building full of transient Russian workers. Meh what did I care it was cheap.

This is a place where if someone bumps you while you walk, you keep your head down and keep on going. The locals don't even carry wallets, just a small wad of cash to get them through the day. So I did the same. Walking through the markets and main streets the Mafia were obvious, and you knew who to not lock eyes with, and when to keep your camera and mobile phone out of sight..

Trained it to China, went around to several cities and saw the 'real' China.. A place where any westerner walking alone was a walking cash machine.

Got stuck a few times.. had to fight my way out of a few situations, had to pay my way out of others.....

The GF at the time came to visit, good thing I escorted her to the airport. We almost got done over by an organised gang trying to scam us out of cash / passports. Talked my way out of that one.

30 min later I saw the same scam getting done to another girl... went over and helped her. Gave that guy a bit of a beating and got her on the plane as well with all her money and passport..

Eventually trained it to Mongolia... Did the Trans Mongolian Railway 3rd class the whole way across Russia... again, not another westerner to be seen till you got to 2nd / 1st class. I was told that 3rd class tickets were not sold to tourists as they are reserved for Russians, but proved that theory wrong.

Mongolia was not as rough as I expected, and far better than China. Although the sign stuck to the back of the heavily fortified Hostel door had words to the effect of "Do not go out alone at night as it is unsafe".

Back to Russia... The Moscow cops are crooked as can be. I was almost arrested and deported because I didn't pay a bribe... he was a persistent Mo Fo.. Interrogated / threatened me for almost an hr...

Didn't pay a cent... turns out my Hostel was not paying protection money so he forgot about me and threatened the hostel owner, she crapped herself and payed up. She stopped crying and calmed down after several cigarettes then told me I was 'very lucky'...

If you're interested in reading in greater detail some of what I have mentioned above I can copy and paste the sections from my online diary.

They make for some very eye opening and interesting reading.

People have no idea what goes on every day in some other countries.....

Cheers,

Jason
By now you must be some super secret agent 007 ninja warrior after your experiences... Do you have the link to your blog so i can read the rest of it please?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EviLkarL
How about you start your trip at the Christmas Island Refugee and detention centre. After a short 6 year stay you can turn around and go back to where you came from. lol
Quote:
Originally Posted by sourbastard
ive got the weight gain bit mastered, Colonel Sanders is my personal trainer.

As to weight loss, nah, im a fat bastard and proud of it, im going to die from a massive heart attack, for theres nothing worse then lying around in hospital dying from nothing.
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