Moscow

Current location: Irkutsk, Russia.

I ended up spending four days in Moscow. On the second day I visited the Museum of the Armed Forces, where I spent an afternoon ogling at various infantry weapons, artillery pieces, tanks, fighter planes, choppers and even ICBM-platforms; and was invited to a dacha to watch football and bathe in a banya, and was given my very own tracksuit (in case you didn't know, Russians love their tracksuits).

Days three and four I spent walking around town, joining the tourist hordes in the Red Square, relaxing in the many parks, marvelling at the extravagant architecture and the many statues and monuments that dot the city (evidently quite a few of the artist and architects involved in erecting these memorials were suffering from different stages of megalomania) and generally just getting lost in the city.

The train to Irkutsk left at 0035 on Friday morning from Jaroslavskiy station, and my Trans-Siberian adventure was properly kicked into gear.

Victory Park and the Museum of the Great Patriotic War.

Detail from the huge obelisk above. St. George slaying a dragon marked with the swastika?

One of the Seven Sisters of Moscow.

 Authors note: Due to some technical difficulties, posting pictures is a bit of a problem at the moment, but when I get my gear working again I'll upload some more pictures for Your viewing pleasure.

The first day

I did not think that on the fist day of my trip I'd be riding around Moscow in a brand new Merc, or that I'd spend the evening watching football and smoking hookah with a houseful of young Muscovites and end up downing fancy drinks in a top end club overlooking Moscow under siege by a thunderstorm.

Still, that pretty much sums up my first day.

After arriving at Leningradskiy station at around 0800 in the morning, I made my way through the spectacular Moscow metro to Novye Cheremushki where my friend Dmitry was waiting for me. He took me to his place, we had a quick breakfast and mere moments later were on the grand avenues of the nearly deserted metropolis. Dmitry was happy for the lack of traffic, and told me that normally it would take ages to get anywhere by car in Moscow, but since nearly everybody had gone to their "dachas", or country homes due to the two day national holiday, the streets were as good as empty.

Having driven around for a good while, taking in some of the more well known sights, we stopped for a meal at a Ukrainian restaurant and were joined by two of Dmitry's friends, Nikolay and Dmitry, whom I would see again that night, for my host had invited people over to watch football and have dinner.

I don't much care for football, so I spent the evening learning Russian in a hookah-ring.
Once the game ended, Dmitry announced we'd be going out, and since I would never pass the infamous Moscow "face control" wearing what I'd brought for the trip, Dmitry lent me some of the contents of his closet. After a quick "makeover" I was deemed worthy and, though my pants and shirt were a bit tight ("You're a victim of fashion", I was told), headed for the heart of the city.
After several rounds of karaoke (none of which I took part in, sorry Dima), some Patron and cocktails, it was time to head home and crash.

The Beginning pt. 4

10,7 kg says the luggage scale. Close enough.
I did indulge a bit by packing my DSLR camera, a hammock, a cotton sleeping bag, a mosquito net and a bottle of Permethrin, all of which I could probably do without.
Still, if I lose the Permethrin I can board pretty much any international flight with my backpack as carry-on. Not that I intend to fly. At all.
Which brings us to The Plan.

My intention is to travel around the planet using only land and sea transport, mostly because you get to see much more of the world than when crammed into an aluminium tube flying in the stratosphere. (And cuz, you know, the indians say that if you travel too fast you leave your soul behind, which sounds bad...)

As stated in the description, the general direction of travel is east, with one major westward deviation in East Asia, where I do a near 180 in Japan and head for India.
I don't really have any obligations that would dictate the length of my trip, but a year sounds about right. Then again, I might get mugged and raped in a dark alley in Moscow or I might spend all my money on Pachinko in Japan. Or I might end up stuck in my hammock on a beach somewhere and live the rest of my life as a beach bum.
But "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all", so tomorrow I'll board the train and bid farewell to family, friends and Finland to embark on an adventure of my own.

Wish me luck, I fear I'm going to need all I can get...

The Beginning pt. 3

If you've been to any of the backpacker capitals of the world you might have seen travellers lugging around backpacks half their size and probably, especially if it's a woman, half their weight.
Hell, maybe you've been one of those guys, just off the bus from the airport after 10+ hours of trying to catch sleep on the plane, that iced coffee barely keeping you sane while taxi drivers and hotel/guesthouse/travel agency touts go for you like swine to fodder while you try to make sense of your surroundings.

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

On my first ever trip to Southeast Asia my backpack weighed well over 20 kilos, and I soon found I'd packed a lot of unnecessary stuff and ended up carrying all that excess gear around for three months. The second time I did little better, but this time opted to mail the junk home.

So nowadays I try to travel as light as possible. Depending on your destination, you can get by with surprisingly little. Sure, if you're planning to summit Everest, boarding the plane with carry-on only might not get you far, but a three month escape to the beaches of Southeast Asia requires little more than flip flops, shorts, a t-shirt or two and a change of underwear.

Although I'm packing for a year I'm trying to keep to bare essentials. Should the need arise for additional gear, I'm sure I can buy what I need on the road.

Singapore, summer 2011.
The equatorial heat was too much for my girlfriend, so I had to help her out a little.

The Beginning pt. 2

I went to my travel agents' after gym yesterday to pick up my passport and joy of joys, I've been granted a 30-day visa to Russia! That and the train ticket to Moscow I picked up last week mean it's on like Donkey Kong. The plan is to spend a week or so in the capital before catching a train to Siberia to check out Lake Baikal.

I'm still missing some gear I need, but as I still have a few weeks untill blastoff, procuring them shouldn't be a problem.
Only problem is weight. My backpack is the Eberlestock Halftrack, which weighs 3,5 kilos when empty and I'm trying to keep my gear under 10 kgs, so packing for what's potentially going to be a year on the road, and doing it in 6,5 kgs is going to be a tough nut to crack.

Beverly Hills Cop is on. Gotta go.