07 April 2009

Go

Tokyo-Osaka-Shanghai-Beijing-Irkutsk-Moscow-Tallinn

Day 1
17. March 23:30 Tokyo
Night bus from Shinjuku to Osaka. Despite my great effort during 1 year time I haven't mastered the Japanese skills to sleep wherever whenever - the night in the bus was crap and I had caught cold the previous day/evening in Yoyogi which made it even worse.

Day 2
07:30 Osaka
There's not much to do at that time of the day. I found a McDonalds on the corner, drank some coffee and red LP Shanghai which I borrowed from Kaspar. I think the banks opened around 9 a.m but "the currency exchange department" opened at 10 and the only accepted currency was USD or Japanese yens so my last hope was the ferry terminal:
Yeah and the last hope was gone as well. There are lots of things you have to do before leaving Japan. One of them is your health insurance card - sized like a usual credit card but made out of paper holding your name and something else. No magnetic stripes or anything. So the deal is that you get an envelope from city hall and before leaving the country you have to send it back. Yea, the same piece of paper. Don't ask why - the country of techmology after all :) At least I could leave this envelope to the lady at the encounter.

Boarding time was at 12 and I got my berth in a cabin for 8 persons (western style). For non-western style the price is the same but the room is for 16. We were 5 people in the cabin 2 Chinese and Reimond (a guy from Germany but was born in Brasil and lived there for the first 15 years) and then JP a pure Japanese fella. We had a ping-pong tournament, of course a small Chinese boy beat us all. My cold was getting even worse so I decided to beat it with as much tea as I could possibly drink - fortunately it was for free. Later I discovered that I had forgotten my scratchpad to Tokyo and also some of my laundry to the washing machine at the dorm. But maybe it was good - can't say I had much room in my backbag. The bad thing was that I had Rong-Rongs contacts in that notebook. As I didn't feel good I went bed early.

Day 3
The wake-up call was 7 a.m and breakfast 7:30. Crazy. I got up 5 minutes before 9 to get a new load of tea. A guy from the crew told me to go grab some breakfast as it's served until 9. To be honest I had no idea that the breakfast is included. I like porridge, specially rice one but this tasteless rice jelly didn't agree to end up in my stomach.

The ship was really small and swaying quite heavily. I think it wasn't bigger than Vana-Tallinn (a ship between Paldiski and Kapellskär):

JP and Reimond had met Georgia a girl from UK. And there we sat and tried to save the world. Ah and the Chinese dishes in the restaurant - delicious.
In the evening there was a karaoke in the bar. A Chinese old man was singing and it sounded exactly like a women was singing. But when a Chinese old lady was singing in Japanese it didn't make any difference - the sound and the pronunciation was the same as in Chinese I quess. Interesting. Anyway I couldn't "enjoy" it too long as I still hadn't recovered and I was off to bed.

Day 4


The water had changed it's color:
Yeah I've reached the 3rd longest river in the world - Yangtze which means I'll get to Shanghai in no time. There was unbelievable traffic on the river - any kind of boats, ships war-cruisers or whatever possible. Even a huge LCD-screen mounted on a small ship cruising around the river and showing Nissan commercials.

The air was a bit foggy and the second thing you'll notice after the traffic is the construction work. Everything is being built even the terminal was under construction.

Even though there were 3 Europeans the customs went really smooth no-one seemed to care about us. We took a taxi to the downtown. When talking about taxis I think I'll always remember my mate in Tokyo, Nikola who said that one of the things he really missed from Bulgaria was a ride in a taxi. Yea - can't make it in Tokyo unless you're one of the salary mans who doesn't fit into the capsule hotel. Fortunately the taxi fare was really cheap so there wasn't even a discuss of sharing it - good for me as I still didn't have any Chinese money. I stepped in to the first bank and my cash problems were solved - damned I thought Japan was more open minded but apparently I was wrong. So we bid farewell with Reimond and JP who found themselves a hotel.

As I wrote in the previous part I found myself housing from the almighty internets. China is at the same level with Europe which meant I could use my old cellphone here. So I called my host Lea. She was still working so I decided to hang around a bit. I accompany Georgy to her hotel which was just next to a massive big multistore fancy hotel. It didn't look any good from the outside but inside was a whole other world. Really cool interior and the rooms were nice as well. I'd never stay in the big fancy one when I'd have a small and comfy just near by. She left her baggage and we were off to find some food. We chose a place which had the most people inside. The menu offcourse was in Chinese and we ordered somethig to eat - drink part was easy - everybody knows Coca-Cola and it was the safest pick at that time.

After the meal I called Lea again, she was still working but her cleaning lady could let me in. Even though I had some address the taxi driver couldn't find the place and I wasn't the best one to communicate with him. After some phone calls I finally arrived somewhere. I'd never met Lea neither the lady. And I wasn't sure I was in the right place. The flat was really nice the lady turned on the TV for me but I prefered to read. She was nice. At some point Lea came home and I finally met her in real life. I can tell you she was even nicer than the cleaning lady :) And I'm telling you - she's the living lexicon of Shanghai and China. Later in the evening we were off to a night club called Shelter, which was a really cool place. Even DJ Kentaro from Japan was going to play there next week. I had seen that guy in the Rising Sun Rock Festival in Japan Hokkaido. Sad I couldn't see him in Shanghai. The next place we were going was called Logo. Damned she knew some places. Both of the places were really small and cozy. The funniest thing in Logo was a guy in joggers behind the encounter. The bar man took your order, made you a drink and took your cash which he gave to the guy in joggers who gave him the change back which he gave to me. Later on I found out he was the owner of the place :) And I love the food you can buy from the streets - just in front of Logo:

BBQ - meat, vegetables whatever - sooo goooood.

Day 5 - 7 Shanghai

I was wondering around in the city. Later on Lea joined me for a dinner. Where after we went to People's 7 I think that's how it was called. I really like Shanghai because it's full of contrasts. In one place you can have a beer for almost nothing and in the next place you pay the same money as in top places in Europe or Japan.

The next day it's raining cats and dogs. Lea had cough cold and was quite sic. Even though it weren't a best weather to explore the city I was going out. Another thing I like about China is that you can just aimlessly go around in a city and at some point when you decide it's enough you can just take a taxi back home. The definite highlight of that day was:

Every time I get home late at night I wish I found a Yoshinoya on my way home :(
And the old town was also really nice :)

And a magic DVD shop. For a second I thought I was in a transformers movie after I asked if they had some Japanese anime. Shelves turned over some hidden doors came up and you could have anything you wished :)

I had decided to go to Beijing by train and not the night one so I could see a bit of the country side as well. So I went to the station to get my tickets. Fortunately it was a really nice day. After that I was out for Pudong the home for Shanghais skyscrapers.

I think I'll continue in next post and fortunately I don't remember the trip much in detail anymore, so hopefully you'll get shorter posts.

13 August 2008

Ready, steady, ...

I gave too many promises to write something about my journey back home and better late than never. And this time it will be in English for the ones who were left behind. So don't charge me for my "French". And looks like it's gonna be far too long to fit in one post so here we begin:

In the army there was a nice saying - never give soldiers too much free time or they think up something stupid. Seems like it's the same in ordinary life. Anyway, just another weekend, nothing to do and I was looking for some cheap flight tickets back home (I came by one-way ticket). But as usual - nothing cheap. Frustrated as I was I thought - what the hell I'll go by train then and continued to search the flight tickets.

Another day I was checking the "interweb" whether the Trans-Siberian railway is still going strong and of course it was and still is. Then I fooled a couple of my friends by saying that I'm going back by train and so on. The idea was too crazy to fit into my head. I think without Heleri and Kaspar I wouldn't reach the level of self-confidence to even start the planning. Not that I'm afraid of new adventures but because of the situation between Russia and Estonia:

The sign says: "No entry for dogs nor Estonians", hanging on a door of a restaurant in Russia. Read more from BBC.

At some point I found myself calling different embassy's and checking out the expenses. Seems like the planning had already started. I had chosen out a route from Tokyo to Fushiki and then from Vladivostok to Moscow and Tallinn. I made a spreadsheet file where I wrote all the prices, dates, places, contact indormation - anything useful I could find from the "internets" related to the journey.

Quite soon I realized that it's gonna be more expensive than I thought. The price of the ferry to Russia was close to 40 000 yens and the train ticket price varied from 20 000 yens to 63 000 yens. Quite a downside until I found a ferry ticket from Osaka to Shanghai for 18 000 yens - great - yet another idea. So I made some "minor" changes to my route and added China as well. Certainly the China inclusion for the trip was greatly affected by Rong-Rong my nice classmate from Tokyo who was going back home to China and was more than happy to host me there. And for the train journey I must mention that Rong-Rong means Train-Train in Estonian - I took it as good luck for my trip :)

After some consulting sessions with Rong-Rong and Mongolian embassy it came clear that Mongolia will be "no-can-do" on this trip just because the trains run quite SELDOM (a small inside joke) and the Trans-Mongolian route couldn't fit in. So my final route was on Trans-Manchurian: Tokyo-Osaka-Shanghai-Beijing-Irkutsk-Moscow-Tallinn.

Now for the hard part - visas. Yeah you can think that Russia is my neighbor country and it will be easy for me to get the visa but Russia is Russia. Reading different bulletin boards I understood that this is the most difficult part of the whole trip. I'll cover it just briefly. Things you need:
* Passport
* Visa application form
* Passport photo
* Health insurance
* A voucher from the travel agency in Russia

It's gonna take 2 weeks and 5 000 yens.
The last document from the list is quite interesting thing. As the man from Seat61 (http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm) says:

A hangover from Soviet times is that to get a visa you need supporting documentation, usually just called 'visa support'. In theory, this is a letter of invitation from your travel agency setting out confirmed travel & accommodation arrangements for your entire stay in Russia or (for independent travellers) an accommodation voucher issued by your hotel(s) showing confirmed accommodation for each and every night you plan to spend in Russia. Having to pre-book all this would be ridiculously restrictive, so here's how it really works: You go to an agency such as www.realrussia.co.uk or one of the Russian agencies listed above and they sell you the necessary visa support for a small fee, which allows you to get a visa without any genuine hotel bookings, so you can travel around freely just as you would in any other country, buying tickets and finding hotels as you go. Behind the scenes, the agency usually has an arrangement with a local hotel, they make a dummy 'reservation' for the period you want to be in Russia so they can legally issue the visa support, though of course you don't pay for the hotel and everyone knows (apart from the Russian government) that you have no intention of ever using that hotel room. Crazy, eh

Sketchy, but finally I got my Visa support

from WayToRussia.Net for 3 200 yens, my second purchase before that I bought the Trans-Siberian LP for ~2 500 yens
After I checked the health insurance prices I realized it wasn't such a great idea to take the visa for a longer period "just in case" ~7 000 yens for 25 days covering Russia only. Quite frustrating until I found a special deal from Salva Kindlustus (just for information to fellow Estonians). They offer a special insurance for Russia, Ukraine and Belarus and I got mine for 1 060 yens - sweet. A quick visit to photo booth and here I come Russian Embassy.

Meanwhile I had checked out that I need 4 000 yens and 4 days for the Chinese visa and a filled application form where Rong-Rong had to write her contact information. The only problem was that I was short of time. I had the graduation from the JUSST program then on the next day my parents came to visit me and I had to arrange all the transportation, accomodation and other things so I didn't had any time for my onw planning. And on the next evening my parents left I had to take the night bus to Osaka. Pretty tense. However inbetween the Kyoto-Osaka-Hiroshima-Tokyo trip with my parents I could manage to apply for the Russian visa. After seeing my Estonian passport the embassy clerk wanted to speak in Russian but that is one of the big problems with me and the journey I'm going to take. At the end it went quite smoothly and my application was accepted. Even up to this point I couldn't believe that I'm really going to make it. Because of the relations between Estonia and Russia and the information of getting the Russian visa from the "internets". First time I realized that I'm really going to make it was 2 weeks later when I saw the Russian visa in my passport. On the same day I rushed to the Chinese embassy to apply for Chinese visa.

Russian visa in my passport I started to book tickets. Nightbus to Osaka for 3 800 yens (www123bus.net). Ferry from Osaka to Shanghai 18 000 yens (http://www.shanghai-ferry.co.jp/english/fares.htm) + Fuel Surcharge 1 500 yens.

Geting the travel insurance was another problem. I couldn't get the insurance from Japan because I wasn't coming back and I couldn't apply for the insurance from Estonia through the internet because they've got somekind of rules that you can't apply when you're already traveling. Several phone calls to different insurance companies in Estonia couldn't change the situation. My explanation about the fact that I'm not traveling in Japan but living and at the point I left Estonia I didn't even thought about going to China was not convinient enough. And even if I had planned it 1 year in advance I couldn't buy the insurance for so long time in advance. Finally Heleri could somehow get me the insurance for 4 000 yens. Great. Now I just need the train tickets :D

I had planned to stay in Shanghai, Beijing, Irkutsk and Moscow. The most crucial ticket was from Beijing to Irkutsk. For buying the tickets there were different alternatives. The most cheapest was offcourse to buy the ticket in person from Beijing. Even though it wasn't a high season I thought it would be a nice idea to get the ticket in advance. And then there are different types of tickets I went for the cheapest one - 1 berth in a compartment for 4 people (2nd class it was an international train and it was the lowest class available). Fortunately Rong-Rongs friend was so nice and bought me my ticket for 1 599 yuan (25 000 yens).

Even though I was going to spend "a few" nights on the train i still needed some accommodation in Shanghai, Irkutsk and Moscow. A great deal here was couch surfing (http://www.couchsurfing.com/) . What a great project it is. Not that you can spend a free night somewhere but meeting someone who knows the place and can show you around is priceless. And I'm really happy that I could find Lea in Shanghai and Spike in Irkutsk. What comes to Moscow I had family acquaintances living over there. Last time I met them was more than 10 years ago and at that point I couldn't speak Russian and I still don't but I could get their contacts and arrange a place I could stay a few days.

After my parents left Tokyo I had 1 day to do all the necessary procedures to leave Japan (Closing all my contracts, packing my stuff, leaving my dorm etc). And still I had time to spend quality time in Yoyogi with Senjor Arki and Shinya and others. Even on the last day Japan can surprise you. I visited 3 banks in Chofu and 2 in Osaka and I couldn't change any Chinese money. So I left for China whithout a single yuan. Sounded promising.

I think that's it. And it's just the planning. I'll add the expenses to the end to you and myself to see how much approximately did I spend. It's gonna be in Japanese yens as in the story. For fellow Estonians just take 1 zero off from the end and you'll get the price in EEK.

List:
2 500 yens Trans-Siberian LP
3 200 Voucher for the Russian visa
1 000 Health insurance for Russia
5 000 Russian visa
4 000 Chinese visa
4 000 Health insurance for China
3 800 Tokyo-Osaka night bus
19 500 Osaka-Shanghai ferry
25 000 Beijing-Irkutsk train
-------------------------------------
68 000 yens so far

to be continued ...

16 March 2008

Aeg saab ymber

No nii s6brad. pole endast juba ammu elum2rki andnud ja kasutades Matu s6navara v6in julgelt 8elda, et nii kuramuse kiire on olnud, et ei j6ua peldikus isegi raputada enne pyksi panekut. Nimelt siis sai kool l6petatud, vanematele ja t2dile jaapanit n2idatud s6pradega hyvasti j2etud, kuna need ykshaaval siit minema tilkusid ja nyyd ongi aeg minu k2es. Homme 17. m2rts pakin ennast taas kokku ja seekord siis ninaga juba kodu poole.

Kunagi ammu yhel n2dalavahetusel kui yliigav oli sai sellise m6tte peale tuldud, et 10 tundi lennuki s6itu on ikka igavamast igavam. Ja no nagu tavaliselt ikka kui igav on, m6eldakse lollusi v2lja. Minu lollus seekord on siis selline:

Tokyo - Osaka 88buss
Osaka - Shanghai laev
Shanghai - Peking rong
Peking - Irkutks rong
Irkutks - Moskva rong
Moskva - Tallinn rong

Need kes tahtsid 2 yhes saada, et mulle vastu tulla ja lennujaama iseavanevaid uksi vaadata, peavad seekord pettuma. Hetkel ma veel ei kujuta ette, millal ma l6puks koju j6uan, aga ilmselt kuskil aprilli keskel. Eks ma yritan teid ikks kursis hoida kui v6imalik. Eestis n2eme.

Sayonara