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I did a similar journey in 2009, and bought my ticket from Helmut Uttenthaler - the guy who wrote that blog! My trip into North Korea got postponed until 2010,

I did a similar journey in 2009, and bought my ticket from Helmut Uttenthaler - the guy who wrote that blog! My trip into North Korea got postponed until 2010, but the rest of the Trans-Siberian (including checking out a purported North Korean labour camp in Chegdomyn) continued as planned. The route was basically: Geneva-Beijing-Xian-Beijing-Dandong-Beijing-What do I do with my double-entry Chinese visa and a week-Hong Kong-fly to Taipei-fly to Beijing-Harbin-Vladivostok-Khabarovsk-Chegdomyn-Khabarovsk-Irkutsk (first CouchSurfing experience!)-Moscow-Ukraine-Slovakia-Austria-Switzerland-fly to UK for university. I liked Taiwan so much I went back the next summer for 2 months at an iPhone app startup, and enjoyed that so much I went back again from 2014-2018 and made many good memories (microSD, USB, DRAM factory). About the long train journey though: the scenery is beautiful, and being offline for a while is very refreshing "Sorry I didn't answer your email, I was in Siberia". Worth doing every decade or so; it's about time I have another holiday like that. Maybe further south along the ancient Silk Road route.

gurkendoktor 6y ago
That sounds like a fantastic trip! > Irkutsk (first CouchSurfing experience!) If you are going to do it again, would you still use CouchSurfing? We had a great experience surfing on all of our stops from Warsaw to Vladivostok in 2013, but I'm not sure if that's still a thing, or if it is all Airbnb now. I wonder if it still has the same vibe. Asking because I'd also love to take the Transsiberian again. Vladivostok was great, but I'd love to see Mongolia this time.
- peterburkimsher 6y ago
  I stayed active on CouchSurfing from then on, and was also able to host in Japan and Taiwan! It's a great community, with meetups as well if you're not travelling but still want to hang out with interesting people. In May 2020 though, CouchSurfing started charging subscription fees. The community is outraged, and most people are moving to BeWelcome.org and Trustroots. BeWelcome has some online meetups as well, if you feel like coming and chatting. So yes - I am still doing hospitality exchange, and would certainly try to do so on a trip like this.

gurkendoktor 6y ago

That sounds like a fantastic trip! > Irkutsk (first CouchSurfing experience!) If you are going to do it again, would you still use CouchSurfing? We had a great experience surfing on all of our stops from Warsaw to Vladivostok in 2013, but I'm not sure if that's still a thing, or if it is all Airbnb now. I wonder if it still has the same vibe. Asking because I'd also love to take the Transsiberian again. Vladivostok was great, but I'd love to see Mongolia this time.

peterburkimsher 6y ago
I stayed active on CouchSurfing from then on, and was also able to host in Japan and Taiwan! It's a great community, with meetups as well if you're not travelling but still want to hang out with interesting people. In May 2020 though, CouchSurfing started charging subscription fees. The community is outraged, and most people are moving to BeWelcome.org and Trustroots. BeWelcome has some online meetups as well, if you feel like coming and chatting. So yes - I am still doing hospitality exchange, and would certainly try to do so on a trip like this.