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I did Singapore to Berlin overland in 2016 via the southern route (Singapore - Malaysia - Thailand - Myanmar - India (northeast) - Bangladesh - India - Pakistan

by jhugo 4y ago

I did Singapore to Berlin overland in 2016 via the southern route (Singapore - Malaysia - Thailand - Myanmar - India (northeast) - Bangladesh - India - Pakistan - Iran - Turkey - Bulgaria - Serbia - Hungary - Slovakia - Czechia - Germany). On that route, there are only a few relatively short stretches where there's no train. I had to get local drivers across the Thai - Myanmar and Myanmar - India border, and through northeast India to the Bangladesh border, and I walked across the Iran - Turkey border as the train wasn't running. The whole rest of the route, I was on trains. The Laos train is indeed exciting. If/when China comes to their senses w.r.t Covid and Russia w.r.t invading their neighbours, it would be interesting to repeat the trip the northern way.

Grimburger 4y ago
Quite an adventure, I always assumed getting between SEA and the Middle East to be difficult, particularly Myanmar<->India but looking at the map the gaps are quite small and it seems like a better way, especially these days. I did the long way round via Cambodia/Vietnam rather than through Thailand/Sichuan province, the map says there is a train now between Hanoi and Nanning but when I went it was 10+ hours on a bus including a lengthy golf buggy ride between no-mans-land with a 18yo kid armed with an AK at the Chinese border. The bus trip between Phnom Penh and HCMC was utterly terrifying, we spent a quarter of the trip on the wrong side of the road with the driver holding down the horn to make oncoming traffic move out of the way, bigger vehicle and all that. There was an American couple trying to pay the driver to slow down but that just made him more angry. Really makes you appreciate a good sleeper train or plane.
- jhugo 4y ago
  Myanmar<->India is a bit tricky. When I passed through, you needed a permit to go to that part of Myanmar and to cross the border. Not long before, the border had been closed, and I think it was closed again more recently due to the situation in Myanmar. Not sure of the current border situation. The people doing the permit in Yangon were quite serious about it, but the actual border was incredibly laid back. I walked across after stamping out of Myanmar in Tamu, and the buildings on the India side of the border were all closed for the weekend, so I kept walking to Moreh and found a policeman, who went and found the immigration guy at home so that I could get stamped in.
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by jhugo 4y ago

Grimburger 4y ago

Quite an adventure, I always assumed getting between SEA and the Middle East to be difficult, particularly Myanmar<->India but looking at the map the gaps are quite small and it seems like a better way, especially these days. I did the long way round via Cambodia/Vietnam rather than through Thailand/Sichuan province, the map says there is a train now between Hanoi and Nanning but when I went it was 10+ hours on a bus including a lengthy golf buggy ride between no-mans-land with a 18yo kid armed with an AK at the Chinese border. The bus trip between Phnom Penh and HCMC was utterly terrifying, we spent a quarter of the trip on the wrong side of the road with the driver holding down the horn to make oncoming traffic move out of the way, bigger vehicle and all that. There was an American couple trying to pay the driver to slow down but that just made him more angry. Really makes you appreciate a good sleeper train or plane.

jhugo 4y ago
Myanmar<->India is a bit tricky. When I passed through, you needed a permit to go to that part of Myanmar and to cross the border. Not long before, the border had been closed, and I think it was closed again more recently due to the situation in Myanmar. Not sure of the current border situation. The people doing the permit in Yangon were quite serious about it, but the actual border was incredibly laid back. I walked across after stamping out of Myanmar in Tamu, and the buildings on the India side of the border were all closed for the weekend, so I kept walking to Moreh and found a policeman, who went and found the immigration guy at home so that I could get stamped in.

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