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In July of 2007 we left Prague heading, eventually, for Australia.
We decided to go the long way, overland through Russia and then by ferry to Japan and then south, possibly through the Phillipines before flying into Australia.
We flew to Kuusamo in Finland and went walking on the Karhunkierros, the Bear's trail, just south of the Arctic circle. Then we went to Oulu and Turku and Helsinki before catching a train into St Petersburg in Russia.
From there we went east to Moscow and then east again to the middle of Siberia and Irkutsk and Lake Baikal, the world's largest freshwater lake. From Baikal we pushed north and east, along the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) to Tynda, Vanino and the far eastern island of Sakhalin.
On Sakhalin, we caught a ferry, south to Japan and the island of Hokkaido. We spent two weeks on Hokkaido and then went south again to visit a friend in Fukushima. We also went to Tokyo, Takayama, Kyoto and Nara before flying home to Australia via Kansai International Airport.
The whole trip took two months.
You can read about it here:
If you want help with planning a Trans-Siberian trip read my Russian train travel primer or the very helpful Seat 61 site.
If you want information on travelling from lake Baikal to the Amur river, Vanino and Sakhalin island then read my page on the Baikal-Amur Mainline.
