Going across the world, need some help!
 

I am going all the way across Europe and Asia. Has a nyone done this by themselves, and if they did how much did t hey bring as far as clothing and supplies? My time frame is about a year.

Where do you plan on being during wintertime ? And are you going to Asia through Russia ?

If you plan to spend a year crossing two continents, how much money you bring is much more important than what you initially bring with you. Other than that, I'm not sure you're going to get much info without providing more details.

Yes, knowing your starting point, ending point and your must-see places in between will give us a better idea of how to help you. :)

I plan on buying the europass youth pass, unlimited for three months. After the three months of traveling around western Europe I will probably head through Russia for most of Asia heading south. I might check out Mongolia. (Does anybody have any recomendations for Russia and/or China as far as places to visit go) I plan on staying mostly with people that I have a contact with from here, in Europe. Asia will be more difficult to find places to stay. I am bringing a credit card and a bank account with around twenty thousand dollars in it. What do you suggest I initially bring with me to Europe aside from my ipod, Backpack, Camera, and 1 person tent?

Go to either the library or a book store and start looking at guidebooks for Russia and China. Both countries are far too enormous with far too many things to see to begin listing here. Do you have any idea of what appeals to you? Are you more interested in culture, nature or architecture? Find a starting point and go from there. :)

Aside from the things you've listed and a couple of guide books (and clothes, of course), pretty much anything else you need can be bought while you're gone. Bring a few toiletries to get you through the first little while and then just wing it.

Also, one of the very first things to consider is the visa situation. Pretty much every single country throughout Asia-- including Russia-- requires a tourist visa for most Western citizens (I'm not sure where you're from?). After about three or four (and sending your passport off for a few weeks at a time for each of them, or finding the nearest embassy) they can start to get expensive.

i can help ya with info about getting around south east asia, if your planning on going to thailand/malaysia/vietnam/indeonesia/anywhere in borneo give us a message

these links might be helpful when your in asia...

this is a budget airline - although i dont like flying myself its dirt cheap and you can get from xiamen(southern china) to thailand, then to other places
www.airasia.com

also i will find the link for you at home, if you want to go to malaysia, get the train from china!! its wicked. it goes from china, along the coast of vietnam, through cambodia a bit then down through thailand then through penisula malaysia and on to singaprore also. its relativley cheap and the places you pass through are cheap to stay in also, but visa's can add up a bit.

Yeah, it's pretty hard to give advice about China. I was there three months and didn't see enough! If you want to get an idea of places that I saw, feel free to check out my photo page (in my sig). I'd say do see the Great Wall though, it's pretty cool. I loved Inner Mongolia and would love to check out Mongolia proper. Beijing was meh for me, Shanghai was fun but pretty much your modern globalized city. I stayed in Nanjing for the semester I was there, and it was a good place to be.

Sichuan was GORGEOUS, rugged and rural. I spent time in the mountains in the fall and the scenery was amazing. Yunnan was also beautiful, less rugged and more quaint, but with some amazingly beautiful places too. I also visited Huangshan in Anhui - the most famous mountains in China but not your offroad trek at all, it's very accessible and has tons of tourists. Also daytripped to Suzhou, the Venice of the East which has some really beautiful gardens.

Other places I would've wanted to check out in China were Xian and Xinjiang. Train is a great way to get around China, the system is efficient and extensive.

I did travel overland from Kunming in Yunnan to Vietnam, down the coast and to Bangkok so if you plan to do anything similar I'd be glad to give advice. It's easy to do - I did it via combo of train + bus, and doesn't require much advance planning at all.

Does anyone know of a working website for the Chinese embassy in the U.S.? Or if not, maybe an embassy or consulate in Germany? None of their embassy or consulate's websites have been working for me, and I've been trying for weeks! It's getting down to crunch time, I need to get these visas.

Nevermind, I figured out that their websites don't work from a U.S. government computer. Hmmmmm . . . . something strange going on here?

You mean that this doesn't work ? :o

If you can avoid bringing winter clothing for the first part, until you get to Asia, you'll save space, weight and money !

Buy the extra clothing in Asia, for only a few dollars. Warm and good winter clothing can be bought in northern Asia's large cities, in places where treking is an important tourist activity ! -_-

^ Alternately, if you plan to be in cooler countries in winter, aim to start your trip in winter, so you can mail your winter clothes back to a sympathetic parent or friend when the weather improves, so you don't have to lug them around in the summer.

In an ideal world, you would spend the summer in Europe/northern Asia, and the winter in southern Asia, so that you could more or less manage with summer clothes for the duration of the trip.

If you can't manage that and don't mind too much how you look, consider buying winter clothes at a second hand shop when you arrive. Be sure to stop by the laundromat before wearing them, and then donate them to a charity when you leave. My husband bought an awesome wool jacket in Lithuania for about $5, and he continues to get compliments on it, plus, it's warm enough for Baltic winters. Not everything available is quite as attractive.

:tumbleweed: