UPDATE – This page seems to be getting quite a lot of traffic at the moment. I have added hyperlinks to each stage of the journey to the post I wrote about it. There is a lot more information and pictures on these posts.
If you want to start from the trip from the beginning click here.
Any questions or if you would like me to write a post about another topic (safety, what to pack, visa’s, highlights ect) just drop a comment. Please share the blog!
Happy Travels, Tom Woods – Woodlands to Woking
There is no direct train from Singapore to Europe yet, so booking the trip takes a little bit of organisation. I have a summarised the route I took, time, cost and where I bought the ticket below.
+ Woodlands, Singapore to Butterworth, Malaysia – 2nd Class – BORDER CROSSING – 13.5 hours – SG$60 – On the day from the ticket office.
+ Butterworth, Malaysia to Bangkok, Thailand – Soft sleeper – BORDER CROSSING- 23 hours – MYR 104 – The day before at the ticket office.
+ Bangkok, Thailand to Aranyapratyet, Thailand – Open ticket – 6 hours – Thai baht 48 – On the day at the ticket office.
BORDER CROSSING
+ Poipet, Cambodia to Siem Reap, Cambodia – Private taxi – 2 hours – US$48 – On the day at the ticket office.
+ Siem Reap, Cambodia to Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Bus – 6 hours – US$10 – The day before through my hotel.
+ Phnom Penh, Cambodia to HCMC, Vietnam – Bus – 6 hours – BORDER CROSSING – $12 – The day before through my hotel.
+ HCMC, Vietnam to Hanio, Vietnam – 4 berth soft sleeper – 33 hours – US$115 – A week before through http://www.vietnamimpressive.com
+ Hanoi, Vietnam to Beijing, China – 4 berth soft sleeper – 38 hours – BORDER – CROSSING – US$403 – A month before travel through http://www.vietnamimpressive.com
+ Beijing, China via Mongolia and Lake Baikal to Moscow, Russia – 1st Class 4 berth – 130 hours – BORDER CROSSINGX2 – US$925 – A month before travel through http://www.cits.net
+ Moscow, Russia to St Petersburg, Russia – 3rd Class sleeper – 8 hours – Roubles 1681 – The day before e-ticket through my hostel.
+ St Petersburg, Russia to Helsinki, Finland – 2nd class – 3.5 hours – BORDER CROSSING – €88 – The day before online, e-ticket bought at http://www.vr.fi
+ Helsinki, Finland to Turku Harbour, Finland – 2nd class – 2 hours – €33 – on the day at the ticket office
+ Turku Harbour, Finland to Stockholm, Sweden – 2 berth interior cabin – 10 hours – BORDER CROSSING – €49 – A month before travel e-ticket through http://www.vikingline.com
+ Stockholm, Sweden to Cologne, Germany – 4 berth Soft sleeper – 17 hours – BORDER CROSSINGX2 – €112 – A month before online but posted ticket from http://www.bahn.de
+ Cologne, Germany to London, England – 2nd class – 5 hours – BORDER CROSSINGX2 – £79 – A month before travel online e-ticket from http://www.eurostar.com
+ London, England to Woking, England – 2nd class – 30 min’s £8 – On the day at the ticket office.
In total the cost of my transport from Woodlands to Woking was:
£1360
€1617
US$2162
SG$2726
I travelled mainly second class, but I always had a flat bed to sleep on for the twelve nights on the train. On the one night on the boat I had private en-suite cabin. I think that the total cost offers good value for money. It could have been considerable cheaper if I had booked trips earlier or had a little more flexibility.
If you are planning a long distance train ride I recommend the wonderful resource that is www.seat61.com. A great website I relied upon in the planning and duration of my journey.
I would also recommend the company I used to organise my visa’s, www.RealRussia.com who were very efficient and professional.
Woodlands to Woking 
Hello Tom. Greetings from Cape Town. My wife and I are planning to travel by rail from Singapore to St Petersburg in June/July. By way of Seat61 I came across your travelogue and found it very interesting and informative – you obviously had a great trip with wonderful experiences! In your blog of September 9th you mentioned that while on the train through Russia you found it very useful to consult a guide book which enabled you to identify where you were at any point of time. Can you give me the name of the guide book? Thanks very much.
Hi Andy, there are two books to choose from the Lonely Planet The Trans-Siberian Railway or the Trans-Siberian Handbook, 8th: Eighth edition of the guide to the world’s longest railway journey by Bryn Thomas.
Happy travels,
Tom
hello tom, ally here. how many days did it take you to travel from sg ro london?
31 days Ally.
Hi Tom – Great website / blog. I am also based in Singapore and am planning to take 5 months out to do a very similar journey early next year (assuming my kind employer grants me my leave of absence!) This is a trip I have been planning in my head for at least the last 7 or 8 years since I stumbled on Seat61 before I moved to Asia. Main issue I foresee is the Russian Visa (i.e. I need to be exact in when I’m looking to take the Beijing Moscow leg and work back from there), but you say RealRussia is pretty good at getting things done fairly easily even for those UK citizens based in Singapore?
Anything that you would have done differently had you had a) more time or b) based on your experience whilst you were away?
Lastly – I would love to set up a similar kind of website to log my journey – for a technophobe like myself, how easy is it to get something like your site up and running?
Cheers
Alex
Hi Alex,
Good luck with getting the time off! Be great to do this trip over 4-5 months. If you’re British, you’ll have to sort China, Mongolia and Russia and possibly Belarus depending on how you travel through Europe. Real Russia were very good they kept me updated with how things were going on a daily basis. However you’ll have to be without your passport for 3-4 weeks which might be a problem if you have to travel with you job for a while. If you are a EP/PR holder here in Singapore you can do the visa’s here which would be cheaper and quicker. I couldn’t because I applied when I wasn’t an EP holder so had to send my passport back to the UK.
I don’t think I would change the route I took too vastly but I would have travelled much slower, stopped a bit more in Vietnam, a couple more places in China, Mongolia and Russia.
I just used wordpress for my site, it’s very easy!.
Happy travels, Tom
Great many thanks – very helpful to know!
Cheers Tom
Alex
Hi Tom,
First of all, what a trip!I have been looking for my next travelling adventure for a while now and I think ive found it. Ive been using your blog as the basis for a trip over November/ december
Any travel tips for safety whilst travelling through Russia and China? Or would you say travelling on the Trans-Siberian is completely safe? (within reason)
Sudharrshan
Hello 🙂
Interesting information, thank you very much for sharing.
I’m planning similar in reverse, and then return, but only as far as Chang Mai.
As I have friends in Iran, I am intending to take a more southerly route before looping north through the ‘stans into China.
For the return, I could retrace my steps, for simplicity, or back via Mongolia and Russia.
From your experience, on the ground, relatively recently, how practical would it be to buy locals tickets (at locals prices) on the day for the trans Siberian stretch?
Cheers
Ian
Hi Tom,
I’m a student from Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s School of Film & Media Studies, I’m actually doing a radio magazine for our on-campus radio station about budget travelling/backpacking and I think you’ve got some really amazing and inspiring stuff with your trip, we would love for you to share more about your thoughts and experiences. I was wondering if you would be willing to give as an interview with you for our radio programme? You can contact me at my email address (mikicharwin@gmail.com), I look forward to your favourable reply! Thank you so much!
Warmest Regards,
Miki