By train from Belgium or the Netherlands to Thailand
Once upon a time there was a man in Capelle who loved traveling by train. He had already traveled many thousands of kilometers by rail across Europe, but he wanted something different. The Internet did not exist yet, but he had read somewhere that you could travel to Hong Kong by train and that seemed like a great adventure.
So one day he went to the station and asked for a one-way ticket to Hong Kong. However, the counter employee couldn't help him: "I'll give you a one-way ticket to Rotterdam and then you just have to ask how to get to Hong Kong." But a one-way ticket to Hong Kong was also too much to ask in Rotterdam and he was advised to travel to Amsterdam, because a one-way ticket “that way” was probably possible there. Not quite yet, but with a one-way ticket to Moscow he was at least well on his way. From Moscow to Beijing was no problem and then a one-way ticket to Hong Kong was no problem either.
When his vacation was over and he had enjoyed the big city of Hong Kong, it was time to go back. At the immense station of Hong Kong, he went to the “Buitenland” counter and asked for a one-way ticket to Capelle in the Netherlands. “Of course”, said the friendly counter clerk, “what can it be, a ticket to Capelle aan de IJssel or to Capelle aan de Lek?”
It is an old story, probably used to credit the Chinese with an enormous knowledge of world events. The content is of course incorrect, because Capelle aan de Lek does not exist at all and I also found it doubtful whether it was technically possible to make the journey all the way to Hong Kong.
Internet help offered the latter and I can tell you that a trip to Hong Kong by train is indeed possible. There are some snags, because you will have to change trains several times, where direct connection is not always possible and you will have to spend the night on site (sometimes for several days). We have not yet discussed the necessary visas, which you will need in the various countries for the 2 to 3 week trip, and possibly other papers.
(cesc_assawin / Shutterstock.com)
By train to Thailand
Until recently, it was not possible to reach Bangkok via the partly equal route. No train route was available from Kunming in China to Vientiane in Laos. That changed last November, because a high-speed train now connects these places, making Bangkok and other cities in Thailand fully accessible by train from Belgium and the Netherlands.
Longest train route in the world
Thailand is now part of the longest train route in the world. An Englishman has figured out that the longest train route runs from Lagos in the south of Portugal via France, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia and China. Then from Beijing not to Hong Kong, but to Kunming, Vientiane, Bangkok and further south to Singapore. More than 14000 kilometers further and at least 3 weeks later, the journey can be done with all kinds of possible obstacles, but also very interesting.
There are several websites that report on this longest train route; Tripzilla has a nice article about it, complete with route descriptions, see: https://www.tripzilla.com/portugal-to-singapore-by-land-train-easy-guide/110412
The Dutch can connect by train from, for example, Amsterdam to the given route in Berlin, while from Belgium and the southern Netherlands, Brussels is the logical place to join the route. Of course the distance is a lot shorter than from Portugal.
My longest train journey
I have made many train journeys myself, but spending three weeks in a train compartment is really too much for me. The longest journey I ever made was with the car sleeper train from Den Bosch to Biarritz in the South of France.
Do you like train travel and what has been your longest train journey?
https://www.bd.nl/tilburg/de-nieuwe-chinese-zijderoute-leidt-naar-tilburg-7-keer-per-week-een-goederentrein-uit-chengdu~af0b08be/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F
In the context of the Chinese economic expansion, Tilburg is the end point of one of China's new 'Silk Roads'.
I am a lover of trains and did the Transsib from Moscow to close to Vladiwostok (where a foreigner was not allowed to go at that time). That was in the late 80s. Each wagon had a well-built Russian as a guard. The samovar burned day and night for strong Russian tea, into which we threw in a shot of Bacardi…
Yes, the return trip to Thailand is really coming…
Yes, this was the train from the corner of Holland with a sleeping car to Moscow. Coincidentally, I rode this last train from Utrecht to Bad Bentheim in 1993. This train made a big splash in Utrecht, when I was a driver at the Dutch railways... This was one of the trains that I have a nostalgic memory of. It was also the ushering in of a new era, privatization, which the top management did not know how to deal with and many international trains were thrown into disarray. Fortunately, they are all slowly coming back, who knows, maybe the Moscow express will be back on the track in the future.
My longest train journey was from kuala lumpur to penang and then bangkok, is a sleep train your bed is made.
It was a wonderful train journey that I will never forget, we took the ferry to that island in Penang. Such a shame that you can no longer travel like that today due to corona, I would still like to go to Cambodia, a friend of mine lives there. currently had a stroke and would like to visit him.
But is not easy coming from Thailand and coming back into Thailand again!!! with and all those papers you must have (Thailand pass)???
you could end the holiday in Cambodia, and from Cambodia to the Netherlands, then you could visit your friend.
In the early 90s, I lived with a number of colleagues in Hong Kong. We were making the platform for the new airport Chek Lap Khok in the sea. When the job was done after 3 years, one of my colleagues and his family decided to go back to the Netherlands by train. He wanted from H to H. From Hong Kong to Hoek van Holland. And so it happened. He travelled. with wife and 2 teenage daughters through China, Mongolia, Siberia, Russia, Poland, Germany to Hoek van Holland in the Netherlands. I think that route was called the Siberia Express.
Nice anecdote at the beginning
But according to me the residence was in NL Krimpen (IJssel or Lek)
Song by Henk Elsinga, Krimpen-Hong Kong
Had also heard the variation of Zwaluwe.
Do you want to go to high or low Zwaluwe
December 2019 I traveled by train from Chuphon South Thailand to the border of laos. By bus through Laos to Vietnam, from central Vietnam to Hanoi by train. From Hanoi by train to Nanning – Kunming and Urumqi in China, and from Urumqi to Almati Kazaksthan and to Moscow. unfortunately I did not get a visa for Belarus, so I took the plane to Brussels. Been on the road for more than 2 months, partly due to waiting for a transit visa for Russia. Was a great trip.
yes nice train..
From Pizza to Bradwurst with wife and children
Car sleeper train Livorno-Hamburg
After a few hours of steering from Rome, the car on the train in Livorno and on to Drenthe for a few weeks of vacation and North Holland for a family visit.
We left around noon and after being settled and everyone had chosen their spot in our private cabin, enjoyed the beautiful view and the many tunnels along the coast, then had a drink in the bar carriage back to the cabin, read something and played a game.
At Verona, wagons with cars were hooked up again and more people joined the train.
The hostesses could ask if we wanted to use the restaurant wagon and possibly at what time... (they can plan it a bit because there are quite a few people on such a train).
She also asked or suggested that we prepare our cabin for the night in the meantime, so we thought about it for a while, and so we had a nice late dinner and then went straight to sleep, so we took the last shift and were allowed to board after the last carriages and passengers boarded at Bolzano. at the table, very reasonable prices and quite nice food,
Nicely set with white cotton tablecloths, they didn't stay that long because the kids, still small at the time, with a plate of spaghetti was of course asking for a kind of banzai flag, we wife sweet and I took something else I thought something of scalopine with a side dish .
In short, a mini luxury orient express experience... when we drove through the mountains into Austria during dinner with a beautiful view, it quickly started to get darker and upon returning to the cabin we found our beautifully made beds, neat fabric sheets, a real pillow and a map. to fill in what you wanted for breakfast (choice of different hot drinks), a fixed breakfast and just tick where you get off, breakfast will be served half an hour before arrival time (for those who already get off in central Germany).
We continued until Hamburg, so after waking up and freshening up we were served somewhere near Hannover. About an hour and a half later we drove into the port city of Hamburg.
Shapo' on the Autozug der Bahn!
It's a shame that the services no longer exist because for around 400 euros with 5 people including breakfast, petrol and hotel accommodation and saving a lot of hassle from the back seat, it was a nice option that we were able to use a few times (now only the Austrian railway still runs but everything runs via Vienna and that is not very convenient in terms of distance, time and money)
Then we got out an hour and a half later with a weekend bag but without the youngest's cuddly toy tiger (he had stayed in the upstairs bed), after fifteen minutes I had the car and picked up my wife and children who were waiting in the sun. …
The vacation had started! no, that was already a day earlier!
Thanks to a wonderfully relaxing trip for not too much money (since there are 5 of us and you pay per cabin, which can sleep a maximum of 6 people... always fun for the kids on the loft bed on the top floor.
But this tasted like more! China here I come!
So when many years later my daughter studied in China at the university in a city somewhere halfway between Beijing and daughter visiting!
Arrangements were not too bad, visas for China and Russia were not very complicated, in Belarus the train does not even stop and only passes through (at least at the time)
I boarded in Berlin to Moscow, after a stop in Warsaw... I stayed in the Russian capital for a few days and looked around and picked up the pre-ordered train tickets, as I did not want to sit on the train for days on end and therefore had the opportunity to see something. 2 nights in Yekaterinburg and stopped at Lake Aral (weird, those sooty boats on land due to the retreating lake (actually sea))
then switched to the Mongolia or Beijing Express, stayed in Mongolia for 3 days and then the last bit to Beijing.
My dear daughter was waiting for me there and we stayed there for 3 days. Fortunately, in the meantime she could do quite well in terms of language, ate the strangest delicacies... in the most inconvenient places (for us almost ordinary Westerners) and of course a trip to the wall and the forbidden city then took the FLIRS train to her city for 3 hours and we spent a week there together after school...
when everything was over a domestic flight of 3 minutes to Beijing and via an intermediate landing and transfer in Hainan (always getting a suitcase and checking in again at the time) back and on to the Haring!
In short Nice Nice Nice
Not only on the train, but also where you get on and off for those who experience it and know how to see it!
The beauty of traveling is not arriving at your destination, but enjoying the way there!
Regards,
Erik
Your keyboard is broken, H and E don't work.
And neither does the apostrophe.
It was NOT Capelle ad IJssel and Capella a/d Lek
Krimpen ad IJssel and Krimpen a/d Lek> These two towns do exist.
Nice to do if you have the time and money at least, but the same goes for a cruise over these kinds of distances, for example, which is just a little more luxurious.
Nice story, Gringo, which you give me a lot of pleasure as a train enthusiast.
I found your comment somewhat hilarious: "Of course the distance is a lot shorter than from Portugal.", when you consider that it is about a journey of 14.000 km where you travel a little less than 1.300 km.