The Masterplan

Greeting everyone, this is my first ever blog post. I thought I would start by telling you all my intended itinerary so that you know roughly where I will be, and also explain some of my preparations for anyone else planning to make a similar trip. First of all then here is my route, as illustrated on the map:

Russia:

18th to 23rd of September: St. Petersburg
23rd to 24th of September: Novgorod Veliky
25th to 26th of September: Moscow
27th of September: Vladimir, Suzdal
28th of September: Suzdal, Kostroma
29th of September: Yaroslavl, Rostov
30th of September: Rostov, Pereslavl-Zalesskiy
1st to 2nd of October: Moscow
3rd to 7th of October: Trans-Siberian train to Irkutsk
8th to 12th of October: Olkhon Island
13th to 16th of October: Trans-Mongolian train to Beijing

China:

16th to 22nd of October - Beijing and around
23rd of October - Datong
24th to 25th of October - Pingyao
25th to 28th of October - Beijing and around
29th to 30th of October - Tai Shan
31st of October - Qufu
1st of November - Zhengzhou
2nd of November - Anyang
3rd of November - Kaifeng
4th to 6th of November - Song Shan (Shaolin)
7th to 8th of November - Luoyang
9th to 10th of November - Hua Shan
11th to 17th of November - Xi'an
18th to 24th of November - Chengdu and around
25th to 27th of November - Chongqing and Yangzi river cruise to Yichang
28th to 30th of November - Wudang Shan
1st to 3rd of December - Nanchang and around
4th to 5th of December - Lushan, 2 nights there
6th to 7th of December - train to Hong Kong

7th to 23rd of December - Hong Kong & Macau
24th of December to 7th of January - Taiwan
8th to 15th of January - Hong Kong

16th of January - Guangzhou
17th of January - Foshan
18th of January - Zhaoqing
19th of January - Dinghu Shan
20th to 24th of January - Guilin
25th of January - Ping'an
26th of January - Sanjiang
27th of January to 1st of February - Kaili and around
2nd to 4th of February - Anshun
5th to 9th of February - Kunming
10th of February - Shilin
11th to 15th of February - Lijiang
16th to 24th of February - Dali
25th to 26th of Febuary - Nanning
27th to 28th of February - Beihai
1st to 2nd of March - Guiping
3rd to 5th of March - Jingdezhen
6th to 9th of March - Wuyishan
10th to 11th of March - Xiamen
12th of March - Quanzhou
13th of March - Fuzhou
14th to 16th of March - Yandang Shan
17th to 18th of March - Ningbo and Putuoshan
19th of March - Shaoxing
20th to 21st of March - Hangzhou
22nd to 23rd of March - Huang Shan
24th to 25th of March - Juihua Shan
26th to 27th of March - Nanjing
28th of March - Yangshuo
29th to 30th of March - Suzhou
31st of March to 4th of April - Shanghai
(total: 75 days)

Japan:

5th to 9th of April - Okinawa
10th of April - Osaka
11th of April - Himeji-jo
12th to 14th of April - Kyoto
15th of April - Nara
16th of April - around Nara
17th to 18th of April - Kyoto
19th of April - Takayama
20th to 21st of April - Alps National Park
22nd of April - Jigokudani Yaen-koen
23rd to 27th of April - Tokyo and around
28th of April - Aizu-Wakamatsu
29th to 30th of April - Sendai and around
1st of May - Kanazawa
2nd to 3rd of May - Okayama & Kurashiki
4th of May - Hiroshima
5th of May - Tsuwano
6th to 7th of May - Kirishima-Yaku National Park
8th of May - Nagasaki
9th of May - Fukuoka

Korea:

10th of May - Busan
11th of May - Seongnamsa
12th of May - Tongdosa
13th of May - Tongyeong
14th to 16th of May - Jirisan National Park
17th of May - Gwangju
18th of May - Unjusa
19th of May - Yeosu
21st of May - Dadohae Haesang National Park
22nd of May - Duryunsan Provincial Park
23rd of May - Jeonju
24th to 26th of May - Moaksan Provincial Park and/or Daedunsan Provincial Park and Maisan Provincial Park and/or Gangcheonsan County Park and/or Naejangsan National Park
27th of May - Songnisan National Park
28th of May - Chungju
29th of May - Danyang
30th of May - Haeinsa
31st of May to 2nd of June - Gyeongju and around
3rd to 4th of June - Andong and around
5th to 6th of June - Juwangsan National Park
7th to 8th of June - Taebaeksan Provincial Park
9th to 10th of June - Samchoek and around
11th of June - Jeongdongjin
12th to 13th of June - Odaesun National Park
14th to 15th of June - Seoraksan National Park
16th of June - Chuncheon/Gangchon
17th to 26th of June - Seoul and around

27th of June - fly home

This may all change as I go along depending on money, chance, how I feel, the movement of the Earth's crust. But that's my plan at the moment anyway. Each stay includes traveling time from the last place or to the next, just so you don't get worried that I'm spending too long in one place and traveling 1000 km in no time at all.

OK, this next bit is just explaining how I prepared for the trip, so if you're not interested, skip it, it's probably quite boring.

Essentials:

• First of all I went to the doctors and found out what injections I would need. You need to do this a few months in advance, as the vaccinations can take a month, and some aren't available at the normal doctors. it cost quite a bit too, over £180.
• Next was visas. I needed Russian, Chinese, and as I am going through Mongolia, a Mongolian one. The Chinese one would probably be quite easy to get yourself, as the itinerary you give is not one that you have to stick to, just a general idea, although you can only get it a maximum of 3 months before you intend to enter. But for the Mongolian one, and even more for the Russian one, the process is more bureaucratic, so I decided to go through a travel agent. The one I used was RealRussia.co.uk. They have offices in London (which I went to in person, just to check they were real and not run out of a hotel room or something), and they got all three visas sorted for me in time, and were very helpful. It costs a bit more to do it this way, although not much more if you include the cost of traveling to and from each embassy.
• I looked around for a reasonable travel insurrance. there's a few for backpackers, which is probably what you would want for this kind of trip.
• Money - apparently the best thing to take to Russia is dollars, although Euros are easy to change too. So I have some dollars to change, and also some travellers cheques (in dollars as well) for emergencies. Even if getting the currencies for all the places I'm visiting was easy, I wouldn't want to carry around enough money for 9 months in any currency, so I'm mostly relying on getting money out with my Visa card. To do this, I got myself a Nationwide account because they don't charge a commission for drawing money out anywhere abroad.

Planning:

• To decide where to go once I'd chosen the countries, I bought Lonely Planet guides for all of them, and phrasebooks. I then spent ages planning a route based on them. It took ages, so it was lucky that I had plenty of free time when I went on holiday to Italy. I also used Way to Russia quite a bit. I also aimed to be where the weather is at least comfortable, so mainly this means moving gradually south for the Winter and then moving up to where there are beautiful blossoms and so on in the Spring.
  
• For accomodation I'm mostly going to be staying in youth hostels with my internation youth hostel card. Actually, booking through the official YHA website (HIHostels) charges you a booking fee, but HostelBookers doesn't, and seems pretty reliable as well, although I still tried to stick to booking ones that appeared on the YHA one as well. Some places don't have youth hostels, so for these I will either find one when I get there from the lists given in the Lonely Planet guides, book through one the youth hostels along the way, many of which have travel desks (and I try to stay in those which do), or through either SinoHotel or AsiaHotels, both of which are recommended in the Lonely Planet one. Real Russia (see above) have also booked 3 for me in towns near Moscow.
• I also used RealRussia to book my trains in Russia, which is especially important for the Irkutsk-Beijing leg, as that train is often fully booked in advance. Train tickets in Russia go on sale 45 days before departure, so I thought it was worth getting them in advance even if it cost a bit more. In China you can only get them 5 days in advance normally, so I'll do that myself or through a hostel travel desk. Buses I will also have to get myself, but the Lonely Planet guide is a great help. Seat61 and this site can also be of help when planning train journeys, working out journey times etc.
• Flights: I found a cheap flight to St. Petersburg just by searching (it's with a Scandinavian airline and stops off in Stockholm). Other flights that I will be taking I haven't bought yet, in case I change my itinerary, but the prices don't seem to fluctuate much, so I will get them a few months before I intend to make the journey, but later once I've travelled a bit. Expedia seems the best place to look so far. Try different days of the week when looking, often the best flight only seems to fly one of two days.
• I got three long sleeved "wicking" t-shirts. These apparently dry much quicker, which should be good for travelling, I hope.

OK, I can't think of anything else to explain. I hope that's of some use to someone.