At the time of writing this, I’ve just managed to force (mostly) everything I wanted to bring with me into my 100(?)L backpack. The first half of 2009 has flown by, and it’s time to leave. Time for something else completely.

In attempting to verbalise what my expectations are for both the journey and the stay in Beijing, I realised that they were all pretty vague, to the point of aimlessness.

Having never been to any of the countries before (barring, of course, the 2 hour stopover at the illustrious CPH airport), the experience is impossible to quantify in any meaningful way.

Russia is, in many ways, a fairly neglected part of Europe’s historical heritage, and I have to admit that my knowledge of it is limited to what I’ve gleaned from thriller novels set during the cold war, as well as utterly disjointed news fragments covering anything from stealing fish off the coast of Norway to a bare-chested Putin shooting a tiger to death (which was and is more entertaining than Jeltsin just being drunk all the time). I know little of the culinary traditions, aside from the odd anecdote about milk glasses filled to the brim with vodka, served with a side order of pickles. In other words, the entire breadth of my “knowledge” consists of second- or third hand information, that run the risks of having been embellished, misunderstood or just started out wrong. I know nothing of consequence. Luckily Michael will be able to fill me in on the most basic things.

After the interrail trip to eastern Europe in 2005, I discovered I like travelling by train. And with 8-9 days on the train, this trip will give me plenty of opportunity to do just that - for better or worse. I basically hope to have a great time, meet new people, see new places and just kick back on the train, watching the plains roll by. Oh, and drink tons of great coffee.

Having been spoilt rotten by amazing coffee for a long time now, I was unwilling, to say the least, to settle for instant coffee. At the moment, I have almost 3kgs of coffee in my backpack, half of which is for our consumption during the trek. To keep things as lo-fi as possible, I have a hand grinder, and am also bringing my precision scale (far too accurate; it might even get me into trouble if people posit that it is used for weighing … different things). Trans-Siberian coffee geekage will be had.

In Mongolia, we hope to be able to ride horses around like tourists. After having seen “Mongol”, I would like nothing more than to ride around on those steppes. Such beautiful scenery.

Around March last year, I was idly toying with the idea of spending my bachelor degree elective units to study Chinese. A friend of a friend was wrapping up her studies, and after talking with her about the experience, I was even more inclined. As an elective student, I was last in line to get accepted, and at first didn’t think I had gotten in. After two semesters’ worth of studies, 15 hours a week plus self study, I’m proud to say that I’m at a level where Chinese people will have No. Idea. What. I’m. Saying. But hey, at least we have body language.