My first train : The comfortable  Special Express 25 will bring me over night to 🇹🇭 Nong Khai, the border town of 🇱🇦 Vientianne.

The train consists of 13 carriages, sleeper wagons of different classes and a @diningcar .

While there is a direct  train from 🇹🇭 Bangkok across the border to 🇱🇦 Vientianne, this train only consists of a couple of old carriages of third class and couchette spots ready for the scrapyard. Instead, the transfer in 🇹🇭 Nong Khai is an excellent opportunity to grab some breakfast before crossing the border into 🇱🇦 Laos.

Sweet dreams everyone 😴 !

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain #CrossBorderRail #SleeperAndEater

Good morning Fedi 🌄 !

I had an excellent night and my  sleeper arrived in 🇹🇭 Nong Khai on time.

Despite amenities on the train, I was too sleepy and my bed was too cuddly to motivate myself to have a shower before arriving.

The morning arrival of the  Special Express 25 in the morning always is a spectacle : All passenger leave and jointly walk to the ticket office, queue up and all request the same, a connecting ticket to 🇱🇦 Vientianne. The queue dissolves quickly, not even 10 minutes after the arrival all passengers were issued their connecting ticket for the  Rapid 133.

Why all of this ? I have no clue. The ticket office in Bangkok could also issue the tickets and you can buy them online. Maybe all the Lao people are fond of paper tickets as much as I am 🤓 ? Who knows 🤪. Anyways, I now obtained my connecting ticket and will hopefully also be able to purchase a ticket for my  train once arriving in 🇱🇦 Vientianne later.

Now I have two hours in 🇹🇭 Nong Khai waiting for my connecting train. The station is very comfortable, with a minimart, toilets, even showers and some little cafés.

My train was meanwhile shunted over to platform 2 where it's waiting for its departure back to 🇹🇭 Bangkok in the evening.

While there are minibuses and tuck-tucks to 🇱🇦 Vientianne every few minutes which would allow me to take an earlier  LCR train to 🇨🇳 Kunming, my inner purism wants me to wait for two hours to actually travel every little bit possible by rail.

At least I will spend the two hours looking for some breakfast !

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain #CrossBorderRail #Thailand #Laos

Meanwhile an adorable  type NFK DMU for the  Express 76 arrived and suddenly the station was empty.

#FOSSRail #Thailand

🇱🇦 Laos, or as I call it : Difficult border crossing 🙃.

Not that anything could ever go wrong here but it's slow, chaotic and random. Always plan two hours of buffer. Train arrival at 9 a.m. and connecting train at 11.30 a.m. can end up in a speed run.

#FOSSRail #CrossBorderRail #Laos

Definitely not on my bucket list for today : I won an overnight stay in 🇱🇦 Boten, the special economic zone right at the border to 🇨🇳 China.

#FOSSRail #CrossBorderRail

After the border check in 🇱🇦 Vientianne Khamsavath railway station took 2 hours, I sadly missed my  train to 🇨🇳 Kunming - the last one of the day. Without train timetable, internet or language knowledge I decided to at least travel as far as still possible today.

In particular, that means I bought a new ticket for the  C82 train ending in somewhere in the Lao mountains close to the border to 🇨🇳 China. To be honest, I don't understand why this train doesn't proceed to 🇨🇳 Kunming : The later of the second train across the border arrives there at 9 p.m. - this one arriving at 10:30 p.m. would be a good addition to the chronically overcrowded trains between the two People's Republics.

Arriving in in the middle of nowhere around 5 p.m. was definitely an experience : Neither do I speak Lao and Mandarin, nor did I have Lao kips to pay or internet. Internet could be arranged after buying a SIM card at a kiosk, but when I tried to buy a connecting train ticket for tomorrow I sadly had to realize how Alipay didn't want to work. All the currency exchanges only did Yuan to Kip, whereas I could not exchange any Thai bath anywhere.

I finally discovered an ATM and could get my train ticket to 🇨🇳 China for tomorrow.

After all, I also found a hotel, got some food and could rebook my remaining journey to match my delay.

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #CrossBorderRail #Laos

Traveling from 🇹🇭 Bangkok to 🇫🇷 Alsace, day 3 :

I had a relaxed morning, good breakfast and arrived at the immigration checkpoint before the arrival of the passengers from 🇱🇦 Vientianne so that the passport check went smoothly without any queue.

My destination for today is 🇨🇳 Kunming, the city of spring. I'm looking forwards to discover the beautiful sides of the city after @iamejp warmly recommended to to give the city center another try - because so far I had only seen the ugly new development district south of the city on my outbound journey.

The journey by  D88 train takes about 5h30 even though one hours comes to the border check in 🇨🇳 Mohan.

#FOSSRail #CrossBorderRail #Laos

Immigration in 🇨🇳 Mohan went smoothly, now waiting for my train to continue its journey through the 🇨🇳 Yunnan province to 🇨🇳 Kunming.

#FOSSRail #CrossBorderRail

My journey northbound goes on : Today, I will tackle 2.000 km by Gaosu Dongche high-speed train from 🇨🇳 Kunmingnan Zhao to 🇨🇳 Beijingxi Zhao followed by a 1.500 km Zhida Tekuai leg onboard of the luxury 🇨🇳 Beijing Zhao - 🇨🇳 Qiqihar Zhao train.

The  Huxing Hao is uncomfortable and shaky as any Chinese-built train but lucky me could still buy a wickedly expensive upgrade to Business Class onboard where at least the seats are comfortable enough to survive an 11 hours trip after with the stress and exhaustion carried over from the past two days.

I'm looking forwards to reaching northern China enjoying the more relaxed atmosphere in Inner Mongolia since I'm not a huge fan of the busy and crowded south and west coast.

#FOSSRail

If you're wondering why I don't toot any picture of sights, the landscape or just anything not related to trains, please keep in mind that I'm transiting not any country but China - with all its implications.

Everything I'd share here, everything I'd show or advertise here would be a political statement. A statement contradicting my values. While I will just be silent while I'm traveling here, I'm looking forwards to sharing experiences later.

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail

From 🇨🇳 Beijing on, I took the  Kuaisu train to 🇨🇳 Qiqihaer in the far north east.

I was lucky to get one of the rare first class Superior Soft Sleeper compartments available on few selected trains. While the rolling stock was of chattery Chinese quality you know from anything produced at CRRC, I had a surprisingly relaxing night and was only woken up by the conductor at 10.30 a.m., 20 minutes before arriving at my destination.

In 🇨🇳 Qiqihaer, I had a layover of 1.5 hours. Enough to find some vegan ramen in the departure hall's little store.

From here on, my next  Kuaisu train will get me northbound to 🇨🇳 Manzhouli, the town at the tripoint between 🇨🇳 China, 🇲🇳 Mongolia and 🇷🇺 Russia.

I booked a couchette in a second class Soft Sleeper compartment which is supposed to host 4 passengers. Opening the door, I was in fact not really surprised to find 7 passengers already using the compartment : 5 adults and 2 children.

My roommates shuffled free a little spot in the corner of a couchette so that I could join the party : I can now enjoy 10 hours of smelling food, Douyin tunes, crying babies and parents trying to lift the children's mood by ratteling instant ramen packages 🎉 !

I love traveling by train 🥰 !

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain

Can someone explain me why suddenly everyone puts on their shoes, jackets and packs their luggage ? The next stop of this  train is in three hours. I guess I'm definitely missing something 🤔 ?

Meanwhile the steppe is becoming more and more arctic and my train is climbing up the slopes of the Greater Khingan range ⛰️.

#FOSSRail

The Harbin - Manzhouli railway was initially constructed in Soviet broad gauge.

The Chinese later regauged it to Chinese standard gauge.

When the region went under Russian rule again, it was converted back to Russian broad gauge.

Eventually the railway was regauged a third time back to Chinese standard gauge and retained as it until today.

And Europe fails at coping with different track gauges still nowadays 🤡🤡🤡.

#FOSSRail

After 10 hours, I reached my final destination for day 5 of my journey : 🇨🇳 Manzhouli. I quickly figured out how saying "I speak English" in *Russian* is the most important conversational skill to survive here as a foreigner. Fair, the city is populated by more Russian-speaking than Chinese- and Mongolian-speaking residents together and neighbors to 🇷🇺 Zabaykalsk in Russia.

The experience at the railway station was peak  CR service : Three employees at the ticket office, in the middle of the night with no more train today. Of course, they could *not* sell me a ticket to 🇷🇺 Irkutsk and explained me I'd need to buy this in 🇨🇳 Beijing. Only bad, that in Beijing Zhao at the international ticket office, they explained me there are no trains to Russia.

At least we all agreed there in fact is a train leaving to 🇷🇺 Irkutsk tomorrow at 2 p.m. and they suggested that one of the many Russian travel agencies will likely be able to issue me a ticket.

My hotel was also highly confused how I don't speak Russian, also cannot fill a form entirely in Russian, didn't want to pay in Russian Rubel and showed them a foreign passport that was neither Russian nor had it a Chinese visa.

At least the receptionist told me there's a Russian travel agency right next to the hotel and she was convinced they could sell me  tickets.

After all, this will be my quest for tomorrow.

Good night Fedi 😴 !

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail

Oh, and did I mention : It's -16 °C and according to my weather site it "feels like -26 °C" - which I can confirm after walking for 10 minutes looking for a taxi 🥶🥶🥶.

#FOSSRail

If you're wondering what I'm referring to when saying "various Russian travel agencies" : In a radius of 500 meter around my hotel, there are 15 different travel agencies - even though my hotel is half way surrounded by a lake.

I don't know why exactly but travel agencies seem to be a very cool thing here. The reason for sure isn't the huge demand of international railway tickets.

#FOSSRail

I'm really looking forwards to having a dining car with vegan food again tomorrow 😋. I'm sick of instant ramen and cookies 😵‍💫.

#FOSSRail