first time rtw

Hi. I got this crazy idea of travelling overland to australia, starting off from the uk through europe, then the trans-siberian railway to mongolia and through china, thailand etc down to oz. For someone who's never travelled before is this too much? Money's not a problem -will be setting off with about five to six thousand pounds but am a trained joiner so will be able to get work wherever and trade work for board (i hope anyway). Any advice very much welcome!!!

Deev,

You'll have an awesome time heading across Asia to Australia, I say go for it and be adventurous. You'll meet people in a totally different environment than you are used to and I hope you tell us about it.

You might start looking into the visa requiremments for the countries you're heading through. I susgest making an effort to travel light and not double up too much on sweaters, etc.

You want to work in countries that pay decent wages and spend the longest time in countries with a low cost of living. I'm sure you'll find work in places like Hong Kong or Japan.

Good luck

Nick

Nick O'Neill
http://www.BaliBlog.com
BootsnAll's guide to Bali

I'd recommend a break at the first 3 month point. Go home, take lots of gifts and things you've collected along the way and then digest your first part of the trip for a month or so. You may change the way you travel, you may decide you want to go to different countries, or you may decide that your first trip was enough.

Personally I went home and bought new gear and headed off for 12 more months instead of the 3 more that I'd planned.

Best of luck.

As for the Trans-Siberian, you might check into some of the budget companies that can organize you a Moscow-Beijing transit. Coming from Asia, Monkey Business puts cheap trips together and gets your visas, tickets and permissions for you. If you'd prefer to be intrepid and do it on your own, you might check into Bryn Thomas's "Trans-Siberian Handbook", which is a classic indie guide for the trip. The current edition includes city guides for 25 stops along the way.

As for work and volunteering, I've posted some resources online for these topics (and my book goes into more detail):

http://vagabonding.net/resources/chap2.shtml
http://vagabonding.net/resources/chap9.shtml

http://vagabonding.net