Hello,
I am in Vladivostok since a week, exploring my way to South Korea, Japan or China. I checked boats, ferries, freights, buses, any possibilities that may have crossed my mind.
However, nothing was conclusive, yet.
Monday 6th, I went to the DBS desk in Vladivostok in order to book a seat for the next departure to South Korea, which should have been the day after. I checked on internet before and seats were available on the partner’s website (you can’t book on DBS website from Vladivostok). At the desk I was advised that next available booking would be not available before May the 5th. Leaving the office more than perplexe I saw the Eastern Dream sailing at port. What. Just. Happened ?
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I was on shock. Yet, I needed to put Plan B into motion, and quite quickly !
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Plan B basically constisted in looking for sailing boats, freights, any individuals going that way in the next coming weeks. I send emails, messages, get to port, try to meet people following the adivses of Boat Hitch Hiking. There was the Sakhaline road in option (the hard way) between North Russia and North Japan. My CouchSurfing host also talked to me about a bus to China, so I went ask for a visa.
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Within days, I received all the answers.
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Bad news are :
sea was frozen; my Chinese was denied because I am not a long term resident here but it could have been possible to ask in a big city such as Moscow – I am 7 days away from there and my Russian visa also comes to an end so not an option for me ; Sakhaline road was closed for the season.
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The good news is :
it comfirms you can use any of those roads…
in summer time.
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A long disucssion with myself after, I was left with two concrete options.
I always say the important part when making decisions is to be aware of the consequencies of your choices and non-choices. In this particular turns of event :
– taking a flight, breaking my policy, pledging the emergency case scenario
– being an illegale residents in Russia and waiting for May with no place to go.
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I choosed the first option.
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This decision torns me appart and prouved me on the same time the importance to advocate for alternatives to airplanes.
My flight will be tomorrow night. I will arrived in Seoul – after all – and will make my stay there worths the ~ 0.192 t of CO2.
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May my little mésaventure could help people come up with more solutions.
Please, Florian, develop your sailing company between islands, DBS make more ferries available. FESCO, allow passengers on board. Someone, do developed solar airplanes or hot-ballon/ air Zeplin / a bridge to allow trains / Whatever. And OCU keep pushing for Universal Citizenships so people, not only rich countries residents, can move forward.
I also would like to push YOU. If you have an idea about how to make life more sustainable, even a itsi bitsi tini ouini one, share it, speak about it, follow it. And soon enough it will be a concrete reality. We need your inputs.
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From the bottom of my heart,
Jay.
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Here are some info about airplanes impact on environement and why it is a big deal :
Hey!
I’m also on my way east from France to Canada without taking any plane.
I’ve been in this situation when I arrived in Vladivostok… Stuck in Vladivostok with no seats in the ferry and my visa ending very soon.
But my options were no way I’m not gonna fly… I even consider :
– Taking a train back rather to Ulan-Ude to apply for a Mongolian Visa and try to get the chinese visa from there. It was risky as the chinese embassy gives visas depending on their mood and they stoped for few month in summer 2017… I was in Vladivostok in October 2017 and had no idea if they started again to give visas for China. So I had chance to stay stuck in Mongolia with no other options than taking a plane because I could not go back to Russia… No visa anymore and couldn’t go to China.
– Taking a 6 days train back directly to Kazakhstan just before my visa ended and try to get a chinese visa from Astana then or figure out what to do from there.
Finally I was very lucky that a german traveller I met on the road had taken the ferry a week before I arrived in Vladivostok. This guy was still in Donghea and with the help of a korean guy booked me a ticket in Donghea for me to take the ferry. We figured out that actually in the office of Vladivostok they sell all the tickets to travel agencies and you can have them only if you book tours through the travel agencies (I found some but the prices of the tickets were way to expensive as you need to also buy the tour that you will not even do…). And only if they have remaining tickets they will give them back the the DBS company to sell them as last minute. At DBS, they probably proposed to you to put your name on a waiting list in case. That is this famous list where you wait for the agencies to give the tickets back…
So I learned that actually depending on the DBS office you talk with they apparently all have an independent amount of tickets… And Vladivostok can’t sell the Donghea tickets…
Well… complicated…
Now I’m in Japan trying to figure out how to cross the Pacific… without plane of course 😀
I also have a blog counting my stories… I’m lagging a lot on it 😉 as I’m in Japan right now but on the blog I’m still somewhere in Russia… Slow writter.
We also have common interests I can see. #zerowaste! (Thanks a lot for the postcard tips). I admire you. I’m not there yet and I totally understand your problem in Korea. And after 10 days in Japan it seems even worst… And I’m vegetarian (I gave up veganism around here when eating with people or in restaurant because here it’s extremely hard when you are always on the move…).
Well… I’m writing my all life in a comment… ahah… Maybe not the right place… 😀
I will follow you anyway!