After a day and night in Vladivostok, I made my way to the ferry passenger terminal. In the waiting room I recognized four people from the train — William and Anne-Marie from Holland; Dominic from the UK; and Rosalind from Switzerland — and we quickly became travel buddies.
As with the train the accommodation on the ship was hardly luxurious. The voyage to Fushiki, on the west coast of Japan, took 36 hours, which meant two nights on board. But with good conversation and a calm sea, the time passed very pleasantly.
In Japan I took a Shinkansen, or bullet train, to Tokyo and, after two nights in the capital, another to Osaka. On the evening of day 19 of my journey, I boarded the Hiryu and set sail for Keelung, via Okinawa and Ishigaki. Again the sea was placid, the weather was benign, and the cabin was comfortable.
The only downside was that this was one of the last voyages the ship would make. In early June the company — Arimura Line — went into liquidation, and there is no sign that the service will recommence.
Even so, it’s still possible to travel from Europe to Taiwan (or vice versa) without flying. Public appetite for low-carbon travel — as it’s commonly known — has spawned a new generation of travel agencies in Europe who can arrange international train travel, visas and even cabins on the mammoth container ships that circumnavigate the globe.
If you only have a few weeks’ vacation and you desperately want to hit the beach or see the tourist sites, then slow-motion travel is probably not for you. But if you have the time and the inclination, traveling by rail and water will give you a unique perspective on the world that you will never get from 10,000m above the ground.
Read the complete account of Gary’s journey at sixtrainstwoboats.blogspot.com, and see his travel photography at www.fishdragon.com
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