Vlog by Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting the end of an 11-day Trans-Siberian Railway journey from Moscow to Vladivostok and their subsequent short business-class flight to Seoul. The hosts recap trip statistics (distance, time, modes compared), describe the final train-to-airport transfer, airport lounge experience, and arrival in Seoul where they check into an Airbnb they’ll occupy for eight nights. The tone is informal, travel-focused, and lightly instructional (travel tips and accommodation recommendations).
Questions this video answers
144.5 hours
3,984 miles
8 hours 25 minutes
73 days 16 hours
Seven time zones
Chapters
Good morning. It is 6am and it's our 64th hour on the Trans Siberian Railway. And we did it.
We're getting off in like two minutes.
We decided not to vlog the last two days of the trip because we were scared that everybody here on the channel would unsubscribe if they watched us eat one more instant meal or drink one more cup of instant coffee.
You didn't miss much.
It was two days of the exact same thing that we've been doing for the past 11 days, which is sitting in this room working on the computer and eating anything that can be cooked with hot water. But we've done it. We have officially, unless this train crashes in the next two minutes, completed. I don't know how many thousands of kilometers from Moscow. Crazy to Vladivostok, and we're about to get off the train and today to South Korea. Sorry for our appearance. We haven't showered in a few days.
Lots of dry shampoo and wipes.
I think it's happening. This is the last roll. There it is. We did it.
We Trans Siberians. I can't believe we're here. I don't know where we go now.
The first problem is I spent all of my rubles on food on the tr. Probably going to need some of those to get to the airport.
According to Google, we have 107. So we're going to go see if any of these buses are on us.
So we're only 44km.
It's only 44km away from the airport. But we've heard this bus ride is supposed to take 90 minutes. Also have no earthly idea how much it costs. I got $10 out of the ATM before we got in the bus. It hasn't cost more than a dollar to ride public transportation since we've been here, but I got 10 just to be safe. Although we are riding 90 minutes, so if it was more than that, I guess I would understand. Just gonna hope for the best.
We made it to the lounge. It is a good thing that I got $10 out of the ATM because the bus driver charged me nine. I'm not sure if that's how much the bus actually costs because I think I saw the locals paying a lot less. But I handed in $10 and he gave me $1 back. But either way we've made it to the airport.
We feel like the Trans Siberian Railway series ended very anticlimactically because we didn't vlog the last two days. So we've put together some stats to help put our Trip into perspective for you.
So our 11 day trans Siberian journey from Moscow to Vladivostok was a total of 3,984 miles.
We spent 144 and a half hours on a train.
Had we have flown, we could have done it in 8 hours and 25 minutes. That would have been a little more efficient.
If we would have chosen to walk, it would have taken 73 days and 16 hours.
We passed through seven time zones.
Seven nights sleeping on a train.
We consumed 14 packages of instant ramen.
12 packages of instant potatoes, 10 packages of instant oatmeal, and at least 20 cups of instant coffee, but probably one pack.
So that about wraps up the last 11 days. That was our Trans Siberian experience. In about 30 minutes, we board our business class flight to South Korea. But we don't have anywhere booked to stay at because I never booked places until a few days in advance. And we've been on the train with no Internet, so that's what I need to go do now.
The food in this lounge is super mediocre. Went with a cold Russian pancake and then I picked up this wrap thing, but it looks like carrots and it smells like fish, so I don't think I'm eating that. Alright, now, we're about to board our flight.
Hey, do you want your suitcase?
You guys, this is pretty important. We just left the lounge. Sorry we didn't show you around. More like usual, but Nate was booking our Airbnb for tonight and I was working on Vogue. It has three minutes remaining.
I not only was I booking our Airbnb for tonight, but for the next eight days. And I literally booked it as we walked out lounge. But you didn't miss much. Very mediocre food selection.
Maybe the worst food.
This is nice. We got a present. These blankets are really thick.
Nate's telling me to quit being weird, so I'm gonna pick up the camera now.
We received a shoehorn. Why did the shoe shine? Tissues, earplugs, face mask and some socks.
I soil.
I feel like there's a flaw in the design.
Maybe it stops in here.
We were not sure if we were going to get a meal this way, so I'm super excited about this, but I'm extra excited to be having some actual veggies and not the little dried veggies that you pour into your instant ramen noodles. They smell actually pretty good. And look how cute these are. And I saw pepper shakers. I'm very sad that this flight is only like an hour, so I'm just going to enjoy my Me.
Podcast, we learned no time.
Sam.
Say country of South Korea. It's sunny and it's warm, and I'm so excited.
So, for those of you who don't know, we spent our first, like, five months of traveling in Southeast Asia, and now that we're back, we just can't stop smiling.
We have extremely fond memories of, like, Asia and Southeast Asia specifically. And we are so excited. Not that South Korea is in Southeast Asia. We're just so excited to be back in this culture.
Like, everybody I see, I just smile at them, and I'm just. I can't believe we're here.
She hasn't quit doing this ever since we got to the airport.
So first things first. We got the local currency. Now we're trying to figure out how to get to our place. Our Airbnb host has been messaging us all these options, and we really just don't know which one to do.
So the airport is, like, almost 50 kilometers away from the city center, so it's a long ways outside the city. You can either take a train or you can take buses, maybe a subway. We're gonna check out the train first.
That was so easy.
And it was like.
Again.
It took.
Exactly an hour to get to the Seoul station. Now we just have to connect to the metro and find a place.
Okay, I have a tip. For any of you out there who own an Airbnb, get one of these keypads or just, like, some way for people to get in without a key. Because I know you think it's nice that you're meeting the person there, but, like, for us, when we're trying to navigate our way through a new city, it puts a lot of stress on us trying to get to the apartment at a certain time. So, like, we're not making you, you, the host weight, you. We love these keypads. It's so nice just to be able to show up whenever, type in a code, and get in the apartment.
So you can't come get us. Yay. Oh, that looks so nice. Wow. Yes.
This is so exciting.
So many beds.
It's so beautiful.
Seoul, South Korea the reason that we are so excited to be in this Airbnb is because we have not been in the same place for more than four days since the beginning of August. So for almost two months, we've just been, like, constantly moving. And we are going to be here in the same Airbnb for the next eight nights. Oh, it's going to be so nice.
It's hard to believe.
You gonna Take that bed.
So before we mess up our home for the next eight days, I wanted to give you a little tour around. So we have one queen size bed here and then a twin size bed here. We always dub the extra beds our stuff beds. Most of the time we're cramped into this like little bitty room and like we're trying to figure out where we can fit our suitcase. So we love having an extra bed. We just throw all of our stuff on it. So our bed, stuffed bed. Then in here in the kitchen, we have something that we rarely ever have, which is a kitchen table. Really nice to be able to like sit at the table and do work and not sit in the bed. Especially after being on a train for 64 hours straight. Another thing that we're very excited about because of the train. A washer. Because we haven't washed our clothes in two weeks.
This apartment is missing one thing. No coffee pot. But we have plenty of leftover instant coffee from the train, so that's not a problem. We also have a fridge. Oh, it comes with chopsticks. And an entire second floor. Two more stuff beds.
Last but not least, we have our own shower. Haven't taken many of those in the last two weeks. And we don't have to share it with a train full of people. Super excited about that. I love our home for the next eight days.
If you want to book this place when you come to Seoul, we'll put a link down in the description below. We also have our own Airbnb code that will give you $40 off your first Airbnb stay. So we'll put that down below as well. We have no earthly idea what our first night in Seoul holds, but we're going to head out, go explore, probably find some food, but we're going to end the vlog here because it's been a long travel day and you have seven full days to explore Seoul with us.
