This is the longest train journey in the world

Most of us rarely choose trains as a means of transportation for our travels, often preferring the privacy of a car or the convenience and speed of an airplane. But it does not always matter the destination but the journey.

Despite the fast pace of our lives nowadays and the stress of getting to our destinations very quickly, there is still something romantic and poetic about train travel.

So what if you could see the beauties and sights of dozens of countries on a 21-day journey of 18,755 kilometers? ‘Cause this is supposed to be the longest train journey in the world, from Portugal to Singapore.

Photo: unsplash.com/mikepetrucci

The (hypothetical) route was calculated by train enthusiasts on Reddit with the help of railroad expert Mark Smith who maintains a website that provides tips for long journeys like this, the seat61.com.

Until now, a continuous train journey on this route would have ended in Vietnam and would have lasted only about 16,898 kilometers. To travel to Singapore, passengers would have to take a bus from Saigon via Cambodia to Bangkok. But now it has opened a high-speed rail line connecting Kunming in China with Vientiane, the capital of Laos. This means that those looking for an extreme train journey can now travel between Beijing and Bangkok and then to Singapore – creating the new longest continuous train journey in the world. A crazy idea but technically feasible.

Making such a return trip will have an estimated cost of approximately € 1,200. Starting this monumental journey will take you through 13 different countries from Spain, Poland and Belarus to Mongolia, Thailand and Malaysia to the Asian part of the journey.