I'd been planning a Cairo to Cape Town trip however recent events have dissuaded me so I'm looking at a few months round SE Asia. Rather than fly I'd rather get a train so... Anyone got experience on getting a bike on the Trans-Mongolian railway? :)
I've checked www.seat61.com and it says you can get your bike on in your compartment if it's in a bike however it cramps the room up for people. Anyone know if it can be put in a luggage van or similar?
FYI
Just spoken to a cyclist friend who's traveled on the Trans-Mongolian a couple of times albeit without a bike. Her opinion? In a bag it shouldn't be a problem, people travel on the train with all sorts of packages (including one person in her compartment with box loads of smuggled cigarettes and 3 smuggled puppies...). She also pointed out though that in November it'd be boring as hell if I'm not stopping and freezing if I do. Her recommendation? Fly. Well there you go. She also pointed out it's a damn site cheaper to fly as well when you take into account getting to Moscow and then picking up all the visa's required (Russia, Mongolia and China).
maybe too late, i don't know but here my experience:
we tokk in january the train from ulaanbaatar to moscow. we had the bikes in bags but they were still too big for taking them in the compartment. and like already sead the mongolian people take a lot of stuff in the travel and there was no space at all...
the train guards did not like that we took the bicycle with us but we ignored her "no no no". once in the train they told us to put the bikes in one end of the train waggon. in wintertime there is only one door open in each waggon and so we could leave our bikes there where it was closed. we had to pay for the two bikes less than 10 dollars... so it was easy for us!