In 1986, Nick Trend went off to seek his fortune - and found a route to the future.
Since - as coronavirus has reminded us - we can never control our fate, I've always liked the idea of consciously allowing chance to play a role in my life. So when, in my early 20s, I found myself trapped in a dull job, I used travel to shake up my life. I suppose I set off to seek my fortune.
My aim was to travel around the world without flying. I had enough money to get through Russia and China to Hong Kong by train, and from there I'd find a passage to Australia and then work to fund the next stage of the journey. I had no time limits and just wanted a new perspective on life.
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So, in early November 1986, I caught a train from London's Liverpool Street station to Harwich and the Hook of Holland. I had a rough plan. In those days, to travel through the USSR, you had to book each train and every hotel. But it was incredibly cheap and I planned stays en route in Berlin and Warsaw, and then in Leningrad, Moscow and stops in Novosibirsk and Irkutsk in Siberia before taking the Central Kingdom Express down through Mongolia to Beijing.