From Belgium to Asia and back without flying – why?

February 2017 – No, I’m not afraid of flying. I have taken a lot of planes before, to go and explore the world. But I started feeling increasingly guilty about it. Not about exploring, of course, but about polluting the precious atmosphere of the very same planet I wish to explore so badly.

Last year, I started avoiding plane trips when traveling within Europe. I made two roadtrips (to Switzerland and to Strasbourg) and three train trips (München, London, Haarlem). But I also traveled to Tanzania, which was too far to reach without a plane. So I compensated the CO2-emissions of my flight by paying for a GreenSeat (by doing so, I’m giving households in developing countries access to renewable energy). I will keep doing that whenever I would fly again in the future.

But this trip is different from my previous ones. I decided to take a 6 month break from my job to go traveling. Disposing of this enormous amount of travel time (compared to my usual 3 week trips) leaves me with no reason whatsoever to take a plane. And so I won’t.

This means trains and other no-flying transportation will take me through eastern Europe, Russia, Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, China again, Kazakhstan, Russia again and Europe again. I will make stops everywhere. There is no final destination. The whole journey is the destination itself. I know, it’s such a cliché, but it totally applies to this trip.