I did it in 1985 (I was 22) in the middle of Winter. Not all the way to Vladovostok as I went thru' China. It was indeed an amazing trip, especially since China was just opening up to the West and I had never really travelled before. It should be much easier to do now. I would do it again tomorrow.
Here's a "brief" summary
I flew Perth to Hong Kong, ferry to Guanghou, train to Beijing, a week in Beijing getting a Mongolian visa and seeing the sights and then Beijing to Moscow (about six days) First class was dirt cheap, about US$150 for private berth with shower. A few days in Moscow and on to Helsinki (Freedom after many days of Communism lol) a month around Europe and settled in London.
Some memorable highlights:
-Staying in a youth hostel in HK overlooking the harbor for a dollar a night
-Changing money on the black market in Guanghou with the local banana stand guy
-Trying to get out of an invite from a 17 yo girl in the Army to come stay with her, it was a 14 hour bus ride and I was on a schedule.
-Staying in a coed dorm type hotel with hot and not shy Swedish girls
-Getting acupuncture treatment from an amazing woman about 90 years old
-Making the cab driver take shortcuts up one way streets the wrong way and paying his $1 fine as the cops would catch us every time
-being followed around by about 200 people everywhere I went in China like I was a movie star. They had hardly seen Westerners, especially tall ones.
-almost missing the train in Outer Mongolia. I came out of the station store and the train was moving off, all the steps were up. I ran along til I found an open door and the guard pulled me up just like in the movies.
-Managing to really piss off Mongolian soldiers by insulting their national animal, some weird buffalo looking thing.
-Getting woken at 3AM by a Soviet guard saluting me and demaning to see my passport, which I couldn't find for about 3 VERY long minutes as several more soldiers squeezed into my cabin.
-Arguing with (more) Soviet soldiers in minus 37 degrees as they confiscated my Michael Jackson cassettes (I had bought in HK to sell in Russia)
-being advised not to run on the platform to warm up as I would be shot by a trigger happy young soldier who would think I was running away from him for a reason.
-Setting my watch back one hour every day as we passed through another time zone
-Trying to order Russian food on a 35 page menu when only three items were available.
-Selling my walkman for in Moscow for so much profit, I ate at the best restaurants for the next few days. Thr rouble was about 1-1 for US$ then
And of course the ultimate highlight, meeting many amazing people locals and tourists along the way.
