I am planning to ride to Moscow next year from Calcutta, India.
I am not able to figure out which route I should take. I heard that you have to go via Myanmar, China, Mongolia and finally Russia.
Is there any tool/site I can use to plan my route (like GoogleMaps)?
I didn't met any universal generic solution for a train trip, unless much powerfull than Google maps. But if you need some specific info about Russian trains, here we go.
Most popular travel site to planning a trip is tutu.ru (in Russian), where you can find a first version of your trip via bus, train or plane. However, in English there is on Trains part of it.
For example, you can find a complete schedule for trains between Moscow and Irkutsk, with a complete route and station schedule for each of them (e.g., this is a google map for train Route 003З Beijing → Moscow). This is a good start for finding a train operating over Russia, yet still not a perfect planning tool as it barely knows something outside the Russia.
Other thing that you can give a try is a RZD official site, main carrier in trains industry in Russia. There you can find a lowest prices for tickets, but the problem with planning outside the Russia persists. Other popular choice is OZON, but it's an reseller and have their site only in Russian.
PS: A couple of years ago I asked a question regarding such tool for whole Europe, you can investigate that too, maybe those sites know something about Asia trains too.
There are 2 ways from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to Irkutsk Russia.
By Air: There are direct flights from IRKUTSK to ULAANBAATAR: Irkutsk – Ulaanbaatar - Irkutsk by AeroMongolia Frequency: 4 times in a week (Mon, Wed, Fri and Sun) Valid: 15 May - 31 Aug, 2017
By train: The journey from Ulaanbaatar to Irkutsk takes around 24 hours with fast train and 35 hours with daily overnight train . From the Lake Baikal’s remote shores to Mongolian steppes, you can start your adventure at any of these three completely different cultures.
I find to be a pretty good supplement to google maps. It tells you different methods, price estimates and links you to where to buy.
Sometimes the options are incomplete but it works.
