Here we are, on the last leg of our journey! One more night until Beijing! At this point, we were 21 days into our Trans-Siberian trip and, honestly, I was a little tired. Until I met our cabinmates.

Our cabinmates were a British couple who had just spent a month in Mongolia, part of it on a horse trek, and were headed south into China, India, and Nepal on a journey of over six months. Never fails. Every time I think I'm on an adventurous journey, I meet someone on an even crazier adventure. Either way, it was nice to have full-sentence conversations with the people we were in close quarters with. He was very talkative and even read us some poetry (followed by a discussion on American politics.) The two of them were lugging the entire Game of Thrones series with them for reading material. Good choice, but those are some thick books! We did the food-sharing. They gave me a hard-boiled egg (yum) and I let him use my hot-cold mug for tea.

The stops in southern Mongolia had more food for sale on the platform than the ones in Russia. Most were selling beverages, noodles, and other convenience-store snacks out of shopping carts, though I think I spotted some actual food, like sandwiches, on tables. However, I was planning on trying the restaurant car later. I almost got an iced tea, but I was low on tugrik and 1500 ($1.10 or so) seemed pretty high after the prices we had been paying everywhere else.

I discovered a few hours into our trip that in the cabin next to us was a couple from Aurora, Colorado - less than an hour from where I live! They told me their first grandchild would be getting married soon. I asked them if that made them feel old. They said, "Yes" and we chatted a lot about kids and travels. Further along the car was a Norwegian woman who was writing about her Trans-Siberian trip for a national magazine. (I write about it for free. :) )

And, surprise, the same German ladies are on our train! Looks like we've been 'training' together since Moscow!

Outside the window, the scenery went from greenish-brown treeless hills to flatter plains, to Just Sand. And More Sand. No question we are in the Gobi Desert now. And I sure hope we don't break down! We spotted a lone ger every so often, saw motorcycles speeding parallel to the tracks a couple times, and even caught sight of a camel once! Besides that, pretty empty.

The Gobi Desert stop (one of the longer ones) was sunny and in the 70s, quite pleasant. It felt a little like a reunion since many of the people we met on our way to Mongolia were here as well, like Turtle and the Intrepid gang. They had apparently rode horses and camels and saw a culture show in Mongolia. Advantages to a group. And a good excuse to return someday.

The dining car was as packed as I'd ever seen it. Mostly foreigners. Only one booth was open so we took a seat there. The people at the next table informed us that they were out of beer and only 3 meals were left.

Their information was outdated.

There was, in fact, only one meal left available to order. It was described as "chicken" and cost US$15.

We ordered two of those and two cokes. We were served the meals, which were actually large and unexpectedly tasty. Shredded carrot salad, cole slaw, mashed potatoes, rice, and a piece of chicken that seemed more skin and bones than meat, but not too bad. We never received the cokes. Which, in the end was probably good because...

THEY DID NOT ACCEPT MONGOLIAN CURRENCY!

They accepted Chinese currency. We had none of that yet. They (thank God) accepted American currency. But even though we were in Mongolia on a Mongolian train, they refused our tugrik. (I looked at the server, pointed out the window, and said, "That is not China," but my logic failed to convince her.) We had just enough dollars between us to pay for the meal and even then, our server did not like the look of some of our one-dollar bills.

Many of the passengers were upset at the lack of the beer. That I did not care about. At this rate, I was just glad there was food available at all.

According to my guidebook and the several passengers lined up along the windows in the hall with their cameras: a good place to view the Great Wall would be coming up.

While I waited, I overheard a horror story next to me. Apparently, at last night's border crossing, a couple got taken off the train and was told their visas were "wrong." These two (a middle-aged white couple) were treated very rudely and were eventually made to spend 100 Euros on a new visa. It all smelled like a scam but they were able to re-board the train before it left.

Finally, the Great Wall (sort of) came into view. I took a million photos with my camera but only got a couple where you can see the Wall if you squint. See? What I can't figure out is, I thought the "Badaling" section of the Great Wall was only a couple hours from the city. But we were still four-and-a-half hours out of Beijing. Will have to consult a map.

After our experience the previous day, and due to the fact that we were out of money, we did not brave the Chinese dining car. We finished up the bread, honey, cheese, and a packet of trail mix that I saved until the end. I noticed that the food on the platforms is suddenly much cheaper, though.

At 12:45 in the afternoon, after the (male) carriage attendants had gone through and collected all our linens (folding and stuffing them into bags), our cabinmate returned from his walk and announced, "No food left!" However, there appeared to be ample beer. They were selling, I'm not making this up, "Blue Cowpie Beer" on the train. I don't believe we have had an opportunity at this point to change money, though I suspect they take US dollars. At 1pm, I heard someone say, "No hot water left!" but then they said the samovar in the next car down still had some available.

Rachel and our cabinmate passed the time playing a game of chess with a set and woolen board he had procured while on his trek.

Most of the places we attempted to go to were closed in the early evening (including Tiananmen Square! How do you close a square?!) We took a rickshaw ride through a famous hutong (old-style neighborhood) near the Drum Tower. The ride was fun and the surroundings felt authentic (old guys playing mahjong even), though I felt kind of intrusive. I felt less intrusive when we just walked around the little streets. We bargained the price with our driver beforehand (got him down to 80Y from 150Y for an hour; $12) though he managed to take us somewhere which charged us 20Y for, as far as we could tell, walking into a house.

In general, I found the city to be cleaner and less chaotic than my pre-Olympics trip to Beijing. I was hoping for another chance to see the Great Wall, but it was just too far away. My only other word of advice here: if a very friendly person approaches you wanting to practice their English, but already has near-perfect English, I don't recommend going to a coffee shop with them. (I'd heard of the scam from the New York Times already; I'm sure those girls will have to come up with a new scam soon.) We had dinner at the Chinese knockoff of KFC called Mr. Lee (the menu was Asian food, though) and breakfast at one of the three McDonalds visible from our hotel. According to Rachel, the food was identical to back home.

At one point, near where we were getting a smoothie-type beverage called a "pudding shake", Rachel purchased some cool socks from a street vendor. "They're probably made in China," she quipped.

My ride arrived at the hotel early. And even the airport was easier to navigate than I recall last time (though I did get in the wrong line once.) All in all, made it safely to Seattle!

I grew up in the 1980s toward the end of the Cold War, when the bad guys in movies were inevitably Russian. I came to associate seeing written Russian (Cyrillic) with a secret spy language. Even as I planned the trip, the concept of an American traveling most of the length of Russia seemed a bit risky, especially with all the bureaucratic hoops I had to jump through to even get a visa. I heard tales of corrupt police harassing tourists to extract a fine, deserved or otherwise, if not worse and I had always pictured Siberia as a snow-and-abandoned-prison-covered wasteland that I was now purposely attempting to cross. People told me about strict border guards and rude hotel clerks who had to take "smiling lessons" because being friendly during a business transaction was so unnatural.

Maybe I missed something?

Two days into my trip, written and spoken Russian no longer gave me the vague chills; it looked like any other language. I found everyone I met to be no less polite than in any American airport or hotel. I had initially been nervous about taking pictures since I'd heard about people being arrested for photographing government buildings or stations. My guides laughed when I expressed my concern and said I could aim my camera at anything (granted, I only have a small point-and-clicker not a six-inch zoom lens, so that might have been a factor.) I saw plenty of people in police or military uniform and spoke to at least four - mostly asking in very halting Russian about the various barriers in place or whether a museum was open - and they were all either friendly and polite or curt and polite. No one asked to "see my papers." And Siberia, at least the southern bit that I trained along in mid-May, was green and lovely.

I admit I may have just been lucky.

Russia felt much more like my home country than I expected and more like it than other countries I have visited. Though, one thing was unlike any of those other countries. At every Russian hotel we stayed in the staff had to take our passports for some time. Apparently, the government does its darnedest to keep track of foreigners traveling in its territory. Though, after being there, it makes very little sense why. Although I found the need for the every-72-hour-check strange, it did not inconvenience me. (I suspect it would greatly inconvenience anyone trying to travel a bit more spontaneously.)

Before I left, I read some Paul Theroux (The Great Railway Bazaar) and half of Eric Newby's The Big Red Train Ride about a journey on the Trans-Siberian in the 1970s. Most of what I enjoyed about the latter was simply the unintentional historical tidbits including phrases like "the former Mariinsky Theatre in Leningrad is now the Kirov" where today's equivalent would now read, "the former Kirov theatre in Saint Petersburg is now the Mariinsky" and him lamenting the fact that he, as a foreigner, was not allowed to enter "Sverdlosk" which of course, was one of my destinations and now called "Yekaterinburg."

After I returned, I watched the 2008 thriller "Trans-Siberian" which, as far as I could tell, was filmed on very similar trains and locations as I had just traveled over. I am not sure how it would have changed my opinion of my trip had I seen the fairly intense film preceding my departure, but my folks were relieved that I was safely back before watching the movie.

The days in Mongolia were my favorite part. I am not sure whether it was the difference I felt there with regards to culture and experience (that I felt less of in Russia than anticipated), or just that I had no expectations going in so I was more likely to exceed them.

All in all, it was a stress-free trip with a very thoughtful and consistent experience delivered throughout by The Russia Experience. The accommodations were comfortable without being needlessly luxurious and there was a good mix of guided time and free time. Totally worth the effort and money!

My experience in all three countries aside, it was pretty neat to make a loop. I started in Denver, headed east toward Washington D.C. then crossed the Atlantic to Saint Petersburg, continuing to head east until Beijing, flew over the Pacific to Seattle and finally returned back to where I started in Denver. In case there was any doubt, the world is indeed round!