Most people do get sick on the road at one point in their travels. If you are lucky, your illness will require a quick trip to the doctor and some antibiotics or anti-parasite medication. If you are me, your illnesses will straddle several continents, a multitude of body parts and an exploration of Eastern and Western medicine – all in the span of one year.

Off your typical backpacking circuit, arriving in Mongolia at dawn via Train 362 was shock to the system.

Dispatches from the longest border crossing of all time, from Siberia to Mongolia.

After almost 2 weeks of train travel through Russia’s cities and Siberia’s wilderness, I’m at a loss about where to start this wrap up. Given that I’m off again this evening (overnight train to Ulan-Ude, Siberia) I’ll do a bullet point wrap up for each place we’ve visited, and the trains as a whole.

Sadly, Red Square is cordoned off until mid-September in preparation for Moscow Day – meaning Potato, Bryce and I only got to see it from afar, and St. Basil’s from the backside.

My flight from JFK to Moscow was an alcohol-soaked adventure that I will never forget.

There is something utterly spellbinding about the Trans-Siberian Railway. The brutally hot summers in the Gobi desert, the terrifyingly cold winters in Siberia and the sheer massiveness of 10 time zones in going from Point A to Point B all contribute to the magnetic appeal of the trip.