Geoff and I got lucky. Ksenia Chmutina is riding in the cabin next to ours. She is our Russian connection and is on good terms with the car conductor, Sergei. She arranged for us to ride on the outside of the engine of the train along Lake Baikal for about 30 minutes. Granted the train wasn’t going rip roaring fast on this part of the track due to the curves and tunnels but it was so cool! Outside of the US, people are allowed to do all sorts of wild and dangerous things without fear of lawsuits. So much fun, I had to get this one post out even though the Verizon text messages reporting additional global charges are coming faster and faster.