Sh*t Happens

On leaving Moron, we ran into Bernard. We thought we might, so kept a lookout. We had a chat on the side of the road and went our separate ways.

Meeting Bernard on the road

We headed south towards Kharkhorin with an overnight camping spot in the middle of nowhere. 2 blokes on a motorbike arrived with a mob of horses. The horses went to the small lake for a drink, so we offered the guys some Chacha (Georgian grappa). It’s all we had. “Mongolians will drink anything” said Lawrence. Well, the look on their faces was priceless. Chacha has a very strong taste and of course they are used to vodka. It was quite funny – they declined seconds. It’s really awful stuff, not even Lawrence will drink it very often.

 

Drinking chacha with some locals

Locals arrive to stare at you out of nowhere.

Next day we set off early after a bad night’s sleep and ran into a family having car trouble. They had a broken timing belt, and weren’t going anywhere. To quote Lawrence “the engine’s f*ck*d”.

We decided to be good Samaritans and tow them to the nearest town. Off we went – stop, the tow strap is too short. L gets out one of our brand new winch extension straps and lets them hook it up. It’s raining by now, of course, and getting muddy, so we left them to it. 5 minutes later their front of their car fell off and we then rearranged the towing. 5 minutes later the strap fell off – and so it went stopping every 5 kilometres or so. The road was terrible, mud, sand, bumps, potholes…

Near the end, the GPS took us on a left hand turn, looked dodgy but we could see the town ahead. Road ran out, no way to cross the river, thick mud – yes of course we had Boris washed the day before.

The end of our towing saga

Maps.me to the rescue and we made our way to town. 4 miserable hours to do 50 kms.

Never, ever go anywhere with only one GPS, always have back up! We also have a map but, because of the scale, it was pretty useless.

Anyway, we made our way Erdene Zuu Monastery, the aim of this journey. A wonderful complex but not much else to see in town so we drove east to Ulanbaatar. Bernard told us of a fab travellers hostel, so we headed to that, hoping to meet up with Ken and Carol that we’d met in Ulan Ude (the Aussie bikers).

 

Eedene Zuu Monastery

Monastery Walls

Oasis hostel turned out to be absolutely brilliant and we met up with Ken and Carol. We stayed much longer than planned as we loved the atmosphere, the showers, the café (real food and wine), the people we met. In fact, we stayed so long that Bernard turned up again. We had a great time.

However, we felt that if we didn’t head off on day 5, we might never leave. Off we went, but had noticed that the domestic battery wasn’t holding a charge well. Never mind, she’ll be right.

 

Celebrating Boris's 2nd birthday at Oasis Hostel

We took the paved road east to Undurkhan and then went off-piste, towards Choibalsan with an overnight stop in the wilds. We noticed that there was no traffic on this road and then came the slow realisation that the longer, southern road must be paved. Bugger, too late to turn back. And we were right, after 330 kms of miserable, horrible, hateful roads, we found out that the southern road was definitely paved. Rats!

North from Choibalsan to the border is definitely unpaved. With the wisdom of 20/20 hindsight, we would take a completely different route. 560 kms of misery but a definite sense of accomplishment (says Lawrence – not moi).  Yeah, yeah, one must expect bad roads in this part of the world, but really – enough is enough.

And, you guessed it, the battery gave out completely. Which of course means, no fridge, no water pump (no water), and no lights. As it’s light until 10 pm that was no problem, but of course our toilet needs power.  TMI alert! We can operate the valve manually and use bottled water to flush. However, I didn’t quite close the valve properly (it’s quite hard) and with all the corrugations and bumps the valve opened up a bit more and you can guess the rest. As they say – ‘sh*t happens’.

Not the best part of our journey.

Finally made it the border – it’s a real outpost. We were the only ones there, but it took 2 ½ hours. First up the Mongolians fined us for not having a temporary vehicle import document (their mistake), then they found Lawrence’s UK passport and this caused a ruckus, having 2 passports. Another small ‘fine’ fixed that. Then the bloody Russians wanted to search our outside locker and other bits and pieces.

We were really over it by the time we had our late lunch (no breakfast) and were desperate to find somewhere to park for the night. But of course our GPS led us on a merry goose chase and more bad bloody roads. Finally we found somewhere to camp. Our map is just not detailed enough to help much.

We are now in Chernyshevsk and staying in low-key hotel for 2 nights. We needed a day off from driving. This is the kind of town where you would slit your wrists rather that live here. But it has hot showers and a decent bed. The café of course isn’t open Saturday and Sunday nights and we can’t find another place to eat anywhere. Tonight we are having cheese, toast and wine. Anything but a repeat of the ghastly pizza we had last night.

What a whingey post – sorry! It hasn’t been our best few days…

And the gin supply has run out.

And now we have a flat tyre…

Tips for Travellers

When you enter Mongolia, make sure you get a temporary importation document for your vehicle (we didn’t). You may need to insist, as the process is shambolic.

Oasis hostel in Ulanbaatar is one of those places where any bikers in Mongolia eventually find themselves. It has everything you need.

Hot showers, café with good food, beer and wine. A laundry, a hairdresser(!) and places for 3-4 campers to park (not tents though). It has 6 Gers plus rooms and dorms. We stayed 5 days and ate in the café 3 x per day. The bill came to about 200 USD for all this including beer and wine – amazing.

If you are thinking about taking the border crossing we took – think again. However, if you do it the southern road to Choibalsan via Baran Uurt is paved – take it, trust me. After that is awful. About 18kms before the border town of Ereentsay, you need to cross the railway. Don’t miss this left hand turn (we did). The border crossing is on the western side of the railway. This road is a bit like a goat track. You need to cross the river which has steep sides but not much water when we were there.

Once in town, make your way through the maze of dirt roads to the river. The bridge is buggered so you need to use the ‘causeway’. Just pray is hasn’t been raining too much. The border is about 1 km from there.

If you are heading to Borzya (and you will) the road is awful. If you are heading east from there, consider going the long way through Chita as all the back roads are unpaved, and you may have had a gutful by then! Aah, the wisdom of hindsight.

Oasis hostel

Mongolia Or Bust?

Well we finally made it to Mongolia with a few ‘busts’ along the way, but we are in one piece.

 

Buddhist Temple

Today we nearly bust completely. On our way back from Lake Hovsgol our brakes failed. Completely. No brakes. Nada. So glad there wasn’t a herd of yaks in front of us.

Ironically, we were on our way back to the town of Moron to see about getting front brake discs replaced. Lawrence was driving (thankfully) and neither of us noticed a deep dip in the road until too late. He hit the brakes hard and the dip at the same time and then… no brakes.

We limped the 47km in town straight to the garage and it got sorted in no time. A main brake line was worn and the violent application of the brakes was the last straw and, of course, we lost all the brake fluid. As it happens this was a blessing in disguise as it was a disaster waiting to happen – better there than in the Gobi desert or some such.

The next disaster was that we found out that Wednesday is ‘no alcohol day’ in this part of Mongolia. This was worse than the brakes failing! We felt we needed a beer with lunch after our terrible morning. Lawrence used his considerable charm (OK, I exaggerate) and begged the waitress to serve us a beer. She did – afraid he might cry.

 

Camping spot on the way to Hovsgol

Anyhoo, we’ve been in Mongolia for a week now and the weather has been fab. Border crossing was the usual shambles but no real hassle – about an hour and 45 minutes.

We spent 4 days at Lake Hovsgol camped at a Ger camp with hot showers and cold beer. The weather was brilliant - blue skies, warm sunshine and gentle breezes. We did lots of domestic chores (including removing tar from Boris courtesy of Kazakh and Russian roadworks) and lots of lazing about in the sun. Bliss.

 

Yaks taking a bath

Yaks in the camp! Send in the SWAT team

More yaks!!

Lake Hovsgol

Nature's Door Ger Camp

I also spent quite a bit of time photographing yaks! They are hilarious looking creatures but have a speed and agility that belies their awkward, cumbersome looking shape. I find them quite photogenic.

Bird-wise, we’ve seen Demoiselle Cranes (so elegant), Steppe Eagles, Black Vultures, Black Kites and a family of Ruddy Shell Ducks.

The town of Moron (pron: Muroon) is terribly dull but has a great restaurant with a Korean influence. Not often you find food in this part of the world with flavour let alone some spice.

We were hoping to meet up with Bernard the biker from Belgium here but he’s had vehicle troubles as well, not sure where we’ll run into each other now.

With the brake problem fixed so quickly, we’ll leave tomorrow. Nothing to see here.

Tips for Travellers

Nature's Door Ger Camp is a great place to stay. You can camp or stay in a Ger. They were happy for us to stay in our camper and just pay for camping and showers. The manager speaks english. There is a restaurant, which is OK.
N:50.5931
E:100.1817
Take the airport road before getting into Khatgal. The 'new' road is terrible so take the side tracks where possible. The new road bed has been laid but the contractors ran off with the money before finishing it.

We wild camped on the east side for one night, but everywhere is just covered in yak poo. Better to stay in a Ger camp.

In Moron, there is a great restaurant which worth seeking out. AND restaurant serves food with actual flavour and even a bit of spice - a Korean influence. It's on the same road as the well hidden tourist info (where they don't speak english and can only sell you a map and some toiletries). Look for the 50 100 hotel and head up the side street about 100 metres (off the main road). It's worth it! But no alcohol on a Wednesday.

Third Time Lucky

We finally got our Mongolian visa – but only after some hard work. We left Barnaul early on Tuesday morning, realising that the Embassy in Irkutsk may close for a few days over the Naadam festival and we’d better get there Thursday morning.

And we were right. We arrived at 11.30am Thursday after 28 hours of hard, miserable driving across Siberia (and bad food) to find that the Embassy would close at 1pm on Friday for more than a week. We had to pay 70US dollars each for fast processing and then return on Friday to collect visas. No same day processing here. One hour later and we wouldn’t have made it.

We were exhausted and made our way to Lake Baikal and a quirky, rustic campsite at Listvyanka for a lazy weekend.

The concept of customer service hasn’t reached rural Siberia yet. Fat, surly waitresses, sporting bad haircuts and ill-chosen outfits glower at you if you order something unusual like tea without sugar. They all look as though they’ve just lost a favourite family pet and you were partly responsible for its demise.

I’ve been slowly learning to read Cyrillic script and have learnt all the essentials such as Bar, Café, Beer, Wine etc. The alphabet has an extravagant excess of letters and a ridiculous amount of unpronounceable vowels. So many of the words are ridiculously long and I imagine what size their Scrabble boards must be. I struggle to pronounce a town name and find it on the map only to find we’ve left that town and are approaching another, and the process starts again.

Lawrence’s Russian is coming along quite well, so mostly I just smile and nod.

We spent about a week around Lake Baikal, starting with Listvyanka. We liked our rustic campsite (got all our washing done) but the town can best be described as ‘low-rent tacky tourist resort’. Not our cup of tea, but the weather was fine.

 

Listvyanka foreshore

Listvyanka 

We headed to the southern shore but the weather turned and it was cold and windy. Heading north up the eastern side of the lake, we had cold, fog, drizzle, grey. We camped in an area that is meant to be one of the most spectacular, but we couldn’t see a thing. Next day we went a bit further south and got half an hour of sunshine, then the cloud and mist came rolling back.

 

Mostly what Lake Baikal looked like

A moment of sunshine

Sunset

We gave up and are now in Ulan-Ude for showers and hair-washing before heading to Mongolia first thing.

We’ve just met an Aussie couple who have been travelling for EIGHT years on a motorbike – makes us look like wannabees.

Tips for Travellers

No same-day visas for Mongolia in Irkutsk, but there is in Ulan-Ude. We had to pay 70 Us dollars for 24 hour processing (30 US dollars for 3 day processing). You need to go the bank to pay the fee but they don’t take US dollars. Use the exchange rate of the day in roubles.

The road from Barnaul to Irkutsk is variable but a lot is terrible. However the road is being rebuilt, so in about 2 years time, it’ll be grand.

From Russia With Love

Our last few days in Uzbekistan saw us driving through the Fergana Valley with a stopover at a hotel with a swimming pool. After the relentless heat on the Silk Road it was a welcome relief.

Police check points are common in this country and we got stopped quite often, but the last 100kms saw us being stopped 4 times – what a pain. They simply take down your details and write them painstakingly in a ledger. Smacks of paranoia.

The border crossing into Kyrgyzstan was painless and we were soon in the border town of Osh and met up with Bernard the Biker from Belgium – again. We’ve become quite chummy. He was waiting for a part for the motorbike to arrive from Switzerland. We also met Sam, an Aussie riding his bicycle from Vladivostok to London – as you do!

Osh has a great bazaar and we stocked up of meat and veg. We were soon climbing into the Tian Shan Mountains that lead into China. The road up to (Lake) Song Kol was ‘one of those roads’. Stunningly beautiful, difficult and long. We stopped near a Yurt camp by the lake at 3100 metres with cold drizzle. We went from 40 degrees to 4 degrees – is there no ‘normal’ weather to be had?

 

Vulture taking off 

Next day we did our highest pass at 3,450 metres – spectacular drive. Terrible road.

We then headed to (Lake) Issyk Kol and stayed at a Yurt Camp hotel in Boris. We just used their facilities for a small fee – a fab spot by the vast lake. We met up with a Brazilian couple in a Land Rover and a French family in a motorhome, all doing similar adventures. We love meeting up with other travellers and swapping stories.

 

Swapping Stories

Bel Tam Yurt Camp at sunset

Finally we had normal weather – high 20’s, perfect.

Eagle Hunting Demonstration

Who looks more worried?

The mountains in Kyrgyzstan are really awesome, but you wouldn’t go out of your way to see any of the towns. All quite dusty and drab. We avoided the capital, Bishkek.

We pushed on to get back into Kazakhstan and the city of Almaty where we intended to obtain our Mongolian visas. Best laid plans… you can imagine what happened!

We arrived first thing Wednesday morning with all our paperwork in order to be told that the Consulate in Almaty no longer issues visas and that we needed to go to Astana, as though it was an hour away. It’s a 3 day drive.

What to do? We opted for flying up and back in day, having been assured the visa would be issued on the spot. Best laid plans…

Our 6am flight got us to the Embassy at opening time and we handed over our application and were told to come back tomorrow. What??? No, no, no. Finally they said ‘come back at 12’. Sounds easy? The embassy in is the burbs so getting cabs back and forth isn’t as simple as it sounds, until you know the system. Basically you stand on the road and ‘hitch’. Someone will stop and you negotiate a price.

Anyway, long story short, as they were about to close for lunch at 1pm, we realised that no visa was going to be issued. The Consul was nowhere to be found and wasn’t answering his phone. Obviously off with his mistress. We took back our passports and flew back Almaty, visa-less and about 600 euros poorer.

Bugger.

Astana can best be described as Macau on steroids. Grandiose buildings, no soul.

Astana

So, after 3 days of hard driving and 1600km on awful, boring Kazakh roads, we are now in Barnaul in Russia. We’ll head to Irkutsk and maybe get a visa there, if they’ll be so kind.

Tips for Travellers

The border crossing from Kyrgyzstan into Kazakhstan was a breeze. It's open from 8am to 6pm (summer only). At this border they will automatically register you. Look for TWO green stamps on your arrival/departure document. If you have these, there is no need to register when you get to your first town. Avoids a hassle.

In Osh we stayed at the Eco House. Great location, good rooms, safe parking, terrible breakfast but we were used to that. Lomonosova Street, 25, 723500 Osh.

At Song Kol you can camp anywhere. We stopped near one of the Yurt Camps, but anywhere is fine.

On the way down to Kazarman we camped about 25km before you get to the town, down a side track. It’s not so easy to find good spots.

N 41.3605

E 73.8035

At Issyk Kol we camped at Bel Tam Yurt Camp. This is a brilliant spot and you can camp there for 200 SOM a night including showers. The camp is clean, rustic and well maintained and you can have a meal if you wish. Abut 10km east of Bokonbayevo. Nearest town is Tong.

Back in Kazakhstan, we camped the first night in a disused quarry which got us out of sight and was quiet.

N 45.6688

E 80.2717

Past Semey, at 97km before the Russian border we found a great spot in a pine forest. Cool and peaceful. Here are the co-ordinates for the side road to take. Drive down about 500m and you get a sort of junction, turn left and you’ll find a flat clearing.

N 50.5777

E 80.327

There was also a potential spot 68km before the Russian border.

The border crossing was easy - no hassle and only took 1/12 hours.