Category Archives: Mongolia

Mongolia, Sibirsky Extreme

Mongolia

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or should it be called “Breakfasts at Tiffany’s”?

25.09.09 Ulaanbaatar

I had to wait till the following day to try and contact the people who might be able to answer my queries regarding the shipping the bike back to the UK from UB so I took the bike out to a German guy running a bike tour business in UB.  The fox of the steppe, “Steppenfuchs” has enough bikes to justify having a couple of local Mongol bike mechanics – guys who see a lot of BMWs and seem pretty familiar with them.  I had a couple of minor niggles fixed and the bike felt a lot better.  It was still very cold and I was frozen riding the 4-5 km back to the guesthouse.

The guesthouse crew included Tiffany the cornish biker girl, waiting for a new alternator rotor, Ben a young London lad backpacking his way around the world, and other itinerants.  Tiff had been in UB a few days awaiting her DHL part and had 5-6 days more to wait before she should get it.  Ben was awaiting a Chinese visa.  We became the core three responsible for leading evening drinking sessions.

For those who dont know Tiff (A mutual friend via biking contacts back in the UK) she has been riding around the world for much of the last 10 years on a BMW R80 … her website is at www.TiffanysTravels.co.uk.

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26.09.09

Tiff kicked off the day with a big english fry up.  Despite being a vegetarian she even got bacon for Ben and me – what a trooper!  I was unable to get in touch with my UB contact.  If I needed to ship the bike back and I still couldnt get in touch with my Mongolian contact, there was always Mr Steppenfuchs … he can ship a bike back to Berlin.

The afternoon was spent down at UB’s huge market … known as the Black Market, where Ben almost got pickpocketed, before Tiff’s timely intervention. By this stage 7 of the 9 people staying in our guesthouse had been the target of pickpockets in UB … just Tiff and me were unscathed.  Must be the hardened biker faces.  Later on we all went out to catch some live music at one of UBs more popular evening venues – Strings club at the White House Hotel.  If anyone is heading this way, there is a surprisingly good cover band (from the Philippines) that plays there 6 nights a week starting at midnight.

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27.09.09

Despite waking up a little late after the night out, I wanted to take the bike for a ride east.  The weather forecast for the days ahead was looking solid  – sunny and warm.  First up was a huge new statue of Genghis Khan sitting astride his horse, about 50km east of UB.  I also wanted to make a little personal pilgrimmage to the site of Avarga, Genghis Khan’s capital.  There has been some Japanese sponsored archaeological works going on there and there is supposed to be another Genghis statue there overlooking his former home base.

Another thing that has changed dramatically in the past 15 years was the state of the roads.  Roads were now asphalt whereas earlier they were not even graded, just wheel tracks across the plains. The last 60 km to Avarga (via Delgerhaan) was finally the type of Mongolian roads I had come to Mongolia for – slightly sandy wheel ruts across the steppe.

The Avarga site was pretty much deserted but for a family living in a couple of gers looking after the tiny museum there.  The Genghis Khan statue was actually a monument rather than a statue.  It was a marble obelisk with a lifesized Genghis carved into it.  It was simple, yet I found something eerie about the lifesized Genghis.  I paid my tributes to the great man and crossed the river to head back.  There was a small spring on the otherside of the seemingly abandoned archeaological site. I believe this is a spring that Genghis’s son and successor Ogedei turned to whenever he was ill.

I got back on the bike and took a different track back to the main east road.  It was another fun 70km over the Mongolian plains.  This ride out over the plains convinced me that with the weather remaining sunny, temperatures warming up and myself and the bike in good form that I should try and get across the mountains in the west of the country.  If the weather holds out – no more snow – it will be possible!

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28.09.09

Tiff introduced me to another British biker in town  – Nathan from Nottingham.  Nathan was waiting for his passport / Russian visa in a hotel just round the corner from us.  He was riding a DR350 and had ridden 2-up across Mongolia (almost a month earlier) from the west to UB.  I was inspired.  If Nathan can take two people plus luggage across Mongolia on a 350cc air cooled bike, then I had no excuses for not going, regardless of how cold it was going to be.

Nathan and I went out for a 4 hour off-road motorcycle goon around in the hills south of UB in the afternoon.  Charging up valleys and over hills, thru forests.  Its amazing how much fantastic off road riding terrain there is just 15 – 20 km from the centre of downtown UB.  Nathan was smart enough to bring a camera and got some great snaps.  So credit to Nathan for these puppies.  His blog is at http://nath-in-russia.blogspot.com/

It was Ben’s 23rd birthday so the evening was a series of linked pissups, organised by the everthoughtful Tiff (cake and candles, cards etc).  UB had degenerated into a big pissup session.

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29.09.09

It was time to leave UB.  I had 4 days there.  It was now at least 10 degrees warmer than when I first rode into town.  After another smashing “Breakfast at Tiffanys” …more bacon and eggs … I packed my bags and left UB about 11am.  I said farewell to Tiff and Ben – we had been good mates for the last 4 days – and hit the crowded chaotic road out of UB.  Nathan was also hoping to leave today and I thought there was a chance I would see him on the road out of town before he turned North towards the Altanbulag border, but I didnt see him.

I continued west on an immaculate wide asphalt road that started to lose its immaculateness after 30km or so.  Lunch was at Lun.  Afternoon tea would be at Kharkhorin (Karakorum), the capital of Ogedei and Monkhe Khan – Genghis’ successors.  Just outside Lun I bumped into an Italian on Africa Twin headed for UB.  We swapped notes and I pushed on.

I had seen several hundred eagles by the roadside, standing sentinal in the last hour or two before Kharkhorin, and had narrowly missed a few as they took off, startled by my obscenely load exhaust.  One eagle had obviously not been so lucky.  I guess he had taken off into a truck or van and was lying by the roadside.  I got off the bike to look.  It was very recent.  Blood still was flowing from the beak but the majestic bird was dead.  It was a young eagle I guess, much smaller than most of the eagles I had seen today, and in the distance, 50 metres down the road two larger eagles were watching me as I picked up the dead bird and looked it over.  They really are a beautifully  crafted animal.

At Kharkhorin I was pushing myself for more miles to be done.  This recent warm weather may not last.  I had another hour and a half of the daylight left (daylight that shrinks more and more every day).  I wanted to get to Tsetserleg.  My mother had been there just a year ago and left me some contacts.

I made Tsetserleg just before dark and checked into the Fairfield guesthouse. It was very civilised.  Warm showers and proper coffee.  I didnt expect that in rural Mongolia.  Just down the road was speedy internet.

– – –

30.09.09

I had gotten so accustomed to bacon and eggs for breakfast in UB, and was so sure I wouldnt get it in the next few weeks that I ordered bacon and eggs from the western menu at the Fairfield and set off soon after 10.  Tsetserleg had been the effective end of the paved road – or road being paved.

I wanted to get to Tosontsengel today.  It would be a challenge … 360 km on Mongolian tracks and daylight that ends soon after 6pm.  By 2pm I was at White Lake and soon after I overtook what appeared to be a local on an overloaded bike … but something caught my eye as being not right … I think it was his riding trousers. So I stopped and met a crazy Germany guy riding a Chinese 150cc chopper he had bought in the Black Market in UB for USD  650.  Lukas was a paraglider, and having been in Mongolia for a month hiring vans and drivers to take him to remote corners of the country to paraglide down from, he decided the better solution is to just take a bike.  His paragliding rig looked big but weighed only 7kgs.

We went for lunch in the nearest town, Tsagaannuur, and talked for a couple of hours about paragliding, motorcycles, banking, and possible roads to Uliastay.  I could have ridden with him for a couple of days as we were going in the same direction, but I was riding over twice as fast as his little bike would go.  It had taken him 4 riding days to get from UB to where I had gotten to in one and a half days.

When I realised it was 4pm we packed up at the cafeteria and hit the road.  I had to scoot … Tosontsengel was about 180km away and I had just over 2 hours of daylight left and a brief 30 mins off twilight.

Soon after leaving Lukas I crossed into Zavhaan, arguably the most scenic province in Mongolia.  The late afternoon sunlight added to the natural beauty of the place and I found myself stopping for photographs constantly.

I didnt know how the pics would turn out with the dodgy lens, but the vistas and the light was a combination that compelled me to try everything I possible could to squeeze acceptable shots out of the camera gear.

Stopping for fotos had put extra pressure on my drive to reach Tosontsengel. I took the last foto just as the last light was fading just 6km from town.  By the time I did that 6km, it had just become night.

My timing was perfect.

Irkutsk, Lake Baikal, Mongolia, Russia, Siberia, Sibirsky Extreme

Into Mongolia

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14, 15, 16, 17.09.09

While the bike was being sorted, I had a few other things to sort out in Krasnoyarsk.  My camera lens needed to be cleaned and a scratch or two removed.  I also needed a new customs form … as my stay in Russia had been extended due to my burst up to Udachny and the Arctic Circle.  Arnaud decided to sell his bike in Krasnoyarsk rather than ride it back to Irkutsk, where he lives.  And so there was a fair bit of assorted running around.  We were also able to relax and enjoy proper steak and proper coffee for the first time in months.  Krasnoyarsk is really the last place in Siberia where you have a good chance to do that.  The city is much bigger tha Irkutsk, Khabarovsk or Vladivostok.

Early in the morning of the 16th, Arnaud took a train back to Irkutsk and I told him I will join him there in a few days, once my bike emerges from the mechanic’s.

2 days later I saddled up, said farewell to Dima and headed off in the direction of Irkutsk.  It was 2pm when I left Krasnoyarsk and rain had been forecast.  I dressed in all my warmest gear as the temperature was only about 5 degrees.  It seemed winter had arrived a few weeks earier than usual in Siberia.  It was cold, overcast and a road I had already done twice in the past 3 months.  I stopped only for fuel and for very good shashlik at Uyar.  I just put the head down and made it to Alzamai about 9pm.

By 6pm the following day (19th Sep) I was in Irkutsk, with Arnaud.  It was snowing and the last few hundred kilometres were wet and very cold. Snow was over the road in higher areas.  I had a few days to stop and reflect on this unseasonally rapid advance of winter while in Irkutsk, and decided that there really is not a huge amount of pleasure motorcycling in the freezing rain and snow.  If things didnt change for the better then I would be looking at a flight home in the next few weeks at the latest.

Reports I was receiving from Mongolia were that the weather there had changed from balmy and a sunny 20 degrees a few days ago to snow and closed passes now.  The winter had really arrived in a big way.

On the 22nd, Arnaud headed for his retreat on the shores of Lake Baikal and I headed for Ulan Ude, the capital of the Buryat Republic.  the Buryats, like the Kalmyks I met 5 months ago, are Mongolic.  Most of the asiatic peoples in Russia are Turkic based.  I spent a day in Ulan Ude.  The city has changed considerably since I rode thru here 15 years ago.  15 years back the main stop for me in Ulan Ude was to get a photograph next to the largest bust of Lenin in the world.  Naturally this time round I needed to return to the central square and update my photo collection of Lenin’s heads.

Sadly my camera is now less than fully functional, and as a result I have taking almost no pictures now.  The final element of the lens unscrewed itself thanks to vibrations, and ended up getting quite scratched.  Further, some spacer rings that position the element came off and I suspect I dont have the element positioned totally right.  It will be back to Nikon when I get back to the UK.  For now I can only get focus on wide angle and small aperture.

Heading to Mongolia, one of the most photogenic parts of my trip, without a fully functioning camera was depressing me.

I left Ulan Ude on the 24th of September, hoping to  make Ulaanbaatar for the evening.  It was about 600 km, and included a border crossing, my first for about 4 months.   Crossing the Russian border was simple and painless and over in about 45 minutes.  The Mongolia side was not so simple.  I had a typo on my visa such that it said validity was till November 2008.  This was a sticking point and the the Mongolian immigration guys were refusing to let me in.  Luck came along in the form of the head immigration guy, who had previously worked for an Australian mining company and happened to like Aussies.  he made a few phone calls back to head office in UB (Ulaanbaatar) and was able to issue me an all new visa there at the border in about 30 minutes.

By 5pm I was on the road again in Mongolia.  It struck me even at the border how things had changed.  A busy border post with computers, passport scanners etc was a million miles away from the Altanbulag border I had known 15 years ago.  The town of Altanbulag had been a semi abandoned wreck of a place then.  Now the roads were lined with banks, cafes and petrol stations.

I rode through Sukhbaatar township 25km down the road.  James and I had been holed up in this town for about a week on and off, and there had been nothing commercial there apart from the cafe (for want of a better word) at the Sukhbaatar Hotel.  Now it was a bustling town, with no fewer than 7 or 8 petrol stations. Almost unrecognisable from our border base of 15 years ago.

The road from Sukhbaatar to UB was even more different.  Mongolia was stunning me with how rapidly and completely it had changed.  The highway was littered with hotels, cafes, petrol stations.  The road was full of traffic and I was constantly overtaking trucks and cars.  In 1994 there had been no cafes, no petrol stations, no hotels and no other vehicles on the road.

But the biggest surprise of all was UB itself.  What had once been a quiet, sleepy town with again no traffic and just a state department store and one cafe for commercial premises was now a mini Bangkok.  Traffic jammed the streets.  Neon lights lit up the main road into town for miles, where there had previously just been quiet suburbs of gers (yurts).  Dozens and dozens of hotels, bars and restaurants lined the road into town.  I didnt recognise it at all.  The handful of old Volgas and Ladas that once ruled the roads here had been replaced with endless thousands of new Toyota Landcruisers and the like.  I headed for a guesthouse where Tiff Coates was holed up awaiting spare parts and arrived late in the evening.  With the weather now decidedly cold, we must be just about the last two idiots still on motorcycles in this part of the world.