Unique Border Crossing into Mongolia

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Day 131, 9th October

Kjahta - (MONGOLIA) - Sühbaatar

Woke after a good sleep with a slight hangover. After a breakfast of bread and cheese we left the hotel for the border a few miles away. It was another lovely day, with no wind this time. The road down to the border passed what seemed to be deserted shacks built on dusty ground. Up on the hill to our right was a big military encampment with watchtowers and the likes.

The dusty road continued south and passed a new paved road that went off left to the new border crossing building. But what we wanted to see was the old dilapidated Orthodox church at the old border crossing. It turned out to be a large empty cathedral, the border gate (now dis-used) was just beyond it. Crossing the landscape were two parallel border fences and a minefield between them. The outer fence seemed to be electrified. The actual border was barked by colourful posts, orange and green for Russia, blue and yellow for Mongolia, facing eachother about 15 feet apart with a small white marker stone dead-centre to mark the exact border. We took some pics and got a few more at the nearby Lenin statue, before heading off to the border crossing.

Our Mongolian friend was there to help us with the border guards who took our letter from the vice-president allowing us to cross. The border guard eyed us suspiciously, went off, and returned shortly afterwards telling us that only two other cyclists had crossed this border, and that we’d be let through after lunch. This meant a two-hour wait till 2pm before we were let through the gate and ushered into the first customs control area where we had to fill out custom declaration forms. There was a slight problem - we should have kept the declaration forms we filled in when we entered Moldova, they had the same system in place as in the old Soviet times! We bluffed it and got off. It was funny when a customs woman said in English, “Now I will control your bags”, and looked in my front pannier only to find my Black-Widow catapult. I explained in sign language that it was to attack vicious dogs with to fits of laughter from the guards.

Then there was another big wait at passport control, another small building. Eventually, our passports were given back with two nice new stamps on them, and we were waved through to the final gate, three layers of fences either side. A shabby looking soldier finally check our passports, flicked a switch to turn of the electric barbed-wire on top of his gate, and opened it to let us out of The Russian Federation. The tarmac suddenly ended, and our wheels dropped a few inches onto barren earth, several feet later we passed the little white marker stone to signal that we had just entered MONGOLIA !

A really shabby Mongolian guard standing at a tin table looked over our passports and then directed us 100 yards along a dirt track to passport control. The Mongolian customs officials were fascinated by us and even encouraged us to take photos of them. Our passports stamped, we left for another final gate where yet another shabby soldier checked who we were, and then were off to discover Mongolia.

Instantly, we were in an alien land where everyone looked different, we stood out like sore thumbs. The road was surprisingly well-paved and empty. There were loads of smiling, waving children on bike who looked on at us in awe, and tried to race along side us. The land seemed virtually barren except for lone horsemen guarding small herds of livestock. The grasslands we dotted by the traditional Mongolian Yurts, or Gers as they are now called.

Only after doing 20 miles (seemed like 2000) today, we entered the dusty little town of Sukhbataar, changed money at the bank (1,090 Togrog to the dollar), then found the Selenge Hotel, at 2000T each it was a bargain. We all had our traditional border crossing beer, this time a pissy horrible concoction that I couldn’t even read the name of. Our hotel room was big, with a wooden floor, cracked windows, exposed electrical wires, no light-bulb, and resident rodent! Perhaps it will take care of the cockroaches for us? Everyone was tired, so after eating and watching the sunset we all retired for an early night.

Total Miles: 7080.71 Todays Miles: 22.72 Average speed: 11.3 Time on bike: 2:00


Day 132, 10th October

Sühbaatar - Darchan

It was another lovely day, the morning was chilly but by the time we’d packed our bikes, it was positively warm! Few cars traversed the dusty streets of Sukhbataar, men on horseback were more common. As we left town Shock! Surprise! We saw two other bikepackers - Marcus and Ria from Germany. They had been on the road for 10 months and traveled through Iran and the ‘Stans’. They’d spent 12 hours last night crossing the border by train and had had a nightmare time of it. We left them to do things in town, perhaps we’ll meet up in Ulaan Bataar.

The road out of town was short, and we were soon riding through hilly grasslands. Loads of gers, horsemen, wild animals, and the scenery just kept getting better and wilder. After around two hours cycling, we found a café where we could try the typical salty Mongolian tea. It’s an acquired taste! Then we sped on south-eastwards into the beautiful wilderness. The weather became so warm that we were down to T-shirts! A truck driver stopped to give us a canister of milk at the top of a hill, we saved it to make coffee with later.

There was an accident - Rory clipped the back of me, Toby braked hard behind him, and Scott ran into the back of Toby coming off and hurting his ribs and wrist. Afterwards, we agreed on more distance between the bikes, we were getting closer and closer to take advantage of eachothers slipstreams. There was a slight headwind later and Rory became very tired. After 50 miles, we camped early next to a salt-lake in a valley near some gers and made supper. A nomad from one of the gers came to visit us, we spoke, gave him some food and watched the sun go down over the hills. In the morning the guy said he’d bring us water. Later, we saw the clearest stars ever, and the temperature plummeted…

Total Miles: 7131.05 Todays Miles: 50.34 Average speed: 10.7 Time on bike: 4:40

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