From the place where I camped to Ulan Bator I had to do another 800 km, which I planned to finish in one day. After 150 km the rain stopped and landscapes started being beautiful. From Ulan Ude, the landscapes totally changed, from Siberian forests to barren mountains and hills, so specific to Mongolia.
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Underground fire in Siberia
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Welcome to Mongolia
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Until 2 pm I was already at Mongolia’s borders. I had no problems at Russia border and at Mongolia border there was such a long queue and so cold outside that people who saw me felt pity on me and because I was dressed just like a penguin they let me go in front of them. The papers I needed to enter in Mongolia made me lose 2-3 hours. The funny part was when I asked them where do I buy insurance for the motorcycle and they told me to go further because there is no problem. I asked another 4 persons, custom agents and car drivers and I got the same answer. I got some Mongol money from the custom ATM and I continued my way to Ulan Bator, thinking that I’m gonna buy my insurance from there.
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Because it was already late, I did another 50 km and looked for a place to sleep in the mountains, I put my tent, opened a beer can and with the map in front of me I started planning my trip in Mongolia. The thermometer was showing 5 Celsius degrees in the evening.
I have to say that I didn’t start this trip with a well-established route for Mongolia and I wanted to see as much as possible during the 2 weeks I had to visit Mongolia. I usually reach some nice places, especially where the mountains are bigger and I ask local people what’s the nicest thing to see there.
By this moment have I made about 7500 km, in those 9 days since I left Romania. I’m going to tell you why: The only visa for Russia I could obtain in the short time I had was the touristic visa with 2 entries. So I had to do these 7500 km to Mongolia, see Mongolia (another 3000-4000 km), get out of Mongolia in the western part, to Russia again, make another 1000 km in Russia so I could get out of Russia in south to Kazahstan. If we put it together I had to do about 12.500 km in 28 days, because my first 2 days of visa were lost from the beginning, in Romania, when I had to obtain my visa to Mongolia.
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Freezing cold
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In the morning the thermometer was showing -2 Celsius degrees, there was hoar on my tent and I had to go another 300 km to Ulan Bator. The road from the custom to Ulan Bator is asphalt, there are a few cars on that road, but they have high speed, despite of the road full of animals who circulate on it. Until I reached Ulan Bator I saw 3 upside-down cars and lots of dead animals on the road side who were hit by cars, eaten by dogs. I paid a road tax, very similar to what we have in Europe (the highway tax). The Mongols don’t have a lot of asphalt, but where they have, you need to pay for it
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