Mörön re-visited (Мөрөн). May 29th, 2014.

Thursday, May 29th.

After last night's commotion we woke up to find it was 8:20am! Quiet campsites do promote a good night's sleep! After breakfast and breaking up camp we started towards Mörön again. On the way we made a short detour to the N50º - E100º confluence point.
Back in town we checked into a hotel, had showers, stocked up in the supermarket and relaxed. We also did a bit more research on that possible permit for the Altai Regoin in Russia but it looks like people haven't needed one, at least not for a quick transit. Fingers crossed. And we contacted 'Stantours' for help with LOI's (Letters of Invitation) for Uzbekistan.

This really is Eagle country.

Vultures.

At the 50º lat -100º long confluence point.

10kms North of Toilogt, Khövsgöl Nuur (Хөвсгөл нуур). May 28, 2014

Wednesday, May 28th

The plan was to head north to Khövsgöl Nuur which is the second largest lake in Mongolia. And as the lake was only 100kms away on a good sealed road, we decided to treat ourselves and sleep in a little. So we got a late start.

It was less than 2 hours before we reached Khatgal, the southern gateway town to the lake. We drove all the way through town and back, but didn't linger as we wanted to go further north to the actual lake. And we had our heart set on staying in a ger. The road up the western side of the lake was improved, but it was still a little slow going with occasional potholes and dry river bed crossings. We stopped at various tourist camps along the way looking for a place for the night, but none of the camps were really open yet. The season will really kick-off in a few weeks. And although the camps weren't open, they all did offer us a place to stay. Toilogt Camp was only three days away from opening, but still lacking hot showers and the price was a hefty TUG 100,000 or USD $55. We decided to find a place to free-camp.

The lake itself was magical and still covered in reasonably thick ice. Everything was so still and quiet. Unfortunately it was a little cold and the weather was a little threatening, even though it never rained for long.

We continued to drive along the shore looking for a place to camp, but it turned out most of the good spots were already taken by tourist camps. And much of the shoreline was boggy. But we did find a nice, semi-secluded and dry spot for the night. We spent what was left of the afternoon doing chores on Sterlin. The music adaptor had become disconnected and the glovebox was removed to fix it. Mud was removed from the hi-lift jack as well as from Sterlin, both of which got covered a few days ago. The sand tracks went back up onto the roof rack, but this time mounted in a way they could be accessed with ease. Other general tidying-up and re-arranging of things were done.

We found a nice camping spot... or so we thought.

Caroline cooked up a wonderful meal of pasta and last night's leftovers. We sat around our camp fire enjoying the meal and the amazing view of the lake with its ever changing sunset colors. Spitting rain came a went a few times, but was never enough to put out our fire. We also did a reading up in Lonely Planet on the area of Russia that we'd be crossing into from Mongolia. This area is the Altai Republic and according to Lonely Planet it looks like we may need permits to be able to enter that specific region. Further research with the Internet is required.
As the sun disappeared behind the mountains the temperature really started to drop, and we were glad to have invested the time in collecting firewood and lighting the fire.

Sunset view from our 'camping spot'.

Sunset view from our 'camping spot'.

It was 10pm and we were just enjoying the last of the fire and the last of the sunset, when a car load of people showed. We thought they came to say hi. Actually they were Rangers of some description and had come to tell us that we couldn't camp where we were. The conversation was in sign language and we really didn't understand what the problem was. There were no signs saying we couldn't camp where we were. Regardless, we put out the fire and packed everything up and headed another 2 kms further up the lake, to a place where apparently we could camp. As it was dark by then and there are no signposts, one of the rangers came out and showed us the good spot. This whole little adventure was a little annoying and we ended up paying a TUG 20,000 (USD $12) on-the-spot fine.
We were eventually settled into our nice warm bed by 11pm.

Our camping spot after being 're-located'.

Mörön (Мөрөн). May 27, 2014

Monday, May 27th

It blew all night and we really felt and heard it in our roof top tent. But regardless, we both got a reasonable night sleep and certainly did not feel the cold with our double duvet setup. And it did not rain during the night, which was nice. The destination for the day was Mörön, some 90kms and 4 hours to the north. In preparation we removed the sand tracks from the roof rack and stored them inside Sterlin where they could be accessed with ease when required.

The morning drive was pleasant enough, with another mixed terrain day. This time all the creek crossings had stone beds and we never risked getting bogged. We averaged about 45kph and it was all very leisurely.

We arrived at Mörön around 1pm and soon found a hotel and more importantly a shower. The hot water only came on at 6pm, so the shower was quite cold. We spent a few hours in the hotel room catching up on Internet and email. 

Just before sunset, which is at 9:15pm here, we went for an evening stroll in town; a stroll made even more enjoyable as there was no trace of wind. A feeling of calm we hadn't experienced for days. We also managed to find a pub where we enjoyed a few Mongolian beers.

Mörön at dusk.

Couple of local brews.

From Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake to Ulziit Camp. May 26, 2014.

Monday, May 26th

This marked one year of adventure travel for us, and what an adventure the day was. More on that later in the post.

We had a great night's sleep in our Ger. When we woke up, a quick check of the weather showed that it was a little cold, very windy and a little wet. It had not rained overnight and the ground was dry, so we decided to proceed north to Orgii/Jargalant (place names are sometimes very confusing as not only do they come in different alphabets and spellings; lots of times maps and books simply do not agree) . We had a bit of a slow start because we slept in a little and took our time over breakfast. But we eventfully got organized, packed up and said goodbye to our lovely host, Oyuna. It was 9:45am when we pulled out of the camp.

Our route took us around the northern side of the Lake and the views were stunning. In fact, better than the day before. Much of the ice we saw the previous day had disappeared overnight, not sure if it had been blown away or just melted in the warm conditions. Regardless, staggering to see such a change in a single night.

Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake or Great White Lake.

Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake or Great White Lake.

One of numerous creek crossings.

While we continued around the lake, we had to cross two small creeks which were draining into it. We almost got bogged in the first crossing (N48.17912 E99.72146) due to a poor route decision but Sterlin was up to the task. We were better prepared for the second crossing (N48.20134 E99.68942) and this time had no problems. However we had to drive around a truck that looked pretty stuck and was in the process of being dug out. We stopped to lend assistance communicating with hand signals. It was not long before Sterlin was hooked up with a tow rope. A few minutes after that we pulled the rather sizable truck out of the mud and saw the smiles of some very happy Mongolians. Atta boy Sterlin!

Sterlin assists a truck out of the mud.

Ovoo on the Lake's Edge

Not long after that the road veered away from the lake's edge and headed in a more northerly direction. There were more creek crossings which presented no problems after scouting for a good place to cross. We continued on a good but rocky road for 22kms until we reached two hard packed snow patches. With a little sliding we crossed these with ease. The road got a little more rocky as we headed up and over the mountain pass and our speed slowed considerably. In addition the weather was turning and we had some rain and hail, just to mix things up a little. But, once out of the mountain section and back into the grassy valley, we picked up speed and enjoyed the great views in sunshine again. We still had the occasional creek crossing, but these had rock beds and proved no problem. At 3pm we finally pulled into Orgii/Jargalant which was our objective for the day. It had taken us just over 5 hours to cover 81kms.

The wind in Jargalent was horrendous, and, combined with all the sandy unpaved roads, created quite the dust storms. There were also no hotels, tourist Ger camps or wind-free places to camp. So, after looking around for ten minutes and failing to find ice-cream, we decided to drive onto Tosonchengel, another 80kms and 4 hours away. We were very glad to find fuel and topped up Sterlin before setting off.

There are two routes to Tosonchengel, one via a mountain pass and another via Jargalant. We had heard that it was too early in the season for the mountain pass which was not yet passable, whereas Jargalant had a brand new concrete bridge which was certain to provide access north. We headed out of town in search of this bridge and soon found it. It was in fact hard to miss as it was the biggest thing for miles. As we crossed the bridge we saw a sign indicating that Mörön was only 177kms away. This tiny bit of information made us change our minds on the spot, so, instead of turning left towards Tosonchengel, we turned right towards Mörön. We had no information on the condition of the 'road' or even if it was passable, but we had a full fuel tank and time. Bear in mind that 'road' in Mongolia usually means 'dirt track'.

The road just after the bridge and over the hill was under construction for a few kilometers and then turned into a smooth grassy track with dry river bed crossings (read 'rocks'). This did not last as long as we would have liked it to, as the track started to be riddled with rocks and slowed us down considerably. At 5:30pm we passed through Erdenet, which was just as bland as Jargalant. The road continued to be rutted, rocky and slow. There were patches of faster grassland.

An example of the nice fast grassland tracks.

After 18kms the road stopped at a collapsed wooden bridge. After scouting a route around the bridge we promptly got stuck up to the axles in the mud. Ok. We started the steps to recover the situation when along came some locals to watch and assist. This sort of thing happens all the time here so people simply help out. We also saw a truck about 500m away and signaled for them to come over and tow us out. But what'd you know, the truck also got stuck. So we jacked up the rear wheels with our hi-lift jack (very happy we'd brought it, because at one stage it was on the list of 'maybes') and placed wooden planks from the broken bridge under the wheels. At least the bridge was good for something :) We would have used our sand tracks except they were a little hard to get off the roof, and the wood was handy. By then the people from the truck had come over to help us as well. After a final push from all the helping hands Sterlin was out of the mud in 15 mins. Then we headed over to the truck and towed them out of the mud, over about 300 meters of potential boggy terrain and back to the road. The second truck we assisted in one day.

Stephen lifting Sterlin out of the mud.

Every helps as this is more than just common.

Example of the bridge crossings. This one still stood - sort of.

The whole combined exercise of getting Sterlin and the truck back on track, took about 1 hour and by then it was close to 7pm. Luckily the sun didn't set until about 9pm, but still high time to look for a place to camp for the night. We had seen a sign to 'Ulziit Camp' earlier and were about 12 kms away from it, a distance we realized could take up to an hour to cover. When we got there, at 7:50pm, it looked like there might have been a camp once, but now a family had set up their ger there. The woman motioned for us to set up camp anyway and assisted in selecting the best possible flat spot taking into consideration the strong winds. One useful remnant for the camp was a clean sit-down toilet. We deployed our tent and attached our annex so we could cook a quick meal out of the wind; pot noodles seemed like the best option given the time and circumstances. What a day, we were in bed around 10pm tired, but feeling pretty good about all the adventure and stunning scenery we'd experrienced. Not a bad 'One-Year-Travel Anniversary'!!


By Stephen, heavily edited by Caroline.

Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake (Тэрхийн Цагаан нуур). May 25, 2014

Sunday, May 25th

Today was a day of leisure. We got up latish and had a wonderful breakfast prepared by the Fairfield Guesthouse. Caroline had a lattee, surprise surprise. Over breakfast we broke out the map and had yet another look at various routes and options. Ivor and clan decided to head South, and a fine plan indeed. We decided to chance the northern route based on the recent success of Bermuda Rover and the good weather in the last 24 hours. At a minimum we knew the road to Tsagaan Nuur was good.

We topped up the water tank and the fuel tank in preparation of being off the grid for a while. We had yet another goodbye session with Kim, Vaughan, Merryn and Andrew and bid them a safe journey. It was fast approaching 11am and it was time we hit on the road. It was beautiful sunshine as we left Tsetserleg.

As we reached the city limits there was a toll booth and as is typical after paying a toll, the road condition suddenly deteriorates. In this case we had a bumpy gravel road. Fortunately this lasted for only 6kms and then abruptly transitioned back to a very fine and almost pot-hole free sealed road lasting for 110kms. Average speed was around 80-90kph on the good road. We just cruised the highway enjoying the magnificent scenery and wide open spaces. At one point there was around 20 to 30 birds of prey feeding on some poor dead animal. In the mix there were some mighty huge vultures. The last 50kms or so was off-piste as a new road was being constructed and traffic was just going freestyle on the grassy plains. There were many existing tracks to choose from and they all headed in basically the same direction creating no real confusion. Enjoyed this very much. Average speed was around 35-40kph. Once we reached Tariat we were very pleased to see gas stations, and filled up yet again. Our plan was to fill up whenever we could.

Although the weather was beautiful and sunny, there was still a strong wind and we decided against camping and the hassle that would involve. So we searched for a Tourist Camp and a warm Ger for the night. We found Maikhan Tolgoi on the edge of Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake (also known as Tsagaan Nuur or Great White Lake). Officially the tourist camp was not open yet and was still in the process of building their Gers, but some were finished and Oyuna (whose family owns the camp) invited us in anyway. Turned out we were their first guests for the season. This was our first Ger stay and we were quite impressed. What made it so nice was everyone was so helpful and welcoming.

With Oyuna, manager of Maikhan Tolgoi Ger Camp.

The Ger had two simple beds, small table and chairs the centerpiece being a small wood burning fire. And did that little fire pump out the heat, a little too much actually. Because the toilet block was not functional yet, we asked where a good place was to wash our hands. Next thing you know, someone turns up with a portable sink and vanity unit. Wow!

We went for a lovely evening stroll along the lake road. This is really a beautiful place. Pity it is just so windy. Dinner was in and we cooked on our little Ger stove. The night sky was mostly clear with bright stars and we expected a cold but not freezing night. Our goal for tomorrow is Jargalant, some 80kms to the north.

A word on our Jerry Cans. A little research the night before on the Internet identified the source of our leaking Jerry Can problem. Basically they are a not designed to hold fuel unless the ridiculous spout is attached. And in our case, we can't attach the ridiculous spout because of how our Jerry Can holder works, so essentially the cans we have cease to become Jerry Cans and instead turn into dead weight. Oh well. There might be a way to seal them up once we get to a bigger town and a hardware store. The good news is that we probably do not need to carry extra fuel while in Mongolia as there are gas stations everywhere.

Our Ger for the night.

Tsetserleg (Цэцэрлэг). May 24, 2014

Saturday, May 24th

We had a very pleasant drive from Ogii Nuur to Karkhorin (Хархорин). It started off on firm dirt tracks and after about 25kms abruptly transitioned to a sealed road (at N47.64613 E102.85266). It is a little weird to be driving along in a mostly untouched beautiful green valley feeling like you have escaped the civilized world, and then suddenly the world reappears in the form of a sealed road. But we were glad to see this road, as it meant we would be able to cross the river just before Karkhorin and would not need to back-track.

Although Karkhorin was 71kms from where we camped for the night, we still managed to make the journey quickly and arrived around 8:30am. The place was just waking up and our attempts to find a coffee failed completely. We visited Erdene Zuu Monastery which is one of the more important monasteries in Mongolia. The temperature was still a chilly 8ºC (46ºF) with a stiff breeze making it feel a lot colder. Regardless, we made a visit of the grounds and had a tour of the small but interesting museum. By the time we finished we rushed back to the car to re-warm ourselves. It was hard to believe that back in the day, this town served as the capital for the Mongolian empire, granted only for 40 odd years before they moved it elsewhere.

Karkhorin was not the most attractive of towns. And everything looked like it was shut because in winter the doors really are shut. And unfortunately many of the buildings appeared to have been abandoned and were crumbling from neglect. That and the lack of good coffee meant we did not hang around.

The drive to Tsetserleg was very nice with more magnificent scenery and on a good and sealed road; the first 40kms there were some heavily pot-holed sections though. We covered the 115kms in a little over 2 hours. Tseterleg is the capital of the Arkhangai Aimag (province) and is quite presentable with the multi-coloured buildings and roofs. It is easy to imagine how cold this place gets in the depth of winter. Fortunately the sun was shining and the temperature had crept up to probably 12ºC, making for a very nice day.

We had just sat down for lunch and coffee at the Fairfield Guesthouse and Cafe, when the Ivor clan suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly appeared. They were meant to be four days ahead of us. It was nice to see them again and to hear about their challenging road condition stories. We got a little more information on the road ahead and the conditions we might encounter.

View back over our Camp Spot.

Where did that road come from.

Erdene Zuu Monastery - Outer Wall

Erdene Zuu Monastery - Prayer Temple with Stupa

Erdene Zuu Monastery - Backdrop Mountains

We saw many eagles along the roadside.

Stunning Scenery

View of Tsetserleg

Sunday, May 25th

After a hearty breakfast we set-off to Tsagaan Nuur. The road there is reported to be in good condition and we should make it there with ease. Unfortunately the road conditions after the lake are very unclear at best and not good at worst. We plan to go to the lake and see for ourselves. Most likely we will be back in Tsetserleg in a few days.

Ogii Nuur (өгийн нуур). May 23, 2014

Friday, May 23rd

We ended up spending 6 days in Ulaanbaatar, which was just about the right length of time for us. But it was time to leave and continue our journey. In fact our journey which has been predominantly north through China to Ulaanbaatar now makes a left turn and we now head generally in a westerly direction towards Eeklo Belgium. It will be three months, 14,000 kms and maybe a dozen countries before we get there, but today was an emotion turning point in the journey as we head west to Europe.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, we needed to make sure we had supplies for the next 10 days. So we did a little last minute shopping for those essentials supplies (like bread and mouth wash), filled up Sterlin and got a little extra cash out of a cash machine. Now all set to head west. Unfortunately the coffee shop was not yet open when we left. People here don't seem to want coffees early, as all the coffee shops open after 10am.

The road out of town was sealed and pretty good, much better than the one we came in on. We made good time to the town of Lun with a typical speed of 70-80kph. There were the occasional pothole and unmarked speed bumps in the small towns to avoid. Fuel stations with 80, 92 and Diesel appeared in every small town. We took the right fork just after Lun (turn off is at N47.85724 E105.18497). This road was even better and we continued to speed along, stopping for lunch and to take photos.

During a lunch break on the side of the road we could smell fuel. Turned out gasoline was leaking out of one of our jerry cans. Not sure what was going on, but suspected the fancy spill and child proof spouts that are now mandatory in the US might have some type of pressure relief system that is failing. The problem was quickly solved by siphoning the fuel out of the jerry can into Sterlin's fuel tank.

We mistakenly thought the road we were on would take us directly to Karakorum, but as it started to head away from our destination, it became clear that our map was wrong and we started to look for a suitable dirt track heading south to fix this. We found one that looked very good and had the added bonus of passing by Ogiy Nuur (Nuur seems to be the word for Lake). At N47.89304 E102.91073 we turned South and headed in the direction of Karakorum. We averaged 35-40kph on this good track.

It was not long before we found the lake and a place to settle Sterlin for the night. After dinner the wind picked up terribly and we got a spot of rain as well. There were even whitecaps on the water surface of the lake. On the Beaufort Scale the wind was probably a "Fresh Breeze (29–38 km/h)", but in the tent on top of Sterlin it felt like a gale force wind. Our first night of camping since Thailand turned out to be more adventurous than we wished. At 8:06pm someone switched off the wind and everything was quiet and calm. It was a little weird actually as Sterlin was no longer rocking from side to side. The eye of our storm passed over and 4 minutes later the wind was back, but from the opposite direction. Around 10pm things really started to fall apart, and we made the bold decision to abandon the tent and moved ourselves and our bedding stuff into Sterlin. This turned out to be a very good move, and although it was cramped in the car, at least we were warm and actually had a very good night's sleep.  We had never slept in Sterlin before, but the shelving system was designed to allow for this in an emergency. So, guess that worked.

Saturday, May 24th

Woke early to strong winds, rain and freezing temperatures. Not ideal conditions for camping. We packed up quickly and continued down the road. We planned to take a photo of us camped in Sterlin, but it was just to cold and miserable, so that moment will remain lost.

Sterlin is getting 22.3 MPG. Impossible I think.

Stephen looking at the Jerry Cans to see why they are leaking.

This is horse country. Lots of foals. 

This horse was causing the other horses some grief.

Not usual road conditions.

Decisions, decisions, decision. There
are no signposts in Mongolia.

Our Camping Spot for the night. Before the winds!

Ulaanbaatar (Улаанбаатар). May 16-23, 2014.

Friday, May 16th

There wasn't much to Sainshand, so after breakfast we didn't hang around and headed north to Ulaanbaatar. The road was good and fast for most of the way and we arrived at the 'Oasis Cafe and Guesthouse' just before 4pm, only to find Ivor was already here. Shortly after us Kuipwagen also pulled up. This does seem to be the preferred place for overlanders, so no surprises there :).

Visit by a camel herder during a rest stop.

Lunch.

We plan to cool our heels and wheels here for a few days, do some route planning, sort out a visa for Kazakhstan and possibly also for Uzbekistan.

Saturday, May 17th

The first order of the day was to pop into the local Land Rover garage to investigate a "Check Engine Soon" light on Sterlin. Unfortunately the garage was closed for the weekend, so that plan was dashed. 

The second order of the day was for 2 lattes at the Amsterdam Cafe. The coffee was great, but even better was some information we got from Craig and Klaus who we met at the cafe and who had recently overlanded from The UK/Germany. We had seen them earlier at the Oasis Guesthouse, and they just happened to be in the cafe when we showed up. They are traveling in a very nice Land Rover Defender. Craig's website: BermudaRover.

With Craig and Klaus.

We headed back to Oasis Guesthouse via a huge traffic jam. Apparently bad traffic is a feature of Ulaanbaatar. We spent the rest of the afternoon working hard on our itinerary that we plan to take through Mongolia and Central Asia. Turns out route planning is quite difficult and very time consuming. Usually there is only one obvious way from point A to point B, but we were faced with numerous good places to go and see. And we were trying to optimize our route. In addition, the application form for the Kazakhstan visa requires a detailed itinerary with fixed entry and exit dates. So we had to commit our plans to paper and try and make the best guesses around dates as we could. Fortunately Kim and Vaughan were working with a local jeep rental firm who had a local driver with local knowledge if Mongolia's roads. We eavesdropped on the conversation they had and got some very useful information. Much of the driving we will do will be on tracks and the digital maps we have don't provide any useful information about the state of the roads. So any information is like gold dust.

At one point in the planning we read somewhere on the Internet that Kazakhstan does NOT have an embassy here in Ulaanbaatar. So we desperately searched online for it and couldn't find a reliable address. This added to our fears. We started to get quite worried, if no embassy existed then it would be very hard to get a visa before we'd get to Kazakhstan, to the point we might not be able to go. After talking to the owner of the guesthouse, we regained confidence that there is in fact an embassy here. We just need to find it. 

Dinner was in. Just too exhausted to go out after all the hard work.

Sunday, May 18th

We headed back to town to find the Kazakhstan Embassy. It took an hour or so of driving around half the city, but we were successful. We would be back on Monday when it opens. We rewarded ourselves with a coffee at the Amsterdam Cafe.

The activity for the day was a visit to a massive statue of Chinggis Khan riding a horse standing on top of a multistory building. Although the statue has been created for tourists, at 40m high it is still quite impressive. There was a man offering his 4 eagles for photographs and Stephen had to see what it was like to have a huge bird of prey rest on his arms. Turns out they weigh quite a lot. Inside the statue is the world's largest boot, as certified by the Guinness Book of Records. It was a day of huge things.

Stephen managed to sneak in a quick haircut. Our guesthouse had an on-site hairdresser, how convenient. 

For dinner we headed into town for a very nice steak and fish and chips. We also got to have a last meal with Kim, Vaughan and their two friends who had just flown in and will now travel with them for the next 2 weeks. It was a nice way to spend the final evening with them. We wish them luck as they head home.

Stephen making friends with the local birds

This guy looks hungry

On the Trail of Chinggis Khan

Monday, May 19th

The goodbyes continued. Over breakfast we said goodbye to Coen and Marijke. They plan to travel to the east of Mongolia before turning around and starting their journey west and back to their home. It was so nice that they invited us to join them through China. We plan to see them again in 4-6 months once we are back in Europe. 

We quickly finished breakfast as we had another working day. The morning was spent sitting around doing nothing at the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan. We waited more that 1.5 hours to be served, which seemed like a long time as we were the only people there waiting. But once someone showed up, it all went very smoothly. We have no idea how long it will take to get the visa, or if indeed we will even get it. Our application is multi entry without a sponsor and therefore is at some risk of not being issued. But we got no hint from the consular official that we will be denied a visa. Should know something in the next few days.

The waiting room of the Embassy of the Republic
of Kazakhstan. Yes, it was that small.

Next up, we headed over to the local Land Rover service center to have Sterlin's spark plugs inspected. Another 5 hours spent waiting around. Finally we decided to replace the current ones which showed a little wear. Hopefully this will address any potential misfire issues. We also had a full inspection, and just as well. Two small issues were found, a nut had failed on the exhaust manifold and there was a loose drain plug on the engine. Both were fixed within minutes, but the drain plug issue could have been very serious had it come off (all the engine oil would have drained in seconds). Otherwise, Sterlin is in great shape and is eager and ready to roll west across Mongolia. 

For dinner we enjoyed steak at Grand Khaan Irish Pub, same place we went to the night before. After weeks of Chinese food with hardly any real meat, steaks again were lovely!

Tuesday, May 20th.

That morning we went in search of 'third party insurance' for the car while in Mongolia. We'd got the coordinates from Coen and Marijke of a company that sells this to overlanders, so finding the place was easy enough. Traffic was horrendous as usual so it took a long time to get there; walking was not really an option as it was too far away. 54 minutes after we started the buying process we walked out with insurance (no, there was no line, just a computer that didn't want to cooporate) and braved the traffic back to our hotel.

And then we could finally start walking around and seeing some of this city. We walked to Chinggis Khan Sq, and had a quick look around the museum in the building. Not entirely what sure what the museum was called, but it was not the National Museum of Mongolian History (which we found a few days later).

On the way back we found Heinz baked beans in a British Shop, a great addition to our camping food stock :)

UB Street Art.

Wednesday, May 21st

Caroline spent the morning with her favorite stylist in Ulaanbaatar. One has to look good when camping on the Steppe. Stephen sort of worked on a project to secure the license plate from being stolen. The project did not get very far along and is still a work in progress.

Caroline bumped into and started chatting to another hotel guest (Anthony) who had taken an interest in Sterlin. We all ended up in the cafe sharing stories over a coffee. Anthony was particularly pleased to see a Land Rover Discovery being used as an overland vehicle and was very supportive of our decision to take a Discovery over a Defender (which is typically the Land Rover model people choose). Anthony plans to make his own overland trip from Beijing to Oxford in a MG crossover.

We dined at Le Bistrot Français which was recommended by Philippe, the Belgian restaurant owner we met in Georgetown, Malaysia. So nice to have a good steak, and the duck confit was not bad either.

New hair selfie.

Thursday, May 22nd

Had a late start before heading to the Kazakhstan Embassy to get an update on our visa application. There was no definitive news, but we got the sense the visa would be issued later in the day, as the consul was "at the airport" and presumably heading into the embassy. Time for a coffee.

We extended our hotel stay for an extra day and had to do a little room shuffle as they were fully booked. Then we headed into town for a little more sight-seeing. First stop was Xanadu Art Gallery, which we couldn't find. Second stop was the Museum of Natural History with a Paleontology Hall containing a large dinosaur skeleton. Unfortunately the building had been condemned and the museum was very much closed for business. Our third attempt was the National Museum of Mongolia. Success! And not a bad museum. It chronicled Mongolia from before man existed until the last decade or so as Mongolia emerged as a self governing nation. The transition away from Kremlin rule in 1990 to a democracy was very interesting.

Back in our room the KZ embassy rang and let us know that our visa were ready for collection. More success! So we drove back to the Embassy just after 4pm. The whole picking up process still took about 45mins, but hey, this is why we spent the extra days in UB, so we were pretty happy. Would you believe they granted us a dual entry with each stay up to 30 days! Yay! We could now stick to Plan A! Plan B would have meant: forget about the 'Stans' and stay in Russia and go north via Moscow and St Petersburg. We even got a nice looking brochure and photo booklet promoting tourism in the country. This all seemed to be inline with KZ's bid to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2017.

City Skyline

Soviet Style Monument

Camping food supplies

Fast Facts

Day: 356
Date: Friday, May 16, 2014.
From: Sainshand (Сайншанд)
To: Ulaanbaatar (Улаанбаатар) 
Distance Travelled: 441 kms (274 miles)

Stayed at: Oasis Cafe and Guesthouse
Located at: 47.91153º N, 106.9814417º E
Hotel notes: Preferred by overlanders. Shared rooms, but we got a private one. Separate toilet and showers. Breakfast extra. Secured parking. On-site cafe. Wifi. TUG98,000 (~$55 USD).

Stayed at: Zolo Hotel
Located at: 47.908941º N, 106.899740º E (need to fix)
Hotel notes: Near train station and a little noisy. Clean. Only Twins. No secured parking. Breakfast included. Wifi. $70 USD. Accepted Visa.

Stayed at: Ramada Hotel
Located at: 47.915422º N, 106.891706º E (need to fix)
Hotel notes: Clean and comofrtable. Good pub with great views. Free business center. King bed. Secured parking only for small cars. Breakfast included. TUG 368,000 (~$200 USD). Accepted Visa.

Map of Mongolia