G – Reporting
Back to Russia day so after 30 fun, scary, interesting, beautiful, sun, rainy and very Mongolian days it was time to move on our Visa was up and the border was open (it closes at the weekend!) and even though I had no regrets going to Mongolia I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to good food and good roads in Russia. :)
So we arrived to at the border at 08:30 and found an already pretty big line up which we joined and then just waited, I walked up to the gate and looked for an opening time but there was nothing, but at around 9:30 it all started to move and by 10:30 we were in the Mongolia border compound, passing a bunch of mongol rally teams that had been stuck in no-mans land all weekend!
Into the offices we went and were immediately called into the office and asked if we had any Mongolian currency, it turns out he just wanted to do a bit of freelance under the table currency exchange but I naively though this was official and went to get my cash while I was out at the car I got stopped by the officials out there so they could do a search of the car and by the time I got back inside B had got shot of the official even though he kept giving us the hairy eyeball for turning him down!
Then it was just a matter of paperwork for us and the car and we were all done in less than 30 minutes not bad then it was though the gate manned by the most smiley official I have ever seen he even saluted us as we entered no man’s land a nice way to exit Mongolia!
28Km across no-mans land later we arrived at the Russian border office where first the truck wheels got sprayed with disinfectant for a $3 charge and then after a half hour wait through the gate and onto passport control, followed by customs and lastly Car paper work and we were done or would have been if just as we started the car paper work they hadn’t all stopped for an hour for lunch! So we went back to the car and had some lunch the 1st time I’ve ever had lunch in no-mans land!
Once they returned the paperwork was done quickly as we just copied the form we got in Vladivostok and after a quick search of the car we were done and though the gate into Russia for the 2nd time, outside the gate was a huge line of cars waiting to get in including a long line of mongol rally cars, we stopped at the 1st one and asked if they had any guide books for Mongolia they said no, well you have now we said leaving a bemused and smiling brit in our wake.
We then hit the 1st town for all the food stuffs we had been missing i.e. cheese, ham, butter, bread etc (I know not the most exciting things but you trying not having them for a month!) and then found a beautiful camping spot by a river the Altai region of Russia was looking good already :)
Back to Russia day so after 30 fun, scary, interesting, beautiful, sun, rainy and very Mongolian days it was time to move on our Visa was up and the border was open (it closes at the weekend!) and even though I had no regrets going to Mongolia I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to good food and good roads in Russia. :)
So we arrived to at the border at 08:30 and found an already pretty big line up which we joined and then just waited, I walked up to the gate and looked for an opening time but there was nothing, but at around 9:30 it all started to move and by 10:30 we were in the Mongolia border compound, passing a bunch of mongol rally teams that had been stuck in no-mans land all weekend!
Into the offices we went and were immediately called into the office and asked if we had any Mongolian currency, it turns out he just wanted to do a bit of freelance under the table currency exchange but I naively though this was official and went to get my cash while I was out at the car I got stopped by the officials out there so they could do a search of the car and by the time I got back inside B had got shot of the official even though he kept giving us the hairy eyeball for turning him down!
Then it was just a matter of paperwork for us and the car and we were all done in less than 30 minutes not bad then it was though the gate manned by the most smiley official I have ever seen he even saluted us as we entered no man’s land a nice way to exit Mongolia!
28Km across no-mans land later we arrived at the Russian border office where first the truck wheels got sprayed with disinfectant for a $3 charge and then after a half hour wait through the gate and onto passport control, followed by customs and lastly Car paper work and we were done or would have been if just as we started the car paper work they hadn’t all stopped for an hour for lunch! So we went back to the car and had some lunch the 1st time I’ve ever had lunch in no-mans land!
Once they returned the paperwork was done quickly as we just copied the form we got in Vladivostok and after a quick search of the car we were done and though the gate into Russia for the 2nd time, outside the gate was a huge line of cars waiting to get in including a long line of mongol rally cars, we stopped at the 1st one and asked if they had any guide books for Mongolia they said no, well you have now we said leaving a bemused and smiling brit in our wake.
We then hit the 1st town for all the food stuffs we had been missing i.e. cheese, ham, butter, bread etc (I know not the most exciting things but you trying not having them for a month!) and then found a beautiful camping spot by a river the Altai region of Russia was looking good already :)
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| The line up. |
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| The border |
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| 1st Russian road hazzard in a while. |
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