Took Alexandra to the airport this morning ... I wont lie, it was hard ... but, need to pull it together, the hardest part of the trip is still ahead : )
Everything was closed today (Sunday) so spent day researching (at a high-speed internet cafe) route, hotels, food, water, contacts, road conditions, borders, camping. The next big milestone is to get to Barnaul in Russia and then Ulaan-Bataar in the next 10-14 days. Keep hearing conflicting stories about whether the western Russia-Mongolia border is open ... Plan B would be to go around through Russia and enter Mongolia from the North ... we will see.
Did some sightseeing also ... went up the Kok-Tobe gondola for a nice view of the city ... great place to see people especially on Sunday ... very old wooden cabin with old Russian music playing ... lots of crafts vendors on top ... and a bronze life-size statue of the Beatles ... with Beatles music playing.
Rode the newly built subway ... beautiful marble stations with no signs to tell you which train to take ... and visited the newest mall ... underground in front of the presidential palace.
Tomorrow is my last "business" day in Almaty to run errands ... pick up tire for my bike (yes, I found one! - not exactly what I need but it will do)... register passport/visa with government to head north ... get more cash ... meet riders from the largest motorcycle club in Kazakhstan for coffee ... and study more cyrillic now that my partner Alexandra is not with me to tag team and get me out of the ditch : )
I have heard similar stories about the Mongolian Russian border, but I am not certain of anything. Fortunately for us, the organization that organizes our rally has some sort of agreement with the Mongolian government. In turn we are allowed to pass through both the North West border, and the North border just above Ulaanbaatar. But in order to do this, we had to give all our information to the organization, including car engine size, registration numbers... ect, passport number, and which border we planned to enter through.
ReplyDeleteIf you are still choosing which border to go through, it may be helpful to know that the North Border is considerably easier than the North West border. The North border is apparently only a few hours from Ulaanbaatar. The North West border is on a poorly to not even maintained road that requires going through 4 rivers. Apparently being able to do that stretch in 5 days is extremely fast. Bikers in the past have had difficulty with this, but there's definitely stories of bikers making it through. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp03WKysN9U
Thanks for the heads up and video. I'm hoping things will get clearer the closer I get. We'll see : )
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