Slept like a baby ... camping was awesome! ... should do this more often ... if there were bears around, I would not have noticed. Got up, packed, and was at the border by 8:30 (opens at 9), ready to endure what I have heard could take days on the Mongolian side. In Russia, motorcycles go to the front so I was the first in. Russian side was uneventful ... I wonder what all those hotel registration slips are for, nobody asked for them.
The Mongolian border absolutely wins the prize for the most bureaucratic and slow border of the trip ... had to do customs with no less than 5 people at different stages then it all funnels to the senior inspector ... the whole border has to go through this one guy ... not once but twice ... and he likes to take his time.
After border, changed some money (the guy had Mexican pesos?!), bought some water, and hit the road towards Ulaan-Baatar ... 350km.
Interesting how there is a sort of sense of loss every time you cross a border ... I was already getting used to the crazy Russians, the country, the rules, Siberia, readying Russian ... the more time you spend in a country, the more comfortable you become with everything, the more you feel part of it.
On the other hand, it is always exciting to cross a border into a totally new world and, in the case of Mongolia, a country that you have heard so much about.
As expected, the landscape changed almost immediately ... hills and mountains that seem to go forever ... but no trees, just very green ... yurts everywhere ... buddhist shrines ... camels, horses, cows, goats, and sheep on the hills and crossing the road. A lot more rural.
Had lunch in Darkhan ... back to being the weird one in the room ... When I walk in, conversations stop, everybody looks at me, then they start talking and pointing, some smile ... interesting ... and, even though they use Cyrillic, I cannot understand anything again, back to gestures and pictures.
People love to touch things in Mongolia ... everywhere I stop, people gather, shake my hand, try to talk to me, and start touching everything on the bike, especially switches, levers and pedals.
Ulaan-Baatar is bigger than expected ... it has one big avenue and everything kind of fans out/grows from there ... pretty modern actually ... the traffic and the potholes on the road in the city were the worst ... cars swerving in and out to avoid the holes, crazy drivers, crazy buses, nobody lets anybody in ... felt right at home : )
This feels like a big milestone ... 21 countries and 7 time zones since the adventure began! Tomorrow, explore Ulaan-Baatar and fix a few things on the motorcycle.
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