I met a guy that was riding a motorcycle like mine on the street of Ulaanbaatar from Germany. He has been living in here for the last 10 years ... great story on how it happened. After a beer and some pizza, we exchanged all kinds of information. I gave him my contact in Vietnam so he could do some riding there ... he told me about a guest house of sorts here in Ulaanbaatar that is Mecca for motorcycle travelers that make it to Mongolia ... he told me about the road to Vladivostok (i.e., 4,000 km of straight nothing) ... and gave me some contacts to explore shipping the bike from here and skip the Vladivostok hell.
So, today I spent all day checking out all these things. Yes, shipping is doable. Yes, Mecca is real ... met a lot of riders on multi-month, multi-year adventures from around the world ... Wales, Germany, Poland, England, Switzerland, Holland, Australia. Very cool. Inspiring.
So, the short story is that I have decided to ship the bike from here and start heading back home. No need to retrace back to Russia and then take the long road of nothing/hell to Vladivostok for 7-10 days.
I'm excited to go back home ... and hug the family ... interesting feeling now that the fact is sinking in that this crazy adventure is almost over.
At the end of the day, at the suggestion of the Switzerland guy, I went to the see the national dance company and orchestra at the national theater. Great show of traditional dances, traditional musical instruments and music, and singing ... especially the famous Mongolian throat singing ... somehow they can play two notes at the same time!
Tomorrow, move to Mecca and start disassembling the bike to get it crated and ready to go ...
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