Mongolia or Bust

This month Ian and Juliet are entering Mongolia for the first time, whilst planning their exit strategy and battling Russian bureaucracy

- Ian Pegram

Saturday 10th August finds us heading south from lake Baikal to the Mongolian border via Ulan Ude, where we park in a quiet side street outside the Mongolian Embassy for the night. Walking around in the evening we treat ourselves to a burger and chips and discover the world’s largest statue of Lenin’s head (40 tons) in the city’s central square. An early start the next morning sets us on our way to the Russian/ Mongolian border. This is the major road from one country to another, so it should be in great condition shouldn’t it? Wrong!

All goes well up to the border, more form filling and searches, a four-stage process that ends in the van being driven through a trough full of chemical disinfectant and we are welcomed into Mongolia by an army officer with a huge smile. We buy our Mongolian Insurance at a small concrete building just after the border and buy our first Tugrits, the Mongolian currency. We head for the capital Ulaanbatar and 180 miles into Mongolia, we decide to stop for the night and set up camp by a river with only wild horses for company, supper and bed.