Ulaan-Ude is the city with the worlds largest Lenin-head and not much else… Charming in its way, but if you have already spent a few too relaxing days in Irkutsk, you wanna move along… Fast. But not after first enjoying a nights stay with Olga, your grandmother abroad! Pleasant room and a home cooked meal, with Olga in good form toasting away to our trip, love and happiness! Needless to say, we rolled into bed, trying to catch enough sleep to be ready for the only option we seemed to have left getting out of the place:
1. Marshrutki (minibus) to the border town of Kyakhta
2. Hitch hiking across the border to Sukhbaatar on the Mongolian side
3. Another set of minibuses or a night train to catch to Ulan-Bataar
Don’t try this at home…
Hith hikers guide to border crossing in Northern Mongolia
We caught
the 7:00 marshrutki to Kyahta, and
arrived just in time to get decent seats in the van. On the way, snow started to fall. Four hours
later we were dropped off in the once opulent, now shitholish border town of Kyakhta. The temperature
was now definitely below zero and it was pretty unpleasant, snow now ‘falling’
sideways, giving you a nice face peeling that would make any SPA proud, and
without cost too! When finally at the actual border, we tried to figure out how
to work the system… Or lack of system…
Apparently,
you cannot pass the border unless you are in a vehicle, so we start at the
front of the queue and work ourselves back to find anyone who would be
interested in driving us to Sukhbaatar, as per recommendation. By pure chance
we run into Mr Miyagi from Karate Kid (See picture proof – it is really him –
we thought he was Japanese, but apparently not…) with what we believed to be
his wife and buddy.... They were going all the way to Ulaan-Bataar
and were willing to give us a ride, in exchange for $300... Gah! He quickly
settled for all the rubles we had left in our pockets - which wasn’t much, really.
We, on the other hand, settled for a day of fasting, as we were unwilling to
withdraw more cash, as that would increase our ‘taxi’-cost for sure… But, as we
desperately need the ride and were FREEZING, we think all parties ended up
quite happy… Mr Miyagi certainly had a big smile on his face (indicator of us
being taken for a ride?? Hum…)
Metelj – Russian word for snowstorm
As soon as
we got into the car and put our bags in the trunk, the rear wheel started loosing
air. We began to think that we had gone
with the wrong horse here, but Mr Miyagi changed the tire in less than five
minutes (with the car full of people). After
having gone through the usual Russian border nightmare (where EXACTLY have we
been at all times, have we registered our visas in every town etc. etc.) we are
on our way.
It soon
becomes apparent that this is not going to be an easy ride. There is snowfall and wind and shortly after
we witness our first car crash – luckily no one hurt! We are all a little shaken
by this and Mr Miyagi decides that we need to stop to change tires, or at least
two of them… Which apparently is all you really need, we’re soon to
discover.
After
another three crashes, and also frequent stops to let goats and cows cross the
road, we arrive safe and sound in Ulan-Bataar, only a few hours after schedule. We leave our backpacks in the hostel and hit
a restaurant to break fast, and our German friends from Irkutsk magically finds us and joins us for a
beer (Aw, it’s a small world after all – especially on the Trans-siberian!),
and we enjoy a very late dinner! And then get to brag to the other easy-riders
in the hostel – a lot of them the same geezers we met in Irkutsk – telling them how backpacking REALLY
is done!
L&L
