The sole intention of all Mongol Rally participants (and all banger rallies???!) is to drive one way to the destination, in this case UB and sell/abandon their vehicles.

I was told by a couple of competitors in 2012 that the Rally organisers sort out the payment of Mongolian vehicle import taxes as part of the fee to enter the event so they can be legally sold in Mongolia. When I was at the western border there was a whole load of rally cars impounded while their status was clarified. I later saw these cars either en route to or in UB.



PS. I was on a bike and had no problem with doing a temporary import for it.

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TBS.com

Chris, the finish line of Mongol Rally was moved to Ulan-Ude in 2015 and the Mongolian authorities were told that there's no Mongol Rally that year. So they were quite surprised to see cars with Mongol Rally stickers show up.

I did the rally in 2015 and majority of the people leave their cars at the finish, where the organisers have sorted out the transport of all the vehicles back to Europe. But there are people who give up when they have a minor breakdown in Mongolia and abandon the car or sell it to the locals who are willing to pay quite a lot for those bangers.

The problem with banger rally participants is that they give up too easily and very few follow the "leave no man behind" principle. We were in a convoy of 4 cars. At one point the last car disappeared. We went back to see where they were, another car followed us. The fourth car we never saw again.

We were maybe 150km from Altai on the way towards Bayankhongor. The timing belt snapped on the car and we towed it all the way to UB and from there to Ulan-Ude. We nearly killed the two other cars with towing.

But it is a shame how many banger ralliers leave their cars behind. We saw many and sometimes even locals directed us to them.

Sorry for the long offtopic

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Frank

Arrangements between 2012 and 2015 have obviously changed.

Good to see the MR organisers are doing their best to return the scrap metal back to Europe.

That some of the participants are a bunch of lightweights, a few of whom don't check on their travel companions is sadly not a surprise. There's a minority in the bike travel fraternity too :-( Karma will come and bite them in the ar$e when they're least expecting it

Ditto, apologies for the nature of this post.

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TBS.com

So I've sent an enquiry to the Mongolian Customs office and got a reply with a pdf document titled "Advice for foreign passengers travelling with own vehicles".

I just finished reading the two page document and this is the only thing it says about the deposit:

I've attached the entire document to this post as well. I sent another enquiry to the Mongolian embassy in Stockholm and will see if I get conflicting info or not.

Attached Files

Advice for foreign passengers travelling with own vehicles (sent on 24-01-2017).pdf (59.8 KB, 504 views)

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Frank

Awesome, there's conflicting info now. The embassy in Stockholm says that you have to pay the deposit. So now it's a question of who has wrong info, the embassy or the customs.

I'll post an update once I manage to get some clarity into this mess.

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Frank

Another question is cars and/or bikes? Sad story I was hoping I can go one way...

I would place my bets on customs. Embassies never seem to have the correct information on vehicle transport.

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Japan touring information

Hello,
I became a very quick and clear answer on my question to the Mongolian customs ! (See below and the attachment as PDF).
So I think there is no problem.
Although the consul of Mongolia in the Netherlands told me I need a carnet or have to pay a deposit.....



Also I got following answer from the organisers of the Mongol Rally:

Brooke Reuter (The Adventurists)

Jan 23, 11:34 GMT
Hi Klaas,

Some teams did face having to pay an deposit at the border which they received back on exit but once we were made aware, we got in touch with the Mongolian government and they took it away so only the first few were affected. We haven't found any evidence nor heard that a deposit has been instated as a long term official plan by the Mongolian government.

Cheers,
Brooke

The Adventurists

+44 (0) 117 963 5513 | 14 Whitehouse Street | Bristol | BS3 4AY | UK




Answer from Mongolian customs:

-------- Foreward massage --------
Onderwerp: Re: temporary import of tourist vehicule
Datum: Mon, 23 Jan 2017 17:14:24 +0800
Van: Customs General Administration of Mongolia <icd@customs.gov.mn>
Organisatie: Customs General Administration of Mongolia
Aan: Klaas en Willi <wamky@yahoo.com>


Dear Klaas,

Please find attached the information you have requested.

Regards,

Enkhtuul

On 2017-01-19 20:10, Klaas en Willi wrote:
> Dear sirs,
> I, dutch national, am planning to travel to China with my Toyota
> Landcruiser, on the way from the Netherlands to China, I will visit
> Russia and Mongolia.
> - How are the procedures for the temporary import of my car at the border?
> - Which documents do I need?
> - Is the car just stamped in my passport and stamped out when I leave
> Mongolia?
> - Do I have to put a deposit at the border?
> - Is the international document "Carnet de Passage en Douane" recognised
> on the border?
>
> In advance thanking you for you aswer,
>
> Kind regards,
> Klaas van der Meer
>
>


--
International Cooperation Division
Customs General Administration of Mongolia

Tel: 976-11350064
Fax: 976-11350064
Email: icd@customs.gov.mn

I hope this information will clear something.
Cheers Klaas

Attached Files

Advice for foreign passengers travelling with own vehicles.pdf (60.0 KB, 513 views)

I d love to hear too..cheers

I got conflicting information and the embassy didn't respond to the e-mails after the initial one.

I'll get myself the visa and just go for it. Worst case scenario is that I'll waste a day at the border. If everything goes as hoped, you'll know around the middle of July.

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Frank

I’ve got conflicting information also. I have e-mailed the embassy in Sofia, they answered back that they don’t know and gave me the e-mail of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to contact them. Well, I did but they never answered back. We plan to do the same, get our visa and just go, we plan to cross from the western border. I was wondering, in case they ask for the deposit in the western border, if we can cross without it from the main Ulan-Ude Ulan-Bator border. I read somewhere that they don’t ask for deposit there. Also, does anybody know if a Carnet would help?