Mongolia , Tashanta to Olgii Advice!!
 

Just an advice for travellers to be a bit carefull on the way from the border to Olgii

There are some small villages and if you stop there you are surrounded by young mongolian males right away.

And then they start asking about how much travellers you coulkd see at the border, how much your bike is worth, how much money you have and so on.

For me it was soon clear that I have to be double aware of them.

And I moved a few meters further because I did not want to deal with them.

And then they try to give you advice, the will tell you that blue wulf ger camp is closed and they have better tips.

After we left, some things were stolen from a bike ( tools )
Another driver recogniced a male, who bought a bike from him a year ago after an accident ( and later he came up and wanted money back because the bike was "not good" ) Stupid Ass.

And what they also do:
they call a few people in Olgii which wait for you at the entrance and want to bring you in a small and very simple ( but cheap 7 5$ ) Ger camp.

And If you stay there they know all about you!!!

And what also happened to a friend of us, he did not want to go to Olgii and start the northern route right away. So they told him it is to late and he should stay with them in the small village and can have cheap room.

But he wanted to leave so they told him a way where they knew they would not come through and retourne to theyr place.
He was just smart enough and knew that this way would not work out.

So thes guys are real bastards and better not stop there and if they come just leave.

If you want a good place so the Blue Wulf ger camp in Olgii is 10$ with breakfast and WiFi and Showers ( no, I am not dealing with them, I just like the place )
And you can change money to a fair rate and get help and mostly meet other travellers.
And have safe parking for your bike.

Generally i was in this area now 2 times, 2013 and 2015.
With the Kazhak people around Olgii I had a lot of bad expirience.
A lot of stealing, betraiing and being really unfriendly.
They really try to rip off tourists if possible.
1st year I thought this might be just a bad experience, but if the same happens the 2nd year and to many other bikers, I think this is more likely there a regular thing.

As soon you exit this area everyone ( or mostly everyone ) is friendly again.

Another story:
At the border in Kosh Agach/Tashanta we went with our bikes in front of the line like we did in every other country before ( we were 4 bikers and met before the border )
It came almost to a serious fight because some Mongolian Kazhaks had really a big problem that we did that.
We had the choice of fighting or just backing up and try later again.
Even the russian border guards did not understand what the Kazhaks did.

ANd by the way, Kazhak people in Kazhakstan I really liked, they have been friendly everywhere to me, but nut in Mongolia.

Disagree
 

Klaus,
this is very unfortunate, and thanks for the warning, but I beg to disagree on your conclusion. I'm actually now in Olgii, the second time I cross from Tashanta this year - although not on a bike but in a car. We haven't stopped between the border and Olgii, so I can't comment on this. We've seen somebody waving us down near Tsagaanuur, but we didn't stop - it seemed to us like a guy looking to sell a photo op holding an eagle, but it could have been worse.

So far (several weeks) our experience with Kazakh Mongolians has been excellent - just like in other parts of Mongolia I have to say, except when they're drunk (like everywhere). We're actually been invited by kazakh people to stay in their huge ger in Olgii, very nice and friendly people.

In no way do I mean that what you've experienced is wrong, I just want to balance this post with other, different point of views. Note that many cars from the infamous "Mongol rally" are coming through right now, maybe they attract the scams ?

An Irish biker we've just met had stuff stolen from his bike in Altaï, Russia, so I guess shit happens everywhere.

As for the Blue Wolf, I can't comment on their gers, but we've stopped in their bar and we've had been served warm beers and no Wifi. I guess this was just a bad day. We've tried the Traveller's Guesthouse too, on the road to Khovd, but it was not very friendly, a bit expensive, no bar or food and very slow Wifi, but hey, this is Mongolia. The best accommodation are the huge expenses of nothingness.

Safe riding ! :mchappy:

Laurent

Well, the Wifi in Blue Wulf is in the Ger Area and not in the bar.

And I was twice now in this area, 2013 und 2015, and I was there way befor the mongol rally came across ( 17th of July )

ANd I had experiance with gas stations where the tried to betray us, and some Mongolians wanted ti tell us that we cant cross a watercrossing in 50km, but if we give them money they will arange a truck and so on.

Many things happened and many stories to tell.

My experience is true and I really would like to meet friendly people in this earea ther, but maybe I hada jsut bad lcuk, but I has that twice and some friends of mine too.

Hey Klaus,

We had the same expirience. One guy in taschanta invieted us and stoled my leatherman.
Another german guy, Matthias lost his leatherman on the same way!

Be careful!

Matthias was with us there when we had this experience.

Mostly my advice is not to stop between border and Olgii when there are Mongolian men on Motorbikes or when they invite you.
Always be sure that someone safes the bikes and nobody comes to close.
I guess that they live from tourists, in many ways.......

Hi Klaus

We also crossed Tashanta border this summer and cycled to Ölgii this year.
Compared to our 2011 crossing things improved a lot at the frontier.
This year we were allowed to cycle also in no man's land, and the Mongolian side was easy and friendly to pass, additionally on the Russian side they do the migration part at the border station and not in some hidden container few hundert meters before. (btw. at Altanbulag we had to load our bicylcles on a car for the few hundert meters, both sides insist on it, I think they profit from the taxistas).
As for the population we had no negative experiences at all (neither on this stretch, nor for the rest in Mongolia), but it is clear, that Mongolia is getting more and more touristy. You hear stories of thefts in Mongolia from all parts, but that is mostly when you facilliate it, we take usually all of our baggage in the inner tent, have an alarm and locks for the bicycles. The understanding of property is not the same in all cultures.
As for blue wolf, we had in principle good experiences with him for the border permit with Tavan Bogd (but that was probably luck, as we learnt afterwards).

Christian

Lsat year, after crossing the border, and on our way to Olgii, we were stopped by a guy on a motorbike, and under pretence to put us on the right road (main road was blocked) he took us all around his village and wanted us to go visit his wife and baby and all that.

Alistair asked me what I thought, and me, being my usual grumpy, I said I had no interest on babies and meeting the guy's family and pressed on.

I think at the time Alistair thought I was being a bit rude, but I just did not like the guy and I always follow my gut instinct.

Never be afraid to be rude! Better to offend that to put yourself at risk. Although I did not suspect much, I just did not like the look of the guy!

Alternative routes from Border to Olgiy
 

14 km after the Mongolian border post and village, a lesser track branches off more to the south and offers more scenic riding, with no hustlers on motorcycles, as a back route to Olgiy. You can see the main road in the background valley in the pic below, as the side road branches out over the mountains.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8217/...58842baa_b.jpg

I confirm...
 

I confirm the bad vibes here. I came through on Oct 10 2015 in a 4x4. Guy on moto chased us down and forced us to stop. Blabla too much...hello,I practice my English. .. oh by the way the border is closed. For 2 days. Come to my yurt. Come have tea.
We said thanks but no. Then he asked us for binoculars. ..a donation at that. Once again we said nope and we drove away TO THE OPEN BORDER.

This corroborates the story we got from a swiss motobiker the day before. He accepted tea then was obliged to pay. Then they 'borrowed' his binoculars. After which he drove away only learning later that night trying to set up camp that his tools, swiss army knife,ropes and bungee cords all strangely missing.

Bummer.

On my video you can see the faces of this assholes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkC_tUuY77M

And there are more of them around.

Also the "moneychanger" on the border was the same like 2 years ago.
He offered us a very bad rate again, so I did not chance either.

The guys at 13:40 look familiar! :biggrin3:

Yes, but they are not the gangsters:mchappy::mchappy:

My god, I wish I had seen this thread before passing through this area. I went through by bicycle towards the start of September and was invited to stay at a family home by a guy on a red motorbike who spoke English. He didn't ask any of the questions that would usually be warning signs like you have mentioned in your first post so he must have refined his technique for tricking travellers since then. And before anyone calls me naive, being a solo cyclist, I'm usually quite cautious accepting invitations. He spoke English, seemed well educated, the family were nice and he wasn't hiding the fact that he was bringing me to his house. These were the usual signs that have served me well through Iran and Central Asia but it seems in Mongolia things are different.

Anyway, I hate to post a link to my blog as I usually make a point of never sharing it unless asked for it but hopefully this will be a warning to others going through this region: https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/...id=438320&v=1a

TL;DR version: My host tried to rob my stuff in the middle of the night and when I threatened to call the police he started beating the shit out of me, punching me in the head repeatedly. A fine welcome to Mongolia!

The dude who attacked me is at 1:48 in your video, so anyone passing through this region, keep an eye out for him. Although he now has a broken jaw and is missing two teeth so he should be a bit more noticeable!

It is not everywhere in Mongolia this bad.

I had this bad experience with gangsters only in western Mongolia in the Kazakh area.

And I think there is a reason why Mongolians also say be carefull in this area.

The guy you mean is the one who bought the broken bike from Rob and he thinks that he also robed him when he was seized on Narcotics in the hospital.
He could not do anything but he could see the guys stealing his camera, gps and anything else.

So they are real bandits.
And they work together with the first small and cheap Ger camp when you enter Olgy at the right side, that was where I wrote in subtitles about Juha.

So these guys call the Ger camp about the Travelers and they are already waiting for you when you arrive in Olgii.
Another reason why I would not go into this Ger camp

It sounds like they have a serious operation going. They must be making a lot of money from the stolen goods. Stealing valuables while the owner is injured in hospital is the lowest of the low. Bastards, the lot of them!

It's a good thing I didn't arrive at that ger camp so! Luckily I found a cheap hotel in the centre of town where I could hide out until I got a flight to Ulaanbaatar. Also, that's funny seeing Juha there! I ran into him in both Bukhara and Dushanbe!

Thanks for putting up the warning here by the way. Fingers crossed the bandits have no more luck.