Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB - Finding Freedom...World Wide Ride

Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB (https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/)

- Ride Tales (https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/ride-tales/)

- - Finding Freedom...World Wide Ride (https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/ride-tales/finding-freedom-world-wide-ride-65365)

There is the 8 km of pretty good dirt to the Mongolian border.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4391/...ac532ec2_b.jpg Uglii-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4398/...457ef752_b.jpg Uglii-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Here at the gate you park and and the guard says in English “passport moto paper walking”. We got off and walked thru the gate to the office. Here the officers check your documents, gives you the standard small scrap of paper to get your collection of stamps, and then you are flagged thru. The first stop is the tire decontamination bath that costs 50R (a Canadian dollar). You are given a receipt for this.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4366/...9296d411_b.jpg Uglii-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Next you ride 300 meters to the border station and are directed to park on the left. The officer checks your passport, vehicle registration, and your paper scrap. You go inside to passport control for the entry stamp and to fill in the tourist card (with English questions). Next you go to the window to the left for a customs stamp. The last step is to go to Customs office which is the next window part passport control and where they make up the TVIP for you. It is important to get your small scrap of paper back and that it has 3 stamps on it and that the TVIP is signed by the big boss. We were lucky to all get in before the hordes of people showed up for luggage X-ray. They did not even ask to look at our stuff. Trevor was last and the boss was going for his 2 hours lunch, but we managed to catch him for Trevor’s last stamp.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4346/...9e1fd93b_b.jpg Uglii-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Then you ride 300 m to the exit gate for a final passport check and to hand in the 3 stamp scrap. Trevor was turned back here as he did not have the customs passport stamp and had to go back.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4417/...4475b72a_b.jpg Uglii-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4432/...da057f73_b.jpg Mongolia Border to Uglii by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Leaving the gate the road is terrible and full of holes. You ride about 250 meters and then a few people run out to stop you. These are people trying to sell you worthless insurance and of course money changers.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4440/...498f9a63_b.jpg Uglii-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

We passed them and then another 200 m later there is an “official looking booth with an open gate and a stop sign”. The “ officer look official too”. This is the “Mongolian highway tax scam”. They want 15 USD for this. I said no we are not paying as this is fake. She said why and I said I read it on the internet and rode off. They did not even try to stop Trevor who was last.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4362/...fb137892_b.jpg Uglii-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

There are some decisions to be made on our route to Ulanbaatar. The choices are the southern (Gobi= 300 km of deeper sand, but actually many more km of tarmac), the northern (more water crossings, mountain crossings, and difficulty better suited to small bikes), or the middle route (a mixture of both).

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4340/...8088356f_c.jpg Screen Shot 2017-08-31 at 19.26.22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Well we managed not to leave the Blue Wolf today at all and spent the evening in the restaurant there with Brent and Dan from Saskatchewan who are in the Mongol Rally in their Yaris. There were many many beers had and at least 3 bottles of Vodka….This made for a late start today.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4410/...bea07d8c_b.jpg Mongolia Border to Uglii-20 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4381/...bebc4d03_b.jpg Mongolia Border to Uglii-21 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

We had breakfast at 10 and then packed and gassed up with 95! We finally left town about 1130. This was after finding an ATM and SIM cards!

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4427/...c941a1d3_b.jpg Mongolia Border to Uglii-23 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4431/...18f68ab7_b.jpg Mongolia Border to Uglii-22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

You can see the last 9 km from the hill top and it is basically just dozens of sand tracks.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4391/...b5c0660a_b.jpg Mongolia Uglii to Khvod-20 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4441/...12d1efc0_b.jpg Mongolia Uglii to Khvod-21 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4332/...eef41d0e_b.jpg Khvod-40 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

The hotel we saw first ended up to be the best in town and that is not saying much, but they had lots of single rooms. The bathrooms were added afterwards and consist of a glass enclosure beside the bed. We walked around the corner to the King Restaurant and got the royal treatment. The food was good and the portions massive.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4361/...2a97904b_b.jpg Mongolia Uglii to Khvod-22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr