Travel to Mongolia Bashny.Net

Behind the flight by plane from Moscow to Ulan Bator. Carefully check the equipment procured products: vegetables, canned fish, nuts, dried apricots, raisins, honey, fruit, chocolate, bread and garlic. I hope that this will be enough to hold out for ten days. Supply of water for the first time - 9 liters, the total weight of products and equipment - about 30 kg. It was possible to purchase detailed maps of Mongolia with length of roads and Russian-Mongolian phrase book. Itinerary for safety will be held along the railway line Moscow - Ulan Bator - Beijing, but the main task - to be able to get used to the desert.

Like their ancestors, the nomadic Mongols live in yurts, from time to time [next] moving their homes in search of good pasture for cattle. Therefore, the yurt folding: wooden wicker five dozen poles, under the dome - a round window with six panes; low door, and instead of the walls and ceiling - large strips of material from goat and camel hair.

Do you know, than the nomadic Mongol yurt drowns in his stove? Dry dung of livestock - a remarkable fuel and surprisingly does not smell. Economically and environmentally friendly.

Master first met on my way yurt name Delger. In the beginning - welcoming ceremony guest which looks very interesting. Head of the family, taking out a small bag, embroidered patterns, extract the stone snuff box in the form of a bottle of perfume and gently with both hands, hands it to me. I take a little spatula tobacco, sniff and sneeze .... Also, carefully, with a bow I return it back. This stone snuff - and family heirloom passed down from generation to generation. Show it only to those who respect and trust. Then pour 38-degree Mongolian vodka, handing me the first - as a guest, but always the first senior drinks. I, as expected, the ring finger dip into a bowl of vodka and a splash 3 times up, then takes a sip sip hot drink and a bowl pass master.

The next morning - no less interesting ceremony - the ceremony of wires. At this time the head of the family, taking the sacred Buddhist books, read a prayer, tinkling bell at the same time. She lights a stick of incense, then takes my photo and wraps it in prayer. This should provide me a safe way and garden from all misfortunes. Gives 7 grains of rice with a warning: "Every day on his way - he says, throw one seed, - it will pledge the full." In parting, tying on my bike blue ribbon on luck - HATYG.

May 24 - the first day of the dialogue with the desert. 70 kilometers across the plain gave way to the hills. The move has become more difficult: the increased load affected and complicated terrain. Knowing that tens of kilometers around me there is not a single living soul, did not cause fear, rather calm and peace.

The next day - a string of continuous failures. Speeding from the top of the next hill, and driving in one breath about three kilometers, only discovered at the foot of the first puncture and loss of pump, to find that it was not possible. The situation became critical: pump spare no help nowhere to wait, and to the nearest village by my count 40 kilometers of "no turning back" - I thought and moved on foot, dragging a loaded bike on a deserted road.

Encountered on the road half-rotted corpses of animals optimism is not added, it had to rely only on ourselves and good fortune. A few kilometers from exhaustion, I really felt lucky when I saw on the horizon approaching jeep, which solved all of my problems with the pump.

It was the tenth day of travel. During this time, my body almost completely adapted to the loads, the Spartan regime and the natural conditions of the Gobi Desert. Left behind: Nalayha, Bayan, Choyryn - a total of 400 km. the way; front - nearly as much.
Finally appeared some buildings. What is it? Mirage? We crawl. It turns out 33 minutes a railway crossing. Here hospitable Mongolians savior come to my aid. Master Nalia take my bike in their hands. During an evening patched holes 5, put the gasket from the camel thorns. Nalia is very proud of his motorcycle "Java". The past nostalgically recalls: "In the past there was a barracks of Russian soldiers. Together with the Russian went to the disco to dance Sainshand rock, drank moonshine - it was good. Now Russian left - bad! »

The next day, when you try to resume the movement velokamera MADE IN TAIWAN completely collapsed. Nothing to do but go back to the previous acquaintances. We supply spare Soviet camera, only to re-stick spools. From Taiwanese torn gasket made from the ubiquitous thorns. Now everything is okay! Golden Hands of the master Nalia - so I did without it ?!

After lunch, I move the road to the nearest village. Towards blowing warm southwest wind. Simply walk 5-7 km per hour. Below - the vast desert land with lizards scurrying through it, at the top - great blue sky with floating clouds. Beauty is such that you forget about fatigue and feeling unwell.

In the evening I walk up to the anticipated settlement: 6 pieces apartment type houses, 2 dozen sheds, 5 yards from the port and three toilets in the middle of the street. General meeting of residents decided who I'm going to spend the night.

Shelter I volunteered my good fellow 24 years, healthy as an elephant. This representative of the Mongolian working class - although the school has not been studied, but the booklet pochityval with pleasure. I listened to dvuhkassetnike Michael Jackson and tried to imitate him - not a sight for the faint hearted. He prepares delicious and, to his credit, sympathetically otpaival me tea with honey, seeing that I was all to pieces because of illness. In the evening, at nine o'clock, I stopped flowing from Ulan Bator to the Mongolian-Chinese border train. But break away and leave it does not want. There are only some 250 km., And they may be the most interesting.

Sainshand - a real city, lost in the sands of the Gobi: with a lot of five-storey buildings, and the beautiful area of the station. The hotel was not there, so at night I was sent to the Russian teacher. Pension hostess paltry by our standards - 10,000 MNT or 12 US dollars. Although Mongolia's prices are lower than in Moscow, but on life is still not enough ...

Today - a day of rest before the trip through these sands of the Gobi Desert. A new friend Bator, indifferent to alcohol, readily agreed to show me the center of the city, to spend the museums and shops in the hope that it will fall to something on his hobby. Surveying the neighborhood of the city, I talk to the locals, listen to their advice on the cross in the sand. Luck meet the jeep, whose owner of the feasible charge agrees to be my guide: together reliably, and with whom will talk in Russian.

At 6.30 am, accompanied by my assistant driver Dzhidzhida lightly touched in the way. Kilometers through 25 begins the real Gobi desert. Jeep with a guide goes ahead to organize my reception near the settlement of nomads. Few huddling without the road, finally drove up to three yurts, where about me already know and are waiting.

Morning, I said goodbye to the conductor: a single machine on the sands do not go - too long is likely to get stuck.

After 40 km. fully felt what fall into the "real" sand. When you go through the desert you can not turn off the road, no matter how difficult it may be, though covered with sand. I decided to cut a little, turning off the road, for which he paid dearly. Imagine two o'clock haul into the wind with sand 50 kg weight, trying to get on solid ground. More from exhaustion and punctures camera guessed climb over the barbed wire that separates the desert from the railway and walk along the rails. Kilometers went through five solid ground.

Another feature: even in the desert rains. If you see a cloud of rapidly approaching, it is best to stay - in half an hour will be held rain, the wind will blow the cloud, and you can move on.

The first came on a true oasis in the desert. After the meager vegetation of sand was pleased to see growing around the trees, lush green grass and bright blooming flowers. Ahead she seemed lonely yurt ... Finished and this amazing day of my wanderings. The journey through the desert comes to an end.

So podkleivaya podkachivaya-camera-was passed last 85km. to the border town Zamen-Uud. Move on the pavement after the sand - a real luxury. As it turned out, today the border is not working - off. At night, the building is ideally perched in a local firehouse where for me to open a separate room.

On the morning of the team woke up at 7 o'clock. Woke up not understanding, then I remembered that I was in the firehouse. The day began as usual with a "cosmetic" repair chambers 17 punctures on the front and 5 - on the back. Soon to see the Russian traveler came to the chief himself. Once he was in Moscow, he remembers the Russian language. Kindly invited me to visit ... And off we go: As usual, fed, drank vodka for the last day in Mongolia, agreed to meet next year in Ulan Bator, and ride a bike to places of Genghis Khan, then - Manchuria. Hire me on a fire truck to the frontier and to get acquainted with her boss, "to pull" planted on the bus to the nearest Chinese town erenhot.

Yes, the Mongols were surprisingly hospitable and cheerful people, even sorry to part with them ...

Already on the Chinese side of the Mongolian businessmen have sheltered me, providing a separate room at the Orleans Hotel. For the first 18 days, I take a hot shower: sensation and can not convey. Then there was an excursion to the bustling city of trishaw. Struck by the abundance of pool tables, standing on the street. After the peace and tranquility that I have experienced while traveling through the desert, in a strange way it was to plunge into the whirlpool of the city.

To think that traveled only 2-3 km. from the border, and a completely different country and really dramatic difference: around full of shops where there are virtually all true Chinese "quality"; different people: the Chinese do not like the Mongols and Russian are trying to cheat you at every opportunity.

In general, it is time to sum up: The distance from Ulan Bator to Zamen-Uud of approximately 770 km I rode for 17 days. Bicycle "Samson" Penza plant withstood the test of Frunze. But Taiwanese velokamery to navigate through the wilderness is clearly not intended: it is necessary to change the Russian and put the pads from the rough.

via Denis Zharinov