For our last night in Ulaangom we decided to let our hair down and hit the town (ie. the disco on the ground floor of our hotel) Sipping on the local brew and enjoying the vibe, we were approached by a group of travelers also looking for a place to chill. Among them was Makiko [...]

Road construction in Mongolia (as in many developing countries) is well underway. Many of the routes we ride on are hardened gravel tracks awaiting the final layer of asphalt. Since leaving the Gobi they have provided a relatively easy ride, but can get quite boring and take away from the raw beauty of the surrounding [...]

After posting our last blog entry (in Dalandzadgad), we asked the family that ran the internet cafe for directions to a cheap hotel. Without hesitation they suggested that we stay with them in their ‘ger’ (a traditional Mongolian home/tent). Seeing that six family members already occupy the ger, we ask if we can pitch our [...]

10km outside of Ulaanbaatar the asphalt ends and the real Mongolia begins. We leave behind the traffic of a modern day metropolis, ahead of us open space…
Although we have a copy of the Mongolian road atlas, there are no ‘roads’ as such outside the capital, only dirt tracks between larger towns and villages which shift [...]

Having arrived in Chita tired and dirty, we decided to fork out for a hotel with a hot shower. The best budget option available was the ‘Hotel Tourist’. A legacy of Russia’s communist past, it had a creaky push button elevator and an old lady on each floor that handed out the room key. Right [...]