Russian-Mongolian border. Through Mongolia by car, southern route Where is the border with Mongolia and China

The road after Bayan Tes immediately ran into Tesiin Gol. The ford was passed easily, Diana helped, acted as a water meter and showed the way (a real navigator!). We drove along the steep coast where eagles live

Beautiful birds. True, proud as hedgehogs, until you get very close, they won’t fly.


The road on this side of Tes goes through sand dunes


Shrubs and birches grow along the river. They are pressed tightly to the ground. the wind is probably strong here


The leaves on birch trees are very small, not at all like ours. Struggle to retain moisture.


Sand pours down from the mountains


Soon the mountain will turn completely into sand


There is almost no vegetation, but even here people live and raise livestock


We eat almost completely in the desert


But these places also have their own charm... (but better with a good supply of water)


The road turns into the mountains. And greenery appears


There are a lot of burial mounds in this valley.


They are of different sizes, but none of them look abandoned. There are neat stone displays around the mounds almost everywhere.
The higher we go, the more grass there is.


And the closer to Russia = the bigger and thicker the smoke.


Suddenly a sign appeared near the road


The only sign along more than 500 km of route, not counting the steles with the names of settlements.
The haze is getting denser.
“And the smoke of the fatherland is sweet and pleasant to us.” Mom quotes us.
These lines lie! It's not sweet - it's bitter! And it’s definitely not pleasant!


We found a power line. And a socket and an antenna from the TV are screwed to the pole :) Caring people, suddenly you miss the zombie box :)
We reached the border in 2 hours. There was a border guard outpost along the way. That's where the wires went. They quickly checked the documents and let us through. We were in Artsur in about 30 minutes. You can’t even call it a village. 10 houses, including 3 shops and 1 hotel. Everything is terribly Soviet type (“There are all sorts of people walking around here, if you don’t like it, get out!”). A very sharp difference from what we saw in Mongolia. Maybe this is how the border affects people?!
Having already said goodbye to Mongolia, we went to cross the border, but that was not the case! Border is locked tight! Really, such a padlock! :)
There is a small barracks next to the checkpoint, we found people there, they explained to us that the border does not work on Sunday. Day off. Come on Monday, we will be glad to see you :)
So it was worth it to rush and leave Bayan Tes in such a hurry?! And where to sleep now? You don’t want to stay in a hotel that hasn’t seen renovations since the days of developed socialism. In the mountains among the steppe on the seven winds - it’s not sweet either! Well, screw him! We’ll go back to the Tes bank, but not too far, otherwise tomorrow there’ll be a traffic jam at the border.
While we were searching and riding through the mountains, we saw real sand dunes of the Altan Els sands.


Here they are across the river


There were several yurts on the shore at a considerable distance from each other. We stood further away so as not to interfere. When we got ready to cook, Alisa and I went to the nearest yurt and bought the freshest leg of lamb. Which we cooked with pleasure :)
In the morning we went to the border. The border was open. You don’t understand - Well, it’s just open and no one! We stood at the open gate and slowly, slowly drove to the checkpoint territory (you never know). There are three people sitting in the shade and waving their hands “Go, go, don’t be afraid!” :). We arrived at the first building. One separated and walked inside with obvious reluctance. I took my passport and technical certificate. I wrote something down in a journal. “And now,” he says, “we’ll do customs.” He walked up to the car, looked into it, and crushed the bags. “Oh,” he says, “drive on.” There is passport control there, we had a nice chat with two girls, they gave us stamps. They say they only have 10-15 cars a day. So there is no loading at all. We said goodbye. And we are in no man's land. The whole action took 15-20 minutes. Well, if you don’t chat, you can get it done even faster :)
But ours are just hell. There were already 3 cars parked in neutral. They let one car through at a time. They force you to upload everything through a scanner, don’t go there, don’t look here, don’t sit here, don’t go to the toilet! We stood for 2 hours in neutral! Then for about an hour we were harassed as we passed. The shuttles were with us, so they were forced to unpack everything. So why do they need a scanner if they unpack everything anyway? In short, I thought the work in Mondy-Khankh was lousy, they let 15 cars through for an hour and a half, but here it’s something!
From Marina: Arthur has a very hard time withstanding expectations :))) And when his freedom of action and movement is limited, he definitely wants to act and move around :) “Shuttles” I can understand why they require opening bags. For prohibited goods hidden and not specified in the declaration. I once crossed the border with China in Manchuria. After what I had to go through there, the searches in Artsur surprised me, but not that much. By the way, in Khankh and in Artsur, a total of about the same amount of time was spent crossing the border - three hours.
And here we are in Russia, in Tyva.


The roads have become asphalt and are of very good quality!


Simply magnificent in places! We can do it sometimes! Although maybe aliens did it :)


But everything else is the same.


Well, except for the tractor. I haven’t seen one in Mongolia. The same yurts, but there are very few livestock and a lot of grass. Maybe the climate is wrong?
We stopped in Erzin, hoping to refuel and have a snack. The gas station is closed, there are no cafes or cafeterias found. We popped into the store and bought sausages (apparently my mom missed soy 🙂) and watermelon. We stood on the Erzin River and ate it with pleasure!


Well, very tasty :)


We swam in the river and went to look for a gas station. I decided, in Mongolia, why refuel right at the border if our fuel is 2 times cheaper?! Who expected such a setup?!
Along the way we accidentally found the legendary


And why look for him?! Maybe they just call it wrong, so the locals don’t understand what Shambhala is? Here is Shambalyg! If you drive from Mongolia, then on the right side after Erzin :)

They found a gas station only in Samagaltai, and one of the two doesn’t have a diesel engine, while the other costs 38 rubles and, judging by the smell, it’s kind of burnt. But there is nothing to do. Fill it up and go ahead.
And this is probably the birthplace of the well-known fast food :)


We reached Kyzyl quickly.


There is such a wonderful monument on the mountain before the entrance.
And here is Kyzyl itself, the capital of Tyva.


In the city itself we found a very original fishing store


Apparently creativity in names is a national trait of Tuvinians :) There is also Lake Cheder (well, like cheese).
But beyond Kyzyl, a nightmare began! Everything burned out from edge to edge. Everything is pitch black as far as the eye can see! A terrible sight. Like in movies about nuclear war. Just firebrands and smoke. A very scary picture. They didn't even take pictures.

Mongolia is an amazing country with a long history, the birthplace of the great Genghis Khan, endless steppes and beautiful lakes.

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Mongolia is an amazing country with a long history, the birthplace of the great Genghis Khan. The country has endless steppes, the hot Gobi Desert, and the majestic peaks of Altai. Here alone there are about a dozen horses per resident, and the difference between summer and winter temperatures is 80 degrees!

Location, composition and cities

The state of Mongolia is located in northeast Asia. Administratively, the country consists of 21 aimags, which in turn are divided into 329 somons.

The capital of Mongolia is the city of Ulaanbaatar.

Borders and area

Mongolia's land borders with countries such as Russia and China.

Mongolia covers an area of ​​1,654 thousand square kilometers.

Mongolia map

Timezone

Population

2,964,000 people as of the end of 2015.

Language

The official language is Mongolian.

Religion

Buddhism is the main religion for the entire population of Mongolia. It is professed by more than ninety percent of the entire population. Shamanism, Islam and other religions are also common in Mongolia.

Finance

The official currency is the tugrik.

Medical care and insurance

Medical care is at a relatively good level. It should be noted that there are few medical institutions where tourists can receive qualified assistance. Emergency assistance is provided free of charge. There is no health insurance system in Mongolia.

Mains voltage

220 V, frequency 50 Hz. Type of sockets – C and E.

International dialing code

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Today a person wrote to me on Facebook asking about crossing the Russia/Mongolia border. Precisely from the Altai side.

Well, this transition, as well as the subsequent unrest, must be described so that people can avoid some mistakes.

Briefly:

Tashanta is a land automobile border between Russia and Mongolia. You can only cross the border by car.

Open until 18:00 pm, closed on weekends and holidays.

The distance of the border zone between the two countries is 20 km.

Ukrainian passport holders can enter without a visa, but we necessary have an invitation.

Attempt No. 1

We reached the border crossing in Tashanta quite successfully, perhaps not as quickly as we wanted, but this is understandable: the roads were deserted.

In half an hour, only one car passed by, and if there were more cars before the large (relatively, of course) administrative center of Kosh-Agach, then after Kosh-Agach the traffic decreased sharply.

It was pleasant to drive because this is the famous Chuysky tract: one of the most beautiful roads in the world.

Try to spot the camel in the photo :)

The border from Kosh-Agach is 40 km. Kosh-Agach itself is a village, both in appearance and in its few inhabitants.

From time to time, taxi drivers approached us and offered travel for 300-500 rubles ($5-8). We refused and continued to try to stop.

In front of us stood a woman from Moscow (about 50 years old), who decided to hike around Altai and see the border itself. Stopped alone.

About half an hour later she left and after another 10 minutes we were picked up by pensioners who were going to the village of Zhana-Aul.

It is 20 km from the border.

We were driven all the way to the border by the father of 8 children, who also fought in Afghanistan. His car was old, like all the previous ones that gave us a lift. He didn’t ask us about money, but we decided to give him our remaining 100 rubles.

We arrived at the border itself almost before closing. At 17:30.

We read that there are local taxi drivers there, and you can cross the border for little money, but we never found taxi drivers, and there were no cars that would go to Mongolia.

A strong wind was blowing and it was very cold. We didn’t want to spend the night in a tent, so we started asking locals where we could spend the night. We were offered a room for 500 rubles for two ($10). We were still haggling.

Room - 4 beds, window, table and chairs. Outdoor amenities. Of course, no hot water.

But there was protection from the wind + they brought us a kettle, and there was a stove, which we heated and cooked food for ourselves.

A couple of times they tried to move in Mongols who, like us, had to cross the border the next day. But the Mongols did not like our proximity and they changed the room.

True, not immediately, but after some time.

Even when we first met, Mongols turned out to be very noisy :)

They shouted over each other, argued about something, not paying attention to us. Well, they also tried to heat kumys in a kettle, which stank unbearably. It was fun.

The next morning, we went to look for a car that would take us to Mongolia.

At first we tried to fit in with the Mongols, but they didn’t want to take us, only one offered us for little money (something about $2).

By the way, there were at most 20 cars.

We went around them all. And luck overtook us almost at the gate :)

The Germans agreed to transport us, who were traveling in a huge house on wheels (not an ordinary house, but a bit of a paramilitary type. The approximate cost, according to them, is 500 thousand euros).

The inside was spacious and German-style clean. We were fed and we began to wait for the border to open.

The Germans said that they were traveling from Europe to Mongolia, and then, most likely, they would go back to Russia, only by a different route.

They looked to be over 50 years old, both active and had already traveled a lot around the world.

We crossed the Russian border in about 2 hours. The papers themselves and the passport check did not cause any delays, but the border guards spent a very long time checking the Germans’ car, unloading and scanning absolutely everything from it.

In the end, the Germans began to lose their nerve and we had to communicate with the border guards about when they would let us go.

We said goodbye to the asphalt on the Russian side and now the gates to Mongolia are in front of us. 🙂

The procedure is repeated, only now we have problems.

The border guard announces that yes, we are visa-free, but you need to present an invitation. We are hearing about the invitation for the first time, we specifically read forums, looked at Mongolian sites, etc.

Before us, our friends from Ukraine passed through the same border without an invitation, exactly 3 weeks ago.

Without an invitation, they don’t want to let us go anywhere and they don’t want to help us either. It is impossible to reach an agreement. You need an invitation and that's it. An invitation, according to the border guard, from any private individual or travel agency.

We begin to persuade the boss to write us such an invitation, but to no avail.

The Germans are trying to stand up for us and also come to an agreement. But everything is in vain, in frustrated feelings, we go to catch cars back to Russia.

We manage to sit down, but with different people. Andrey goes to the Russians, and I go to the Kazakhs.

We cross the border, this time again 1.5 hours of waiting. A Kazakh car is inspected no worse than a German one: in detail and with taste.

An alarmed Andrei is already waiting for me near the gate, it’s getting dark, there’s a little time left before the border is closed, but I’m still not there. It turned out that the car with Russian license plates was allowed through very quickly.

We go again to the familiar room. We need to spend the night, calm down and eat.

Again we pay $10 for two.

In the morning we decide that she was there, she wasn’t - we’ll go to Kosh-Agach and make an invitation there. Just 40 km back.

A Russian border guard takes us to Kosh-Agach, who immediately recognizes us and is interested in the problem. He recommends making an invitation from a travel agency.

In Kosh-Agach, I write to the host and ask her to write an invitation, she does it and we have 1 invitation, although it doesn’t look very good: the words are hard to see, and it’s kind of undignified.

We are looking for a travel agency in Mongolia and find Legend Tour:

https://www.legendtour.ru

Which for $10 per person make invitations on company letterhead.

Everything happens very quickly: we send our data, route and the number of days we need.

We pay for the service, after 1.5 hours invitations arrive in the mail, which we print.

But the weekend is ahead, and the border checkpoint is closed on weekends.

Then we leave the small Kosh-Agach and set up a tent near the local small pond. We spend 2 days there.

Local Altai people get to know us and treat us to various tasty things.

Attempt No. 2

We leave Kosh-Agach quite quickly. Again to Zhan-Aul.

Kazakhs live near the border with Mongolia and also in the western part of Mongolia, and these Kazakhs picked us up another 20 minutes later and invited us to visit them.

We didn't refuse because it was very interesting.

They live in a small house with one room. They have a herd of horses: they eat them, drink horse milk and make cheese, cottage cheese, kumiss, etc.

We were treated to food, a simple table was set, and we, for our part, treated the little one to sweets.

We talked and finally they gave us flatbread and a liter of kumiss.

The entire time we were talking, the woman was pounding oil in a bucket, I don’t know, but it was about an hour. And we were told that we need to do this for 3-4 hours.

Hard physical work.

In addition to refreshments and interesting conversation, they decide to give us a lift to the very border.

And here we are in the already familiar Tashanta. It was evening, there were no cars at all and the border was closing, but we still couldn’t leave.

Again a room, but this time we bargained and rented for $8. The owners already know us and even seem to be happy. J Of course.

Let’s be honest: it’s August, there’s a strong wind, one of the poles in our tent is broken—the last thing I want to do is set up and spend the night in it.

We think with fear and sadness what will happen in Mongolia.

While we are settling in, we see two elderly Germans on motorcycles, who are looking in confusion at the closed border and are trying to find housing.

We help them spend the night and treat them to kumiss. According to them, it’s terrible and they haven’t tried anything worse. Probably they haven’t been to China.

We chat about travel, life and relaxation. We are preparing mentally for the second assault on the border.

In the morning the line of cars is a little longer than the first time. We number about 30. J We decide to ask for each one or offer to pay money. I want to leave, the wait is becoming unbearable.

We ask everyone, but no one takes it. There is one bus from Kazakhstan in the queue, but it is packed to capacity.

We can barely negotiate with foreigners (a couple from Spain), but they have one free place. We decide that I will go with them.

Andrey negotiates with the Kazakhs that he will go for money - 200 rubles ($3). There is one free place for him.

My car with the Spaniards is at the front of the line, after 20 minutes they start to let everyone in and repeat the procedure that we have already gone through.

The border guards recognize me, I show my invitation and they let me out of the country again without questions. A Spanish car is checked faster than a German car.

Then I notice that Andrei is looking out from the next car (and this is an ambulance with Danish license plates) and shows me with signs that everything is cool.

He fit into the car with the cheerful guys who are taking part in the Mongol Rally.

In short, the Mongol Rally is a competition: you need to get from London to Ulaanbaatar in any car (but not a jeep) or motorcycle, at your own expense, and within 60 days.

The route can be any, the main thing is to get there first.

Andrey ends up with these guys (and agrees to travel with them to Ulaanbaatar!).

So, we are back at the Mongolian border guards.

I get there first and they recognize me.

The woman border guard, taking the invitation and my passport, gives all the documents to another person and says that they must check it all. And in general, the invitation and attention are not what they should be.

That is, when they told us that it was possible by hand, etc., they were jokes :).

Okay, I go to the big boss’s office, where he asks me how and where I got this invitation. I tell about the travel agency, the route, show the address of the travel agency, and also say when we plan to leave the country.

He makes a phone call and has a long conversation with someone. All this time he has my documents, I stand in the office, and he looks at me.

Mongolia turns out to be harsher than I thought.

I logically suggest that he call the travel agency.

I have never had such control and inspection at any border.

He's calling somewhere again. Then he says okay! They are ready to let me through, but I need to write a handwritten note explaining why I am going to Mongolia and what my route is.

At that moment, I really don’t understand what to write in this note, since I had already stopped wanting to go to Mongolia. 🙂

How much cash do I have? It's good that I had them. I say I have 600 dollars. Great, because I need to take a photo of me with them, and this explanatory note will be pinned to this photo.

So they say they absolve themselves of responsibility if a tourist disappears somewhere.

This is the first time I’ve been photographed with bucks at the border.

And I'm very glad that I have cash and not just cards.

About an hour later, he lets me go and they give me an entry stamp into Mongolia.

Another hour later I am standing in a dusty area where there are no roads, dirty children are playing with a dirty ball. And they look at me like I’m an alien.

I am absolutely alone, Andrey is awaiting the same procedure (he was also forced to write a note + a photo was taken with the money).

But bad luck, the Mongols didn’t like something about the Danes’ car, and so I’ve been waiting for their car for four whole hours.

It gets dark when they drive out of the gate and I jump into the car.

This is how our Mongolia begins.

About the country, hitchhiking to Ulaanbaatar and the general impression in the next article. 🙂

About in Altai.

The border is locked in the full sense of the word in Mongolia.

Allow 4 to 24 hours to cross the border..., numerous tourist resources warn and warn.
- They do everything through..., the border guards don’t speak or understand English, they constantly demand some additional documents, and every day the algorithm for crossing the border is different from the previous one.
Our friends crossed the border in the same place a week before us and stayed here for almost a day. The Mongols drove them crazy by first putting the wrong stamp in the wrong place, and then refusing to let the guys through on the grounds that they had the wrong stamp...
In general, having left the Russian checkpoint in Kyakhta, we were in the mood for “Mongolian fun”...

Entry into the territory of the Mongolian checkpoint. The border, as you can see, is truly locked.

2. We crossed the border on Saturday at 9 am and there were very few cars at that time.
As soon as you enter the territory of the checkpoint, a woman in uniform immediately approaches you and says in very bad Russian:
- Give me a hundred rubles...
Like this! Before we could move in, they immediately demanded 100 rubles. And on the other side of the booth at the entrance, another man in uniform shouts:
- Vaditel, come here to...
I give my aunt 100 rubles, our driver Ivan goes to the border guard’s call...

3. In exchange for 100 rubles, the woman gives me this receipt stub.
Neither brand cars, nor dugar cars, nor zorchigchiin ltd are filled. Only the amount is 1172 tugriks, which is equal to approximately 100 rubles.
As it turned out later, this is... a quarantine fee. I suspect that all cars in a row don’t need to pay it, but oh well. 100 rubles is not that much money.

4. The driver is given a ticket for going through customs and border procedures, in which they were not too lazy to indicate the car number and even stamped it.
This ticket will be taken from us after 10 meters near the border control building.

5. We approach the building where customs officers will inspect the car and luggage, and we
During this time we will go through normal border procedures similar to those we go through at the airport.
And here several dozen people sweep the paths with huge brooms...
“That’s why it takes 24 hours to cross the border,” Maxim jokes, “first everyone is sent to sweep the border)
Of course, we weren’t sent to sweep the border....

6. Border control is one to one, just like at the airport. You need to fill out a migration card and a declaration of the presence of goods subject to mandatory declaration (even if you are not carrying such goods).
Be sure to take a pen with you, because... no one will give it to you here.
We didn’t have one, and when we asked the border guards about the pen, they just shrugged their shoulders indifferently, continuing to look enthusiastically at the smartphone screen. We returned to the car to look for a hand, but... the Mongolian customs officers reacted extremely negatively to our desire to open the door of the car they were inspecting and take something from there.
They fought off the pen and returned to fill out declarations...

7. Next, the stamp is right in the center of the empty page in the middle of the passport, if there are pages with free spaces for stamps, and pass through the desperately squeaking frame.
The man in the jacket didn’t even think about looking up from his smartphone.
Well, okay, we didn't object.
We leave from the other end of the building and return to our cars standing at the beginning. They have already been inspected and simply waved lazily - drive on, returning the ticket with a mark.

8. Next time we are stopped near the tax office building.
You need to pay transport tax and buy insurance.

9. Tax 10,500 tugriks per car (a little more than 300 rubles)

10. But insurance is more expensive - about 1800 rubles per car.
By the way, the surname in Mongolian sounds “zhopoochiin”)

11. While we are paying for insurance, right on the territory of the checkpoint, just before the barrier, a dubious person in sweatpants and a cap approaches us with a proposal:
- Give me some rubles...
We ask why he needs our rubles?
- Well, do you need a tugrik? It’s bad in Mongolia without tugrik.
We explain that we are fine without the tugrik and we have already changed money at the bank.
Gopnik the money changer immediately showed great grief on his face and walked... beyond the territory of the checkpoint.
Naturally, he walked as if at home. None of the border guards even paid attention to him. In general, the border is locked).
The creaky iron gate with a chain and padlock is closed behind us, and we set off along one of the three (!!!) asphalt roads of Mongolia to its capital...
And in the opposite direction there is already a small queue of cars. Mongols go to Russia for spare parts, various goods and even food, packing their cars under the roof.

Now you can quickly book a hotel or buy air tickets right on my blog

My previous photo reports and photo stories:

It's been five months since we returned from our big trip. I think that the photographs have already had time to “mature” during this time, which means it’s time to share them with the readers of this blog. Below the cut is a story about crossing the border and our first day in Mongolia!

2. July 24. In the morning we left the village of Kosh-Agach (a kind of Mecca of Altai tourism) towards the settlement of Tashanta - the last stronghold of civilization before the border with Mongolia.

3. The day before it seemed very busy to us, but after Kosh-Agach the route was completely empty and deserted.

4. The relief begins to change, and the mountains become higher and more beautiful, as if to say that we will soon find ourselves in a completely different country. Two years ago, I remember, after a grueling five-day drive across Russia and Kazakhstan, the ridges of the Kyrgyz Tien Shan appeared in front of us in the same way, and this feeling washed over us again - here it is, that very dream where we had wanted to go for a very long time, and now We are already very close!

5. Fatigue after a long journey began to fade into the background, and my eyes simply rested, contemplating the expanses opening up with every kilometer.

6. However, ahead was the border of two countries, and we were still a little nervous. The road gradually began to gain altitude, and yellow markings appeared along the edges of the roadway. But we were actually alone here anyway, so no one saw our small traffic violation. :)

Just before the border, a car with Irkutsk license plates drove up to us, the driver and passengers of which were very surprised and upset that it turned out that at that time it was necessary to obtain visas to Mongolia - they wanted to “shortcut” a little and return home to Irkutsk along the shortest route, crossing the border, but it didn’t work out. :) I don’t know how much longer their route suddenly became, but looking at the world map, it seems to me that they had to make a loop of about two thousand kilometers - I very much doubt that the car would have passed Buguzun, but more there, it seems, there are no roads in that direction...

We passed the Russian side very quickly, literally in 20 minutes. Checking visas in passports, transport control, car inspection, passport control, goodbye. At the top of the pass (by the way, the altitude in this photo is exactly 2500 meters, which, out of habit, made us feel slightly dizzy), Russian border guards check our visas for the last time and release us into neutral territory.

7. Russia is left behind, but in front of us (literally and figuratively) is a minibus with Kazakh license plates, 15 Kazakhs were sitting in it, and their things were riding on the roof.

8. From the pass there is a long descent down, on which we still manage to overtake them. A Mongolian checkpoint can be seen in the distance.

9. French, participants of the charity rally London - Ulaanbaatar. The goal is to drive your car to the Mongolian capital, sell the car there and give the money to charity. I think I read that according to the rally rules, you need to drive a passenger car with a small engine capacity (less than one and a half liters, it seems), but the French decided to go the route in a minibus.

Like any law-abiding Europeans, they unknowingly stopped a few meters in front of the closed gate (we just managed to get into the border guards’ lunch break from 2 to 3 p.m.). What will the Kazakhs do, having caught up with us literally in half a minute? That's right, they will drive around everyone and stand first, resting their bumper on the gate! Everything is fine. This is Asia.

10. The weather in the mountains changes very quickly. The sun had just been shining - and suddenly it began to rain and hail, from which I had to hide in the car. And 10 minutes later the sun came out again!

We are discussing the upcoming route with the French and Kazakhs. The Frenchman speaks English, inserting French words when he finds it difficult. Kazakhs speak Kazakh and a little Russian. And at the same time everyone understands each other!

11. Meanwhile, a local resident was watching us.

We walked for about an hour. First, we filled out migration cards, fortunately the forms were in English and Mongolian. We helped the French with filling it out, since the “Mongolian version of English” was somewhat similar to the “Russian version of English” (I apologize for the tautology), which the French did not understand in some places. Next, we filled out a permit for the temporary import of a vehicle, since we were going to leave the country in another place (through the village of Khankh) - without this we would not have been allowed to leave in our car.

So far they have found all the officials, so far they have put all the seals. The French were bringing the car for sale, for this they needed more documents, they helped us a little with filling out and communicating with customs officers. Overall, it was fun.

On this trip I also started keeping a diary, trying to write down the most memorable moments every day. And now, thanks to the diary, I remembered another character we met at the border.

In general, how can I put it more simply... A short-haired Russian guy with a slightly “anxious” look with a passport of a citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan (!) was traveling (according to him) from Moscow to a friend in Ulaanbaatar (!) in a brand new black Land Cruiser 200 (!) with very “difficult” St. Petersburg license plates (!), and he was driving the car - attention, the apotheosis of the situation - BY PROXY! :)))

Our border guards released him, but the Mongolian border guards were, to put it mildly, amazed by this situation. Some boss of theirs came, listened to the whole story and started yelling something like “ bl#, you want to sell it in Ulaanbaatar!!!". To which the guy modestly replied: " no, I’m going to visit a friend in the capital for a couple of weeks to relax... Well, why? everyone drives like that! ".

I forgot to say - the Kruzak was untinted, the trunk was completely empty, and the only luggage of the “vacationer” was a small black bag for documents and papers hanging on his shoulder...

12. In general, I don’t know how things ended with him, since we were released, but he was left at the checkpoint. Immediately after the border, in a small house, we buy from a Mongolian grandfather who speaks little Russian a local MTPL for 1,100 rubles (fortunately, they accept rubles at the border), and at the same time exchange some of the cash for local tugriks.

Two and a half months ago, at the beginning of May, we were in Kazakhstan, stood on the Boszhira tract and watched the starfall. One of my wishes made then was “to end up in Mongolia.” Well, I must admit once again - stars still know how to make wishes come true, and sometimes even much faster than you expect at the moment you make them!

13. Well, here we are. Hello Mongolia!

14. Literally a couple of kilometers from the border, excellent asphalt begins, leading almost to the city itself. Numerous fences and observation towers (like the one visible near the right edge of the photo) seem to hint that we are still in the border zone.

15. Meanwhile, Def happily swallows kilometers of smooth asphalt, not even suspecting how “fun” paths await us ahead...

16. Textured sky, perfect horizon, unusual handmade columns - everything is beautiful in this photo!

17. The road soon led us to Bayan-Ulgii - the center of the "aimag" (region) of the same name and the only stronghold of civilization for hundreds of kilometers around. The city is quite large by local standards.

18. The traffic here is not very intense. As I entered the city, this car started flashing its headlights at me almost from the other end of the street. I had already reduced the speed to a minimum, and once again made sure that Yulia and I were fastened, and looked around twenty times. It turned out that the driver just wanted to say hello to us - he stopped, waved and drove on...

19. And everyone here greets you, and this really reminded us of Kyrgyzstan.
Well, pay attention to the blue Prius that can be seen behind the pillar. It turns out that one of the border guards had already called the right person about the two “Russo Tourists”, and they were already waiting for us in this city...

As I wrote earlier, I left Moscow with approximately the following thoughts:

"And here I am driving along the highway. For some reason alone. To another country where almost no one speaks Russian. I have a navigator, someone else's track and points marked on the map. And the only plan at that time was to travel 5,000 kilometers in order to find a man named Murat somewhere in an unfamiliar city, who would tell us what to do next..."

20. Actually, the next point of our plan was to buy a SIM card and call the number that Evgeniy john_59 sent it to me by mail some time ago. But we didn’t have time to do this, since Murat himself found us before we found him. Having made sure that this is the person we were looking for, we give him our passports and documents for the car. After that, all we have to do is follow the white rabbit and follow the blue Prius.

Murat... If you enter the words "Bayan Ulgiy Murat" into a search engine, it turns out that you can find a lot of interesting things... In general, probably all travelers who visited the Mongolian Altai, one way or another came across this character. :)

If I were going to those parts now, I would make photocopies of the necessary documents for him in advance (they are required for issuing passes to the border zone), and after that I would go to a hotel in the city center, where an overnight stay is half the price and there is a hot shower. But experience is such a thing that someone else’s is often not enough, and sometimes your own is very difficult... In the post I tried to talk about all this.

Well, at that moment we suddenly found ourselves “in the middle of nowhere” and without any documents, which generally added spice to the situation. So we decided to just relax and let everything be as it will be. And finally, I’ll show you some Instagram cards:

"First of all, we tried to buy a SIM card to call a man named Murat, who is in charge of issuing passes to the border zone. We didn’t have time to buy a SIM card because Murat found us himself... We gave him our passports and documents. Judging by his eyes, you can trust him. He also promised to treat us to Mongolian vodka..."

"We rented this luxurious cottage in the center of Bayan-Ulgii for a day for ridiculous money. It's just a long walk to amenities..."

"The interior of our home. Simple, stylish, youthful!"

Subsequently, I had to state that the solution " get drunk with the locals"turned out to be strategically wrong... But the owner of the house was very persistent (" You respect my family, right?"), his wife treated him to some incredibly tasty manti (hot, thin dough, tender meat and delicious juice - I’ve never eaten anything like that), his daughter - what an amazing coincidence - happened to have a birthday (he had to give her 200 rubles in local tugriks, which Murat was incredibly happy about), and at the beginning there was less than half a bottle of vodka at the table - in general, as they say, nothing was foreshadowed.

In about another hour:

"There wasn't enough Mongolian vodka, so we had to go get more in an ancient Prius driven by Murat's teenage son. After which the owners of the house began to sing Mongolian songs for their guests..."

Seeing that the situation was gradually starting to get out of control, I explained to Murat that we were very tired from the road, and we needed to go to bed at 10 pm in order to get up the next morning at 8. Murat promised that this was exactly how everything would be, that he will get up an hour earlier and quickly issue us passes to the border zone.

I don’t really like vodka myself, so my wife and I drank Russian beer that we brought with us across the border. Murat actually drank one and a half bottles of vodka in one person, periodically “shooting” at our can of beer (“ Well, I love everything that is offered to me!") and drinking vodka with him. The only advantage (huge, it must be said) was that he did not become aggressive from alcohol (we remember the stories of friends about drunken Altaians and Tuvans), otherwise we would simply have to start the engine and rush at night back to the border. ..

Well, some time later:

"In the upper left edge of the frame you can see a cabinet with a mixer box on top. It was from there that the owner’s wife, to general applause, took out her stash when all the Mongolian vodka she had bought ran out. The conversation gradually changed to events in Ukraine. We look forward to what will happen next..."

And then, in response to the noise, some neighbors, acquaintances, acquaintances of acquaintances came over, Murat seemed to be quietly pouring vodka into the women’s wine, everyone was having fun, everyone was singing songs, we, so to speak, drank in full of local flavor, while trying to stay sober.

Closer to midnight, interesting stories began like " and three years ago, a tourist I know, he’s German and he brutally raped my neighbor in this room right here where you’re sitting", everyone around us nodded understandingly, and my wife is an impressionable person... In general, I had to stand up and announce to everyone that the party was over.

- Denis, why aren’t you a man?
- Murat, fuck off, we have to get up early tomorrow.

He pushed the whole company out onto the street, giving them a few cans of beer as a farewell. The women quickly cleared everything from the table, after which the party smoothly moved to the next house. I ran to Def and brought a piece of iron, which for some reason made me feel calmer in that situation, after which we locked ourselves in our elite bungalow and went to bed. The neighbors walked until almost morning.

This is how our first day in Mongolia turned out...

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