Hello out there,

After a long and bumpy ride towards western Mongolia we finally arrived in Olgii (the provincial capital of the most western province). From here it’s a short stretch of 120km to the Russian border. Given the fact we will be able to clear the Russian immigration (with all the inperialistic shit going on at the moment) the journey can go on. Then all the hassle to get our visas ready (the last six weeks our passports were traveling between Mongolia and Germany in order to obtain the Russian visa) was worth going trough.

Mongolia was the most relaxing place so far and the nature is quite impressive. Invitations into gers (traditional felt tents) and spontaneous encounters of walking, riding or motorbiking Mongolian were luring all over the place. We could pitch our tent everywhere which made traveling very handy (most of the time we camped sharp on the aimed kilometer just right beside the road without any problems). Talking about “roads” (or better tracks in the best case, very often we could chose from a hundred “tracks” in a plough up area of several kilometers in width) is shite and warmly recommended for all pain seeking cyclists. Thus sand, gravel, washboard, potholes and deep mud puddles after rain were our daily travel mates. Any timing could be obsolete within minutes and we were forced extensively to keep patient. But again as all the time before: the most painful moments are the most memorable in the end and we don’t regret cycling here.

Tomorrow we will board our bicycles again northwest bound. The itinerary isn’t finalized yet and Vladivostok is very far, too far to get there all the way cycling in the visa time given. So we have to cover some stretches by train. The only thing we’re sure yet is the fact that before completely freezing our balls off in Siberia we will hop in the train, share some vodka with locals, sip hot tea from the samowar, say goodbye to Kaviar&Co (alias Russia) and hello to Kim’chi&Co (alias South Korea) sooner than planned. Boris’ flight to India is scheduled 30th of November from Seoul and latest by then I should have shuffled the outcome of my job applications for further planning.

As always the horizon is wide open and thrilling moments laying ahead of us.

Yours, Boris&Bambitee

PS: the latest pics will be uploaded later, connectivity is pretty poor at the moment…