Finland-Russia-Mongolia trip report

Plan: To ride across Russia to lake Baikal, from there south to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Follow the Gobi desert west and come back home.

When: July 2005

Who: Visa and Vesa

Bikes: Visa on a '98 1100GS, Vesa on a modified Suzuki DR800 Big '98.

For how long: A month? Two? Depending whether all goes well and how much we feel like riding.

Neither one of us speaks any Russian, or read cyrillic alphabet, so there was enough of a challenge just reading the map and ordering food. We didn't know too much about Russia or Mongolia for that matter, but did spoke to people who had ridden in Russia and Mongolia before. All in all, gathering all the necessary info took some months. Main idea was to ride at a good pace till Mongolia and then take the time needed to get back. See a lot of places we’re not familiar with and to experience what Adventure riding is about - but still get back home in reasonable time. Duties and stuff, well you all know…

Complete trip report and more than 200 pictures from that trip you can find from our homepage: http://www.moposivut.com/

Hi Visa,

Someone posted a link to your post on AdvRider, Ride Reports.

Excellent

Read it twice myself and have bookmarked it for returning again

MikeP said:

Hi Visa,

Someone posted a link to your post on AdvRider, Ride Reports.

Excellent

Read it twice myself and have bookmarked it for returning again

Click to expand...

That "someone" is Vesa who did that trip with me. In fact Vesa wrote this English version of trip report.

If you find that trip report from two different places it doesn´t mean that you have to read it twice.

I guess that you have also looked rest of the pictures from the gallery of our homepages?

I have to say, after reading it on advrider, I went back twice to look at it again. Great adventure !! Hats off to you two.

A great report with lots of tips and info, thanks.

Russian proverb:
"In Russia, there are no roads, only directions...."

Bin Ridin said:

Russian proverb:
"In Russia, there are no roads, only directions...."

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I disagree. In Russia was lots of different kind of roads. Some of them was in very good condition.

In Mongolia was only directions, no roads. That country is more than three times bigger than Germany or same size with Alaska and there is only 1200km of asphalt roads. Rest of the "roads" was different kind of sand tracks. Sometimes when we get lost and ask help from locals they didn´t told us where is the correct road. They just wave hands which direction we have to ride.

Hey, I only said it was a proverb! I was told this while being driven to Chelyabinsk from Ekaterinburg. The snow from my boots melted onto the car floor, where it then froze. This was still frozen when we got back to Ekat that night!
Really enjoyed your site, will send link to friends in Ekat. Fully agree with what you say about the friendliness and generosity of the Russians. Often a bit forbidding to start with but they have warm hearts.

visa said:

I disagree. In Russia was lots of different kind of roads. Some of them was in very good condition.

In Mongolia was only directions, no roads. Sometimes when we get lost and ask help from locals they didn´t told us where is the correct road. They just wave hands which direction we have to ride.

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Smiling for you both.... Russia some crap roads, but some good. The rear mudguards of both F650's broke off in Russia due to the potholes and rough surfaces. The people we found to be extremely friendly, the hospitality extended to us was just fantastic. Penza, Omsk, Barnaul and Novosibersk bike clubs all made us welcome, looked after our bikes... great people

Mongolia just tracks in the sand, sometimes a dozen, all going different directions, and as you say, the people just wave their hands in the general direction! No good showing them a map, they've never seen one before and have no idea where you are on it! They have their own GPS... Ger Positioning System

Mongolians also very friendly, but they have to touch, prod, poke everything on the 'bike. Flick switches etc and will sit on the 'bike without asking. Again, their hospitality was second to none... maybe because we were an ageing geriatric couple that should have been at home tending the garden... no way

Throughout our five month trip, Russia, Mongolia, all the Stan's etc. we were 'gobsmacked' at the hospitality given us. Not once were the police officious, rather welcoming us, and 'inviting' us to pop wheelies as we passed through their controls. The couple of times we were stopped for offences speeding and overtaking on a white line the police would just smile, shake our hands and send us on our way. On just one occasion we were going to get fined, but I showed him a picture of me on the police bike and he just smiled and waved us on.

I wanna go back

All the best to you both

www.adventure.gs

Bin Ridin said:

Hey, I only said it was a proverb!

Click to expand...

Ok, perhaps I should read more closely what you have wrote before commenting.

Bin Ridin said:

I was told this while being driven to Chelyabinsk from Ekaterinburg. The snow from my boots melted onto the car floor, where it then froze. This was still frozen when we got back to Ekat that night!
Really enjoyed your site, will send link to friends in Ekat. Fully agree with what you say about the friendliness and generosity of the Russians. Often a bit forbidding to start with but they have warm hearts.

Click to expand...

Ofcourse everywhere is some people who are not so nice, but we were lucky because almost everybody was very kind for us.