Heavy Metal around Mongolia and Central Asia

I really must get some work done today but keep checking for the next instalment

Great:)

And me, it certainly makes the mind wander, quite inspiring really, in fact I think I'll take the long way round to Tesco's tonight:augie


Come on Tim, pull yer finger out:)

Shep
 
We're still not ready to go, Dennis needs to make a second visit to the Kazahkstan embassy for a visa so we head for a day and night on the town in a taxi.

It's a bit cramped in the back and Jarvo lets ripp a fatty Mongolian mutton fart that rattles Baz's thigh and the driver has to open the window before we're all poisoned.
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Rene and Sybil run the Oasis does he still rent out bikes?

nice pictures bit gutted to be looking at them in a way... but still cool stuff...:D
 
Rene and Sybil run the Oasis does he still rent out bikes?

nice pictures bit gutted to be looking at them in a way... but still cool stuff...:D

Ah yes Rene and Sybil:thumb
He made no mention of renting out bikes although did show us a load of photos from his riding in Mongolia. He once broke his leg there and that put him off riding....I sensed Sybil had something to say about it also...in a Fawlty Towers kind of way.

Following our night on the town, which is next, we were almost thrown out of the Oasis:D
 
So it was a great relief for both us and the taxi driver, who was still holding his breath, that we were bundled out into the main square and fresh air.
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Mongolian history is remarkable, yet the rural people are generous beyond belief, respectful, strong, resourceful wonderful company although some are perhaps still reeling from the communist influence.

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We tried unsuccesfully to find some traditional throat singers so went to the museum instead.
Chinggis Khaan was long gone but there were some other fearsome, ancient relics on display.
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We find an Irish bar:beer: and this can only end one way.
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Jarvo gets his beer goggles on and thinks he's pulled some women:rolleyes: and invites them to our table:blast
Somehow or other (copious pints of Guiness blurrs my memory) the girls are in taxis with us heading back to the Oasis....it all seems to be very innocent.

Once back we all eat cheesecake, but the security guard phones Sybil the owner of the Oasis.
She tells us that either they go or we do..... immediatley:eek::D

Now young liberated city types in UB who have only just shaken off communism don't take kindly to foreigners telling them where they can or can't drink (or eat cheesecake) in their own country so they start kicking off.

Baz escapes outside the compound with a girl and plate of cheesecake to continue his 'conversation' in a car.

We politely ask the girls to leave, they're not happy, one tries to steal my wallet and becomes aggressive, not a good move, so I pick her up, carry her through the gates and dump her on the road outside.
The security man looks impressed, and I shut the gate to keep them at bay.

But of course, we didn't realise Baz was now at their mercy:D
They pile into the car he's in demanding "money", "or we'll call the police", one girl, who's now recovered from being dumped on the road makes a grab for his sunglasses. Baz gets bitten on the hand in the process :D

The next morning we wake with thick heads and only begin to remember last night when we discover the teethmarks on Baz's hand.

It's a poor photo and you can only just make them out but I'll include it for prosperity.
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The following morning after grovelling apologies from us all, Sybil on the right forgives us and sees us on our way with her lovely assistant.

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Right, let's go and do what we came here for!
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Great report!

We have returned from our trip to Baikal with my wife and I enclose herebelow some shots of the motels we stayed along the same root. That is a motel near Kazan, a motel called "Khutorok" 150 km prior to Novosibirsk, a motel near Achinsk(met two German bikers there), a typical room in a cheap hotel/motel( town of Nizhneudinsk), a hotel on shore of Baikal near Irkutsk.

Though the wooden bridge on the "Federal Highway M53 Baikal" is impressive:thumb2
keep going :)
 

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Great report!

We have returned from our trip to Baikal with my wife and I enclose herebelow some shots of the motels we stayed along the same root. That is a motel near Kazan, a motel called "Khutorok" 150 km prior to Novosibirsk, a motel near Achinsk(met two German bikers there), a typical room in a cheap hotel/motel( town of Nizhneudinsk), a hotel on shore of Baikal near Irkutsk.

Though the wooden bridge on the "Federal Highway M53 Baikal" is impressive:thumb2
keep going :)

Your wife looks familiar:kissy2

(just kidding, I'm still unsure of Russian humour...if it exists:D
 
IT and hi tech plays little part in my life since I'm too thick to understand it, so here's a rough idea of the route I had in mind:)
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We're headed SW for the the Gobi, to Dalandzadgad via Mandalgovi.
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Dennis the Ozz is with us now:)
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Mongolia is a vast empty country...perfect:)
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Get on one of the more well used tracks and the corrugations will shake your fillings out, ride slowly and you'll destroy the bike, ride fast and it'll destroy the bike more slowly.
It's a no win situation.
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So ride where you want.
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The feeling of riding in a landscape such as this, with sky to match is indescribable.

No tarmac anywhere, no kids holding their hands out begging for stuff, no police, no irate farmers.

Nothing, yet everything.

It's difficult to know whether to laugh, cry or just be.....whatever you do, it'll be ok.
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Yeah, don't worry I know where we're going:eek::D
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Dennis and Baz join me.
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Baz pauses for a snack.
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Then discovers his rear Wilbers shock has blown:blast
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Baz's rear shock was removed and some preload wound on manually, the bolt was tight going back in, perhaps it was bent it would be the cause of a big problem later.

Rick's Landy also needed a minor bit of attention. The bottom nut had pulled through the washer on his shock, this also happened earlier in Russia.
The kids were just great, so enthusiastic and friendly:)
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This is a very remote town, one or two streets do have short stretches tarmac but that's it for perhaps 300 miles.

Throughout this trip I noticed the attitude of adults and in particular children changed the nearer to a road you were, on a main road it became worse and in towns children can be little gits the world over.:D
Access to American TV culture is spreading like wildfire and there seems to be no way of stopping it, let alone reversing the trend.
(Let's see how that comment goes down on ADVrider:D

Mongolia was the exception where they were all great.:clap
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These children were intrigued with my 'Camelback' water pipe, getting them to look up and squirting them with it caused shrieks of laughter:D
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