30.04.2024 – 02.05.2024
As many adventures the seeds for this one was planted quite a while back. Intrigued by the remoteness, the landscapes and the broad landscapes of Mongolia. Fueled by the stories of travellers back in the day taking part of the mongol rally. (Although the idea of going sitting in a motorized vehicle seemed never appealing somehow the stories brought some fascination with them). Little by little grew the fascination for this particular country.
Here we are in Ulaanbaatar. The dream used to be going there by the transibirian railway, going along side the baikal lake into mongolia. Due to a variety of circumstances we decided against this journey.
Three trains later, one stressfull overstepping and way to much time spent packing, taping and preparing the huge bike cartons we re standing at the check in line at the Frankfurt Airport. Waiting, wainting… after over an hour and doubling the amount of counters its our turn. Dreadfully if the cartons are within the weight limit we pay the oversize luggage and carry them to the luggage band. Relieve as they get hovered on the band and off they go. With about an hour delay we are boarding the plane while looking at our already slightly damaged cartons being stuffed into the back of the plane. „Kopfkino“ – seeing the cartons falling apart, bikes damaged and parts being lost.
Few hours later we approach Ulaanbaatar. Welcoming us with a red glowing sunrise – as neither of us has properly slept in quite a few days we walk like remote controlled via boarder control towards the luggage band. Not even 10 minutes later our bikes got dragged out of a side door. Through customs we arrived at a small entrance hall of the airport. We parked in front of a closed mobile store where for the next hours we will reassemble the bikes and arrange the luggage. First curious people come by to inspect the rohloff and my gates belt very carefully. Two americans came by whose son owns a guesthouse in the east which we were planning on visiting in the foreseeable future.
A few hours later the bikes are finally ready and fueled with a huge americano we try to be as awake as possible for the 50k ride to the city. First turn from the aiport we see already a huge horse herd. Already here we are stunned by the open landscapes and the colours, and the first part of the ride feels very relaxed and calming.
The last 20km lead over a bigger road towards the capital. Not much left from the smooth riding, labyrinthing through the heavy traffic. Julia decides its ninja time wearing a buff to reduce a little bit the impact of the pollution.
Ulaanbaatar (UB as often referred) shall be the absolute contrast to the rest of the coutry. Crowded, cramped and polluted. About 1.7 million people live there out of 3,5 million in the whole country. This marks about 321 people /km2 while the overall country has a population density of 2 people/ km2.
Modern buildings rose up to the sky together with the smoke from the cheap firewood. You can taste the air – a cocktail of particles, tire wear, burned firewood and dust. But overall the city appears to be vibrant. Fun to explore, lots of little shops with unique character next to big shopping malls.
We were also pretty impressed by the culinary options for us – so many vegan options that we were having a hard time to decide. 😂 Even in the market we find a vegan stand and this in the country where meat and dairy is the main source of nutrition.
We stroll a bit around the city center, looking around peace avenue and the Bombogor market becomes our place to shop.
Final arrangements, such as a sim card and bank duties are done and we are finally ready to leave the city huzzle around noon two days after our arrival.
Ready to explore Mongolia. 🇲🇳
Woanders 