We decided to cycle to a Monastary and leaving the main road. Welll a detour for 280km just 2 visit a monastary .... I know bikers are crazy but ...its about the journey and not the destination :)
We started in the morning, stopped at a supermarket and filled our bags with water, chocolate and all the other goodies you need on such a trip. We started cycling and after around 70km we saw a nice ger and decided to stop. The familiy invited us in tehir tent and we had again milk tea and fucking hard butter cake cookies which are discustingly salty. Out of politness we could not refuse them and continued chewing one of them while the others disappeared in our cloth. The familie wanted us to sleep in the ger but we refused the offer and went in our tent.
In the morning when we woke up ... we realize it was below 0 because we had ice on our tent. Unfortunatly it was still raining so not the nicest day to start a tour.
After a short stop for coffee we moved on and cycled another 40 km till the crossing to the Monastary. Camel or what ?
A half russian/mongolian has a small restaurant their in his ger and we decided to stop because it was freaking cold. We had a soup and cycled the remainiung 35 km on rough road to the Monastary. The scenery is just amazing and suddenly a camel were standing in front of us :). We could not believe it and tookj a picture for the evidence before we continued cycling.
Finally the sun cxame out and after around 70km we saw the Monastary and were happy to find a "tourist" ger. We made fire inside and unpacked our wet tent and cloth to get it at least a bit try. 3 h Soup
After visiting the monastary we had our breakfast in the sun, before we decided to continue cycling back. The 35km back on rough road went easier then expected and once we reach the ger restaurant we decided to have another soup. The guy and some3 friends were there and so we started to chat and small talk and after we finished our soup we realized its already 3h later. We decided to continue cycling. The party ger
After another 30km we stopped at a nice valley with some gers approached one of them and asked if we could pitch our tents. We were again invited inside and it was the 1st time that we had to drink airag (fermented milk) tastes like cider.
After that I had to try raw goat meat .... well .... its nothing I need to try again but for politness you do sometimes weired things. We enjoyed the blue sky in front of our tents before we went to sleep. The guys in the ger started their party now which continued until 5am in the morning. We woke up at 8, had our coffee and started to pack our things, when the drunkards started to approach us with vodka and milk tea. We both took a sip of the vodka but could convince them we have to cycle on and could not get drunk with them. Butter milk Ice
We cycled on and after some stops fro lunch and coffee we reached fianlly teh main road again direction to Ulan Bataar. We decided to cycle on for some more kilometers. After around 15km we found another small village and decided to buy some beers for the night. We also bought ice and Erika was laughing her ass off, when I told her my ice tastes like the butter milk cookies we hate so much. It seems like the rosines in the ice was a kind of an award that i ate another centimeter away. I can not understand how somebody can produce an ice like that :P We then continued cycling for another 10 km before we pitched our tents on a slope, enjoyed our beer and enjoyed the sky.
We woke up with a sunny day. It seems like the sky is eating the rest of the landscape. Mongolia is sky ...amazing sky.
On our way to Darkhan we had to stop several times and get our breath ... not from cycling but from the scenery We stopped by a bow and arrow workshop ... where we met a 13 year old girl who talked with us in german. :)
She wants to study in germany. After visiting the shop we continued and cycled along only us and nature and once in a while a car.
We had to stop severall times to let sheeps pass our way and the shephards are always good for a nice picture.
This country is a bikers or better a nature lovers dream
Tomorrow we are planning to make a 240km detour (not in one day) to visit a monastery. I know how crazy must someone be to make a detour of 240km by bike ....but its the journey not the destination :)
Mongolia did not welcome me nicely. Not because of the people but the weather. It was raining. When I crossed the border the Mongolian guy in charge seemed to be bored.l He asked me into his place and asked me questions about the German Olympic team. The he told me a Swiss girl crossed the border one hour ahead of me.After crossing the border I cycled 25 km to Suekbatar, the border town of Mongolia. The first impression was just amazing only me the steps and nothing else for 20km ...Once in a while a truck and the road is paved, better then expected.In Suekbatar I made a stop to eat something and met Erika the Swiss girl. She is cycling for more than 4 month now and has covered more then 5000km.
After our lunch we continued cycling together and were both amazed from the countryside. We met a Czech motorbike driver who covered 8000 km in 16 days ....but by bike you experience it better :)
At around 6pm we decided to look for a campsite. Then we saw a ger and decided to go there and ask if we could pitch our tents.
We were asked in and got offered some tea. Then we pitched our tents before we had to go back in and talk with the guys ...not so easy if you don't speak Mongolian. At around 9 we went in our tents and realized it is fucking cold in Mongolia at night.
I fell asleep and still could not imagine what has happened. What a great country.
Ulan Ude
Thursday we got off the train and lost 5h immediately. In the train its Moscow time and here its 5h later. I am staying in a hotel with Manfred the Austrian guy and we do some visits of the sights here around. Sunday I took a train to the border and started cycling to Kjata. Around 30 km cycling to the border town of Russia/Mongolia.
Trans Siberian Express
Crossing Russia with the Trans Siberian Express is incredibly amazing. It was a 4 days trip straight on the train. I was in a 4 ppl compartment with a family from Siberia. Talking with hand and feet let me found out some more about them, about Russia and Siberia. I met several cool travelers in the train, like Hektor from Cuba, Ben from England, Lisa and her friend from South Africa and Manfred from Austria.
In the Restaurant we had once in a while some vodka sessions with some nice Russians. All the stops in between we used fro refilling and reloading our stocks before we continued the ride. From Moscow till Ulan Ude (Lake Baikal) we covered more than 5000km.
I took the night train and arrived in the morning at 6 am in Moscow. When I wanted to get into the train the train attendant wanted to tell me that I can not bring the bike ... at least thats what I understood :). I had a compartment for 4 and no place at all for the bike. Though I put the bike onto my bed and slept beside it. My Russian co-compartment friends where laughing and for sure thought what a crazy guy:)
Moscow
I am impressed of Moscow it is a nice and clean city with a lot of atmosphere. Especially around the Kremlin and the red square a lot of party is going on. Russian ladies are really a nice eye catcher ...all with their high heels and legs till the head ... Seems like they are all 2 meters tall.
In the evening I met Natalia, a Russian girl - I met here via a travel web page. We went out with 2 Turks, another Russian and an Irish girl and the night ended at 5am in the morning.
Saturday Natalia helped me to purchase my ticket and ...its impressive if you speak Russian it takes only 10min hahaha - Thanks Natalia.
After that I tried to find a internet cafe - seems to be a nice one, voted the best internet cafe in yahoo.com .... but I will never know how it looks like, coz after 1 hour searching, i gave up.
Its Sunday 11am ... i am here at the train station now and waiting for my train to Ulan Ude, its a bit further than Irkusk.
In the morning at 9 after the passport control i left the boat. The 15 km into the city center would have been easy if I would speak Russian or at least if I could read Cyrillic letters. I asked my way around and maybe every 10th Russian I asked speaks at least a little English. I found my way to the city center and took some pictures of the St. Isaac Cathedral and my bike. After checking in (fuck its expensive here) I met a Norwegian guy and we had some beers and talked about my trip. He did the trans Siberian railway last year and could give me quite some good information. St. Petersburg is a very nice city and i am impressed about the friendliness of the Russians. My hardest time here was to get a train ticket to Moscow, because nobody speaks English at the train station. After 2 days and all in all 5h waiting on different counters I finally got it :)
The atmosphere on the boat is great. An ecuatorian bar keeper reminds me of my south America trip. On the boat are mostly Russian truck drivers, some tourists and some east German carpenters. We have a great time at the bar and everybody want to talk with the "crazy German biker". The food is good and i am enjoying my days watching the Olympic games and the open sea.
Hergershausen (my home town) - Lübeck
On the road. I had a nice coffee in the morning at a friends place and then i biked to the train station. At 3pm I arrived in Luebeck. I went straight to the pier and check in into the boat.
