Waiting in UB

Hello world!  Yes, I am indeed alive and kicking, now in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.  It’s been 3 weeks since my passport with all my visas was stolen in Istanbul and with so many decisions to make and emotions to digest it’s taken me a while to feel ready to post.

After Amy, Yasmin and I had our little Greek island get-away, we booked it back to Izmir where they flew out early the next morning to meet up with the team in Almaty, Kazakhstan.  Although extremely grateful for them staying with me and doing a great job of cheering me up, I found myself abruptly alone.  I boarded a bus back to Emily’s familiar little oasis, the Eris Pansiyon, in Assos.  We drank wine and watched movies on the terrace, walked the ruins, swam in the Aegean, and dined keeping each other company and promising to reunite when she comes to Seattle this winter to see her family.  Can’t wait to return the favor of hospitality, Emily!

On 8/23 we said our goodbyes as I boarded the bus that would take all day to get me back to Istanbul.  At the end of the day I realized that I had stared out the window nearly the entire ride engulfed in a sea of emotions about what has transpired – feeling lucky to have been issued a new passport so quickly, grateful for Amy and Yasmin’s sacrifice of time on the rally in order to keep me company and for Emily’s generosity, anger for having let my guard down for the instant my bag was stolen, guilt for feeling that I let my team down by doing so, and in the background of it all a sad longing for Brian.  It may seem silly to most, but in the 15 years that we’ve been together, this 3 week span will be the longest we’ve ever been apart from each other.

The airport in Moscow seemed eerily vacant for 5pm on a weekday when I landed.  No reader boards about my connection to UB.  Hmmm.  I came across a daunting line of about 250 people tackling 1 airport employee.  The sign above her read “international connecting flights.”  Really?  I stood at the back thinking that there just HAD to be a better way, when another airport employee sauntered up and started yelling, “connecting flight?  Paris, London?”  I sidestepped right over a mere millisecond before all the others, showed her by boarding pass for the UB flight, and she waved me through a little door saying “go!”  Okay!  Gladly!  I passed a few hours in a cafe (the only one open?) which thankfully had wi-fi.  The flight to UB was a long one but it was maybe 2/3 full, so I got comfy in both my window and isle seats.

Coming into Mongolia was one of the most beautiful moments on this trip.  It was about 6:30am and the full moon was still shining over the steppe – amazing.  I was picked up by the very kind manager of my guesthouse at the airport.  Like all the others its in a very drab, run-down Soviet-era concrete block of a building with no sign, one tiny bathroom and a little kitchen for all to share.  But it’s clean and at $20USD a night for my own double room, I can’t complain.  I rested in my room a bit and then ventured out with map in hand.  This is a bit of a strange city, and with all the stories of pickpockets and bag slashers, I couldn’t help but feel a bit intimidated and longing for communication with the outside world.  My phone wasn’t working, no matter what I did.  A guy at a phone store didn’t know what was wrong either and didn’t think my problem would be solved by buying a SIM card from him.  Glad he was being honest.  So I found a little French (!) cafe with wi-fi.  I was nearly done composing my emails when the connection went down.  Ugggg.  I looked up to see if others were having trouble, and low and behold I saw a chap with a Mongol Rally t-shirt!  I walked right on over and introduced myself.  I thought he was fellow rallier, but no, it was Rob – one of the top organizers from the Adventurists!  He knew our team well, listened to the short version of my story, and then offered that I accompany him to another cafe that may have a better wi-fi connection.  (Power surges and the like are quite common here.)  Rob was great to chat with as we both finished up our online work and had coffees.

Yesterday morning I woke with a spring in my step!  I was going to be picked up and taken out to the Gorkhi-Terelj national park to ride Mongolian horses, and stay with a family in their spare ger.  I was very happy to have a few new friends in my group – a Swiss girl, 2 Korean girls, and 1 Korean guy.  They all spoke English well so we had a great time together.  We all went for a ride in the countryside led by 2 boys, one about 10 years old and the other 15.  They were very skilled riders and at one point the 10 year old galloped around us shirtless yelling in his most manly voice “I am Chinggis Khan!”  Pretty cute.  Later the father BBQ’d up some beef skewers (which were fabulous!) and we all drank until midnight under the wide open sky and full moon exchanging life stories.

This morning I was taken back to my guesthouse.  After cleaning up I hailed a taxi for the Gandantegchenling Buddhist monastery – Mongolia’s most important.  As I walked in I was approached by a soft-spoken young man who had a portfolio of artwork done by him and his father who was standing nearby.  After a nice exchange about Mongolian horses, I purchased one of his sketches done on rice paper.  At 3000 togrog, I couldn’t say no ($2.75USD).  This monastery was not too unlike those we visited in Tibet.  This one recently re-opened it’s doors in 1994.  The buildings were rebuilt after either being destroyed or used as horse stables by the Soviets since in 1938.  The 26m high golden Buddha was an especially impressive site.

Rather than hail another cab I wondered my way back stopping at a Thai restaurant for dinner where I also finished my 4th book on this trip.  Good thing I had sense enough to grab another at the bookstore in the Istanbul airport where they had a small English section.

Now I’m back in the little cafe, polishing off my second glass of wine, listening to one of the employees strum her guitar and hoping I’ll get to see my husband and team tomorrow.  I miss them all so very much.  My trip ended up being a very different one than expected – namely a beach vacation which I feel guilty about knowing all the hardships I should have endured with them.  I would have traded it all in a second to have been with them through it all.  But as they say, “such is the Mongol Rally.”  And although we’ve had very different experiences these past few weeks, I hope that when we reunite I’ll feel like a true member of Baatar Hero again.

Siberian Camp

The desert heat has given way to cold, windy Siberia. For the second night after crossing the Russian border, we are camping out in a field a few hundred meters off the main road with the cold wind nipping at the edges of our staked out tents, threatening to blow them away if we didn’t secure them properly.

The drive from Almaty to Semey, Kazaksthan was pretty breathtakingly beautiful with more rolling hills and gorgeous sunsets. The road was pretty breathtaking too… as it nearly knocked the wind out of us bouncing along the way. The Fiat’s have been performing beautifully to this point, but the rough Kazak roads took their toll on us big time. Car #206 took quite a beating the last few days as pot holes attempted to shake our bones loose. Our exhaust leak worsened considerably, making for not just a noisy ride, but a powerless and inefficient one. Then we noticed that the front right strut was providing almost no shock absorption. Tom took a look and noticed hydraulic fluid from the piston leaking everywhere, and the boot & bump stop shredding themselves. Every bump becomes a head rattling experience.

Half way to Semey we hooked up with teams Car Go Far Go and an ambulence team, Divorced Eggs. The ambulence was having brake problems and looking for a mechanic along the way (on a Sunday, without luck). And then just after joining their convoy our radiator fan motor blew out. I smelled the smoke first, and then made Tom pull over when I saw the temp guage climbing. We blasted the heat on full and drove in what felt like a Turkish sauna for 45 minutes while the engine cooled back down. We seemed to be ok as long as cooler air was coming and we didn’t slow down into low gears for higher torque driving… but these problems adding up is a little disconcerting. We can’t fall apart now! I also noticed my horn is completely out. When we tried to pop the hood on #201 to compare the horn fuses, we realized the hood release cable was broken and we couldn’t pop the hood! I was able to hack the mechanism with a pair of long pliers… but again, problems adding up, uggh.

These were supposedly the good roads too, as the last 150 klicks to Semey were supposedly completely riddled with pot holes. On the advice of a local at one stop along the way, we decided to avoid the direct road to Semey. Well, to put his hand gestures into words, “Road to Semey, not possible, machina [car] kaput” Instead, we drove out of the way, a longer distance, but on better roads, to Oskemen. In fact, these roads weren’t just better… they were fantastic! Freshly flattened out blacktop, like velvet, streched on for miles. We figure despite the distance we still made Semey in the same time, only with less damage to the cars.

I was hoping ever since leaving Almaty that I wouldn’t have to call in that favor from my Kazak security agency contact… but when our first stop for an imaginary offense occurred just oustide Semey, I was quickly contemplating it. These cops pulled us over at a roundabout for failing to signal, but we were just continuing along the round about in the same manner as everybody else (also not signaling), so Tom & I refused to pay the “ticket”. As the cops grew more serious, I actually did dial the number, but the crazy Kazak cell network wouldn’t actually connect the call.I argued with the cop in Russian for a few minutes, demanding he show us photo of the offense (all the cop cars have cameras). Between asking for the photo and appearing to call somebody, the cop got a little nervous and told us to carry on. So we did, almost straight on to the border, stopping only for a bite to eat.

The Russian border crossing, at 1am, was much less painful than I was expecting. In under 2 hours we cleared immigration and customs, had the cars searched, our visas “approved”, and were on our way to Siberian campsite number 1.

Gettign to bed pretty late, we slept in a bit and made it as far as Rubtsovsk before we had to stop and get the cars looked at. We made for the bank to exchange our Tenge for Rubles, and found a garage that looked like it knew something about suspension. We barely exhanged info in Russian (they knew n0 English) and then they just started pulling the wheel off and working on the car. With a dozen old used shocks on a shelf we figured we might get one of those… but they were either spoken for or none would fit, because the mechanic set about *repairing* our broken strut. Yes, you read that right, repairing. He sent a friend to a shop to look for a new one, but they couldn’t be found. So instead, he drills a hole in the strut, injects some kind of hydraulic fluid in there, and welds up the hole! He was a little concerned that the strut mount was already slightly bent, but at this point, with no new one in site, we had little choice but to carry on. Tom and I crawled under the car while it was jacked up for them to get the strut off, and patched up our exhaust leak ourselves. Rubtsovsk is a surprisngly dusty town, and with wind whipping quickly through it, we both got blasted by sand as we worked on the car. I still seem to have dirt everywhere on my body (behind my ears!) and it felt like we were working on these cars in the middle of a sand storm. The exhaust coming out of the engine had completely separate from the silencer with about an 1 inch gap, meaning I basically had no muffler anymore. Tom slapped some quick steel on there, we hope holding the pipe together. I then wrapped it tight with Rescue Tape! Brilliant stuff. Self adhering silicone tape, withstands tons of pressure and 500 degree farenheit tempuratures. On top of all that we slapped an exhuast foil kit, and now #206 purrs like a kitten, and provides extra power on the freeway for overtaking big trucks. Hopefully now I can get back some of my lost mpg’s!

The fan motor couldn’t be replaced by these guys, but they did help us hack together a hood release solution, running a wire through the bumper so we can manually release it from the front. 3 out of 4 repairs isn’t bad, and we’re back on the road. All of that for 600 rubles, basically $20.

Getting a late start, we didn’t quite make it to Barnaul before stopping to set up camp tonight. We are staked out well in this cold wind, or the tents very well could blow away. I’m wrapping this up and heading to bed so we can get up early and start laying waste to the thousands of kilometers of amazingly awesome pavement between here and Mongolia. More velvety roads that we can’t wait to just tear through. If we make good time we may be reunited with Kim in UB by the end of the week! Then we should have plenty of time to drive around Mongolia, down to the Gobi and back up to UB, as a whole team once again. Can’t wait to see my wife! I miss her so much!

Wedding Crashers

I couldn’t really say how nice of a town Almaty is since I’ve seen little besides the parking lot of our hotel, but following the the trend that’s been set since Turkmenistan the people have been overwhelmingly nice.

First order of business yesterday was to sort out our tourist “registration”… something you have to do at your hotel or at the OVIR office when you arrive, NOT at the border… an archaic throw back to the soviet era, and I think a weak attempt to track your movement, or at the very least to make traveling a hassle. But the receptionist at our hotel was very helpful and in another broken Russian conversation I was able to arrange for our tourist cards to be registered with our passports yesterday.

With that out of the way Tom took a look at the cars with Justin from Just A Steppe Away and we think they determined the drive shafts on 201 are *not* devastatingly harmed… so we rotated the tires and will carry on as is. We weren’t able to look at the possible exhaust leak on 206, but we did get radiator guards and rally fog lights installed, and changed the oil on both cars. Frustratingly we got 201 wired for lights and verified the electricity is live after the switch… but the lights still don’t seem to work. Maybe we got a bum pair. It’s too bad too because 201 has had it’s passenger side headlight constantly going out. We’ve gone through four H1 bulbs already and I got four more yesterday… At least 206 can lead the way with an extra 55watts each of rally lights blinding any oncoming traffic.

As we were out working on the cars, a wedding party started to assemble at the hotel. We worried for a bit that they might take offense that we had set up a make shift garage in the parking lot next to their reception hall, but on the contrary the guys started coming out and taking to us throughout the evening. They were fascinated by the rally, and the fact that we would come all this way to visit their country. The guests were mostly ethnic Ukrainians and Russians who had all grown up in Kazakhstan and call this their home, but do not call themselves Kazak. They were all dressed pretty sharply and seemed well off compared to most, driving nicer imported cars (mostly Japanese, all original right hand drive!). Throughout the night they would wander out for a smoke break and make conversation with us before heading back into the party… but by the end of the evening they were taking pictures with us and offering us champagne! One of the guys gave me his phone number and kept telling me to call him if we had any trouble with the police… at first we thought maybe he was mafia, but after the 4th offer to help with police I boldly asked him what he did, and he leaned in and whispered that he worked for the national security agency here in Kazakhstan. I’ll reserve some of the details until we exit the country (and posting this over encrypted ssh tunnel… paranoid maybe but I don’t want to draw the wrong kind of attention or get this guy in trouble, and who knows who’s filtering this internet connection), and I really hope I don’t need to call on him for help, but needless to say he was very convincing and I’m sure if we do have trouble with police a call to him will help us out big time.

We’ll find out soon as we make our way today from Almaty to Semey. Hoping to hit the Russian border in the next 48 hours and hit really nice pavement until we get to the Mongolian border in the next week or so!

Our Big, Fat, “Unplanned” Greek Vacation

Here we are back in Izmir–Kim, Yasmin and I wanted to take a few moments to update you on our last days together. We spent the last 4 days in Chios, Greece sitting up on another terrace eating delicious goat cheese, melon and local honey. We really managed to get back to the simple life–sleeping, reading, eating, swimming and then some more. Chios, Greece is the 5th largest Greek island but still retains it’s authenticity. An island whose exports are almonds, wine, oranges, limes, mastic and olives. I was lucky enough to touch some Mastic resin and it stayed on my fingers until finally the salt of the Aegean Sea washed it away! Sticky stuff- and it is used widely in beauty products.

Our apartment at Paradise Studios was nestled on the top of a hill overlooking the beautiful beach of Agia Fotini. I was amazed that such a beach existed-as it was full of the perfect skipping rocks. Kim and I packed a few away for our gardens back home.

Chios, birthplace to Homer, not Homer Simpson you Seattlites. What a lovely place.

And now we are nestled together in our Izmir hotel room avoiding prank Turkish phone calls. Yasmin and I will be headed out tomorrow to Almaty, Kazakhstan and Kim back to Assos, Turkey.  Kim is headed to Mongolia on the 24th–details to come on where she will be. Yasmin and I are really hoping that the gas shortage in Uzbekistan will not prevent the team from getting to us.

Until we post again-Opa!

I also uploaded some new photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47555946@N02/collections/72157624578165163/

Quick Update

Brian, Tom and  Jean are somewhere in the Karakum Desert, home to the
Darvaza Gas Craters 40°15′08.40″N 58°26′23.10″E. Read about it! Crazy
stuff. Kim and I are in Izmir waiting for Yasmin to arrive!

Olives to Olive Oil

        I’m sitting up on a terrace overlooking a hillside of ruins and olive groves–seemed like the perfect time to get inspired to write my first post. (Maybe it’s the Aristotelianism influence).  As I sat on the beach today I felt incredibly grateful for all of the kindness I have encountered in the last year. When we started this idea it seemed almost impossible to actually pull it all together. But, step by step people came together to support and help us make this adventure filled fundraiser a reality. Being Mercy Corps top fundraiser feels like a huge accomplishment and was quite a badge of honor to wear as we encountered other rally teams. Many other teams actually were aware of our financial success and commended us for all of our hard work. So, to everyone who supported us I just wanted to give thanks again for your help.

        And even though Kim and I are taking a mandatory break from the rally our little team continues to sludge on.  I can only imagine Jean’s list of misfortunes as she loves to list them all out in her little book like the 10 Days of Christmas– 6 hours at the Azerbaijan border, 3 Rally cars pulled over for speeding and one shreeedddded tire.  It sounds like they have had a lot to endure over the last few days–and I can only imagine how long her actual list is. We miss you guys!

       I booked my ticket  for the 18th to meet up with them in Almaty and I am strangely looking forward to being part of the mayhem again. The Fiat Puntos are small but oddly started to feel like home as they pushed through thousands of  miles. Jean and I managed to create a very cozy little bed in the back of the Fiat–a little too small for Tom’s legs, but we quite enjoyed it. You can learn a lot about people when you are crammed in a small moving vehicle–so for a small fee I have plenty to share about my teammates! Tom especially loved our conversation of the different “languages of love”–and applied his new knowledge quickly as he helped us navigate through unknown territory.  Thanks Tom!

         Kim and I are slowly letting go of our sadness for having to depart the rally and our team. Each day Emily, owner of the Eris Pansiyon, lets us tag along to her “Joy Luck” lunch club at the beach. At this little spot we have had the special priviledge of listening to a bunch of expatriates discuss life, love, and loss in Turkey. The ladies take care to order us lunch as we lounge away reading our books. Emily has been so sweet to us–coffee and fruit in the morning and tea in the afternoon. We feel so spoiled by her generosity that it has made missing this part of the rally a little more bearable.  Assos, Turkey, a tranquil Aegean-coast seaside retreat, amid ancient ruins and olive groves is a must see for anyone going to Turkey. The hillside cobbled streets are filled with villagers selling spices and olive oil in plastic water bottles. And the sea breeze at Eris Pansiyon is worth a stay. Thank you Emily for taking us in!

       Kim and I are off to Izmir tomorrow and to see Yasmin! We are not sure exactly where we are headed but we will keep you posted! Yasmin, pack some sunscreen because it is hot–100 degrees! Kim and I had to hide away today because even under umbrellas the sun found us. Our skin is now a lovely shade of red.

I have posted a sampling of some photos from the trip–enjoy!   

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47555946@N02/sets/

Photos!

Finally, we got some photos up on Flickr. When I get more time I’ll add more tags & frame them on the site w/some comments, but we have to run to Turkmen Consulate. For now, enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/autarken/tags/baatarhero/

Roaming Green Update

Here is a little Roam Green update on the trip so far. As expected, our little Puntos have been performing admirably in the efficiency department. After strapping some skid plates to them in Serbia, they sound like little race cars, but we have been getting between 36 and 50 mpg depending the conditions. With just over 3200 miles now traveled, we are averaging 42 mpg for the whole trip in each car! That is 76 gallons of gas consumed per car, about 8 fill ups so far. A few things we could do to improve our efficiency: carry less weight, and drive slower. Unfortunately these are pretty necessary evils on the rally. We have to carry our camping equipment and the pace of the rally is pushing our speed. Although, on all of these roads if we slowed down (and actually went the speed limit), we’d be by far the slowest vehicle on the road… other than horse carts. Thanks to TerraPass, the emissions we do have are offset by carbon reducing programs and research that they fund.

We have also been using the SteriPen UV purifier to fill up our water bottles whenever possible. However with the heat we are all consuming more water, and just keeping it cold is challenging. So we are trying to re-fill our bottles with the bottled water when we need to and leaving the waste plastic bottles at the point of purchase for better disposal or recycling than wherever we end up camping for the night.

Now for the bad news: Turkey was pretty dirty. Many European cities are polluted, but Istanbul was the haziest we’ve seen. After crossing the border into Turkey we saw fields of something being burned, and across the whole countryside we saw burning of garbage at landfills. Just A Steppe Away even saw garbage being pushed into the Black Sea! Seeing this kind of environmental destruction along the way is disheartening. Hopefully Turkey will realize the value of its natural beauty to preserve for its future citizens and travelers.

“Welcome to Tblisi! Now please enjoy a flat tire…” and other stories

Even though I may be overlapping some of Brain’s post, I thought I’d put in a few words about the last few weeks…

Family:

Meeting Tom’s uncle and Brain’s cousins was one of the highlights of Europe. In Koln, Germany, we were treated to a truly Indian/German fusion meal…pork and cabbage but with an Indian twist. Deeelicious. Yes, it came with a spicy sauce on the side. We were also able to do some much needed rearranging of our stuff as everything seemed to be everywhere but nowhere when we were looking for it. And Tom got in some much needed QT with family.

In Budapest, Hungary, we were treated to not only dinner, but also to a lovely walking tour of Budapest (so beautiful), a night out  on the town and our first flat tire upon leaving their house (oopsie!). We had a great time enjoying time for one day on the slow having coffee, conversation and quite a few laughs with the girls. New facebook friends!

Klenova, Czech Republic:

This party was crazy. We met up with our two F5 guests and caravaned in to a steam of people walking from the campground to the castle for the party. We turned up the Motley Crue on the radio and if we didnt pull away when we did a slew of people in costumes including Borat would have walked up to the car window to greet us hello. This was green thong Borat, btw. (Yikes!)

We were amazed that the Adventurists actually got the permit for this party. Last year, someone ran off with the head of one of the 14th century statues. Luckily, it was returned and the party resumed…complete with gin, roasted pig, watermelon, hookah and live music. All the teams were so excited to meet each other and the stories were insane (like the guy who was wearing a very nice sundress that Jennie would have loved telling the bit about how last year on the rally he sunk his car into a river, got arrested and thrown in jail for 8 hours).  Needless to say, we woke up feeling some pain and needing to erase the green graffitti written on our windows.

Bulgaria:

Our first grease. We didnt pay the vignette, so we “paid our fine on the spot”. Who knew there would be cops on every corner in Bulgaria! Not even out of the EU!

Turkey:

Ahh Turkey. I think I imagined a country full of Tolga’s and while everyone is quite gregarious, friendly and willing to take the time to engage in conversation, there is only one Tolga

There are, however, quite a few of Tolga’s peeps. Tamer and Tanol, college friends of Tolga’s, were originally going to have lunch with the team. We received a delightful mail with lines that said ”if you eat two profiterols, do not drink water in between” and “screaming is allowed while eating” while recommending places to eat and including text in Turkish to show restaurant hosts to ensure the proper treatment. After running into trouble, we called for help from the three T’s and we quickly got calls, emails, texts, favors to Moscow, and lunch.  I hope they visit Seattle soon so we can take them out and return the favor!

Our split off from Kim and Amy was really hard. They are now on the Aegean Coast enjoying some sun. I hope you are having a great time, girls!

Everything after Turkey:

Georgia: Beautiful countryside… two lane roads with 4 lanes of cars. Sorry, no lanes, I meant lines of cars. 2 lines passing into oncoming traffic at the same time! These people drive crazy! Goats, cows, ducks, people, cars, all in the road crossing whenever they g’damn well felt like it. Not to mention the craters for potholes. I fell asleep on our push to Tblisi and awoke to a massive earthquake in the car and yelled a groggy “oh god, something broken!” to Tom. I snuck some pics of the cops who had fun watching Tom and Brain switch out the flat at 2am and flirting with the other teams we found and caravaned with (one ambulance team named Magic Mongolian Mystery Tour and Just A Steppe Away). Georgia is like the greatsest ghetto car video game ever. Luckily no smashy smashy.

Azerbaijan:

Mmm, 6 hour border crossing. Line cutting (my NJ elbow came in handy at least once). Some ppl cant speak English and some people plain pretend they cant speak English. Transit visa  – read: need to be out of Azerbaijan in 3 days with the cars though our visas are tourist and good for 30. Shady “fees” at the border, immediately pulled over on the road. More “paying of the ticket on the spot”…halfway to Baku to get ready for 13 hour ferry with no bathroom and more greasing. Not sure I like this place but this hotel we are in is really really really nice. I am in a bathrobe and slippers writing this post. I think we are at least still 5 or so hours from Baku. 

Well, more later. I am nervous about this boat and how much we will have to pay in extra “costs”. Most of all the bathroom situation. Not that I’ve actually had a full meal in days but definitely no food or drink for me tomorrow

Pushing Onward

We have been pushing hard for 6 days now and have not stopped to post much content. When we arrive in Istanbul today we’ll break for a few days and will have many updates.