Day 12: At the Mongolian border

Laurance Yap

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

When the rally organizers, several months ago, sent out the itinerary with one day scheduled for less than 200 km and a border crossing, I wondered why. After all, we've already done 1,000-km days and it's not like the road from Kosh Agash to our first camp in Olgy was a very difficult drive.

Now I understand. Crossing the border - or to be more specific, leaving Russia - is not the work of a moment.

The crossing amounts to a couple of shacks and one lane and the bureaucracy is impressive. You roll up to the stop, go to the hut on the left, sign some papers, go to the hut on the right where the papers are checked and signed, go back out to your car where it is inspected, go back to the same guy to have the papers checked again, then go around back through passport control. Then you go out the front to your car and drive away - but not before having your passport checked at least a couple more times. Did I mention that, in the midst of processing about 50 rally cars, that the entire staff took a two-hour lunch break?

The 22-km drive from Russia to the Mongolian border ranks as one of the best of my life. The road winds gently through a valley that's populated by herds of sheep, the scenery (if not the road itself) is gorgeous and I've never seen a landscape that seemed quite so unspoiled.

Getting into Mongolia took significantly less time, but was no less complicated. Passport control was easy but there were two more stops, one for a mandatory car insurance ticket and another for an emissions tax that we figured was just an enterprising Mongolian set up because he saw a business opportunity. Nevertheless, we're loving it here. The people are very friendly (one rallyist attributed the small-town Russians' aloofness to the fact that they thought somebody might be watching) and a surprising number also speak English or German, the native tongue of the rally organizers.

Tomorrow, we have a day off before the long off-road stages begin through Mongolia. We'll spend it trying to find a shower and maybe a toilet with running water before the real fun begins.

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