Braden

Introduction

As a relative newbie to riding (I started in my 50’s) there was a distinct feeling of trepidation threading its way through the excitement as we planned this trip. From first conversations in late October 2024 to booked rental bikes in mid November and flights booked by late November, things moved very quickly.

The worst part then was the waiting, every day involved some element of planning, buying gear, discussing travel, planning routes and then repeating all over again. They do say not to over plan and that is true from a riding perspective, but we did find that booking travel early saved some of us a lot of money (booked in November for a June flight).

It wasn’t until our departure date finally arrived that it really began to feel real. From there every day became a new adventure, new places, new people, new food and new riding experiences.

My only advice to people thinking of travelling to Mongolia, whether it’s to ride a motorbike (or god forbid a pushbike) or travel by bus …. JUST DO IT! You will not regret a visit to this beautiful and welcoming country.

Day 1 – New Zealand to Ulaanbaatar

The flights were, as all flights are, too long and quite uncomfortable. I chose Air China as the flight was the most direct and the cheapest; next time I go I think I will have a stopover somewhere (Singapore comes to mind) and fly with a different airline. They weren’t terrible but neither were they great and I did find the economy class seats uncomfortable after just a few hours. Add to that the flight cancellation and rescheduling (by two days) and the absolutely horrendous Air China app and I’m left thinking an extra couple of hundred dollars would be worth spending.

We arrived in Ulaanbaatar after an uneventful journey via Beijing (transfer only). The security was largely non-existent, and the little blue arrival form we completed was roundly ignored by all of the airport staff.

We withdrew local currency from an ATM machine (Khan Bank is part of the Visa Plus network so if you have a Visa debit it will work there) and grabbed a local SIM card on the Unitel network. We were accosted by a couple of different people trying to sell us taxi rides to the city, it was hard to know who to trust the “Official” taxis or the opportunist drivers. In the end we need two taxis to get the four of us and all our bags to our destination (90k Tugruks per vehicle), in hind-sight we could have made one bigger  vehicle work and probably saved 40-50k.

The taxis took us to Cheke Tours where we got our first lesson on the genuineness and honesty of Mongolian people. I managed to drop my wallet in the taxi and the driver returned to our location to hand it back to me, what a guy (crazy driver, but honest).

The great people at Cheke Tours got us sorted out with bikes, stored our empty suitcases for us and gave us some great advice for the road.

With all our panniers packed and feeling like whales on a tricycle we set out for our accommodation at the Oz Guesthouse and Cafe we managed to make one wayward turn that dropped us into a construction site much to the confusion of the security. He was probably preparing to rant at us in Mongolian but we figured out our mistake and threw in a quick U-turn. 

From there we made our way to our accommodation with no real dramas but plenty of nervousness about riding on the wrong (for us) side of the road and dealing with the reckless abandon that is shown by Mongolian drivers.

Our host Battumur was fantastic, he welcomed us in, helped us move our gear and gave us a safe underground lockup for our bikes (for a small fee). From there it was dinner at the local Korean Restaurant (Chicken Nara) and into bed.

 

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