I returned to Russia last month for additional scouting. Svetlana Malygina, a member of the Ayres Adventures team who lives in Moscow, helped me with last June’s scouting and I had learned the value of having a Russian-speaking associate who knows the lay of the land. She agreed to help me with this second scouting trip. The scouting also provided the opportunity for her to visit relatives who live in eastern Siberia.
We flew to Irkutsk (a five hour flight from Moscow) where we rented a car and scouted the Buryatiya region of Russia, which borders Mongolia and includes Lake Baikal. I published an article on the blog (Irkutsk to China and Back) that summarizes this scouting trip, and includes a brief slideshow.
We scouted the portion of the Russian trip between Irkutsk and the Mongolian border and then made our way to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. We were able to hire Sodjamts ihktugchin lhkaahkuu (Soto), who turned out to be a great Mongolian tour guide. Soto took us to the Chinese border in his 4×4 – taking time along the way to scout the Mongolian portion of The Epic Journey. After returning to Ulaanbaatar we did additional scouting to the Russian border and then continued scouting in Russia before returning to Moscow.
I think we accomplished a lot:
We visited five different hotels on Lake Baikal and settled on one or two in the resort town of Listvyanka. Sveta’s relatives who live in Listvyanka were more than happy to help with scouting activities and provided advice about traveling in the area. We identified interesting “off bike” activities to embellish a two or three-night stay, including an outdoor museum at Taltsy, Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal, and a highly recommended trip on the Circumbaikal Railway. The stay is almost certain to include a cruise of the lake and a cookout including Russian Shashlik and smoked omul – a delicious fish that is found only in Lake Baikal. (Lake Baikal has several “claims to fame”. It’s the oldest and deepest lake in the world – more than a mile deep. It contains 20% of the worlds unfrozen fresh water supply. The volume of the lake is more than all of the Great Lakes of the USA combined. The water is so clear and pure that hikers are advised to not bother taking water with them, but to simply drink from the lake).
We selected an overnight stop in Ulan-Ude on the way from Listvyanka to the Mongolian border at Kyakhta. We identified several very suitable accommodations in Ulan-Ude, as well as a few interesting attractions.
On our way from Ulan-Ude we stopped for a few hours at a Buddhist “old believers village” of Tarbagatay, located about 50 kilometers from Ulan-Ude. The community has a small museum and a Buddhist temple which was one of only two temples in Soviet days. The complex is very extensive, and the main attraction is the Itygel Khambin Temple honoring the 12th century Khambo Lama, whose body was exhumed in 2002, seven decades after his death. People were astonished that his flesh had still not decomposed and some experts attested that his hair is still growing.
You are not permitted to walk across the border into Mongolia, nor are you allowed to enter with a rented vehicle. It required four “taxis” to get to Ulaanbaatar. After entering the city, we determined that we surely don’t want to take the group into the city by motorcycle. I had learned months before that traffic in Moscow is as bad or worse than Manhattan but I never would have suspected that traffic ANYWHERE in Mongolia could be worse. It was the worst traffic I’ve experienced anywhere in the world and I’m sure the group will be happy that we learned that we should avoid it. We identified some nice accommodations and restaurants there, even though we’ll be staying outside the city in the future.
Despite the traffic, Ulaanbaatar is a “must see” destination. We’ll stay at an incredible 5-star place that we discovered about 40 kilometers from the city in a beautiful mountainous area, and we’ll take the group into Ulaanbaatar via vans to visit the city’s attractions, including the Chinggis Khaan (or Genghis Khan, as he is known outside of Mongolia and Russia) Statue and Square. We’ll spend two (and perhaps three) nights at our luxury resort/spa near Ulaanbaatar so that we can incorporate visits to the nearby Mongolian festivals and events the country is famous for (horse racing, archery and wrestling).
Despite our surprise at finding Ulaanbaatar to be so “urban” – traffic congestion and all – don’t worry. The rest of Mongolia was as remote, interesting and exciting as we had imagined and we were able to visit plenty of attractions and places of interest that will be included in our tour. We visited several Buddhist holy areas, including Shambhala, we stopped to visit several nomads and were invited into their gers and we stayed in authentic gers (the simple, round tent-like dwellings used by the nomadic Mongolians) on two different evenings.
On our way to the Chinese border, we entered the Gobi Desert and experienced the mayhem of riding where the road bears little resemblance to a road as we know it and traffic signs are unheard of. I captured GPS track logs for the entire trip. Soto, as good as he was, was a bit embarrassed and apologetic for becoming lost for a short time when trying to find a sacred Buddhist mountain. When you come to a place in the desert where the sandy track forks in four or five different directions, and there is no sign, you just have to know which track to take.
After scouting Mongolia from the Russian to the Chinese border and back, we returned to Russia for additional scouting around Lake Baikal and in the remote and scenic Tunka Valley, some 200 kilometers southeast of Irkutsk. We located a great lodge at the base of Siberia’s Eastern Sayan Mountains that will probably be an overnight stop on the Siberian portion of our Adventure.
We were pleased with the results of the scouting, but perhaps the most important accomplishment of all was meeting Soto. One of our objectives for this scouting mission was to find a qualified guide who could accompany us and assist us during the Mongolian portion of our trip. We hit the jackpot with Soto. By the time we had spent a few days with him, Sveta and I felt as though we had known him for years and we feel very confident about relying on him to accompany us through Mongolia.
Although a Mongolian living in Ulaanbaatar, Soto has served as an officer in the Soviet military and is fluent in Russian as well as Mongolian. He is not only personable and friendly, but has a very good grasp of the history of this part of the world. He owns several vehicles that he uses when guiding, one of which is a new Toyota Dakota 4×4 crew cab pickup that we used for the scouting mission. We’re planning to use Soto for the Mongolian portion of the tour, and we may also use him for portions of the trip in other countries as well. He’s excited about the opportunity and claims to be “ready to go”.
You’ll want to experience sleeping (and having dinner) in an authentic ger, but two nights in two different gers is all it will take to get your fill of that very authentic but primitive experience.
The ger is a most interesting Mongolian phenomena (although similar structures are found in other parts of Asia). The small, round structures are made of canvas and can
be disassembled in less than an hour, packed onto some camels, and moved to fresh grazing areas. Soto told us that a ger costs about $1,000 USD and can accommodate an entire family. The internal setup of a ger is universal and there are established rules governing which side of the ger is to be occupied by women, which side can be occupied by men, and the location where the elder or honored guest is seated.
Dates and Itinerary Update
Although we had originally announced this trip as a Hong Kong to Moscow Adventure, we have decided to operate the trip from Moscow to Hong Kong. The chief reason is that it will provide us with more flexibility for motorcycle options (discussed below).
We’ve set the start date for July 31, with an anticipated end date of October 3, 2015. We’re planning the first two nights in Moscow so that there is time to provide a local tour of the city with some special activities before the trip begins. The first riding day will be August 2nd, which is a Sunday and will permit us to depart Moscow when there is little traffic. This may not seem like a big thing in the grand scheme of a 65-day trip, but I’d like to insure that we enjoy as smooth a start as possible.
Motorcycle Acquisition
There are only a few motorcycle tour companies that provide long, trans-continental journeys such as The Epic Journey. All of them require riders to provide their own motorcycles, and we will have to do the same.
Since only about half of those who are expected to book this trip are from the same part of the world, individual shipping costs will vary, so we’ll leave the cost of the shipping to the rider.
As an alternative to shipping personal motorcycles, I’m working on two other options:
Buy a new BMW Motorcycle in Moscow. I’ve discussed this with the president of BMW Russia and I think it may be a feasible option. The motorcycle could be equipped as you wish and we can arrange to have it shipped back to North America (or other global destination) from Hong Kong. For US citizens, so long as we insure that the motorcycle was manufactured to US specifications (in terms of emission controls and required safety factors) there should not be a problem getting the bike into the USA. Riders wishing to do this may arrive a few days or a week early and we’ll set up some guided rides that will permit them to put on the break-in mileage and have the first service performed before the start of the trip.
For riders who do not wish to ship their own motorcycle and who do not wish to ship a purchased motorcycle home at the conclusion of the trip, I’m planning to offer an alternative. I have many friends who are members of BMW Motorrad Club Russia. I believe I could secure purchase commitments that would guarantee that when the trip is complete, the motorcycle can be shipped back to Moscow where the purchaser would take possession of the motorcycle. This is, in effect, a purchase of a new motorcycle with a guaranteed “buy back” at a predetermined price. This option should offer the ultimate purchaser the opportunity to buy an “almost new” motorcycle at a very attractive price, while offering our riders an opportunity to ride a new motorcycle at less than what a rental would normally be.
Providing a rental motorcycle is probably not a viable option, as it would present difficulties in crossing borders and the rental cost for a 65-day period would be prohibitive. The options that I’ve outlined should provide everyone with a solution that will work for them.
On the “authenticity” of The Epic Journey:
To paraphrase a question asked by several riders: “Are we going to have ‘authentic’ experiences in the countries in which we travel, as opposed to only visiting tourist areas?”
The Epic Journey is being crafted to insure that riders enjoy authentic experiences in all of the countries in which we travel, and that there is time to learn something about the local culture and about everyday life in these countries.
The question prompted me to select the photo at the top of this bulletin. There is an interesting story behind the photo that relates to this question.
Sveta was born and raised in the small village of Chikoy on the Russia/Mongolia border. Our scouting trip provided the opportunity for us to visit her aunt and uncle, who still live in the village and whom she had not seen in more than ten years. I enjoyed the visit immensely and was assured that I was the first American to ever visit the village. (Foreign visitors are required to obtain permission to visit the area, because it’s located on the Russian/Mongolian border.) Google maps will come up blank if you search for Chikoy, but for those of you with a keen interest in geography, the coordinates of her uncle’s front yard are N50 16 28.9 E106 54 57.1 – about 3 kilometers from the Mongolian border.
As we departed Chikoy, the morning fog was beginning to lift and we approached a villager who was walking cows to pasture, accompanied by his dogs. I snapped the photo before we overtook him and stopped to say hello. We learned that he had known Sveta’s father, who had died nearly 20 years ago.
I appreciated the opportunity to experience first-hand what life was like in such a rural Russian community that almost never sees foreign visitors and in which most villagers have never visited a large city. We agreed that riders and villagers alike would enjoy it if we made a brief stop to spend an hour or two as we pass through the area on our way to Mongolia.
Sveta assured me that her family in Listvyanka, who we had visited at the beginning of the trip, would also enjoy planning an event, such as a lakeside cookout, for one of the evenings that we spend in the town while on our way to Mongolia. I enjoyed the family lakeside dinner with them during my stay in the town and I’m sure that such an authentic event will be much more interesting than a meal in a nice restaurant.
Soto understood our interest in traveling beyond tourist paths in Mongolia. He’s very proud to share his intimate knowledge of his country with us and he arranged for us to visit the homes of several nomad families as well as to spend a few nights in gers rather than a hotel or lodge. It’s something we’ll repeat for guests of our big Adventure.
These are but three examples of what we have in mind, but rest assured that we’ll focus on delivering authentic cultural experiences.
Will we be able to stay in Suzdal (one of the most popular Golden Ring cities)?
All overnight stops have not been finalized at this time, but we’ll spend some time with the Golden Ring cities after visiting St. Petersburg and the Republic of Karelia. We’ll either stay in Suzdal or a neighboring Golden Ring city, but we’ll surely spend some time in Suzdal in any case.
Sincerely,
Ron Ayres
Ayres Adventures, Limited
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