Samarkand Bound: Mongolia

Mongolia is about the same size in area as Alaska, not densely populated, about 2.6 million people. Over half of the population live in yurts or gers, and the capital, Ulaalbaatar, contains one third of the country's inhabitants.
Most of the people practice a Tibetan version of Buddhism. The first photo is north of the Mongolian border in Russia.

Caine has the honor of getting the first flat tire of the trip. Fixed it and carried on to the border crossing of Sukhbaatar.

Through the border and into Mongolia. People very friendly.

Drove a kilometer or so off the highway, and set up camp for the night. Weather nice. The countryside is rolling steppe, and no fences. Perfect for motorcycles!

Herding livestock. This is the biggest industry in Mongolia. There are more than 30 million animals in the country, sheep, cows, yaks and camels. Forty percent of the population are nomads.

The main road from the border to Ulaanbaatar was paved and in great condition. A nice drive over rolling country, sprinkled with yurts and of course, lots of livestock.

Yurts by the side of the road. Usually, there were more than one.

Entering Ulaanbaatar, a very pleasant city. Good restaurants and a great place to stock up. The drivers were some of the worst we encountered in any urban area. They drove like they were out on the open steppe, forgetting the restricted width of the streets. Often on a two lane city road, the traffic was four or five across, even up on the sidewalks!

A yurt among high rises, downtown Ulaanbaatar.
The city is so unlike the rest of the country. It is in outward appearances much like a nice western city, whereas the countryside is open and nomadic.

A fellow biker, Clyde, an American, convalescing in a yurt that six of us shared in Ulaanbaatar. He had a spill in Russia.
We started meeting a lot of motorcyclists here, mostly European, making the circuit through Mongolia.
We serviced all our bikes here, and put on new tires.
Over ninety percent of the motorcycles we encountered were B.M.W.s, and the tires of choice were almost all Continentals.

After a few days in the capital, we headed west through central Mongolia. We decided against the southern Gobi desert route to avoid the sand, and against a northern route due to possible impassable roads. An Austrian couple that had lived in the country for some years, also told us that this was their favorite part of the west.
The photo is of a proud father and daughter, taking a look at us during a gas stop west of Ulaanbaatar.

A yurt at the side of the road. Note the solar panel and the antenna. Given good weather and sizable herds, I thought that that the lifestyle could be quite comfortable. Most people had either a S.U.V., a small truck, or at the least a Chinese motorcycle parked next to the ger.
Children work with their families, going to towns to school in the winter.

Two young couples on their bikes in traditional country dress. Notice the baby, and the mom on her cel. phone.

Kharkhorum in the mid 13th century was a happening place, capital of the Mongol empire, established by the son of Chinggis Khan. It remained the capital for forty years until Kublai Khan moved the capital to Beijing. A big part of the world was ruled from here. There is next to nothing left of the original buildings. The photo is of the walls surrounding the Erdene Zuu Khind Buddhist monastery founded in 1586. It is about one kilometer square and at one time had over 100 monasteries inside. It went through a series of ups and downs until it was finally put out of business by Stalin's goons in the 1930's. All but 3 monasteries were destroyed and an unknown number of monks were either killed or shipped to Siberia.
The roads were good so far and mostly paved. The next 1000 plus kilometers are dirt across the steppes.

Monica praying for Simon and viceversa at the prayer wheels inside the monastery grounds.

Pagoda.

Golden eagle. Northwestern Mongolia is home to a Kazakh minority. They have a tradition of using trained golden eagles for hunting.

The modern way of herding sheep, with a Chinese made motorcycle.

Herding sheep by the side of the road. The guy was having a great time. Some of the nicest looking horses I've ever seen. Mongolia is horse country!!

Western Mongolia's version of a four lane highway. When one lane gets too rutted, they just move over ten meters and make a new one. We averaged from fifty to sixty kms. per hour over these roads.

Rainy weather. We were really lucky with the weather, only encountering a couple of wet days. Mosquito in this photo, but the bugs weren't bad as a rule.

Simon crossing a creek in Kyargas Nuur National Park, where we camped for a few days. Nuur is the Mongolian word for lake. The Mongolian language is written using the Cyrillic script.

Campfire at dusk in the park. This lake was fresh water, but many in the country are salty. Lovely spot!

Gas stop on the way west. Some of the older people had a knowledge of Russian. The younger people tended to have a little English. Most little towns had a basic restaurant and stores with simple food stuffs.

Simon and Monica moving on. The corrugations and the occasional sand or thick dust patches made it slow going, but there was no hurry.

Restaurant stop, Caine and friends. They were all dressed up, heading into town. The people were great and very hospitable.

Typical basic fare in Mongolian countryside eating establishments. Noodle soup, noodle stir fry, greasy with fatty mutton and salt tea. Yummy!

Caine went too close to the shore of a salt lake and got bogged down. Frank and Simon got covered in dirt getting him out.

Remember the old movie, "The Wild Ones"?? Marlon Brando, eat your heart out!! These two fellows pulled up beside us, as many others had, curious about us and the bikes. Didn't say anything, just looked for a few minutes, then moved on.
Even when we camped out in what we thought was the middle of nowhere, somebody would show up on a horse or a bike, spent a few minutes taking a good look, then move on.

Bactrian camels by the side of the road. As we got further west, the land became more arid and the yurts and herds more widely dispersed. We are just north of the Gobi desert.

Chai stop, just east of Khar Temis, in a yurt at the side of the road. Monica, Simon and myself.

Simon doing a river crossing, western Mongolia. There were few bridges, but we were lucky to travel without much rain. We had about six crossings to do in Mongolia.
Road signs were also next to nil. We had G.P.S.'s, asked as we went, and followed the electrical poles.

River crossing!

People beating wool for felt. The covering for the yurts is made out of felt.

Ovoo Offering. These piles of stones are found all over Mongolia on top of hills and predate both Buddhism and Shamanism. Circling around these cairns three times pays gratitude to the spirits and the ancestors protecting the surrounding land. The blue ribbons represent the sky.

The road east of Olgii, the Kazakh area of the west. Simon and Monica are in the distance.

We had just come over a low pass, quite pleased with ourselves with having managed a tough road, when we ran into a fellow with chain trouble. We stopped and with our tools he fixed it. There was a pregnant younger women and a baby traveling with him side saddle on that little motorcycle. Incredible, on that track!