“I’m starving!” I said as the Russian waitress brings out the menu with the usual cold grimace on her face. I eagerly open up the menu so that I can find something to eat, my eyes focus on the words and then it hits my brain; I have no idea what this menu says. The […]
I don’t think any Mongol Rally team has actually made a plan and stuck to it. The rally throws you too many curve balls to be able to do that. We had our first curve ball in Kazakhstan…it was called time. We drove into Aktobe on considerably better roads. At one point, they […]
“You tourist?” This is the most asked question of us in Kazakhstan. The crazy thing is that it’s asked everywhere; on the street, in hotels, and even as we are driving down the street other cars will slow down, roll down their windows and ask the popular question. It’s been a long time since I’ve […]
I expected poor roads, hot days, car issues, team disagreements, dirt, hunger, and communication challenges. But there was one thing I didn’t expect – Kazakhstan. The 9th largest country in the world has knocked me off my feet…my smelly, hot , dirty mongol rally feet. The environments and unfortunately road conditions in Kazakhstan change wildly […]
This is my favorite team photo to date! We rolled into this dried-out lavender field while the sun was setting and quickly jumped to action setting up camp before we lost the light. This was our 3rd night of camping in a row, and we had the process down. As you can tell – […]
The best thing about camping on the Mongol Rally is peeing in the desert under the stars. It’s bliss. And it’s certainly better than Kazakhstan gas station bathrooms where you have to plug your nose and try to wipe the disgusting memory from your mind before it scars you for life! I’m not much of […]
One of the hardest things about the Mongol Rally is that we are speeding through countries in a car. This means that we really don’t have much time to get out and meet locals or dig into culture which really pains me. In fact – we encounter most cultural/local interaction at gas stations – […]
Today sucked…really sucked. I expected the hard, slow, dirty driving in the Mongol Rally, but I wasn’t expecting it today. There really was no road except for some rubble that was more hardship than what it was worth. So ingenious drivers made their own roads alongside the “official road.” It was like a web of […]
After camping without much preparation the night before, all the teams got up, took down camp, and drove into the next town, Atyrau, where we promptly used my Lonely Planet digital guide to point us to a restaurant with breakfast. We were all starving, and the restaurant served a proper English breakfast. We inhaled it […]
