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 […]
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 […]
We made it from Russia to Kazakhstan, but first, we had to cross a rickety pontoon bridge, which was quite an adventure! Then we abruptly pulled up to a huge line at the border. It was 21 vehicles deep and not moving. The sun was beating down on us, and we bought cold water from […]
As we rolled into Volgograd (the former Stalingrad) it was filled with boxy cement architecture and crazy drivers. We stayed near the town center in an apartment sponsored by Roomorama. It’s always interesting to get to see the insides of these buildings that look a bit depressing from the outside. The apartment had it’s quirks, […]
Most of the time when I go to a country for the first time it’s all about shattering stereotypes that I was brought up with. I did come into Russia with a lot of per-conceived ideas and stereotypes, thanks to growing up in the cold war era. and surprisingly not many of them have been […]
This is exactly what I was trying to avoid…I was hungry and tired. A deadly combination for anyone that has to be near me. Unfortunately my Mongol Rally teammates were stuck in a car with me. My stomach was a big stress ball; it felt like a knot was tightening every hour in my stomach. […]
While on the way to Kiev we received the email that our official V5 paperwork had arrived! This was great news as it would provide us with the proper paperwork to get the car into our remaining countries and no longer have to use the Temporary V5 that seemed to be annoying most of the […]
Today we were on what seemed like a super highway for Ukraine as we traveled from Odessa to Kiev. Finally – some smooth tarmac – hallelujah! However, as I sped down this highway constantly trying to go the ever changing, never-marked, speed limit I was stunned by the culture along the highway in Ukraine. […]
Every day brings with it a new driving challenge in the Mongol Rally. Today’s challenge was potholes. We had heard horror stories about the roads and driving in Ukraine, but it’s hard to really imagine and believe until your wheel has been swallowed up by a huge hole and you hear the gut wrenching sounds […]
