to Bulgan: Two attempts to cross the border.

September 16, 2016

On Thursday morning we haul all our gear from the third floor down the stairs, load up and set off. The four lane highway that skirts Tarkshken heads towards the border. It is a cold morning. We have only done about two kilometers when we pass a woman in a tracksuit who calls out to us in English. She says she works at the border and that the border is closed today. We knew today is the first day of the Mid-autumn festival, a holiday that lasts three days. Dang! Let’s hope the border is open tomorrow, because we already know it is closed during the weekends. Tarkshken is an okay place and the hotel is nice, but being stuck here for five nights is a bit much.

So we go back to the hotel and spent the rest of the day watching movies and eating.

On Friday morning we haul all our gear from the third floor down the stairs, load up and set off. No one waves us down this time so we ride the 16 kilometer or so towards the border. We pass two backpackers walking down the road just before we reach the border, they are from New York and are studying Chinese in Urumqi. When their visa expires they need to leave China briefly to get stamped in again for another two months. They must have the same multiple entry visa we have.

We reach the border a little ahead of them, but the staff has not opened up yet, so we wait chatting with the guards. When the backpackers arrive it is ten o’clock and the border is open for business. There is a steep ramp into the building but we get help from the backpackers. Inside the bikes are unloaded and all bags x-rayed. Our passports are checked four more times before we are out of China.

Then about 500 meters cycling and another customs building. We enter via a stairs at a side door, leaving our bikes leaning up against the wall outside. Inside is a passport check, stamping and another x-ray machine. We hope for the best, walk past the x-ray, go out the other end and walk back outside to where we left the bikes. No one waves us down to have our bags x-rayed so off we go into Mongolia.

Bulgan is a bit further than we thought, we start with a climb, then 44 kilometer ride to the town. We see two hotels on our way in, but first we go looking for a bank to exchange our left over Chinese Yuan. The only ATM in town does not like our card, but we had enough Yuan’s left to last us a while, till we get to another large town.

We check out both hotels and settle on the first one we saw, it has a nicer room with attached hot shower. Then back to where we exchanged our money because next door was a telephone shop. They are very helpful setting us up with a sim card and data.

There are many shops in Bulgan and although they are all small and seem to carry the same stuff we find them better stocked than in china with items we actually want. No more vacuum packed chicken feet. We stock up for three dinners and four days of cycling to the next town.

In the evening we head back out hoping to find a meal in one of the many restaurants, but to our surprise they are all closed. Not sure what is going on with that, in China things closed during the day but then opened again, here the streets are suddenly deserted with only a few drunks staggering around. So we pick up some more beer, canned peaches and chips and have a junk food dinner in our room.

Trucks lined up to cross the border. The Chinese have built a 300 km long road into Mongolia to a coal mine. It appears all the coal is trucked down this road back to China.

Past the passport checks, x-ray machines, guys in uniform and gates. We are in Mongolia!

Nice hills behind Bulgan. Yurts are now called gers.

One of the hotels we checked out in Bulgan. This isn't the one we picked, but it gives you an idea of the architectural styles used here.

Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 22,314 km (13,857 miles)

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