Route : Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Approx Distance : Many a mile by foot and taxi!

The next 2 days went by in a blur…we had to officially end the rally and get rid of the Suzuki…of course, for me personally, how long i stayed in UB depended on when a cheap flight to Chennai would be available. Anyway, couldn’t really write much about these two and a half days…but some of it was not without a bit of drama! Read on…

Slept like a log…a real dead silent still million year old log! Must have been all the emotions of the past few days coming to an end. Anyway, we woke up pretty late…and thought might as well officially drop off the car with the rally people. So i emptied the car of all the stuff which i wanted to take back with me…i also used Rajas bag (he let go of it because it was covered in jam! A rather routine rally accident!) and filled it with  clothes that i felt like donating along with the clothes which we were carrying along for Soyombo (the Italian NGO who gave us some clothes to carry to Mongolia). I didn’t feel like giving up the tent…maybe i got attached to it a bit…besides, it was a gift from a close friend and i didn’t feel like throwing it off. Anyway, Kristie was not around for some reason…don’t remember now…so me and Dink set off with the Peugeot and the bags of clothes…i had the phone number of the person i am supposed to call up…her name was Baaska.

Of course, i had just 3rd and 4th gear…known funda. And everyone knows that they are not the best gears to use in cutthroat city traffic…and UB had the busiest streets we have seen on the Rally till date. The 3rd gear was groaning all the time…the gear box was screaming for air as we negotiated the turns and stops and gos of city traffic…it was crazy! I had a feeling that the car wont make the whole 700m or so of road from the hotel to the finish line…and i was right…with a big sigh…the gears broke. We revved all the way up to the red line..nothing. The strain proved too much for the poor gears…they died. In fact, the gearbox was started burning…the smell of the burning gears was around for the next couple of hours! Anyway, me and Dink got out and started pushing the car along…it was not such a big blow on the traffic because we could very well keep up with the pace of the normal traffic just by pushing the car…for now atleast. We turned around a bend and entered the main road…it was going to be hard here. Dink thought we needed help…so he set off to find some help from the finish line to get the car home. Meanwhile, a local helped me push the car to a bus stop where i was slightly uncomfortable waiting for Dink while everyone was staring as if i was a three legged chicken!

Anyway, Dink did return…with a couple of British rally people…they took a look at the car and were of the opinion that they can tow the car. Ok, why not! So we were waiting for them to turn up with their vehicle…a minute passed…two…three…twenty minutes and no sign of them. Hmmm…then they turned up with a grin on their faces. Their car broke down!! Oh my god! This was turning out to be a really awesome end for the rally! Exactly keeping in spirit with the whole idea of the Mongol Rally. Anyway, with no real option left…the 2 guys and Dink started pushing..i was steering and braking of course. The funny part was…we had to push about 50m down a main arterial road, perform a U-Turn and go about 300m for the finish line! Hehe! We did it of course…rather smoothly…inspite of the shitty traffic jams, we went smooth. Kristie was there at the finish line waiting for us…with her camera rolling, she captured the whole finish to the end! It was THE MOST fitting finish to the mongol rally…to push your half dead and broken car to the finish line…was brilliant. Couldn’t have asked for more…although a small part of me was hoping that someone would be able to import a new gear box and actually run the car…because the Peugeot Partner was a very strong car…and it was a goods carrier…something very useful for Mongolia as far as i could say…

Anyway, HUGE relief. We grabbed a beer and toasted the final finish of the rally! Meanwhile, Baaska showed up. I called her while waiting at the bus stop. She was a 20 year old social studies student and was volunteering for this organisation called Asral. She was very grateful that we actually made it with the clothes and had some extra clothes to donate as well. I casually introduced her to Kristie and went about my stuff. I had to do the paper work of handing over the car…registered our finish…and collected our certificates!! Handed over the keys and came out. Of course, Kristie and Dink still had to figure out a way to get rid of the Suzuki…Dink reported that Kristie was talking with Asral about them taking the car…fingers crossed! If it works out, that would be exactly the thing that both parties needed..a good deed done and a stroke of luck as well! Lets see…

Meanwhile, there were a whole bunch of rally people there chilling around…we grabbed more beers and settled down to exchange stories…it was loads of fun! We even fixed a date that night to goto a Mongolian BBQ with the guys we met…meanwhile Kristie returned all positive and smiley! Turns out that they really could use the car (they dont have one currently) and were seriously willing to help out with the paperwork required by Kristie and Dink. They knew someone who worked with the Mongolian Customs (perfect!!) and this person agreed to ensure Kristie’s safe passage out of Mongolia…this was required because the proper paper work would take more than 2 weeks and we, of course, cannot wait for that long! Wow! This seemed like its going to work out real well..

More stories exchanged and we headed back to the hotel to freshen up…we headed out for this Mongolian BBQ restaurant with the rest of the guys. Had a very nice time…a Mongolian BBQ was something new to me…one has to basically pick the veggies, meat, sauces and spices in a bowl and hand it over to the guy with a big circular hot plate…he grills your ingredients and hands it over in a plate! With salad and soups by the side, it makes a wonderful meal…as you want it…!! Totally cool concept…we loved it…beer all around. Good fun! Loads of laughs…and we were getting to know more people! We headed out to an Irish pub after that and i drunk myself crazy…wanted to…and did it…rather easy with all the vodka shots to be taken with the completely stupid and crazy British drinking games. I remember staggering back to the hotel on my own power (almost like the Peugeot) and passed out in my room…damn!

Anyway, the next day…Kris and Dink visited the only women’s prison in Mongolia and handed over cosmetic products to the prisoners!! Apparently it was a good experience for them…quite unique…they were moved by the case of one lady…who claims to have been made the scapegoat in a finance scam…her lawyer husband left her and forced other lawyers not to defend her. She has a 14 year old son and is already in prison now for 2 years. She was very intelligent and very beautiful said Dink. Hmmm…they were so moved by her case that they had a discussion with Arsal about gathering press attention on her case…i dont know what will come out of that. Lets see…

We did book our flight tickets in the meanwhile. I booked it on the internet and Kris and Dink did it through a travel agent. The work for taking the Suzuki progressed very well meanwhile…and Baaska wanted to show us around UB. Perfect. So that’s what she did…she showed us the main square and the main monastery in town. We spoke a lot about life in Mongolia and what she wants etc. Was a good time. Anyway, we drank a bit more, shopped a bit and simply chilled around until it was time to fly back. We also hung around at the finish line the next 2 days hoping to meet the friends we made along the way…we did meet Juan and Nuria the next day and the Godfathers too! Unfortunately, inspite of their brilliant preparation, they couldn’t make it with their car to the finish line…their car broke down in Bayan Konghor and they had to take the rather Mongolian (yes!) mini-bus to UB. 11 seats, 19 people. That should give you an idea of how the 13 hour ride must have been…anyway, they couldn’t have a drink with us unfortunately…they had a flight out that very night. We did not meet the Spigots or the Mongolites of Dave and Alex or any of the others though…did recognise some people we met at the Caspian ferry though…

Anyway, Kris and Dink had a flight back on midnight on the 28th and i had a flight at 10am the next day. So it was time for them to leave and Baaska said she will pick them up and drop them at the airport. That’s very nice of her. But when the time came, the Buddhist monks who were working at Asral came to the hotel and gave us loads of gifts, a certificate and made us feel like Neil Armstrong returning from the moon!! It was very nice of them…and it was the perfect feeling to have before bidding goodbye to Mongolia. The customs official came along as well and personally ensured that Kris and Dink passed through the checks and could leave Mongolia! The next morning, the monk and Baaska showed up and dropped me at the airport as well…perfect ending to the perfect rally!

Route : Tseserleg, Mongolia >>> The Finish line, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Approx Distance : 530km

Part of the full english breakfast...

Well…we woke up in the rustic hotel but didn’t hang around for too long. The Suzuki’s fuel lines were clogged again or something was wrong with the carburetor…it was not firing properly. So we went to take a look at it while we fixed the flats of the Peugeot. But before that, we went to Fairfield and had the most amazing breakfast of the trip…a full English breakfast with 3 pancakes, tons of jams, butter, eggs, bacon and sausages with bread and fresh butter…all washed down with tea! Ahhhh! Satisfaction…even in the menu, it was written that this was for people with real hunger…and we fit the description quite well. We met this American lady there who we noticed was chatting with the bakery girls in Mongolian! We struck up some conversation and found out that shes an English teacher in a village closeby…she also learns Mongolian by the side and shes been doing this for 2 years now. Apparently this is her ninth year of visiting Mongolia…must have been love at first sight i guess and i can understand the allure Mongolia can have on people who take the time to see its untouched beauty and people still living life like how it was centuries ago. Unfortunately, we had a much shorter window to appreciate the place…sometimes i wished i could take a nice relaxed trip through all the countries we passed through…especially Mongolia.

Fairfield

Anyway, we fixed it by afternoon. A short visit to the bank and the internet center later, we headed out. The promise of Tarmac and the whiff of the beer at the finish line in Ulaanbaatar gave us new found energy…some things did trouble us a bit though…like the steering system of the Peugeot, the engine which seemed to have lost its oomph and a million creaks and squeaks which was not there at Altay. Luckily the brakes were very much in place..we came very close to rupturing the brake lines (which run right under the drivers seat) when we grounded the car a couple of times. Anyway, the promised tarmac didn’t really arrive immediately…the road was not too bad but it was muddy and twisted and turned a lot…we had to go off the road many a time. Then came tarmac…then it disappeared…then it came…then it went. It was a bit irritating…as we could see the people laying down the road at their own sweet pace in totally random spots. There were big stretches of levelled gravel covered future roads which were so bad to drive on that going off road was a relief…such went our progress.

With the mechanic...in Tserserleg

Then we reached a spot where the road was covered with 2 huge piles of debris…there was a small V shaped space in the middle of the 2 piles…the Suzuki went through it with caution. I was driving the Peugeot then and i stopped. I said “Hmmm…we wont make this man…” Rajesh said “Yeah…but should we?”. I said “You know what…if we skirt around, its pretty easy…”. “Hmm…yeah…hmmm…”. And i went “But we should do this right?”. Smiles all around. So we backed up a bit…and i built up a medium pace (didn’t wanna rip out the bumpers or the radiator) and when i hit the V, gunned it…we almost made it through…hehe. Got stuck…as usual. But we sensed that this would be the last of such things…so we were all enthu and full of energy in digging ourselves out. Got out the tow rope, tried the power of the Suzuki a bit…didn’t work as expected. We went down on all 4s and started digging the car out…that was not too easy given the sharp rocks. Out came the work gloves which Rajesh had…still the left edge of the car was stuck in the rock (i was praying that the brake lines were intact)…then finally, we dug as much as we could and finally decided to try man power. Man power never failed to get us out of trouble till date…and it didn’t disappoint this time either. Kristie took the wheel and the men lifted the car at the back with all our might while she gunned the motor…we had to stay behind the car and the spinning front wheels threw big sharp rocks backwards…those could do serious damage. Within a few seconds, we lurched out of the V with a big crunch! Yay! We were so kicked that we took the Peugeot and did some slides and just kept driving it in circles!! So much for the fun part…we got a long haul ahead.

Um...the rusticity...

We kept on…nothing eventful to talk about. Now the landscape was more populated with signs of civilization…some buildings kept showing its face and now and then…Gers disappeared almost from view…and then decent tarmac started. We made some good progress when the most amazing thing happened…we got stopped by police! That was honestly the LAST thing i expected in rural Mongolia! The guy claimed he was an inspector…hmmm…Raja was driving then. Raja does not yet have a valid driving license (although he can have one…his driving improved a lot during the trip)…so Rajesh lent him his slyly and turned away and slid into the darkness while i stepped out and paraded about with the car papers trying to distract the inspector from Rajesh. He did take a look at the license and seemed convinced…! The wonders of being dark skinned alien people in a strange land….hehe! That was a good stroke of luck…he waved us on after a stupid grin or two and we turned left at a point after seeing a road sign…

More of my genuis at getting stuck...

The Suzuki went really fast…the Peugeot could not build up its usual pace…it struggled a lot to even go at 90kmph on good tarmac…but it was still running and all vital functions seemed to be in place. Then we stopped to take some pictures of a rainbow…which actually disappeared by the time we stopped…anyway, back on the road…1,2,3,4th gears…building up speed…and 5th was simply not engaging…hmmm….Raja was not too smooth with the gear changes we all knew…he kept trying for a whole couple of minutes…it was beginning to get on my nerves…so i asked him to stop and i took over the wheel. Gears 1,2,3,4 and nothing…errr…i tried again..and again…instead of 5, there was big open free space of nothingness! WHAT! Ok..this is weird. I tried again from the beginning…and now 1st gear was missing…hmmm…then the car struggled a LOT…and without warning, 2nd gear went into gear nirvana immediately after 1 seems like. SHIT! Then after some revving and playing around, we realized that we were left only with 3rd and 4th gears! SHIT! We looked at the odo…hmm…300kms more to go for the finish line…will we make it? I figured we can make it in one piece if we had atleast reverse gear in place…we didn’t dare to stop now to find out…we kept on. Meanwhile in all the excitement, the Suzuki got lost from view…they were probably unaware of our dilemma and kept going at a normal pace…we were always faster than them till date…so they probably figured we would catch up inspite of stopping a couple of times to take pictures…

Random roadside skeleton...of a car. its always skeletons made of metal or bones in Mongolia...always...

Anyway, our strategy now was to cruise in 4th with a speed of about 60-70kmph and not stop the car in up slopes…if we were on a down slope or level ground, with gentle alternating bursts of acceleration and neutrals, we were able to take off using the 3rd gear. Of course, this was not good for the gearbox…but its the maximum tenderness we could show…we did keep the heater on full blast and kept going into neutral on down slopes to conserve the engine from overheating thanks to the higher revs…the engine was brilliant…thank god. Anyway, we kept on like this for about a 100km…still no Suzuki in sight…hmmm…then we saw them. They slowed down at the junction…as we came close and overtook them, i was relieved…i slowed down to a halt in front of them and was about to jump out when they sped away, took the left turn and left us alone again! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Ok, might as well check if we had reverse gear…we didn’t. FUCK! Well, this was the true Mongol Rally experience which we were missing till date…we seemed to be getting it in full measure in the last few kms. Anyway, we slowly plodded on again and were hoping that they would slow down somewhere…anyway, we were incredibly lucky that we did not face any steep hills…it was more of less flat with gentle undulations all along…nothing which couldn’t be handled with built up momentum…so the going was actually relatively smooth…slow but smooth.

The arrival board...we were the 241st team to roll in out of a possible 350+ teams...not bad at all i say!

We kept on like this for a while…we took a couple of breaks to cool down the engine…and on and on this went. We did see the Suzuki finally waiting for us at the fuel station. Phew…thank god. We told Kris and Dink what was going on and they realised the graveness of the situation…but of course, no situation was grave enough for us to go hungry…we found ourselves eating some rice and noodles with well cooked mutton at the highway restaurant. The people there was very nice and were smiling a lot…we entertained ourselves with a 60s Mongolian movie in black and white being telecast in the TV there…its theme was along lines not too surprising. Guy is nomadic shepherd…meets another nomadic shepherd girl…proves his skills on a horse…another guy turns up…something happens…then these 2 guys are kicking each other in their tummies and rolling about in the grass…the more macho one gets up to water the horses and this one lies down on the grass shirtless and talks some gibberish and the expectations were rising when we realized that our plates were empty….oh damn..time to go. Anyway, it was well past sundown now…and we were in no mood to camp another night this close from UB. Push Push Push! The Suzuki was faithfully following us while we were setting the rather dull pace…then our luck ran out at the same time as the tarmac did! Damn!

The tarmac disappeared in a flash to be replaced with muddy, rocky wasteland! The Suzuki slowed down to a reasonable pace…we couldn’t afford to do that…i kept on at about 30-40 kmph on third gear…all our bones were being shaken loose from their joints…damn! How long would this go on?? It was so dark and the roads multiplied and split off and soon we were sorta lost. I stopped next to a truck to wait for the Suzuki…thought it might be prudent to let them lead as they had the GPS. Meanwhile i asked the trucker guy which direction was UB…he was a very helpful sort of chap and he wanted me to follow him…we saw the headlights on the Suzuki by now and agreed. He had his whole family in the truck and he didn’t seem to be very fast…which was a worrying factor for me. But soon it became obvious that he knew the road…he kept up a decent 3rd gear pace by avoiding the worst sections and skirting around the traps laid by Mongolian nature. Good going..but of course, this was a truck…a mini truck actually. He had to slow down at places…hmm…and i did not want to. So whenever there was enough space to maneuver, we kept driving in fastish wide arcs…we kept zigzagging all over the place while being sandwiched by a possibly bewildered trucker on one side and a possibly amused Kristie and Dink on the other. I can seriously imagine how Kris and Dink would have been laughing out loud looking at our antics!

Anyway, atleast an hour and a couple of close shaves (basically huge bumps/potholes) later where i had no choice but to slow down and feed more poison to the gearbox, we suddenly found ourselves on tarmac! Yay! We shouted our profuse thanks to the trucker and his family and blasted off and the pace which we could afford…UB was within striking distance now…our spirits were soaring. We knew we could make it. We kept on and on…we slowly started seeing lights…dim ones…but lights still…houses started appearing…some random buildings…nothing too dramatic. So i guess this was not really UB but its outskirts…then all of a sudden the radio sprang to life…we had put in on permanent seek mode so that we would know when we were close to some civilisation. Yippeee! The music was some kinda Chinese sounding pop…we were not complaining! Then this was going on with increasing density of buildings…it was about 3am now…not a soul on the streets…which was all good for the Peugeot with its limitations. We kept the ideal pace going…we went around a smallish hill and then suddenly, as sudden as a Zeppelin emerging from a thick cloud, we saw it…Ulaanbaatar…a million lights staring at us like a million fireflies grazing about in the darkness…YES!

We entered the city…inspite of the hour, there was traffic…there were people…there were drunk people, normal ones, busy looking ones, ones sleeping on the side. UB was a city…by all definitions of the word. We were relieved! Almost there…almost there…out came the map the adventurists provided us. One of the roads was blocked…so we had to skirt around…did ask directions a couple of times…went around in a couple of circles…and then finally, reached the finish line! Yay! WE MADE IT! With bloody just 2 gears and who knows what else is falling off right now…WE MADE IT! It was 4am…the finish line did not have anyone there apart from the carcasses or near carcasses of rally cars which made it. Cool!

A very relieved rustic with 4 equallz relieved ones...WE MADE IT!

Rajesh and Raja had a flight out of UB at 7am…so we had to let them go. We couldn’t really relish the rush the joy because they were in a hurry to leave…we hurried around to find a hotel which would let us in…did find one and we bid goodbye to our teammates who left rather quietly. It was a very very unfitting end for them i felt…we should have gone out, had a BIG drink and did something crazy that night…but instead, we shook hands and said bye. Hmmm…well…atleast i had Kris and Dink to do all of that with the next day. We parked our cars in the hotel and decided to crash off…but of course, deep in my mind..a few words kepy ringing again and again…

WE MADE IT! WE MADE IT! WE MADE IT! WE MADE IT! WE MADE IT! WE MADE IT! WE MADE IT! WE MADE IT! WE MADE IT! WE MADE IT!!!