We made it!

we are in Ulaanbaatar!!

AmbulancetoMongolia has been a resounding success meeting all its aims and have successfully delivered a fully operation Ambulance to Mongolia. We will put some pictures up when we find a faster internet connection, it is painfully slow everywhere we have been.

So what has happened sine day 16?

I last posted in Aqtobe, Kazakstan several thousand miles away from my present location. Since Aqtobe we ventured East (obviously) and travelled to Kustanay in the North of the country. The roads were shocking, how anyone gets around is beyond us as the potholes could easily be filled by a Nissan Micra and the dust is incredible when combined with wind making navigating the sea of potholes somewhat challenging. Kazakhstan was slow. We were averaging little over 100 miles on 10 hours driving for a few days which was annoying to say the least. Then just outside Kustanay the engine shuddered to a halt. A problem we thought could be resolved by changing the fuel filter. This we duly did and the engine failed to fire. A tow was in order to the local garage. Some German guy in a camper van towed us to the garage some 50km away where we met magic mechanic, Slav. The engine roared back into life after 10 minutes and all was well. Naturally he invited us to his house for lunch where we met his wife, Nina and his two children. Nina cooked us up a fantastic meal comprising pasta and some sheep. Slav then cracked out the Vodka, something which happens scarily regularly on this trip. We tried to politely decline but he insisted and being ambassadors we had little choice but to accept. No more driving was to be done that day as the local community leaders started to arrive including the local priest (alcoholic) and shopkeeper along with several other people. Slav joked with us that he had a Russian Bath in his shed and was going to fire it up for us. We thought this bath was a myth and dismissed the idea until we saw his son making several trips to the woodpile. We had a swim in the lake that backed on to his house and evening rolled around. The bath was ready and in we piled. Nina’s older brother “Uncle Slav” was on hand wearing nothing but a tophat to douse water on the roasting Russian oven creating immense amounts of heat and steam. We could hardly breathe. Uncle Slav then whipped us with dried leaves. This happened four times, each time broken with a jump in the lake and a shot of vodka. While in the bath Nina had constructed a long table in the back garden for dinner and this Russian chap called Vadin turned up. Vadin claimed to be ex-Russian special forces and obviously wanted to prove this by attempting to empty as many bottles of vodka as possible. He was sensible about the drinking though giving us a little cucumber to eat after every vodka shot. Nina had rustled up another culinary delight comprising of pasta and Aubergine and some other unrecognisable ingredients. The evening went on and by about midnight Vadin had drunk too much and was telling us how he respected our adventure and that we were indeed men. He then pulled out a wolf skin from Slavs house and was telling us that Slav was also a man for shooting wolves. He was then removed from the party and no further words were spoken about him. We stayed in Slavs lounge that evening and after breakfast the next day we were on the road to Astana. The Kazakh people are always more than willing to offer a helping hand and Slav was a prime example of this. We were the first British people to visit his village and everyone went out of their way to be hospitable. He didn’t even charge us for the Ambulance repair. That night we reached Astana, the Kazakh capital. Astana was truly a strange place with poor people living in shacks on the outskirts of town and lavish new apartment blocks being built in the centre along with a Las Vegas style city centre with biright lights and massive fountains.  The Kazakh president decied to change to capital city to Astana in 1997 as it was closer to Russia that the old capital Almaty.  Since then 8% of the annual budget of the country is spent on making Astana look good.  The next day we hit the road again and we on the way to Pavlodar and the Russian border.  It took two days to get to Pavlodar and upon visiting a shop there the local television station turned up to film us and ask about the trip.  We are now firmly Kazakh celebrities.  The next day we luckily got to the Russian border early as we had no idea what was about to ensue.  Foolishly we did not read our migration cards, something you are given at every border.  It clearly says on the back of them in English that one should register their presence in Kazakhstan within five days of entering the country.  The passport control chaps keenly pointed this out and literally threw the rule book at us.  We had to pay a $100 fine.  This process took all day as we had to go to the bank to pay the fine, our first legitimate one.  The bank then had a power cut and we were there for hours.  A border guard came with us to the bank and was very friendly.  In fact they were all very friendly about the whole thing and jokingly threatened us with a 15 day jail sentence.  All very funny of course in broken English.  Once that was all sorted we were back in Russia and on the road through Siberia.  Did you know that 30% of all the trees in the world are kept in Siberia? It is also home to Lake Biakal, the worlds deepest lake and also one of the largest.  We ventured towards Irktusk taking about five days to reach there, meeting Nick from  the “Apprentice” en route.  He was a helpful chap giving us phone numbers of important Mongolians as we had heard there could be trouble entering Mongolia with a car.  We saw some fantastic Siberian scenery and drove along Lake Biakal for a couple of days.  Siberia was  really good but full of bugs, literally millions and millions of insects waiting to suck your blood.  We were bitten to pieces.  We headed towards our final destination, Mongolia.  As we got closer conversation turned to questions about what to do once we get there.  We have been driving constantly for over a month and what does one do once the driving stops? This is a question we still have to answer and so far all we have done is find the internet.  We crossed the Mongolian border with ease as Medical vehicles are exempt from lots of bureaucracy.  The border was fascinating, one of the most secure we have seen with a patrol road around the country being trod by big army 4×4’s.  At the border were loads of Mongol Rally cars that had not been allowed into the country, it was a strange experience seeing all these English cars sans drivers in limbo.  Most of them were battered from the brutal roads and most had lost windows.  The ambulance was a fine steed not experiencing any of these issues with careful driving.

Now we find ourselves in Mongolia sorting the ambulance out and finalising travel arrangements home.  The plan currently is to get the train to Moscow on the 2nd September and then fly home from Moscow on the 7th courtesy of British Airways.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the companies and individuals who made this project possible.  Without their support a fully equipped Ambulance would not be in Mongolia making a difference.  We have been here for a day and a half now and have seen first hand how dire medical provision is.  The streets are full of begging children and the hospitals are all falling to pieces.

We will update this again in a couple of days with more about Mongolia and hopefully some pictures depending on internet speeds.