Just when you think you're done...

A word to the wise: If you bring a car into a country, have documentation about that when you leave the country, even (especially!) if the car isn't leaving the country with you. This was something I was wondering about a bit when I turned over all of the car-related paperwork to Go Help. I should have wondered a bit more and at least gotten copies of everything, just to be sure.

The train from Ulaanbaatar to Beijing stops at a little town called Zamyn Uud just before crossing the border. A border patrol agent comes along the train and picks up everyone's passports, and a customs agent comes along and picks up everyone's customs declarations.  read more »

Inside Beijing city limits, but stuck in traffic. Made conctact with my friend who's in town. I'll stop using this like my personal Twitter account now, I promise!

Jarek and Aneel got the car cleaned. It was sparkling! It was so beautiful that, after they parked it and started walking to the Go Help office, someone tried to offer them cash for it on the spot. Aneel referred them to the Go Help office. They'd have their mechanic look at it and put it up for sale. Then, the money would go to their charities. We were told that our car was the nicest car in the best shape out of all the vehicles ever to make it to the finish line. So, they ended up keeping it for themselves. Go Help had been wanting one for a while since they couldn't get out to their projects like the book ger without relying on taxis. So, that was nice! I'm glad we took such good care of it.  read more »

We've had a good few days in Ulaanbaatar, doing touristy things and turning in the car.

On Friday,  we took a trip out to see a gigantic statue of Chinggis Khaan. At 131 feet tall, it's the largest equestrian statue in the world. It is covered in stainless steel, which catches the light very impressively. The statue is 50-odd kilometers from Ulaanbaatar, which we covered in a snappy 90 minutes.  read more »

The next day, I tried to find a Mongolian felt fair trade doodad. thought we'd be fine since I got an English-speaking cafe owner, who was selling some of the felt goods in his shop, to write the directions on a paper in Mongolian for me. We used a local taxi--not really official cab drivers, just people willing to give you a ride for a little money--to start out. However, since they don't really use street numbers or addresses here, seriously. That didn't work, so we asked pedestrians and wandered to every yellow building we could find. After an hour, we found the shop, but it was closed.  read more »