MotoMongolia2002 - Motorcycle trip from Poland to Mongolia

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Trip: Poland - Mongolia - Poland
Bikes: Yamaha TTR600, 2 x Yamaha XT600, KTM Adventure
Time: August/September, 2002
See photos here:
photos done by Pawka
photos done by Maciek
Photos done by Grzyb
Like all our previous departures this one was also quite nervous: Przemek burned his GPS when installing, Pawel was working on his alu-boxes until the last minute, Michal had some problems with his new rally clutch and I have had a nightmare when installing the oil-cooler.
Just before the Russian border we felt this pleasant adrenaline pumping to our vain - the fun is just going to start! The border-officer is taking Przemek's passport, looking at it, crumpling it, looking again and finally he says - "This is a false passport! You have to go back to Poland and make a new one." This is just the beginning so we are "fresh" and not used to this kind of situation. "But Mr., is there no other way we can fix it?" - asks Przemek with an innocent face. Of course there is an easier way to do it - 5$ disappears from Przemek wallet and we can happily continue.
The plan is simple - get as fast as possible to Mongolia. During the day we are mainly riding the principal Trans-Siberian road. Sometimes I recognize places from the "Mondo Enduro" - the movie that a few years ago had inspired me to travel on motorbike. We are in a hurry so we can not enjoy too much off-road riding through Siberia. We are riding and riding, but when we look at the map: "…yes we are here and Mongolia is … o f**k, it's on the other page!!". On every gas station I've been asking "How far is Irkutsk?". The answer was always the same "Oh boy, Irkuck is very, very far away!!".
One day something strange happened to Michel's KTM. We all stopped and he kept on riding around us. It looked like there was a problem with the clutch. It looked really bad - when we pressed the clutch, the whole engine cover was moving. I'm not an expert in motorcycle design, so it looked for me like there was an alien inside the engine. When Michel removed the engine cover I could see in his face that this is the end of the story for him. This was the worst day of our trip, but Michel was tough. Somehow he managed to return back home with his motorbike and we (three only) continued our way to Mongolia.
We decided that the we would spend nights with local people. So when it was getting dark we would turn from the main road to small villages and ask people could we sleep near their houses. Usually it ended that they were inviting us to their houses, preparing delicious supper for us: grilled potatoes with bacon and mushrooms and of course a bottle of home made vodka.
One night we have arrived to a small village near the Trans Siberian Railway. All people were completely drunk -including kids. A 10 years old boy came to as (drunk with a cigarette in the mouth) saying: "Stay in our village. Nothing would happen to You. I guarantee." We felt quite comfortable at the beginning but after one hour of saying "Nothing will happen to You. I guarantee." - we started to get worry, that maybe something can really happen to us and that this little boy wont be able to guarantee us anything because he would fall asleep in a moment. But we decided to stay. A very nice guy Sasha invited us to his house. He prepared a great bania (Russian sauna), his wife Nadia prepared a delicious supper, so we were eating, drinking Sasha's vodka and listening to his Siberian stories. Unfortunately the house was situated near the train station - every time a train was passing a very loud and psychedelic alarm was launched so we did not sleep too much. We woke up at 5. At 7 'o clock Sasha was already after his breakfast (2 beers and a bottle of vodka). Because of the hard night on the small off-road section we have had few crushes - 2 alu-boxes destroyed.
Near Kransnoyarsk, after a whole day of riding in a heavy rain we stopped to eat something and warm up a little. Suddenly two big guys arrived - they were Polish missionaries. They invited us to their house - we were so happy that we did not have to continue our way that day. We could make a technical check-up of our bikes in their garage and after a hot shower (WOW!!) get a delicious supper. These tough guys have told as a lot of hard core stories about catholic priests life in Syberia.
I will never forget the night in a village near Irkuck. As usual we drove into a small village. One friendly guy was very interested with us and invited to his house. When we were preparing our sleeping our friend disappeared. Suddenly he arrived but completely drunk and with a totally different humor. "Who are you!?" "Where are you from?" "Why are you here?" "Who are you spying for?" - that didn't look to good. However he insisted to eat the supper with him and drink some vodka. He behaved very aggressively. "Do not speak Polish!!". He was a former Russian soldier fighting in Chechnya. He was in some special forces, probably doing some awful things, and now felt left alone, used by his country. We tried to cool down the atmosphere but with no success. Finally we managed to say goodnight and went to sleep.
Suddenly a crying woman is waking us up at 2 o'clock AM. We are still quite confused after the supper. The women is crying loudly and shouting something about pigs. When we turned the torch on she is started to laugh (but still cries): "I though that you are Chinese". This was the wife of the Russian soldier which was sleeping when we arrived. She told us that Chinese are bad people and that they have stolen her mother's pig. Then she asked us to take our bikes and look for the Chinese thieves and the stolen pigs. Przemek and me jumped on the motorbikes with the soldier daughters on the back - they should guide us because it was completely dark. I didn't find my glasses so I could not see anything. I lost Przemek from view, so I've started to get worry a bit. Suddenly I saw the drunk soldier - he was running in my direction and tried to jump on my alu-boxes. Somehow I escaped. I've told the girl to guide me back to her home. Przemek was already here. I've reported to the women that no pig- thieves have been seen. I was prepared to leave this crazy house, but we finally decided to sleep a few hours more until it gets lighter.
Near the Mongolian border we had a nice rendezvous. We have met a Japanese girl on an quite over-packed small enduro bike. Her name was Makiko. She has just started her trip a few weeks ago from Vladivostok. Her plan is to go around the world and her aim is to find a perfect men. RESPECT MAKIKO!!! She is really a brave girl (she spend a few weeks in Poland after and the latest news is that she managed to drive around Africa).
Finally we arrived to the Mongolian border. The land border was open only for 1 month. Before, travelers had to put their bikes/cars on the train. There wasn't really many people, but some of them were saying that they were waiting 12 hours. Quite easily we have figured out how the system works: the border officer showed, opened the gate every 30 minutes, then all the people, cars and trucks were trying to pass. Then he was shouting "Stop!! Move back!!". He would look at the crowed and pointed with his magic finger the person which is allowed to pass. The same situation repeated every half an hour. After some time our main negotiator Przemek went to the border officer and tried to tell him that we "really, really" would like to cross the border. He just smiled but after two hours his magic finger pointed at us. Five bucks disappeared from Przemek wallet and we were finally in Mongolia. Hurray!!!
We felt a big relief - out dream came through. We prepared the bikes for two weeks of real off-road: changed tires, chains, sprocket wheels in the motorbikes and left most of the luggage and alu-boxes near the border. Now the fun begins!
It's hard to describe but it was even better then we could imagine. Riding in mountains, steps and desert between wild horses, camels, yaks, antelopes and eagles flying above us. People are very friendly, but it's hard to communicate. What surprised us is that most Mongolian do not speak Russian. But they are very friendly - so even in the middle of nowhere we had always some guests when preparing the camp. Their first love are horses, but right after that are motorcycles, so they just loved our motorbikes. The most popular motorbike in Mongolia is the Russian IZ Planet. Sometimes we could see a whole family on one motorbike.
The GPS is a must. Apart the region near the capital there are no roads and no signs. We managed to get 1 : 1000 000 maps and it was enough to prepare waypoints each day.
So it was almost like an enduro paradise. There was only one problem - punctures. At the beginning it was even funny, after annoying and at the end it was a real nightmare.
Even a shaman ritual on our motorbikes which consisted mainly in spilling horse milk on our tires did not help. When we arrived to the south of Mongolia - Gobi desert Przemek tire was completely destroyed. We probably damaged it when repairing punctures. The tire used in the IZ Planet did not fit the Yamaha, so Przemek started to look for a new tire around Mongolia. He jumped on the first plane to the north and returned after 3 days with one of the road-tire that we left near the Russian border. During this time Pawel and myself were riding through the Gobi desert. I had my portion of punctures too and also damaged the tire. But it wasn't so bad and a great Mongolian tire specialist managed to fix it - he cut off the border from the IZ Planet tire and put it between my tire and the wheel disk.
After two weeks of off-road we were so happy to see tarmac road - no more punctures! We have run out of time and most of the way back (Irkutsk - Moscow) we traveled by plane.
We really loved this trip. Both Russia and Mongolia are really beautiful. In Russia we have met many friendly and helpful people and Mongolia is a real enduro paradise.

Maciek Swinarski