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| Pine Forest with Snowcap Mountain View on the way to Tashanta Border |
There were not much traffic or people crossing the border when I arrive and within 5 minutes, we were let into the immigration & customs compound. Customs processed me first asking for passport, vehicle ownership certificate (VOC) and customs papers which I gave the customs papers issued in Kazakhstan-Shymkent Border nearly two months ago.
So, it was true that the ex-soviet countries shared a custom union to a certain extent. The Russian Customs officer spend quite some time to key in all the information into the system and even made copies of all my document and finally stamp the Kazakhstan customs papers to indicate that I have legally exited Bragge from the union. To my surprised, she gave me the stamped customs papers for keeping.
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| Exiting the Tashanta Border of Russia |
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| The Road in Between Borders - Tashanta to Tsagaanuur |
After that was basically immigration to stamp out of Russia and then a simple check on baggage before proceeding onward to Mongolia. I was still in Russian territory actually and the roads leads a near 30km before reaching a final check-post with fence to demarcate Russia & Mongolia border. I stopped at the first “Welcome to Mongolia signboard for a picture” then pushed on another 20km to Mongolia border check point.
I was super nervous to be honest. A few months back I had gotten report from the China Tour agency that a few Malaysian overlanders got into trouble when they crossed the China-Mongolia Border in Erenhot. Even the Facebook overlander group had a few people making noise about Mongolia giving trouble to overlander that were not part of the Vienna Convention of international traffic regulation.
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| First Welcome to Mongolia at the Country Boundary Line |
Long story short, it was the police that gave these guys trouble. As Mongolia was part of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic (1968) but Malaysia was still on the old Geneva Convention (1949). All this means was our International Driving License was on a different type of global agreement compared to Mongolia and the Police was making used of this loophole to stop vehicles and not allowing foreigners to drive.
Its total bullshit in my opinion as Mongolian Customs still issued the temporary import permit for the vehicle so they should not make a differentiation between police and customs causing confusion. Few months back this really gave me so much restless night unable to sleep while contemplating how I was going to enter Mongolia safely and if I would run into trouble.
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| At Tsagaannuur Border - Immigration & Customs |
One month before making a decision to go or not to go to Mongolia, another group of Malaysian entered Mongolia with the vehicle from the north Khyagt border and had no issues. I figured I was safe attempting to enter through an even more remote border in the west. In addition, I realized that all of Central Asia country was also Vienna Convention members, but they never had any issue with non-member traversing their country.
Anyway, Mongolian Border Checkpoint and first up was a vehicle post registration which some guy asked for money which I gave 50 rubbles. I read online it was the disinfection fee or something and the token sum was just that. Next up was immigration which was simple enough standing in line and waiting for the officer to punch me in.
The officer asked me if I had a Mongolian Visa and I said No. They don’t get many Malaysians crossing this border but they systematically checked the list and I was stamp in without much question. Next up was customs but it was a lunch break, and I had to hang around for an hour before they resume work. Customs took my passport and VOC almost immediately started keying into their system with no questions asked.
The customs officer that was processing my vehicle entry midway got up and left the room and for some reason never came back even after nearly an hour long, leaving my passport and papers on the table. I gave my saddest and pity face every time another custom officer looks my way and finally one took pity picking it up and got it sorted in less than a minute.
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| Means of Transportation Temporarily Admitted into Custom Territory of Mongolia |
He passed me a paper which says, “Endorsement Sheet for Means of Transportation Temporarily Admitted into Customs Territory of Mongolia”. I had something now on papers for Bragge, so quickly left the border outpost and was so happy to finally have entered Mongolia.
I could not see the insurance building after the border but a guy wave me down asking if I needed to change money. I knew this was going to be bad rates anyway but change a little token loose sum of like $30 worth into local currency. Always good to have some local currency immediately after crossing the border.
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| Informal Money Changer at the Border |
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| This was the Money Changer Building |
I then rode to Oglii the largest city on the west side of Mongolia and was very careful and praying hard that the police checkpoint at Tsagaannuur was not manned. It was not manned and I rode past quickly.
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| Finally, the full Welcome to Mongolia Signboard |
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| Trans-Mongolian Highway |
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| City of Oglii with Snow-capped Mountain backdrop |
Along the way to Oglii I saw two locals pushing their bike. I decided to see if I could help them but turns out it was a complicated engine jammed problem which was beyond simple fix.
I offered to tow them instead and they were all smiles as I slowly tow them nearly 40km to Oglli going into downtown and navigating heavy traffic till they reached their destination. After that it was a quick round turn to the nearest hostel for the night.
I offered to tow them instead and they were all smiles as I slowly tow them nearly 40km to Oglli going into downtown and navigating heavy traffic till they reached their destination. After that it was a quick round turn to the nearest hostel for the night.
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| Towing some locals back to Oglii |
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| Yurt Hostel in Oglii |
Travelled on: Sep 2024
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