Back in Russia...

Today we crossed back into Russia - about 4 hours to get through the Mongolian exit process and the Russian entry process.  I took a little longer than Ken and Mark because I checked the wrong box on one of the Russian forms.  There is no correcting allowed in Russia - when handed the forms the boarder agent said "no mistakes".  I made a mistake so had to redo the entire form - twice because you have to fill out two identical forms with the same info.  The whole boarder crossing process is kind of mind numbing.

The 100 km road to the boarder started out Tarmac and turned to dirt for a stretch to go over a 8,000 ft. pass.  The last 30 km or so was all dirt and shirty washboard with gravel piles outside the tire tracks.  Again no relaxing behind the bars because going outside the tracks would probably result in a crash.  The no mans land between the Mongolia customs and immigration and the Russian customs and immigration was a beautiful smooth and twisty road that was much longer than expected - probable about 10 km. - the no mans land when entering Mongolia from Russia was only a few hundred meters.  We again had to pay to have our tires decontaminated - this time a quick spray from a hose.  The price for the service was 50 rubles.  I should have paid him extra to spray all the Mongolian dirt, mud and dust off my bike.  The bike and riding gear are both pretty grimy.  

We rolled into the first decent sized town about 50 km past the boarder and stopped at a guesthouse to inquire about a room.  The place was booked but we met several Russians that were staying there socializing and having beers just outside the guesthouse.  Our Russian rockstar status was back - we chatted a bit and exchanged gifts.  We all got cool handmade Russian beanie hats and Ken and I gave out the Colorado and Virginia state flag pins that we had brought to give as gifts.  I like my hat a lot!

We found out there was another guesthouse down the road so we said our goodbyes and secured a room with private bath/shower and WiFi.  It would have been fun to stay at the first place as we would have liked to join their party and socialize a bit more.  They seemed like really fun people.

Tomorrow we head up into the mountains for some more camping - but tonight we get a bed and a hot shower.  

With our new hats and friends at the guesthouse that was booked solid.