After getting checked in to the guest house on Tuesday night we ran into Dom - a Brit who was traveling from England to Japan on a charity project for the survivors of the Tsunami that hit Japan several years ago. He is also planning to live in Japan for 6 months at the end of the trip. We all had dinner and beers in the strange bar/restaurant next door and exchanged stories. Turns out Dom had some scares in Mongolia - a crash in the desert while riding with some fellow travelers, getting stuck in a marsh while solo and an angry Mongolian threatening to cut his arms off after a misunderstanding having to do with someone else. You can see video of his adventures and also find links to his charity on You Tube by searching "Little Dom's Big Adventure" - some really good stuff! His website is littledom.co.uk.
So Dom's mishaps in Mongolia definitely scared us out of taking the southern route. We had already eliminated the northern route as we had heard bad things about the roads there, so now we don't have to choose - central route it is!
I have a lot of catching up to do adding pictures to the blog - only posting iPhone pics recently. We have not had WiFi since Sunday morning and the cellular network here cannot handle large files. Once we get to a city I will add more photos.
We hit the road at the crack of noon on Wednesday after watching some videos and saying goodbye to Dom. Ken got pulled over for passing a truck on a double solid line right in front of a police checkpoint. He had to show his passport and was sent on his way. We arrived around 7pm at a shady looking guesthouse, but there were no other options so we stayed there the night. There was no electricity, working showers or toilets. The running water in the sink was barely a trickle - but the beds were comfortable. We had some average dinner and beers and turned in early so we could get a jump on Chita in the morning. Breakfast was the standard guesthouse fare of eggs, bologna sausage, bread and coffee. The ever elusive Chita is slowly getting closer. Russia is big...
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