MONGOL RALLY ROADBOOK
We’re not fans of giving you too much information, and if you’re looking for advice for what to do when you lose your vehicle documents, wallet and passport you’ve come to the wrong place.
What you have here is the few bits of truly vital information; like how to get your deposit back and where to go where you reach Ulaanbaatar.
If you remember one piece of information written on these here bits of paper, make it be this: If you are shipping your vehicle with us you will need to hand your vehicle registration papers, Mongolian temporary import documents, vehicle owners passport scan and a signed copy of the shipping document.
If you need your registration document back at home, you must get a notorised copy for you and leave us with the original. You will not be able to ship your vehicle without leaving your original registration papers.
TRACKING YOUR ADVENTURE We’ve an army of digital wizards who have lovingly crafted us a beautiful and highly sophisticated blogging and tracking system. Your friends and family will almost feel they’re stuck in the car with you minus the smell of BO and diet of instant noodles.
The link you need to be sharing with your friends, families and Kazak supporters along the way is this one:
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http://bit.ly/MR14tracking
The place you need to go to share your adventure with the world is here: http://bit.ly/MR14blogging
UPDATING FROM THE ROAD You can either update directly from the blogging page above, or you can do so by mobile phone.
REGISTERING YOUR MOBILE The first step is to register your mobile, you only need to do this once for each phone number, but you will need to do it for each number if you are going to buy local SIM cards. You can register your phone by logging in to the website and adding the number. If you can’t get online you can also register using SMS messages:
The number to register your phone and send SMS updates to is +44 793 794 66 77
Enter the following with a space between each bit of information to register your phone ● Begin your text with TA ● The email address you have registered with the Adventurists ● Your date of birth in the format dd/mm/yy (in this order with forward slashes) ● The Adventure code MR14 So your registration should look like this: TA [email protected] 19/04/86 MR14
UPDATE YOUR BLOG AND MAP Once your phone is registered you can send in blog and location updates. All your messages will appear on your team pages and the Mongol Rally Live Tracking Map.
Enter the following with a space between each bit of information to make an update ● Begin your SMS with TA ● If you want people to see where you are enter your location followed by a colon “:” ● Type your message
So your update should look like this: TA Novosibirsk, Russia: Another puncture and we’ve run out of tea.
Try to be as specific as possible with the location, if possible town, region, country
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IF YOUR CAR BREAKS DOWN BEFORE MONGOLIA As our old pal Churchill was wont to say K.B.O. Keep Buggering On. If you just keep moving to the finish line you won’t have to worry about import taxes, permissions, paperwork, public transport and the shame of failure.
If the unthinkable does happen and there really is only one option left to you, you can’t just leave your car at the side of the road and catch the first flight back to the warm embrace of your bed and safety of your sofa. A car is not like an old book you can take into a foreign country and discard, give away or sell, it is an asset which is subject to import taxes and must be dealt with accordingly.
If you’re forced to leave your car anywhere between Europe and Mongolia you need to do so within the letter of the law; each country has different requirements of paperwork and taxes necessary to dispose of said vehicle. Because these rules change from country to country and year to year, it’s down to you to find out what you need to do to satisfy the authorities of the country you’re in. If you get it wrong, you could face fines, imprisonment, deportation or worse. If you’re in any doubt ask your consulate for the exact procedure and paperwork required.
BASIC RULES Do not leave your vehicle in Iran, Turkmenistan or Azerbaijan. Under any circumstances. We will say this again; Do not leave your vehicle in Iran, Turkmenistan or Azerbaijan. Even if you have to drag it out of there piece by piece. Failing to follow this advice will unleash a shitstorm of inconvenience upon you and possibly us, which we’ll likely direct back to you. When we say shitstorm of inconvenience we obviously mean financial and legal troubles.
Make sure you obtain the necessary evidence of the legal disposal of your car. Ideally on headed paper with stamps, seals, crests and signatures. The best ones are from the police or customs office. Under no circumstances leave your car without getting receipts, police reports, sales documents, or import tax certificates, otherwise you’ll face serious difficulties leaving the country and getting back your deposit.
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IF EVERYTHING REALLY GOES TO SHIT If there is a total emergency we still won’t be able to help you. This is what you signed up for, Adversity and Triumph. You might want to give us a shout anyway so we can coordinate the consular office and insurance companies, and if you so choose your next of kin too.
IF YOUR CAR DIES INSIDE MONGOLIA Rule number one is, you’re on your own. Your shitbox car may have cost £60 to buy but it could be about to cost you a hell of a lot more unless you get her to the finish line. Having entered the country with a vehicle, you will need a paper trail of what has happened to it in order to leave the country without it. Your passport will be stamped to say that you entered by car and you need supporting documents, in order to get through customs on the way home again. “Giving” it to a herder and hitchhiking to UB won’t cut the mustard unfortunately, as you won’t get any such supporting documentation. As far as customs are concerned this would look like a permanent import of your vehicle, which will cost you over $6000 in import taxes
Your actual tax liability will be more than in the table above because you will be charge customs duty and VAT, these come to 20% of the perceived vehicle value.
Since we are no longer importing and selling the cars, but rather shipping them home from UB, there will be no dropoff points between the border and UB; once you’re in Mongolia, you’re committed to getting that piece of shit to UB.
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Rule number 2 is, don’t despair; tow it, truck it, Mongolise it (this is a real verb, used to describe the ingenious fixes devised and executed by enterprising Mongolians using elastic bands, goatskin, horsehair, a hammer and felt).
Use Adventurists Chivalry; if you see another team mandown, don’t just drive past them can you tow them to the next town for repair, or all the way in? These are the episodes that glory beers and (occasionally) babies are made from.
So that’s a carrot. And here is a stick, nay, several sticks that you could come across if you dump your car in Mongolia:
Having broken the law you could be arrested for attempting to illegally abandon a vehicle. There will be little your Embassy will be able to do to help.
You might not be allowed to leave Mongolia. The authorities may stop you at the border and demand payment of the import fees.
The border authorities could also ask you to retrieve your vehicle, sort the paperwork and pay the import taxes before letting you leave the country (this probably won’t be quick).
If we have to rescue your illegally dumped car because you legged it, we’ll probably have to charge you more money because sorting out your mess will cost more than the shipping fee.
GETTING INTO MONGOLIA You will all be coming in as ordinary tourists, ask for 30 days in country for your vehicle, (probably your max tourist visa stay) as this gives us plenty of time to get your car processed in UB and on its way home, if you are shipping. And, if you’re driving, it gives you plenty of time to drive across and around and enjoy yourself. There’s no ill consequence for leaving sooner.
Once you are at the finish line the registered owner of the vehicle will be issued with additional documents to show that we are taking responsibility for the shipping of your vehicle, and you will sign a letter to the same effect, passing over control of the car to us. We will keep a scan of your passport, the car’s registration document (V5C or countryequivalent), the customs papers you will be issued at the border, and a letter from The Adventurists stating that your team is travelling to Mongolia as tourists and that this is your final destination, which you the vehicle’s registered owner/keeper will need to sign.
As with any proper international border, getting into Mongolia isn’t like driving from England to Wales. There is a bunch of paperwork and bureaucracy to wrestle with before you get to fly
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across the steppe. You will probably have to queue, if you arrive at the border late you will probably have to stay the night there. If you are rude to the border guards they will take pleasure in making you wait longer.
ALTANBULAG OPENING TIMES Monday Sunday: 0900 1800
TSAGAANNUUR OPENING TIMES Monday Friday: 0900 1800 Saturday Sunday: 0900 1500 (Times may vary if border guards have drunk too much vodka the night before)
THE FINISH LINE
IF YOU ARE SHIPPING YOUR CAR
You will have the great privilege to take your steed to the Rally Graveyard
Directions: on the main road into UB from the west, around 11kms west of the city centre. You’ll be on a busy dual (well, multiple) carriageway. You’ll pass a roundabout with this man riding a bull. The turning to the graveyard is 4.2km beyond this roundabout.
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Our team will be there to greet you and usher you onto the heroes podium for a last photo with your car or what remains thereof.
This compound will be where we process the vehicles prior to their travel back to Europe. The Russian Railways require that they be thoroughly cleaned and all your grotty and roadworn possessions removed. So we will have a team of car ninjas cleaning, valeting and clearing the cars. Take with you anything you value. Donate anything you no longer value but think others in Mongolia might. We will have our container there and be organising weekly collections for local charities, who have previously made great use of Ralliers leftovers; camping food, pans and mess tins, sleeping bags and roll mats, tents, medical kits all of this stuff will find a good home if you want to leave it. We will dispose of anything beyond repair or just plain skanky.
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The shipping office at the graveyard is open Monday Sunday: 1000 1800 As well as dealing with your physical vehicle, we’ll complete all the paperwork you will need to exit Mongolia legally and hassle free, having disposed of your car. Once you are furnished with your sexedup dossier, we’ll run a shuttle bus into the city, where the final stage of your Rally journey can finally commence the celebrating. You should not drive into UB if you are shipping your car home, there’s nowhere to park and it will be a massive inconvenience so leave it with us and ride into the city footloose and carfree. Don’t worry, there will be a mega Graveyard Photo Opportunity before you say farewell to your steed and a whole new chapter of debauchery to look forward to once the partying begins in UB proper.
IF YOU ARE DRIVING YOUR CAR HOME Stop by the graveyard if you so choose, but you can equally well cruise on past and head straight into the city with your car. There is (limited) parking at the Office Hotel, the magnificent Mongol Rally Finish Line.
DIRECTIONS TO THE OFFICE HOTEL The road in from the west turns into Peace Avenue just follow your nose east and watch the city build up around you. Turn left immediately after the Ramada Hotel (big twin towers building), and you will see the Office Hotel about 100m up on the left hand side, in front of the Gandan Monastery.
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THE MIGHTY MONGOL RALLY FINISH LINE The Office Hotel will be Rally Central; you can stay, and rooms are a very reasonable T70,000 per night, around £25. The food is good. The chairs are velvet. You don’t have to stay however. We have arranged handsome discounts with a couple of other establishments in town to suit your tastes and budget, and if you like, you can stay somewhere else entirely. Ramada 5* Edelweiss 3* Mongolian Steppe Guest House hostel But the Office Hotel is where the party is going to be…from karaoke, to poker nights, cocktail masterclasses and some good old fashioned beer sinking, you can exchange tales from the road with your fellow newlyminted veterans...and probably sign up for something even more outlandish you dreamed up over a bottle of Chinggis Gold.
We’ll also have a help desk there every day to ensure all your end of Rally dreams come true; if you want to organise some day trips or other excursions out from UB, if you want to book your flight home (for the shipping folks), or if you want to completely rebuild your car so it can actually be driven all the way home again, we’ll get your wheels to the emergency room for resuscitation.
SHIPPING For the purposes of shipping your vehicles, all will be treated the same, regardless of whether you are collecting it in Kaunas or not. If you are collecting your car we will identify it appropriately so it doesn’t end up getting scrapped in Lithuania.
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Cars will be transported by rail on wagons leased from the Russians. The Adventurists team will be responsible for transporting your car to the railhead for loading and arranging all the forwarding paperwork. Your work is done by getting the little shitbox to the Graveyard.
We will not be able to guarantee exact journey dates for your vehicle as wagons will only travel when full and this will depend on when teams arrive. So, if you are planning to collect your car in Kaunas, await word from us on likely arrival dates. You do not need your vehicle to have been shipped in order to leave the country so really once you leave the Graveyard, as long as you have the paperwork from us and our shipping agent, you’re free to fly home and will slip through customs and immigration at the airport like an eel selectively bred for its speed and frictionlessness.
We are also investigating a couple of other shipping options, for folks who definitely, categorically never want to see their piece of shit vehicle again. Test runs are underway but as yet we do not have concrete plans in place for anything other than the Lithuania trip. So there is a slim chance that your car may go to Russia or even China for recycling, but in any case, it will be dealt with a) legally and b) responsibly and c) for less than £1200, since this is the deposit we have taken from all teams in order to pay for the shipping.
At the close of the event, when the wagons have rolled and the cars been delivered, the money will be counted, and any change from this mighty enterprise will be distributed among all the teams who shipped their cars with us. Equally.
THE RIPS Really Interesting Places, are a bunch of places you might want to visit while you're on the Rally. These aren't so much points of interest like you'd find in a guide book. These are really hard to get to locations. The whole point being the challenge to get there rather than the destination.
Some of these will be recommendations from Mongol Rally veterans, some from charities we've worked with in the past and others will be ones we've researched at Adventurist HQ. There might not be any particular reason for visiting these places, other than the fact that they will enrich your soul, or be difficult enough to get to that they will generate stories of their own. http://bit.ly/RIPmapMR
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