maqh just cruising along

1810/2011 22

Mongol Rally [5]: Uzbekistan

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Now we’re definitely in a territory that I had no idea about before going on the rally. I mean I remember Socceroos playing Uzbekistan but apart from that knew nothing about the country. And, as the whole rally, with few difficulties along the way the experience over all turned out to be really good. Apart from Mongolia that’s actually where we spent most time along the way, partly due to the long distance we had to drive and partly due to a bad food poisoning that hit our convoy. Uzbeks turned out to be extremely friendly and always wanted to help, sometimes even too much. It was hard to get petrol in the north, money was best to be exchanged on the black market and everyone drove Daewoo – once you get used to that it was great fun :) Oh, and there’s actually heaps of tourists there.

Mongol Rally [5]: Uzbekistan
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710/2011 17

Mongol Rally [4]: Kazakhstan

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First “stan” on the route: Kazakstan. Ninth biggest country in the world and also the biggest landlocked country. We got a chance to visit it twice during the Mongol Rally, first going south on its western part (photos from this in here) and then going north on its eastern side (photos to come later). There’s not much in the middle :) People were very friendly both times and were waving at us from the side of the road all the time. Also drivers were honking at us constantly and it took a while to get used to it and realise it’s their way of greeting us.

Mongol Rally [4]: Kazakhstan
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410/2011 17

Mongol Rally [3]: Russia

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And we’re in Russia, another positive surprise of the Mongol Rally adventure. Places we went through were mostly very well developed, roads really good and petrol stations just… well, normal. As we found out later in the trip that’s not always the case :) Russians are very proud of their country and its history and you can see it everywhere. Oh, if you ever go there, even basic few sentences in Russian come very handy and they really appreciate you trying, especially if you’re from Australia.

Mongol Rally [3]: Russia
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2909/2011 17

Mongol Rally [2]: Ukraine

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Another country from our Mongol Rally adventure and the first one we were warned about by previous year’s rally teams and by people from Poland (that seems to be the norm by the way, everyone tells you bad stuff about the neighbouring country): Ukraine. Fortunately we were positively surprised and had a really good time there. We did however stick to main roads and big cities and comparing our experiences with other teams that didn’t do so it seems like that was the right idea.

Mongol Rally [2]: Ukraine
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2509/2011 17

Mongol Rally [1]: Czech Republic and Poland

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Time for few more shots from this year’s Mongol Rally and we’re going to start with Czech Republic and Poland. Early days of the rally, we were still travelling on our own and as you can imagine we went to visit some friends and family in Poland. I even managed to visit the village my grandad was born in and meet his friends and neighbours! But let’s go back to the rally.

Mongol Rally [1]: Czech Republic and Poland
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