When we started thinking about the route home we had three absolute definites: avoid the bureaucratic headache of driving in China, visit Mongolia again and travel through Iran. In fact, I would go as far as saying that Iran was at the ‘top of the list.’
Category: reference
Following on from my other piece about choosing our drone, here’s a more technical look into the finer details of using the drone day-to-day.
Casual readers will find this monolithically uninteresting!
An action shot in Kyrgyzstan
Quite often when people have seen some of the videos we’ve been making the first question is often “What drone do you use?” So here’s a post to answer that very question.
I’m writing this with our Uzbekistan visas proudly displayed in our passports; so I’m now free to write about the long procedure we had to go through to get it. No possibility of a jinx 😉
Firstly one has to fill in an online form with your details and print off two copies together with two printouts of the photo page in your passport and also provide two passport photos. You then take all of this to the embassy. Easy enough I hear you chorus……
So let’s talk about money! Having just left Mongolia we thought it would be good to reflect on costs and where the money went. In total we spent 23 days travelling around the country.
So we approached the town of Kyakhta that is the Russian border town. I don’t know if it’s the case that all Russian border towns are military bases too – but this one certainly is. It instantly puts the bejesus into us…..just don’t do anything wrong!
So in army style here is the outline of what happened:
09:45 – approach border – guard looks at passports – signals us onwards.
09:50 – park up behind some cars – man in the car in front tells us to go second floor.
09:56 – someone mopping the floor – one manned counter.
10:02 – man says we need stamp first from car inspectors.
10:06 – 3 guards with 2 Alsatian dogs inspect the car and engine.
10:16 – back to second floor – form stamped.
10:22 – called over – passports handed over.
10:26 – drive car to X-ray machine.
10:38 – car has X-ray.
10:44 – back to second floor – form stamped.
10:48 – to passport control.
10:54 – through passport control – drive through no-mans land and into Mongolia side of border control.
11:00 – car is registered and we’re given a white slip of paper
11:22 – drive car to be inspected – white slip gets a stamp.
11:26 – queue up for Mongolian passport control.
11:38 – through Mongolian passport control.
11:44 – into customs room – officer prints off form.
11:52 – officer inspects car – officer stamps form – white slip gets another stamp.
12:01 – drive to next stop – passports inspected.
12:03 – through border and surrender white slip – enter cabin that sells car insurance.
12:15 – £44 later insurance form received and stamped.
12:17 – we’re in Mongolia
Time spent: 2 hours 32 minutes
Considering it’s a border crossing that caters for foreigners it offered no guidance on how to navigate the system. If it wasn’t for the numerous kind Mongolians, who obviously traverse the borders routinely, I imagine the process would have taken a lot longer. With no common language, they pointed at particular places and particular forms and we eventually got the gist that we needed that form stamped or needed to go over there.
So here we are: our second visit to the truly beautiful land of Mongolia.
Six tried and tested methods of execution:
#1 Mr Miyagi – (1984 Karate Kid) – when it looks like you are only grabbing handfuls of thin air, but, as you uncoil your hand, you have actually caught a mosquito in mid flight and crushed it to death in one swift movement. This method is no doubt the coolest and deserves utmost respect.
#2 Nosferatu – (1922 vampire film) – when you splat a mosquito mid meal leaving a smear of blood on the skin. A bitter sweet ending maybe?
#3 The Guillotine – after splatting a mosquito on the wall you realise that you have cleanly and neatly dissected him into two or more neat parts.
#4 Splat-and-Smear – when a mosquito is flying between the roof of the car and the mosquito net. From a lying down position, with palm facing upwards, you splat. And then, not even sure if you have got him, you nevertheless smear by dragging your palm some three or four inches in any direction. This does have the downside of leaving an unsightly mess on the roof but is so worth it.
#5 The Stun-Gun – when you have splattered the mosquito and he literally falls, like a lead balloon, into the abyss below leaving no residue or trace behind.
#6 The Tweezer – you must merely stun the mosquito first and then, holding him in your fingers and being careful to not crush and kill him, you slowly and sadistically pluck each body part off him one by one. Enough said.
Enjoy 🙂
Having worked up a design and installed the battery, isolator and circuit breakers I managed to get the last few bits finished off over the last few weeks.
Inside, the plan was:
• 12V to power our fridge
• 3 x 5V USB outlets
• Mains power via a 300W inverter
• A meter to monitor the battery’s voltage
All this will be powered by an Optima YTS4.2L deep cycle battery capable of delivering 55Ah. Theoretically, this should mean a couple of days of refrigeration without having to worry about charging the battery.
Japanese is a cool language – it looks good, it’s fun to learn and it’s what they speak in anime – but unfortunately virtually no-one outside of Japan speaks, reads or writes Japanese. On that basis, when you plan to take a Japanese car out of the country, a little bit of preparation is required to ensure that you have the relevant documentation in a form that can be read by the rest of the world. The following bits and pieces are required:
- Translated vehicle registration document (登録証書 – toroku-shosho)
- International number plate (国際ナンバー – kokusai nanba)
- International driving permit (国際運転免許証 – kokusai-unten-menkyoshou)
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