Passport has to be valid for at least another 6 months
and you need a visa to enter Mongolia. See Additional
Information on how to get a visa for Mongolia in Ankara.
Insurance
We did not have a valid
insurance for Mongolia. Nobody checked or seemed to care.
Drivers License
Did not get checked, but I am sure that officially you
are required to have one.
Motorcycle papers
All you need is
your 'vehicle passport' (vehicle registration papers).
License plates
Own license plates are sufficient.
How it went
After all
the hassle on the Russian side, the Mongolian border is a breeze.
Immigration: We had to fill out a Immigration form and hand this and the passports
to the two female officers at the immigration booth. The information
got checked thoroughly and then the passports were stamped.
Customs office: At the customs office they asked to see the 'vehicle passport'
and the passport. They also wanted to know from where we would be leaving
Mongolia.Then the information got registered in their book and we were
sent on our way.
All in all it took less than 30 minutes to get into Mongolia!
Point of Exit
Tashanta into Russia
How it went
The border on the Mongolia side opens at 09:00 am. It
is very important that you show up as early as possible! The problem
is not so much the Mongolians but the Russians on the other side. They
don't like to work and if you are not among the first vehicles across
in the morning you risked being turned back by the Russians and asked
to come back the next day! This then of course means you have to go back
into Mongolia as if you were arriving from Russia!
The Mongolians are well aware of this problem, so a line of vehicles starts
forming in front of the border long before 09:00 am!
Additional
Information
Getting a visa for Mongolia: We got our visa for Mongolia at the Embassy in Ankara, Turkey.
The Embassy is a little hard to find, so here are the GPS coordinates:
N39 53.613 E32 52.776
We were welcomed by the Consul himself who asked us into his office. After
explaining that we wanted to travel to Mongolia we were handed visa application
forms and a bank account number. We were asked to come back in the afternoon
with the completed form, an attached passport photo and a receipt proving
that we had deposited the money in said bank. The visa charge was 25 Euro.
For an additional fee he would have issued us a "same day visa" but we
opted to return the following day to pick them up.
Changing
money:
Coming into Mongolia from Russia:
There was nowhere to change money at the border. You have to drive to
Oelgy to find a bank that will change USD into local currency.
Leaving Mongolia to Russia: We had spent all our Mongolian currency unsure as to whether we
would be able to change it into rubles in Russia. However when leaving
Mongolia you have to pay a small fee for a health inspection. We ended
up paying the fee in rubles, which was ok.
There is nowhere on the border to change money. However you need rubles
to pay for the insurance and the entry permit for your vehicle. So I suggest
you buy some rubles in Ulaan Bataar!
INFOS
These
are the details of the border crossing into this particular country.
The information is correct as of the date on which the border was
crossed. But, due to the stability and vagaries of the regimes involved,
it is prudent that you get additional data directly from the embassy
involved, preferably in your own country. Also you should keep in
mind that the procedure can vary depending on exactly who is on duty.
So never assume anything is a particular way, and regardless of what
anyone says, the impossible is often possible if you are in the right
place at the right time. Good Luck.
