I need to let you know that the following is a story that Jack related to me, but I thought that I would steal it, too, because it really was apropos to what is going on:

Jack and I were brought up short today, when he received an email from a friend in Beijing.

Our friend has been riding motorcycles for years, and he has been involved with Chang Jiang’s like ours and other sidecar models. You all know the problems we have had and all the delays that we have endured. Well, our friend said, "What is important, the trip or the ride? You are on the trip, so enjoy the trip". Our heads have been so much into riding Max that we have forgotten our real reason for our one and a half year hiatus…to meet people, see exciting places and enjoy ourselves. Sometimes you need to have someone else say in a nice way, hey, stop your complaining and just enjoy where you are and what you are doing. So this afternoon Jack and I enjoyed a bright, blue sky, warm temperatures and each other’s company while we sat outside drinking beer, eating barbecue beef and people watching.

It is so easy to get into the negative part of life and forget that good things are happening all around us. Two people today, the day manager for the Pizza Della Casa and her sister, helped us with the situation of our Letters of Invitations. The manager contacted her sister, who speaks better English, to help us with locating the UPS parcel that contains the Letters of Invitations. She drove us to the office and recommended that when the parcel arrives that they deliver to her sister at the restaurant, or if her sister is not there, to call her and she will pick it up and deliver it to us. People here have just bent over backwards to help us, and they are not looking for anything. This is the way they are.

The next day, Wednesday 12 September, I got a knock at the door and it was one of the waiters from Pizza Della Casa, delivering the UPS parcel with the LOI. Then on Thursday 13 September morning we received a note from Onko that we should go to the Russian Embassy, pick up the applications then call her at 12Noon. Once we called her, she came to the guest house to let us know that she had arranged for her sister, Tunga, to go with us to the embassy at 2PM. We all met for lunch at Pizza Della Casa…it is the most centrally located restaurant. At 2PM we were in-front of the Russian Embassy waiting for them to open the gates and go into the lobby to wait our turn. Since they are only opened from 2PM to 3PM Monday through Friday, we are hoping to get in, get our LOI registered and our visas ordered. By 2:40PM we are a bit nervous, because there are a couple of people ahead of us. But as things turned out we were able to step into the inner sanctum at about 2:45PM, which means that we made it. Tunga, speaks to the agent. After about five or ten minutes of explaining the change in the itinerary on the letters, the agent relents to give us a visa, knowing that we need to fix our bike in Moscow. He asks, "When do you want the visa to begin?" Of course, we want to leave on Tuesday the 19^th. So there it is. We pay the $280.00 for a two day rush and off we go. We are happy, because the visa begins on the 19^th and we will have 30 days in Russia. I then left Jack and Tunga as they headed for the international freight train station. Prior to their leaving, plans had been made for the next day to go to the custom agency to fill out forms for the bike.

The following day Jack left with Tunga for the customs office. He returned without the document, but was able to book passage on the train for Tuesday to Moscow. We were going to pay for first class, which would have been only 183,000 turgik or approximately $183 per person, but there were no first class cars available. Tunga suggested that he purchase the other two bunks in the car, giving us a private car and not for much additional money…maybe $60 more. This will give us more room for our baggage and a larger space for four days. What a deal and privacy, too.

Right now everything is falling into place: we have our tickets, visas are ordered and we have arranged to crate the bike and sidecar on Sunday so on Saturday Jack and I decide to visit the National History Museum. It is quite a large exhibit, which includes the flora, fauna and animals of the region, including Siberia. They have several exhibits on the Dinosaurs that roamed this part of the world, including two raptors that were the only dinosaurs ever found to be fighting before they died…a very rare find. While sitting outside to rest a bit, we had a bit of a disagreement about where to eat. He asked me a couple of times, while I am checking the map, "What would you like to eat?" I told him, "that I did not care." But I guess it came out a bit hot. He was trying to be nice and I really did not care at that point. With all the setbacks, both of us have been a bit on edge, so our tempers flare, but we are able to settle down and work things out. We finally decided on an Irish Pub, sharing a good lunch and then topped off the afternoon at an internet café close by. We ended our day quite early since we would be up to crate the bike and sidecar.

Sunday was an early day, so we could get a start on the bike before the crew came to build the crates. They were due to arrive at 10AM, but they did not arrive until about 11:30AM. We got the material list and off we were to buy the materials for the crates. The lumber yard is quite different than those in the US. First, you have to pay to enter…about 200 tugrik or $.20. Then there are trucks of all sizes waiting in the yard. I did not realize that they were waiting to deliver the lumber for the customers. We approach a woman waiting in front of piles of different size wood. She is the vendor and most wood vendors are woman, but do not seem to know much about the wood they sell. The men do the carrying, sawing and other sundry things. Tunga had asked this young man to help us, finding out that he is a carpenter by trade, so I felt better about the work. Once he purchases the wood, nails and some wire, were are off. He has arranged a truck to carry off the wood. But before we get on the road, the young man is dropped off. I asked Tunga "Is he riding in the truck with the wood?" Her answer was, "No, he has a job today." This sort of set the tone for the day. The fellow that was to help Jack was his brother, and carpentry was not his job. Jack really had to direct him and show him what to do all day. By 8:30PM everyone was a bit tired and getting rushed, since the truck would be there the next day at 8:30AM to pick up the bike and sidecar. Jack made arrangements for the young man to return at 7AM the next morning to finish the crate for the sidecar. He was paid and off he went.

We were both up early and Jack was out to work at 7AM. At about 7:30AM I joined him and found that the young man never returned. Jack had to finish what he could by himself. It is difficult to complete a job without the proper tools: not enough nails and no saw to cut the wood. Luckily, Jack has worked under these conditions before and is very resourceful. Instead of a saw to cut the wood, he used an axe. He did a good job on shoring up the crate before the truck arrived. Oh, about the truck. Tunga was at the guest house by 8:30AM, but the truck never showed up. She left and sometime later came back with a truck, which was much smaller, but could do the job…it cost us double because he had to make two trips, but hey, the job got done. She also rounded up some men in the neighborhood to help lift the sidecar crate on the truck. Oddly enough they lifted the crates on the truck without an incident.

Then Jack climbed into his truck and I went with Tunga to the railway station. This early in the morning people are returning from Zamin Uud and their shopping sprees: the parking lot is full of cars picking people and parcels up and dropping them off…a mess of gigantic proportions. Tunga manages to find a parking space and we locate the truck. Since we could not drive up the available ramp, Tunga is off somewhere and comes back with a baggage handler and his small cart. Now picture this: a large wooden crate on the back of a truck, this small handler and his cart ready to lift the crate onto this cart. Jack and I shout, "No, no." All we could see was this crate falling off the truck onto the pavement and smashed into pieces. Several men joined the crew and somehow they got this big crate onto this small cart.

This small cart is placed forward and the crate is spread out across it…the long way. There are two or three men pulling, pushing and steadying this crate on the cart. They get it to the door of the freight office and it is announced that the crate is too big. Jack does not know this, because he is off in the truck picking up the bike. Now this crate will not fit through the door to be weighed. So the men begin to jockey this box, and cart back and forth working this large crate through the door. They finally succeed and then place it on the scale. The crate and sidecar tip the scale at 320 Kg. Of course, any parcel to be shipped should only weigh 160Kgs. So what do we do? Well, they remove the crate, backing it out the door and place it on the loading dock close to the building. The fellow that handles the baggage says, "If you can lose some weight, about 120 Kg, I will allow it on the train." So there is it. Can we remove everything from the sidecar to reduce the weight that much?

In the meantime, Jack has arrived back in the parking lot and the same situation arises with the bike. This time we feel a bit more confident that the same handler will be able to maneuver the crate and get it weighed. I tell him about the weight problem, which he knew anyway, and he knows that the bike will weigh more. But for some reason the bike weighs less, 280 Kg. There is nothing that we can do about the bike, but maybe about the crate. So the bike is placed out onto the dock and both sit there. Now, Tunga is making some calls and tells us that she knows the boss at the station that makes the decision about overweight parcels. Jack and Tunga go and visit this man. Since it is about 11:40AM, I am a bit nervous, because today we have to pick up the visas at 12:20 to 12:50. So I go to find them and they are on their way back. The news I got was encouraging, but not promising. This gentleman had to send a telex to the Moscow railway station and ask if they would accept two over weight crates. He says that most times they say yes, but that they do not like to do this since they do everything by hand…and these crates are big and very heavy. So we have to wait for the reply. We are talking on our way, since it is 11:50AM. We hurry to the car and we are on our way to the Embassy.

Traffic at this time of day as in any city is quite heavy, but we manage to find a parking spot across from the Embassy and arrive at the gate just in time to be let in. There are several others waiting to pick up their visas. I sit and wait with some other women. It was only a few minutes and others were moving toward the door. We stood up and we were ushered into the room at the same time. We needed to sign our receipt saying that we had received and checked our visas, which I did. I found I was the first to place it in the slot and received my visas first. How easy was that? Before I left I checked the visa and found that it started on September 19^th like we asked, but the termination date was the same as on the LOI, October 4. We only had a two week visa. This would not do. I had to check this out. We were let back in after a ten minute wait. The same agent that issued the visas explained that he issued it due to our emergency with the bike and wanting to only get to Moscow. We would have to go through the entire process again to have a 30 day visa issued…more time and more money.

The city has visa services, but it would have cost us an additional $560 to apply for Letters of Invitations and have the visas rushed. Right now it had cost us: $60 for the original Letters of Invitation, $65 for shipment by UPS and $150 for the visas issued in China. Then we applied for new Letters of Invitation over the internet at $90 for same day service. It cost an additional $65 to have them sent by UPS from Moscow. Then we had to pay the $280 for a two day rush for the visas. With this in mind, we decided to take the train on Friday to Moscow and take our chances with the police when we get there. I understand that fines are not that big, actually cheaper than the process of getting new visas. So the next step was to change our tickets. We went back to the ticket agency, but Jack found out that they needed to go to another location for a refund. Luckily Tunga knows all the right people and after about an hour and a half, Jack returned with the refund. He had already booked the train for Friday, getting first class accommodations. I do not know what this means on the Mongolian train. It may be less room, so less luggage space. We returned to the freight office, purchasing a 15,000 tugrik bottle of vodka for the freight agent. Small gifts like this always seem to carry some weight. The bikes were removed from the loading dock and placed inside the station for the night. We are finished for the day. Thank goodness, because it has been a long and grueling day. Jack made plans to go with Tunga the next morning at 7:50AM. I am not sure what has to be handled, except to check on the reply from Moscow and purchase the tickets. Of course, if Moscow refuses the crates then we do not leave UB on Friday and we will have to find other ways to get to Moscow. We need to have the bike fixed and Moscow seems to be the only option for that, right now. We wanted to get to Mongolia and we may have to spend the winter here…NOT.

Going on to onto another subject, a friend asked me, "What have you been eating?" Well, I had in mind that we would be camping more and that our meals would be meager, allowing me to lose weight. Was I wrong! We really have only camped three days on the whole trip and I have gained a BUNCH OF WEIGHT. I have eaten Chinese food in Erlian, China, Mongolian food in Zamin Uud at the Mongolian border. In Ulaanbaatar, since it is a cosmopolitan city, I have eaten Mongolian, Italian, Turkish, German, Mexican, Uzbekistan and Irish food…all very good, rich and plentiful portions. Ah! I am not sure what to expect in Russia except that a friend told me that their yogurt is yummy and their ice cream is superb. Maybe four days of train cuisine will help me to drop a few pounds. I hear that the Russian food is tasteless, so we are going to bring salt. I will let you know.

It is Thursday, 21 September and we are waiting to hear from Tunga. Jack has been unable to contact her by his phone, so he had to go outside to pay for a call on the wireless phones that you see all around the city. He was able to contact Onko, so he told her to contact Tunga and let her know that he is waiting to be picked up. I have a sinking feeling that this may not be our last night in Ulaanbaatar, but I have to wait and see what the rest of the day holds for us. Well, Tunga does pick up Jack, but nothing is resolved about the bike. She instructs Jack to meet her at 3:30PM. But I decide to follow-up with her for the afternoon, which turns out to be quite an eye opener. She picks me up and off we go to the Mongolian department of the railway station. You need to get a pass from this department, so you can go to the Department that deals with Russia. Once we are on the Russian side, she is off in every direction trying to find out about any response from Moscow about the over weight baggage. She gets a copy of the fax sent and finds that it only went out the day before. She is not too happy, because no one seems to know who sent it and if a reply came. She got fed up with the run around and goes straight to the head of this department. She shows him the fax and he immediately made a call to Moscow, getting a verbal okay for the bike over the phone. He signs the fax and off we go…it took him only 10 minutes.

We then must go to customs to finish the paperwork on the bike that was started yesterday.

Once finished at customs, I pay 1000 tugrik for the service and off we go to pick up additional forms, which cost an additional 500 tugrik. Tunga fills them out and returns to the freight area, but she finds that the forms she has from customs is filled out incorrectly, so back we go to customs. In all it took us three hours to finish all the paperwork for the next days departure. So I return to Gana’s Guesthouse to meet up with Jack. The throat singers are to appear at 7:30PM, so we have made plans to meet Eric, Tunga and Onko for a farewell dinner. We arrive to find that Shogi and her daughter were coming to the restaurant to see us; Eric brought a Swedish family that he had met while in UB. The interesting aside about this meeting is that Eric and the father come from the same hometown…a small world. This couple started their overland trip with their two children: one daughter 4 soon to be 5 and their 5 month old daughter from Sweden to China. We were all in UB waiting on something: Eric was sick and waiting to get better; the couple was waiting for their paperwork to cross into China and us for approval on the bike. The throat singers never appeared, but we managed to have a going away party, even with wine provided by the owner, Gana. It was a good night for us spending the time with our new friends.

Jack was off the next morning with Tunga to finalize the paperwork and I busied myself with final packing. At 12:15PM Jack came screaming in that we needed to leave, have lunch and get onto the train. So we stopped for a quick lunch, which took longer than we anticipated. Screeching toward the train station, Jack and Tunga running to pay the freight fee for the bike and buy Vodka for any bribes along the way. Jackie, Tunga’s friend, tried to pull into the parking lot so we could get the luggage to the train. Luckily, we met the handler that was to take our bags to the train, piling all the bags on the cart and rushing toward the loading dock. The two men loaded the bags onto the train, stowing them away and I just walked on without a care. Although I tried to carry one of the heavier bags up the stairs, being hindered by a woman who insisted she was coming down at the same time. Finally, one of the men helping me grabbed the bag and carried it to the car. The woman stepped out of my way to let me pass, so I sauntered onto the train and found my car. Jack followed close behind. At least this was a bit more civilized than our experience in Zamin Uud. At 1:50PM the train was on its way. The next five days would be an adventure within itself.

So here we were finally on our way to Moscow and this was an exciting event. We were in a private car and we would have four days of not thinking about Max, since it was on the same train. But I did not know how antsy you can get on a train, especially when there are no activities other than sleeping, eating, talking with other passengers, which was limited and playing cards. Jack and I played more cards in five days than we have in our 42 years of marriage. Solitaire is another game that I played a lot…not winning many games by myself or against Jack. The train traveled at times quite slowly and at other times speeding along at quite a clip. We also passed the time by just peering out the windows, which had not been cleaned in a while. The countryside that passed before us was not the Siberia that I had envisioned or heard about since my childhood…cold, desolate and a place where only political prisoners are sent. Well, I saw a lush, colorful and beautiful forest that was massive and it stretched as far as my eyes could see. The forest was filled with layers and layers of birch trees, interspersed with pine. Then beyond the tree line I could see acres of unfarmed land with rich black soil. On occasion there would be hamlets or small villages with houses to match…so small and mostly unpainted, blackening in the harsh weather months. Many households had gardens mostly of cabbage and brightly colored flowers. Another anomaly was the ornate shutters that were painted blue and seemed to accentuate the poverty that surrounded them. Yet, this gave me a picture of a Russia that was quite rich in natural resources.

Another source of entertainment was the passengers themselves. Most of the passengers were vendors who had booked passage on the train to sell their goods. We saw cars packed with parcels that were filled with blankets, jeans, sweaters, jackets, purses, children’s clothes, tennis shoes and other sundry items. Most of these vendors were Mongolians who had purchased these items in Erlian or Beijing in China to sell to the Russians along the train route. The train made many stops for less that 5 minutes not more than 20 minutes, at which time the vendors would don their wares and step off the train and would be deluged with shoppers who had come specifically to buy that new jean, sweater, jacket or whatever they needed. It was a madhouse and quite entertaining to watch. What was more interesting in this scenario were the police: this station selling was illegal and for some police they would not hassle the vendors; others would enforce this and the vendors would not get off the train; others forcefully enforced the law and others required a bribe to look the other way. We could always tell when a 20 minute stop was coming up, because the vendors would organize their wares and be waiting for the train to stop. They sold a good portion of their goods in the countryside, but as we got closer to Moscow the buying frenzy dropped off.

We met a couple from Australia, Michael and Mandy and a doctor from Switzerland, Rudy. The conversation with them gave us enough of a diversion from the constant Mongolian being spoken all around us. The staff that cleaned our car we very pleasant and quite helpful, but I cannot say the same about the staff in the dining car. The waitress was stoic and not very helpful, but the cook was nice and could only shrug about her behavior. The food left a lot to be desired…everything was quite greasy although it was tasty, but soooooo expensive.. Luckily, we brought food with us and could buy items along the route. I elected to eat the food in our cabin when I could buy it.

I am going to have to sign-off now, because we are going to try to find an internet café. Even though we have had access to wireless, our computer has not been able to access the internet. We are on our way to Latvia this evening on the train, because we have to purchase another Russian Visa, this will be our third, since our second is only good until 04 Oct. More news to come with my next update.

Bye for now.