The Great Roadway Bazaar

Scott Brady

Scott Brady

Founder
Charlie is doing fine, it is just his first experience with a manual trans. I am quite proud of his progress and we are working on skills every day. He will no doubt come tearing into Ulaanbaatar and do a power slide into the finish ;)

We are in Tblisi, and it is beautiful. A wonderful old part of the city. We nabbed a nice little hotel (very nice actually) for $80 and are going out for some food. Georgia has been a complete shocker to me. Wonderful people (we hung out with another team playing soccer with the locals earlier) and much more developed than expected. More developed than Bulgaria, probably on par with Romania.

The drivers in Georgia are the worst yet. Based on what I saw today, the typical Georgian driver has no skill (for the speed they are traveling), no fear and do whatever they want in that moment, regardless of who is around. Their driving behavior is completely contrary to their behavior on the street- odd. The condition of their bumpers reflect the failed attempts. But it kept the day interesting - I live for those types of challenges. . .
 
P

Patrice

New member
expeditionswest said:
Off to Azerbaijan
Click to expand...

Scott,

Great to hear that you are doing fine with Charlie & the Jimny.
I love crunchy details about those various countries, good on you.
If I had my GS1200 yet, I would zoom to catch up with you on the road to Mongolia............!
All those stories remind me of our travel on a Kombi in the 70's toward Asia, ah !! sweet memories.
Take care my friend, give a hug to Chuck and don't over rev the 4 cylinders, there still a long way to go.
Cheers
 
LC4Dakar

LC4Dakar

Adventurer
franeuro said:
Still stuck at customs though (3 hours already!) :coffee:
Click to expand...

Our average was 4 hours to get out of one country and into another. Lines, paperwork, customs lunch breaks (2 hour minimum, and they always occurred when we were trying to get through, no matter what time of the day).
 
LC4Dakar

LC4Dakar

Adventurer
There are two rallies to Mongolia. The Mongol Rally is an offshoot of the Mongolia Charity Rally (litigation pending). We were in the MCR, Scott and Chuck are in the MR. The MR leaves 1-2 weeks after the MCR. There are 30-40 people that typically run the MCR versus 500+ for the MR.

The MR is for profit. The money you raise for charity goes to charity. The entry fee goes to the MR people for costs and profits. What happens to the cars is not well known. When we were in UB we met a person who had bought a couple of the cars, but not at a charity auction. No one we talked to there could find any money from the sales going to charity. The cars arrive, then seem to go off the radar. If they ran at all. The rally has something like a 50% mortality rate of cars. It is a classic "banger rally".

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WazowGFbUVc"]YouTube- Mongol Rally 2007 end result[/ame]

The MCR tries to get quality vehicles into Mongolia that will either sell for enough money to fund their charity operations or that will be donated to NGO's (i.e. ambulances, busses, etc). That is why there are fewer participants. The cars usually are much more expensive, and the acceptance criteria is very different. The entry fee goes to the rally organization charities less some costs. Most of the people involved donate their time and pay their own way on trips.

We booked a tour (minders are required for Americans in Iran, but not for any other nationality). We got visas through the Iranian Interests Section office inside the Pakistani Embassy in Washington. Took about 2-3 months, but was not really difficult. We missed Iran due to all the problems we had with the Discovery.
We lost so much time fixing it that we couldn't make our transit visa dates for Turkmenistan, so had miss Iran and take the ferry from Trabzon, Turkey to Sochi, Russia, then drive through Russia to Astrakhan, all the way across Kazakhstan, and back into Russia. We missed 4 of the 5 'stans and Iran. I would STRONGLY recommend to never buy a vehicle from the Tuk Tuk dealer near Warwickshire.
 
franeuro

franeuro

Observer
LC4Dakar said:
There are two rallies to Mongolia. The Mongol Rally is an offshoot of the Mongolia Charity Rally (litigation pending). We were in the MCR, Scott and Chuck are in the MR. The MR leaves 1-2 weeks after the MCR. There are 30-40 people that typically run the MCR versus 500+ for the MR.

The MR is for profit. The money you raise for charity goes to charity. The entry fee goes to the MR people for costs and profits. What happens to the cars is not well known. When we were in UB we met a person who had bought a couple of the cars, but not at a charity auction. No one we talked to there could find any money from the sales going to charity. The cars arrive, then seem to go off the radar. If they ran at all. The rally has something like a 50% mortality rate of cars. It is a classic "banger rally".

YouTube- Mongol Rally 2007 end result

The MCR tries to get quality vehicles into Mongolia that will either sell for enough money to fund their charity operations or that will be donated to NGO's (i.e. ambulances, busses, etc). That is why there are fewer participants. The cars usually are much more expensive, and the acceptance criteria is very different. The entry fee goes to the rally organization charities less some costs. Most of the people involved donate their time and pay their own way on trips.

We booked a tour (minders are required for Americans in Iran, but not for any other nationality). We got visas through the Iranian Interests Section office inside the Pakistani Embassy in Washington. Took about 2-3 months, but was not really difficult. We missed Iran due to all the problems we had with the Discovery.
We lost so much time fixing it that we couldn't make our transit visa dates for Turkmenistan, so had miss Iran and take the ferry from Trabzon, Turkey to Sochi, Russia, then drive through Russia to Astrakhan, all the way across Kazakhstan, and back into Russia. We missed 4 of the 5 'stans and Iran. I would STRONGLY recommend to never buy a vehicle from the Tuk Tuk dealer near Warwickshire.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for all these explanations! Didn't know about any of these rallies before now, imagine!
Scott and Charlie's Jimny will be by far the best prize to offer to the charity or organization...who knows? Scott even watched his Jimny before leaving my place on Sat morning, mind you!
Scott told me the MR vehicle should be no more than 1.2 liter but also not older than 2002. When you see the wrecks along the parking place in that video, it's simply horrendous!
Thanks again,
 
LC4Dakar

LC4Dakar

Adventurer
We convoyed with a couple of guys from Barcelona who were on the MR rally through part of Kazakhstan and Russia. They called themselves Alien Pollo and were in a 1.1 liter Fiat. We lost them in the Altai (actually left them sleeping in the hotel after we all stayed up till 3 AM drinking the Sangria I found in a Russian grocery store).
 
franeuro

franeuro

Observer
LC4Dakar said:
We convoyed with a couple of guys from Barcelona who were on the MR rally through part of Kazakhstan and Russia. They called themselves Alien Pollo and were in a 1.1 liter Fiat. We lost them in the Altai (actually left them sleeping in the hotel after we all stayed up till 3 AM drinking the Sangria I found in a Russian grocery store).
Click to expand...
As you say, every trip is an adventure!
Is your next trip due for Dakar, BTW?
 
Scott Brady

Scott Brady

Founder
In Baku, working through ferry process. Maybe leave tonight for Turkmenistan

All is well. Baku is a cool city. Major development, including the brand new Bently dealership across from our hotel...
 
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