Border Crossings Mongolia to Russia:
There are three border crossings from Mongolia into Russia.
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✦In the West in the Bayan-Olgii provence from Tsagaannuur (Mongolia) to Tashanta (Russia)
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✦Central, directly North of Ulaanbaatar from Altanbulag (Mongolia) to Kayakhta (Russia)
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✦In the East in the Dornod Provence from Ereentsav (Mongolia) to Solovyevsk( Russia)...HOWEVER this is only open to foreign foot traffic. NO Foreign vehicles allowed. Even using out contacts with Mongolia Expeditions permission was not obtainable.
The border crossings are open from 9am to Noon then 2pm to 6pm Monday to Friday excluding public holidays.
Western Crossing from Tsagaannuur (Mongolia) to Tashanta (Russia):
Tsagaannuur is situated in the remote western side of Mongolia. The actual border is situated some 36 kilometres outside of town so ensure any Togrogs are changes here because the Mongolian currency is difficult to change outside Mongolia.
Alternatively top up with fuel using your Togrogs.
There are no facilities at the border.
This is the first gate exiting Mongolia
Mongolia Customs above
Russian Customs below
It takes about 2 hours on the Mongolian side, and the same time on the Russian side. Each is separated by 25 kilometres of no mans land. We paid 10,000T (A$10) in Mongolia for something, and in Russia 80RUB (A$3.20) for quarantine, and 250RUB (A$10.00) for the Vehicle Temporary Import documents. The vehicle documents are normally issued for 30 days but you can ask for 3 or 6 months but only to a maximum your visa validity.
You will need to show your vehicle registration papers and perhaps your International Driving Permit. Third Party Vehicle Insurance fr a minimum of 15days was available at the border.
A vehicle Carnet is not accepted in Russia.
Officials on both sides were friendly, sort of efficient, but they did know what they were doing, even if we did not!
There were no facilities to exchange money into Rouble within the border areas, and money should be exchanged to Rouble in Suhbaatar or earlier. One can always put Togrogs value of Diesel into the tank however I do not remember even a fuel station at the border town.
In the Russian town of Kayakhta there are banks and ATM’s for money changing. However when we were there, there was no power so the ATM’s also did not operate.
There is no provision for crossing at this border on foot so you may be approached to carry a passenger through the process. A customs officer did approach one of our group as he had a spare seat for the 250 metre drive.
This border is busy with both Russians and Mongolians crossing and Russian Timber trucks returning empty. Count on at least 8 hours for the process. We arrived the night before and at the border closing there was already 5 vehicles, by 8pm the three lines had at least 20 or so cars and 10 logging and freight trucks. The two left lines are for vehicles and the right one for trucks.
(As a comparison we paid our guide for the Strictly Prohibited Areas US$25/day for his services)
Finally at 11 am we make a move and drive around the trucks into the gate compound.
If we cannot go then at least we have stopped all others passing and thus his further collection of bribes. With that and the help of a senior officer passing in the opposite direction telling the gate guard to let the foreign trucks through we are on our way to Russia. There seems to be no regimented system so I suggest to just line up in the car lane in the first instant and push forward just like the locals.
After passing through the gate (as described above and pictured right) at the small red brick building you should get a ‘ticket’ and an immigration departure card for each person
Drive to the main building and park up.
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1. Fill out immigration form, at the entrance get the ‘ticket’ stamped and fill out a customs declaration.
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2.At the centre office of “Senior Officer of Customs”, show the Mongolian Temporary Import Papers, your Passport and Vehicle Registration. The ‘ticket’ is retained until you return.
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3. Return to vehicle for vehicle inspection and the inspection officer puts another stamp on the ‘ticket’
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4. Return to centre office where the you hand in the Mongolian Temporary Vehicle papers , you will be given the ‘ticket’ back.
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5. Have your passports stamped at the immigration counter.
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6. You can then drive forward giving your ‘ticket’ in at the Mongolian Exit Gate.
Arriving Russia- Immigration, Customs and 3rd Party Insurance:
The border closes at 12 noon to 2pm so be prepared, at some time in the process you will be just left to fill in time. There is no provision to get food on site.
Crossing to the Russian side we are given an Arrival Card at the first gate, then requested to drive the vehicles through a quarantine bath. The vehicles are then directed to a domed building where there are two inspection pits below the vehicles.
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1.To the left of the inspection pit area is a small officers building where you are handed a khaki piece of paper and the passports are stamped.
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2. Following vehicle inspection, the khaki paper is stamped by another officer in an office opposite the one above.
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3.This completed the vehicles are driven to the main building and parked up. The building is signed “Customs Registration - Zone of Trucks”
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4.At the office on the first floor get 2 Passenger Customs Declaration forms. Complete BOTH original forms the same and hand them back in with the khaki paper. These forms will be your Temporary Import Papers, one original for you to take and one original for customs to retain. Make no mistakes filling out the forms. If you make a mistake ask for a new form.
Here is a copy of the form PASSENGER CUSTOMS DECLARATION: Russian Land Border Temporary Import Document.pdf
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✦ First page is straight forward, HOWEVER tick YES for 3.12. Transport vehicle
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✦ Over Page: 4.1 leave blank unless appropriate. Refers to goods on page 1 items 3.2 to 3.11
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✦ 4.2 Fill out with information re your vehicle. Tick ‘Inwards Temporary’
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✦ Only drivers fill out 4.2 and tick YES in 3.12
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5.A customs officer will meet you at the vehicles and give you the above papers.
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6.The vehicle will then need to be scanned at the large mobile scanner parked to the left of this building. Customs will also do a brief physical inspection inside.
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7.Return to the first floor with your Original vehicle registration, Passport, the two Customs Declarations and the khaki paper.
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8.They will give back only your Registration papers and Passport.
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9.Return to vehicle and wait for a customs officer.
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10.Customs will again inspect the vehicles and give to you the khaki paper and your original Customs Declaration/Temporary Vehicle Import Documents.
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11.At the final gate hand in your khaki paper.
Despite asking at every point we could find no where to purchase the third party insurance.
There is no english spoken.
The entire process, form filling, vehicle checking, vehicle scanning etc out of Mongolia and then similarly into Russia takes about 8 hours. Total Cost - Zero.
Driving Russian roads is relatively easy but like the sign says “Beware of Everything” The further east and north one is, the friendlier and more ‘country’ the population. Travelling west towards Moscow business takes over and the pace of life quicker.
Russians drive on the right however in eastern Russia the roads are dominated by right hand drive second hand Japanese cars and trucks. Like you, they find it difficult to see around the vehicle in front to pass but your passenger can help with passing.
Russian drivers could be described as ‘aggressive’
The quality of the Russian roads is from one extreme to the other. This is the new 11,000 kilometre bitumen highway all the way from Moscow to Vladivostok. North into Siberia the dirt roads rock and roll as they are constantly under movement as a result of the permafrost below.
The older bitumen roads are rough and running lower tyre pressures as if on corrugated roads does help the comfort and save the suspension.
The Garmin City Navigator Russia NT only covers western Russia. For the east, the Garmin world map out of date although as a base map on all GPS’s and Nuvi is somewhat helpful to keep you going in the right direction. In Vladivostok we purchased detailed road maps from book shops. The maps and towns are obviously in written in Cyrillic but this is acceptable because so are the road signs.
Learning some Russian language before you go is very helpful. Add to that being able to read the Cyrillic writing, or at least be able to translate it, is helpful for that map and road sign reading.
Vehicle repair shops or garages are marked as ‘CTO’ and they are in nearly all towns and villages.
For tyre repairs and balancing look for WNHOMOHTAX pronounced shinnomontage.
Russians do not believe in lining up, Should you be waiting for a barge to cross a river, if too polite you could be there for days. A little nudging forward is necessary.
On the road side in Siberia are memorials for drivers who have died on the road. Some from accidents but many because they have frozen to death during winter travel.
In the older northern areas of Russia and Siberia there are police checks into and out of towns Normally you would be just waved through but occasionally they want to check your international licence and/or Passport. I cannot recall ever being asked to show our Temporary Import Papers.
Police can pull you over for not having your lights on during the day or crossing an unbroken line. A couple of times we have been asked for a bribe but plead ignorance by not being able to understand the language and it becomes too difficult. Other times we have been pulled over just to say hello. At the police points and as a thank you for other small help we offer a wrapped sweet like a chocolate koala.
Your best recipe is a smile.
Should you wish to exit Vladivostok via China by bus or train as we did in 2010 we found that DALINTOURIST Travel Agency in Vladivostok provided us with the necessary tickets and information. The cost for the 6 hour bus trip from Vladivostok to Harbin, China was RUB 2,630 or US$88 /person.
Contact : Evgeniya Tsuranova at office@dalintourist.ru or www.dalintourist.ru
Language Course:
We found it imperative to have knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet, to translate road signs, menus etc.
In Brisbane we found Vera Kosknieff great. She was very patient with our group of 4, particularly as we have not been in the habit of learning for some years.
And I think quite successful with us. After 5 or 6 lessons we could talk Russia for about 7 minutes. Vera charged A$45/ hour for the 4 of us, which is very reasonable.
Contact 0405 229 141 or E-mail: vera_andreevna@hotmail.com
Russian Visas:
In Australia, we found Val Colyer at Iris Tours very good for our unusual requests: She specialises in arrangements for the independent traveller.
Valentina Colyer at Iris Tours, Suite 7 / 600 Railway Parade Hurstville NSW 2220 Australia
T: 02 9585 2146
F: 02 9580 7256
Camping:
Finding a camp site in Russia is easy and there are many beautiful places to camp. There are often side tracks that lead into the pine forests, to river banks or lakes. Often on the recently constructed roads there are tracks that lead to old road construction sites and road quarries, these provide an isolated flat site.. Always we felt very safe free camping.
Be prepared for mosquitoes at dusk and dawn. In the Tundra areas we used a fly screened tent to eat and sit in. This gave us some reprieve from the black hords that covered every inch of exposed skin. Carry a can of spray to spray the internal tent/camper before retiring at night. The worst part is the morning walk in the bush where the mosquitoes attach all those pink bits!
In Vladivostok whilst waiting for our vehicle to load/unload we chose to stay at the Hotel Vladivostok, which is a short walk to most things. Contact them at : www.vladhotel.vl.ru/en
but we found a better rate via out travel agent.
Hotel Vladivostok is a popular destination for overlanders and it has good secure parking at the entrance.
Our camping GPS points are listed in the Blog at Travel Russia.
In the middle of Moscow and very close to the Metro station is Sokolniki camp(Allows Motorhomes and trucks): N 55.47.58 E 37.40.15
We are told sending emails or calling them is very difficult and many received no response? so just turn up?
The camp spot is in the North East of central Moscow and easy to find via the ring road exit at A103 towards Moscow city. East side of Moscow.
Food:
In larger towns supermarkets carry almost everything. UHT milk was best purchased in the supermarkets, holding suitable supplies until the next large town.
In smaller towns the neighbourhood store is called a MAGAZINE, here supplies are to limited to tinned food, pasta, eggs, frozen meat, a few vegetables, and lots of Beer, Vodka and sweets for the children. Sometimes the Magazines are difficult to find as they only rely on local trade. Eventually you will begin to recognise the Cyrillic word. In these establishments they are definitely not self service but the old style where you must point to or ask for the item you require and the lady will get it for you from behind the counter.
Bread is readily available but normally a very heavy type.
When travelling through small villages the older people sell their excess fruit and vegetables at small stalls outside their houses. It is well priced and fresh. In some towns road side markets sell all kinds of fruit, vegetables and an excellent honey.
For fuel you have to pre pay. One cay buy by an amount of currency or by litre volume. Place the fuel hose into the tank then go to pay at the small window, this is just in case the delivery switch is broken. Where language is a problem write the amount either Litres or value in currency on a piece of paper and show the attendant. You will also have to tell them the number of the pump.
Normally a spread sheet in tapped on the window showing the price per litre and a calculation for the quantities of 10,20 30, 100, etc litres.
Fuel stations are plentiful and rarely more than 300kms apart. The diesel pump is marked with the Russian Cyrillic for ‘D’ and is readily distinguishable by the dirty and oily pump and surrounds.
The Russian fuel stations do NOT have air or water so one must be self sufficient in air supply in the more remote areas.
Often the pumps are leaking and refuelling can be a very messy affair so a pair of gloves and or a rag and hand cleaner or baby wipes is very handy.
Fuel prices for diesel varied from (Ruble)RUB 21.50 to 24.6 / litre about US$$0.74/litre.
Throughout Siberia water was of good quality and obtainable from wells on the outside of towns or the village pump houses. Just follow the line of usually children carrying containers to/from the pump house. At the small widow of the pump house is a lady that will turn on and off the tap and collect your money.
When in the mountain regions we often drew water from the running streams.
For our actual Travel Diary through Russia see:
Return to DIY Kit For Overland Travel
