Ryan Cottle

Ryan Cottle
Of rSquared
On the The Mongol Rally 2010
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
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Bayankhongor

## http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=mongolia&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=30.406222,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Mongolia&ll=46.166041,100.748749&spn=0.20734,0.617294&z=11

It's been a pretty amazing couple of days.  We've been caravaning with 4 other teams from Great Britan, the Netherlands, and Belgium.  We reached Bayankhongor this afternoon, and all 5 cars had to stop to get tires fixed.  :-)  We go through almost as many tires as we do liters of water.  For some reason, the Hyundai refuses to close it's air vents to the outside, so after 5 days without a shower we were as dusty as it's possible for two people to get.  Luckily, last night we hit a river which we had to ford, (because we were on the wrong road) and after getting all the cars across, we stopped to wash up in the river.  You have never seen 13 happier men in your life.  We've got about 200km more to drive today before it gets dark, and when we get up tomorrow, about 400km to drive to UlaanBaatar on paved roads.  Love you all, and we'll talk to you later.

Ryan Cottle
Of rSquared
On the The Mongol Rally 2010
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
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Khovd

Just reached the town of Khovd.  Sleeping in a Ger tonight, had a great meal.  Lots of driving to do tomorrow, going to sleep well tonight.  Have been hanging out with lots of other teams, and it has been a blast.  Much better than Russia.  Internet access is still quite sparse, but will try to update whenever possible.

  

Ryan Cottle
Of rSquared
On the The Mongol Rally 2010
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
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Olgii, Mongolia

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that we've finally entered Mongolia!  As we expected, cell phone signal here is very sparse, and apparently we can't receive text messaes, so we can be very hard to reach.  We spent almost 48 hours trying to get across the Russian-Mongolian border, and we had to camp with about 20 other teams in the "customs corral" on the Mongolian side.  We then caravaned with them to the town of Olgii, where we spent the night last night, and where I'm typing this from.  Ryan and I are trying to set up a two-day whitewater rafting trip somewhere here in Western Mongolia, and after that we'll start slowly making our way to UB.  Love you all, and we'll talk to you soon.

 

Ryan

Ryan Cottle
Of rSquared
On the The Mongol Rally 2010
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
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St. Petersburg, part 1

[http://picasaweb.google.com/disassociate/MongolRally2010#](http://picasaweb.google.com/disassociate/MongolRally2010#)

[](http://picasaweb.google.com/disassociate/MongolRally2010#) [http://picasaweb.google.com/evilmonkey/MongolRally2010#](http://picasaweb.google.com/evilmonkey/MongolRally2010#) 

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=114473394866927502591.00048cb4bb466c4d5e9d4&z=3

The maps spans multiple pages, make sure you go to the next page. You can also download the KML file and view it in Google Earth.  :-) 

Day 11:

Crossing the border.  OMG, what a complicated mess of insanity.  Firstly, we needed to get insurance before heading across the border.  We had heard that you could buy it at gas stations just west of the border, but after 3 stops and no luck, we were starting to get discouraged.  Finally, we went into a supermarket to resupply, and I tried to ask a couple of clerks if they knew where we could get insurance to drive in Russia.  Amazingly, one of them spoke very good english and started calling people.  45 minutes later, she gives me the following directions:

" Turn left down this street, go until you hit train tracks, turn left, go until you hit traffic light, turn right.  Go until you see Maxim XX, big building, can't miss it, and turn right.  Go down the street until you see ice skating rink, pull into the parking lot and wait.   Someone will meet you."

...

Needless to say, I was skeptical.

[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/8/19/](http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/8/19/) 

 

One quick team meeting later, and Ryan and decided to give it a shot.  We found the place easily enough, and when we got there, sure enough, there was a woman and a boy waiting in a car.  One game of charades and 60USD later, we had a very official looking document saying we were insured to drive in Russia.

I guess it worked.  We've shown it to the cops 5 times now, and they've not had a problem yet.

But the fun had only started, now it was time to cross the border.  We drive down to the border and find a line of 100 cars there.  I ask the guy in front of me if this was the line, and he said something to me very quickly in Russian which I didn't understand, but also waved a ticket in my face.  

Uh oh.  What's this about a ticket?

I go back to Shatford, tell him we apparently need a ticket, and we drive up past the line to the front where I hop out and ask a cop where we can get the ticket.  He looked about ready to explain, but instead said "this is your car?"  "yes" "follow me".  One 20 minute police escort later, we're on the other side of Narva at Transervice.  I have no idea how we were supposed to figure this out on our own.  I mean, come on, we're on the other side of town for christsake, and there was nothing posted, or in our guidebooks about this process.  So, we give the nice lady at Transervice some money, she gives us a ticket, and we're off again back to the border.

Then the waiting began.

Jesus, we sat in this line for 5 hours in 38 degree weather.  Finally, we got up to the Estonian border gaurds. They checked our passports, spoke to us in English, talked to us about the Rally and why we had the toys in our car, then they shook our hands, wished us luck and safe travels.

The Russian side couldn't have been any more different.  We were barked at constantly by Russian border gaurds, told to fill out Russian forms, *in Russian*, made to fill them out again if there was one mistake, and they opened every hatch they could find on the car.  Honestly, I was just waiting on the body cavity search.

But after that greulling encounter, we were on the road once again.  Suddenly, gas was much cheaper, the roads were much worse, the driver's were crazy, and the accuracy of our maps dropped off sharply.  :-)  Despite all that, we were able to find our way into St. Petersburg (thanks to a huge city map that Shatford bought) and after a bit of searching, found the hostel recommended by our travel guide, Cuba Hostel.

If you're ever going to St. Petersburg on the cheap, let me recommend this place to you.  The staff were amazing, the decor was tight, and the price was spot on.  They had a beer cooler in the lobby, and had enough couches bean bags and pillows to seat 30 people.  But the place didn't really light up until that night when one of the girls who works there arrived back in town from her holiday in Normandy, armed with French cheese, tuna, bagettes, wine, and utterly prepared to share it with everyone.

Then suddenly it became *Club* Cuba.  The music was turned up, all the guests came out into the common area, dressed to go out, but because it was only 10, everyone sat around for another 2 hours talking, drinking, smoking, and laughing.  Honestly, this was one of the best nights of the trip so far.

Then we went out.  :-)  Led by our new found Irish friend, Keogh, we started walking to a club that nobody knew how to get to.  This, of course, gave Irish a chance to talk to every pretty Russian girl on the street that went by, and eventually a Russian couple adopted the lot of us for the night and took us to their favorite bars.  We all drank until around 6 in the morning, and then, bidding our new friends adieu, stumbled back to the hostel. 

Ryan Cottle
Of rSquared
On the The Mongol Rally 2010
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
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Day 2

Internet access has been slightly more difficult to come by than we had initially anticipated.  Long days of hard driving, getting sidetracked, a lack of readily available internet access, combined with exhaustion have taken their toll on our ability to update this blog regularly.  The roads have been getting slowly, but steadily, worse since we left the Czech Republic.  I tried typing up a blog entry in the car, but with all the bumps I found this well on nigh impossible.  So, here's a major dump of what's been going on since the Nurburgring. Sidenote:  After the Nurburgring, we drove into Frankfurt am Main, and stayed at the house of a very kind and generous friend.  Volker, we owe you a huge debt of gratitude which I don't know how I will ever repay.  Thank you for the roof, pizza, shower, laundry, and forceps.  Know that if we ever find ourselves in the same part of the world, and you need a helping hand, I will be there for you. Day 2:

After waking up and having a light breakfast with Volker and Andreas, Ryan and I set off for Frankfurt International Airport to pick up Ryan's wife Susan who will be traveling with us throughout the rest of Europe.  With perfect timing we managed to pull up just 2 minutes before she walked out the door, and we all set off for Klatovy in the Czech Republic where we would be having our "Czech Out" party.  It rained pretty much all day in Germany, which made the drive less fun, and a little boring, but generally we just laughed and told jokes the whole way.  Shortly after crossing into the Czech Republic, the rain went away, and the drive became a lot more enjoyable.  We decided to make another detour just before reaching Katovy, and we all headed to Plzen to have a Pilsner in the place where they were invented.  Shatford pulled out some of the local currency and ended up with a 1000 crown bill which nobody would take because it would wipe out their change. :-)  After some beers and snacks we headed to Klatovy so that Ryan and Susan could check into their hotel, picked up some food at the store, and drove a little way out of town to Klenova where the castle was located.  I set up my tent next to a couple other cool teams, and once we started talking, found out that we had a mutual friend, David Angel, whom I used to work with in Dublin. Small world, huh?  I met someone from London at a castle is the Czech Republic who works with a former collegue of mine from Dublin.  As the sun set, and the campgrounds filled to the bursting point, it was quickly becoming time to start partying.  Teams started getting dressed in their "Jules Verne-esque" costumes and began trudging up the hill to Klenova Castle where the adventurists had prepared a spectacular evening of thrills for us.  Needless to say, there was much revelry and merrymaking going on.  There were three bars, two stages, and firedancers.  There was  a theatre set up where they were showing Around the World in 80 days.  You could climb to the highest points of the castle for the commanding view of the surrounding countryside.  There was absinte, beer, and wine being poured.  Performers and DJs kept changing out all night, and well into the morning.  There was a hookah lounge set up, and everywhere you looked there were intrepid young adventurers laughing, joking, drinking, smoking, and bragging about real or embellished tales of glory over the past few days, or in the days to come.  It was a festival of hope and pride.  These young men and women from all over the world have set out to do something their friends and family think they are insane for trying, and so far, they've proved to themselves that they are up to the task.

For me personally, I left the party around 2:30, still mostly sober, but glad in my heart.  As I walked back down to the campgrounds, I began to realize that I was quite hungry, so I headed over to the food tent where a group of locals were serving food 24 hours to a day to the teeming throng.  As I stood in line to get my hamburger I couldn't help but strike up conversation with the people around me, and quickly made fast friends with three young gentlemen who had set out from England.  As we ate our burgers my thrist grew, and I offered these lads a refreshing beverage, and off we went to my campsite to dip into my reserves.  As we drank our delightfully cool and carbonated alcoholic beverages, the shit started. At somewhere around 3:30 in the morning, an idiot, very inebriated, got into his rally car, and decided to start driving around the campgrounds.  You have to understand, the campgrounds were packed.  There was barely any room to walk around, much less drive.  I am still amazed this guy didn't kill anyone as he headed towards me.  He passed about six inches from Shatford's tent while he and Susan were sleeping inside, rolled up to a campfire and bumped someone in the back of the legs.  When he realized he could go no further in that direction, he decided to start backing up.  Again, he passed within inches of Ryan's tent, went about 30 meters and decided to make a 3 point turn so that he could start going forwards again.  But while he was backing up, he misjudged his distance and backed right into another rally car.  At this point, about a dozen people converged on the car, and insisted that the driver get out immediately.  There was a lot of yelling going on, and amazingly, the drink driver was belligerent to the crowd.  I went down to the scene and spoke with both the driver and his teammate who had run over from their campsite. The teammate was sober, and horribly embarrased about the whole thing, and I convinced him to leave the car where it was for the night and sleep it off.  He agreed, and eventually managed to pull his teammate off to bed.  Of couse, they locked the car on their way to bed.  Of course, the car had a super jumpy alarm system.  Of course, there was a crowd of annoyed people standing around this car.  It didn't take 10 minutes before someone leaned on the car and set off the alarm.  Suddenly, the mob has gone from perturbed to pissed.  After the car alarm shut itself off, someone kicked the car in the door panel, and guess what?  The alarm went off again.  The mob was now frothing at the mouth, and at this moment the drink driver comes storming back over to the car, insisting that he's going to move it away.  Tempers flare, and once I had to step in between the idiot and someone in the mob before it came to blows.  After pushing him back, I spoke again with the teammate and we work out an agreement where I will disconnect their positive battery terminal, and they will leave the car there until the morning. 

After completing this task, they're off to bed again, and I head towards my tent.  Instead of getting into the tent, I spend a few minutes talking to another rallier about what had happened, and what I had seen.  But I'm still keeping my eye on the mob, and suddenly I can see movement.  It looks like 12 guys have all lined up on one side of the car, and I instantly know what they have in mind.  They're going to roll the car.  Panic fires off in my brain.  The car was parked sideways on a hill, and not 10 feet away from the car are a row of tents where people are trying to sleep.  I sprint down the hill, and begin screaming at these young men who have just began straining in their efforts.  I called them many rude things I won't repeat here, and explained the ramifications of their actions, and I thank God that it gave them enough pause to examine the situation more carefully.  Being British, they immediately began apolagizing to me for what they had almost done, and interestingly, over the course of the next hour, they all came by one by one to shake my hand, and thank me profusely for stopping them from becoming murderers.  Having grown up in Atlanta, the entire experience was quite surreal.  Once again, I headed for my tent, but knowing I could not sleep, kept an eye on the mob.  I watched as the spray paint came out, but let it slide, deciding it was the lesser of two evils, and knowing the mob needed to let out their aggressions.  But when I saw them going for the tires, once again I came down the hill, and stopped one man from removing the valve stem from a tire.  I explained to the crowd, that yes, while one man had done something staggeringly stupid, there were two other guys on that team.  Those two guys had raised money for charity, taken off from work, invested themselves heavily into this car, and all they wanted to do was get to Mongolia, just like everyone else.  I asked them, "aren't we all here for the same reason?" " Didn't we all raise money, build a car, and get to Klenova?"  "Those two guys don't deserve to have their rally ruined because of the actions of the third guy."  And amazingly, they backed down again. 

Another round of handshakes, and this time I couldn't keep my eyes open any more.  I went to my tent, curled up, and passed out in my clothes.   In the morning, Ryan found a penis drawn in soap on the windscreen of our car, but otherwise there was no retribution against team r-squared.