Daniel Balding

Daniel Balding
Of Hard Cat To Follow
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
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Ulaanbaator, Mongolia

Chilling in Ulaanbaator at the finish line! Had a wicked few days here, with just the minor blip of having some stuff stolen. Various plans afoot on how to get home, mine(dan) hopefully going via beijing! Car sold for around $2500 which all goes to charity. Turns out thats more than we paid for it, so chuffed with that! Feels odd not driving every morning, but got a 30 hours train journey booked across mongolia and china so i hope that will more than make up for it!

 

Daniel Balding
Of Hard Cat To Follow
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
MORE FROM

Altai, Mongolia

We made it to mongolia! The roads are, as expected, awful. Imagine drivng over huge concrete coreregated cardboard, that makes your car shake more than james bond's vodka martini's. Highlights include, fording three streams, being towed through one river, being given prayer beads by four Kyrgyz Muslims, praying to Mekkah, giving a french man a mullet, getting stuck in a pothole on three wheels, staying in a yurt, reattatching our sump guard with cable ties, and partying on top of an ice cream van.

Daniel Balding
Of Hard Cat To Follow
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
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Almaty, Kazakhstan

Just re-entered kazakhstan after a 4 hour border crossing and a full car search. After being told we would be sent to prison if we had any gas or flamables on us, we were glad when they didnt unearth our new cooking stove, nicknamed 'the flame thrower!' now looking for a garage in almaty, after a day of the week mix up, meant we couldn't sort our gear box leak in bishkek. Who knew it was a sunday!

Daniel Balding
Of Hard Cat To Follow
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
MORE FROM

Turkestan, Kazakhstan

popped into turkistan for a Cheeky gander around the yasaui mausoleum, kazakhstan's 'greatest architectural monument'. Turns out it never got finished... Now heading for a bit of a night out in shymkent, where the lonely planet promises 'a glitzy nightclub playing russian, kazakh and turkish pop and hip hop!' cant wait!

Daniel Balding
Of Hard Cat To Follow
On the The Mongol Rally 2011
HIGHLIGHT ON MAP
MORE FROM

Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan

so this morning a man came up to us at our camping spot behind a pile of rocks. After playing around in his steam roller for a while, he found our vodka from the night before, and preceded to pour himself a quarter pint. After drinking this as casual as a glass of lemonade, he then gestured for us to give him a lift. Turns out he was taking us to his house where him and his wife and kids made us a lovely salad, cookies and a brew! Of course this was served with a bottle of vodka, so after deliberating who was driving, we reluctantly drank the bottle between 2 of us and our host! An hour later, after the standard game of charades, finding his dad asleep in a bed in his yard, and push starting our companions, we dropped of the now drunk man, with a bottle of beer, where presumably, he was heading back to his steam roller to commence his days work. And all this before midday!