Monday, July 31, 2006

Stuck in Ulan-Ude

It's been more than a week in Ulan-Ude since my ignition coil blew up. We had the part sent just a week ago from Switzerland, but unfortuntely we found out that they used a TNT service that won't track it, and that it would take the regular russian post to Ulan-Ude! so it can take anywehere from a couple days to a couple months.. if it arrives at all, that is.

But we're also bored to death, there's nothing really to do over here. We tried a train trip along the Baikal lake, but it was cold and rainy.. not much to see. And the company we got on the train wasn't really of the same standard as the petrol station chicks we met entering Russia..

So we are ready to ask for (yet another) new part to be sent over to Ulaan-Bataar, this time using UPS or FedEx so that we know when it arrives, and Ulaan-Bataar being the capital of Mongolia, UPS and such have offices there. Pretty expensive of course, but better than another couple weeks in the hotel here drinking beers!

Question is, how do we get the bike there ? 3 options:
1/ try the original part that was rewound by a guy here. He already did it once, we tried it on and it was able to power the bike but only for 5 minutes, after which it broke and spilled its winding.. not so good for the engine I reckon. But that may last the 500 km or so until Ulaan-Bataar where we can mount a good one.
2/ have the bike shipped by truck to Ulaan-Bataar. May be expensive and tricky due to the customs.
3/ ship the bike up to the border only, then drag it across and make all the papers and find another Mongolian truck for a lift to Ulaan-Bataar.

We'll go and tak to a nice girl we met in a travel agency, who speaks well English (very rare here) and may help in getting our point through to the Russians.

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