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The train from Moscow to Byisk takes 63 hours and costs $40.My friend Vladislav D. and I prefer hard sleeper without separate rooms (platskartnii vagon). Our closest neighbor, a 16 year old girl fed us with food carefully supplied for her journey by her parents and told us a bunch of stories about her tough life. From Byisk we took a bus to a remote corner of Altay, village Yst-Koksa. The bus ride was 10 hours long and cost $8. After initial fight for seats the atmosphere in the bus became peaceful and friendly. Especially touching was the care which the entire bus took care of a straw hat of a young lady from the old believer village Mylta.

Travel to St. Petersburg and Mongolia (part II)

Alex Mumzhiu
2006-03-22 18:19:28

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computer). This is the first episode of this type in my entire travel history. I reported it to police, but I doubt they will find it. Tomorrow we will go to Mongolia

Alex Mumzhiu
Kosh Agach
Altay
Russia
July 28 2005 2:30pm

I would like to start this note from slogan which is very familiar to every Russian: "Thanks to brave Soviet border guards" Border crossing to Mongolia is very tough and because of it Mongolian side is saved in its original shape. There few tourists here. Small town Olgiy is consumer paradise. I bought here a down jacket, windbreaker, pants, cowboy hat, glows and something else for less than $20. Dinner for two cost $0.80. Tomorrow Vladia and I will start 7 days trip on Jeep to Mongol Altay National park. Park contains magnificent mountain Tavan Bogd, located at point where Russian, Mongolian and Chinese borders joined together. Cost of hiring Jeep with driver for a week is $150. Yesterday we spent evening with two New Zealand mountain climbers who came here to climb this mountain. One of them lady from Christiantown, New Zealand, her name is Lidia. She is first women which climb Mt. Everest without oxygen and without permit. Local people are mostly Kazakh Muslim. We like them very much. They are quiet, polite and friendly. When you came to a shop nobody pay attention to you; so big difference with their Muslim brothers from such countries as Morocco, Egypt or Turkey.

Alex Mumzhiu
Olgiy Mongolia July 31 2003
8pm PS

The day before departure (Aug 31 03)was very busy. We were buying food and necessary supplies for our little expedition. We bought a large bag of firewood, obtained permission to go to Altai Tavanbogd National Park ($3 per person per day), obtained permission to go to the border area from border guards. A little problem came up when we tried to find a skillet. It is an unknown device in Mongolia. We needed a skillet to fry fish, ...