Border crossings to Russia

Hi Rafi

If you are driving your own car there are several options.

If not, I suggest you use the main border crossing at Altanbulag/Khyakhta by road or Sukhbaatar/Naushki by rail. This will prove to be much faster, and with plenty of transportation options.

The border crossing you mentioned north of Bayan Uul is named Ulikhan Maikhan, it is used for trade, mainly petrol imports. These borders do not have facilities for tourists and there is no simple transportation to these border crossings on both sides.

If you must cross in the east so go further east to the Ereentsav/Solovevsk north of Choibalsan.
There is limited transportation to this border crossing. You might find yourself stranded in the region for a few days, before you get a lift.

To see all the border crossings available for tourists have a look at the border page and have a look at the Google map , zoom in to see how remote these border crossings are. This map has all the border crossings including those for trade and for mines.

Enjoy your trip.

Dan

Neither of the borders you mention are open to international travelers.

The Altanbulag/Khyakhta by road or Sukhbaatar/Naushki by rail crossing are both open to international travelers.

The Ereentsav/Solovevsk north of Choibalsan is theoretically also open to international travelers but several reports here on the TT and elsewhere indicate that in actuality this is not the case and that you need special permission from the Russian Ministry to cross into/out of Russia at this point and that it takes weeks to obtain this permission.

Ruth

Waw great info!!
I think Ill try my luck at Ereentsav (public transportation or hitching), I dont need a visa to get into Russia and have stamps of 2 entries to Russia in my passport that I got during the last 9 months, hopefully they will let me in with out a permit.

Please report back your experience.

Ruth

I got to the border from choibalsan on the train (monday, thursday 16:00, 4500 Togrog) after 11pm and spent the night on the wagon for which I paid 2500 Togrog.
In the morning I walked on the tracks to the boredr (15 minuts) which opens at 9am. Crossing the mongolian side was painless but slow (about an hour). On the russian side they let me stand in the nomans land and fill the imigration form outside in the freezing wind, a move that earned them a few curses, in addition to that the ink in my pans was frozen so I had to put one pen in my pocket and write with a seconed pen until the first one got warm and then exchange. Once I passed this "test" a few russian border policemen led me into a warm room and listened to my travel stories for quite some time.
The whole proces took about 3 hours but this was not the end, once I crossed the border to Russia (another 15 minutes) there wasn't much threre. By mistake I walked into a military base (on the left side of the rode, no guard at the gate), when I realised it I went out immediately but it was too late a jeep came after me and the officer on it called the border police officer who came to get me and called for a taxi (completely unacceptable while traveling :) that took me to Borzya (1500 rubals). From there I took an over night train (23:25) to Chita.
Before I got on the taxi I tried to hitch hike for 2 hours but no car passed and the wind had no mercy. It might be better during the warm months.

Thanks for the report.

Ruth

Hi Etgar22

Great story, thanks for sharing.
You are a brave traveler, going completely off the beaten track.

Good luck

Dan