So, I've been reading a lot on these forums about backpacking, hitchhiking, and traveling around Mongolia in general, but I haven't quite seen someone with the kind of plan that I'm hatching and I'd like to float it around here.
This is part of a grand final journey that will cap off a year of teaching english in Henan province, China, and the idea started with a plan to travel all over Xinjiang via train and bus. After realizing that my residency permit for China would be expiring somewhere near the end of June, I tried to find all kinds of ways to get into Mongolia as easily as possible (being an American citizen, I figured that freebie-we-love-you-americans 30 days would be the perfect quick way out of China and into a place I've always wanted to go anyways). After a questionable amount of internet research, I found what can only be described as a rumor that foreigners (one or two, unconfirmed) have been getting across the Mongolia-Xinjiang border at a point called Bulgan in southern Khovd province. This doesn't seem entirely unreasonable, although official Chinese and Mongolian sources are contradictory over this issue, mostly because it was easy to confirm that this Bulgan crossing point does actually see quite a lot of traffic, simply of the commercial or industrial nature. There are also two Chinese travel agencies in Urumqi that have been empowered to arrange these crossings - although for whom is not clear. Chinese and Mongolian citizens only? Friendly lao wai bribery? Who knows? (If it doesn't pan out, the whole post is moot and I'll just go 40 hours around by train to come in at Erlian like everyone else)
Anyway, the crazy idea that I wanted to put out for some perspective is that right now my plan is to buy a plane ticket (school buys it, so probably has to be done before I even leave) out of UB back to the States for, say, the 20th of July, and aiming to make this Bulgan border crossing around the beginning of July, leaving me around twenty days to simply get to UB in what I am hoping is a relatively enjoyable and scenic manner. Money isn't too much of an issue so I could afford to take buses and trains whenever they may be an option, but since I've been in ugly rural China for a year, and have a backpack and tent, the idea of traveling slowly and inefficiently, spending nights out under the stars, has really appealed to me. Am I just being clueless here? Is twenty days anywhere near enough to go from what looks like the middle of nowhere (and that's saying something) in the far west of Mongolia, to UB and still make a few impromptu day trips around whatever route I happen to take?
I feel like I'm putting quite a lot of faith into this whole plan, and while I've read enough to make me feel that faith in Mongolia and her people isn't entirely foolish, it also bears mentioning that I have never done anything like this before and could easily be assuming things that are laughably far from the truth.
Thank you in advance to anybody that has something to say about this, and apologies if I missed someone else's post that might have already answered all of this. I've done some research, but I got impatient and wanted talk to someone, lol.
Best,
Julian
