Motokai's Inner Mongolia Ride 2011

[Lao Jia Hou]

The horseshoe of mountains that wraps around the city proper which is quite flat can trap the air and pollution from all of the cars purchased over the last decade. But as soon as your pierce this enclosure of smog you enter another Beijing. It's a Beijing that is filled with rolling mountains, countryside, fresh air and sunshine. Amazing.

Beautiful picture!

The next 2.5 days were spent sourcing the problem (the stator), sourcing a new stator from Hefei, and sourcing the history of Chengde as a tourist.

Classic "Whatcha figure Clem?"

OK, MK, did the eye-candy appear during the 2.5 day layover?

[corporal_clegg]

Nice vid. Kai, shame there's no RIDE REPORT to go with it.

[MotoKai]

OK, MK, did the eye-candy appear during the 2.5 day layover?

Okay guys....to put this thing to rest and stop the requests for bigger photos, when she appeared (which is an indirect way of trying to figure out where she is. I'm onto you Mr. Jia Hou ), and invitations for to her fry your stator! I'm going to just put it out here. For those interested, here are her coordinates:

http://ditu.google.cn/maps?q=31.2208...B5,0,0&t=m&z=5

Good luck!

[MotoKai]

Back to the Ride Report (clegg: Please pay attention)

Day 5

Riding into Inner Mongolia was obvious. Sure there was the border crossing, but after cutting thru the hills, mountains and valleys you arrive at a different landscape. Day 5 was filled with long stretches of grass which extended 360 degrees around you. If the road wasn't there under your tires, there would be nothing but a vast emptiness of nature. It is here that you can really feel that you've left the city behind. The areas between the small cities of Inner Mongolia are sparsely populated offering up some true "solo riding" - with the exception of the occasional oncoming car that passes.

What you see when riding:

Grass





Off-Road Tracks



Desert (with cool clouds)


Horses



Menggu Ger


Incidentally, we often refer to these as "yurt", but the Mongolians have no idea what you're talking about when you use this word. Excerpt from wikipedia: "yurt" was originally from a Turkic word referring to the imprint left in the ground by a moved yurt, and by extension, sometimes a person's homeland, kinsmen, or feudal appanage.

The term came to be used in reference to the physical tent-like dwellings only in other languages. In modern Turkish the word "yurt" is used as the synonym of homeland. In Russian the structure is called "yurta" (юрта), whence the word came into English. ger - in Mongolian simply means "home".

Windfarms


And More Cool Clouds

[felix]

Now we're getting somewhere! Great photos MK, do you shoot in HDR or something?

[MotoKai]

Now we're getting somewhere! Great photos MK, do you shoot in HDR or something?

No, but I love shooting high contrast scenes.
Playing with HDR sounds cool. I want to explore this on my next big ride (thanks)!

Day 6

More Grassland & Desert
Leaving Xinlin Hot for Sonid Youqi was a 350km ride with just one left turn!
What the road lacked in performance riding, the people and landscape gave back in kind: Warm hospitality from a couple of Mongolia twin brothers (and a girlfriend), amazing grasslands, sheep...sheep...and more sheep, and some serious desert scenes.



Sheep


These curious guys were near some off-road tracks that looked fun, so after a brief hello I followed the tracks over a hill where you reach areas offering 360degrees of only grassland and the tracks beneath your rubber. A very cool feeling.



Further on the grassland vistas opened up and I saw some white Menggu Ger appearing in the distance. Upon my arrival, my motorcycle which got the dog barking, caused a young guy to come out to see what all this noise was amidst the silence of the grasslands. When he saw me open my face mask with a smile and "你好!" he also smiled (now trying to grab the dog which had broken free from its chain).

His twin brother came out from behind him also with a big smile. We chatted then they invited me to visit for a while. I was introduced to the younger brother's girlfriend and asked if I wanted some lamb. I had just had lamb for breakfast so wasn't very hungry, but they insisted on preparing something for me to eat later on. We drank milk tea together, shared stories and then after the older brother disappeared for some time, he reappeared holding a HUGE platter of lamb - they too had just eaten so this was just for me! 太热情！！

These guys were awesome. After a couple of hours it was time to get back to the road, but I'll be sure to visit them again when I'm back in Inner Mongolia. If anyone on MCM wants their contact info let me know - they can host for a stopover and overnight in the Menggu Ger!















Back on The Road


Tending The Sheep


Pictograms on The Hills



After the left turn....it's straight again (love my cruise control)


The Desert





Arriving in Sonid Youqi

[MeowZeDong]

Fantastic recount, excellent trip report....was fascinating to view it all from your perspective. Professional looking editing on the video too; it all combines as fuel for inspiration. My upcoming riding plans include Mongolia and your Day 5 shots of wandering through remote grassland paths looked like a dream.

Thanks for sharing...it's almost incredulous that you shot as much as you did in 9 days because while on my trip for a longer period of time, I skipped way too many amazing shots due to time constraints (night falling). I would have stopped every few miles otherwise.

[MotoKai]

Fantastic recount, excellent trip report....was fascinating to view it all from your perspective. Professional looking editing on the video too; it all combines as fuel for inspiration. My upcoming riding plans include Mongolia and your Day 5 shots of wandering through remote grassland paths looked like a dream.

Thanks for sharing...it's almost incredulous that you shot as much as you did in 9 days because while on my trip for a longer period of time, I skipped way too many amazing shots due to time constraints (night falling). I would have stopped every few miles otherwise.

Wow, when are you going to Mongolia? No shortage of off-roads there.
- What bike you taking?
- Starting/Ending points?


When it comes to taking photos, my rule when riding is hydrate properly, take lots of pee breaks and take pics at ever stop!

[MeowZeDong]

Yesterday was my first day of research on it. I found a little information off of some guide/tour sites. What I "dream" about doing is from Urumqi, driving up to the northeast border and entering Mongolia from there and ultimately taking the northern road up to Ulaangom and continually traverse east to Ulaanbaatar...that will touch upon some beautiful lakes. From what I've read so far, it seems conflicting though on whether entering from there is possible.

In regards to the bike, I am researching that as well.....reading a lot of reports on here; it's so overwhelming. I rode a Galaxy XTR-250 for a tour in two provinces but it quickly had problems. I don't necessarily want to say it was the bike because it had already ridden a ton of mileage and was beat up from touring Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, etc...and other areas. It was a sick horse by the time I got it and had no mods.

If you have any two cents in regards to any of these topics (Mongolia, bikes for the region....etc), it would be appreciated.

[euphonius]

Dear MZD,

Awesome plan! But surely you are planning to wait till the spring/summer, right? It's gotta be too late for this year! You'd freeze your meeow off.

cheers!