Cars of the Mongolian Outback

"El Rocko" (elrocko) 07/16/2015 at 00:01 • Filed to: Mongolia, Adventure travel, overland, UAZ 452, uaz 469

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For those of you interested in time travel, I suggest you buy a ticket to Mongolia. This is a kingdom with an alternate reality to the modern life those of us reading a blog made by readers of another blog on the internet have become accustomed to. There are very few roads in Mongolia, let alone the type with pavement. Private car ownership only became possible in the 90s. Most of our trip was spent traveling across ancient horse and cattle paths. There are no signs marking the way. We sometimes drove for hours without seeing another human. The cars reflect this wild way of life. Here’s some fine examples of those we found along our journey.

Ours was a 90s LandCruiser with all of the trimmings. We hired a driver and a guide. The guide cooked all of our meals, many of them from a portable kitchen he kept in the back of the truck. It was a very luxurious way to travel the country side at 15 mph.

Almost every truck with a hanging spare tire had one of these nifty contraptions. I had never seen one before. Given the terrible conditions of the paths we travelled I can certainly understand why they are necessary.

Next up: the ubiquitous UAZ-452 Bread loaf. These vans were used for shuttling tourists, families, livestock, etc... They were everywhere. The other popular Russian was the UAZ-469

These bad-boys sat four across. Every Russian vehicle carried a bucket of spare parts. We’d often find people hunting through other folks’ buckets for the right part as their Bread loaf sat broken down with ten complaining tourists. Here’s some more photographs for your viewing pleasure:

The Mazda was simply amazing. We passed it on a particularly difficult river crossing that the driver was contemplating. After that crossing the terrain got progressively worse. The mud was knee deep, the ruts were incredibly trechorous. We had to engage the lockers and even then became very close to getting stuck. I never thought the Mazda would make it through. It did.

Then there’s the Hummer:

And if you want to see more Mongolia photos from a professional photographer (my wife) I suggest you click !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

Amoore100 > El Rocko 07/16/2015 at 00:26

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What Mazda is that? Definitely not USDM...I’m thinking Capella?

HammerheadFistpunch > El Rocko 07/16/2015 at 00:49

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Looks like some hdj81s with the 1hdt engines. Very nice.

KnowsAboutCars > Amoore100 07/16/2015 at 03:41

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JDM Efini MS 8. I don’t think these were ever sold as Mazdas.

Amoore100 > KnowsAboutCars 07/16/2015 at 03:45

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Interesting...I had heard of Eunos and Amati but never Efini...time to go do some reading!

El Rocko > KnowsAboutCars 07/16/2015 at 04:06

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You are right! Although the rear badge was mazda

pip bip - choose Corrour > El Rocko 07/16/2015 at 04:14

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run away from this shitbox , anything with 4JX1 motors need to be burnt!

KnowsAboutCars > El Rocko 07/16/2015 at 04:14

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That has most likely been added afterwards as Mazda didn’t use that logo when these were made.

El Rocko > KnowsAboutCars 07/16/2015 at 04:23

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I wouldn’t be surprised. Here’s the interior. I’m sure that’s a stock shifter.

KnowsAboutCars > El Rocko 07/16/2015 at 04:30

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Is that a manual gearbox? I’m fairly sure all these came with dash shifter automatic.

El Rocko > KnowsAboutCars 07/16/2015 at 04:31

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You’re right!

Nauraushaun > El Rocko 07/16/2015 at 08:47

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But...what is it?

f86sabre > El Rocko 07/16/2015 at 11:12

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What prompted you to visit Mongolia? What route did you take to get there, how was the general safety, and if you don’t kind, what was the approximate cost of the tour?

El Rocko > f86sabre 07/16/2015 at 12:02

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We flew LA-Bejing-Ulaanbataar. We wanted to go because it is one of the last untouched countries on this planet. We saw maybe twenty other tourists in the three weeks we were there. The 14 day private tour cost $2300 for two people including food. It was not luxurious by any means. Many people pay 2-3x that much and more for tours that stay in more established tourist hotels. We mainly stayed with families. That link I posted has some more details about our trip from our travel blog.

I think for two of us, all in , the trip cost about $8K. It was extremely safe. The culture is one of caring for each other. There isn’t much crime. Everyone’s door is always open and anyone is always welcome to share a hot meal of meat and camel milk. Delicious

f86sabre > El Rocko 07/16/2015 at 22:52

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Thanks for the notes. It looks amazing. I image in the star gazing was second to none. I’ve seen shots of the London-Bejing Rally and that had perked my interest in seeing Mongolia.

what you paid seems very reasonable. Getting to stay with families seems like the way to go. I’ve heard there are tours in Vietnam that work the same way.

we are always looking for a new adventure. One of the perks of my job is I can fly just about anywhere for almost nothing, so we have seen more than most, but there are still lots of great spots to visit. Would you say the trip would be kid friendly at all? Say for a 10 year old boy?

El Rocko > f86sabre 07/17/2015 at 09:11

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I’d say a ten year old boy would be in his own little heaven. The hardest part about the trip was the lack of amenities. It can be tough to go five + days without a shower. Little boys would likely not care about things like running water.