Attention Central Asian Border Guards

Would you let this man into your country?

Thought not. That'll be £80 for a new passport added to the budget then.

8 more Km tonight

I got a rather unpleasant case of inner thigh chafe. I can only assume it was due to the speed with which I was running.

In search of knowledge...

We're off to Adventure Travel Live on Saturday to get some first hand tips for our "overland expedition". As well as talks on Central Asia and the Silk Route, I'm most looking forward to the Travel Photographer of the Year exhibition.

Hopefully we'll pick up some tips on how best to prepare for the big trip (I was in Kathmandu this evening (the shop, not the....y'know) and whilst looking at the 'accessories' rack, the only thing I could see that I thought we might need was a money belt) and get an injection of enthusiasm to kick start our planning after the uncertainty of the last few months. I'm guessing "don't try to drive anywhere in Central Asia without knowledge of Russian and how to fix a car" is probably quite high on the seasoned traveller's list of do's and dont's....

Fever pitch

less than 24 hours to go in the most exciting countdown since dear old Dickie Whiteley's timer ran out for the final time....

Yes folks, my first ever sale on Ebay is drawing to a close, and it looks awfully like someone's in for a bargain. My spare Ikea sofa cover - rrp £49 - is currently wedged at a top bid of a whopping 600 pence.

Never mind, it's all cash I wouldn't otherwise have, and has the distinction of being the very first contribution to the Mongolian fundraising! I'm building up to working through the clutter of our flat in an attempt to get some more stuff flogged and funds raised for the trip - the emotional wrench of saying goodbye to my years of hoarding will be offset by the reasons I'm doing it.

Willing to take a Best Offer on a magic eight ball that doesn't really work after Andy shook it too hard. The Mr Potato Head bubble machine is going nowhere, mind.

Training is continuing apace

Round trip to Dulwich Village yesterday - roughly 8km in total. Not bad for a skinny legged freak who only started jogging again three weeks ago. Starting to believe I can do this. Not so sure about my fellow 'team mates' though; of the five of us, I would say our chances of making it to the starting line are thus:

Me: 95% (barring injury or other catastrophe)
Euan: 95% (as above)
Coco: 90% (he's got the added effort of travelling from Aberdeen for the pleasure, but he's a determined wee bastard)
Andy: 70% (keen to prove that cycling not only negates a committed smoking habit, but also that he's fitter / harder / stronger / more creative than the rest of us saps)
Craig: 40% (full of great intentions, but has not inconsiderable 'previous' when it comes to accidentally getting wasted 48 hours before the race and failing to show up)
Murray: 25% (again, signed up for all the right reasons, but is the most dedicated to his career of anyone I know, which entails 14 hour days most of the week. Not entirely conducive to a balanced training regime. Neither is an even more impressed fag habit than Andy).

The signs from Nikeplus are not encouraging, as the current results on the challenge I set up for Murray, Craig and I ('most kilometres run in a month') will testify....

Team name required

If you were doing a 10,000 km road trip with your beloved other half, what would you call yourselves?

Utterly devoid of inspiration - winning choice gets, err, the person's name on the side of the car or something. When we get a car.

good times

I'm currently selling my first item on Ebay. The rush is amazing - the price has rocketed from a starting price of £0.01 on Sunday, to a whopping £1.20 by this evening! Who knows what heady heights my Klippan 4 seater sofa cover will have scaled by the time the auction ends in a week....

In other news - positive vibes coming from our 'new' rally about the vehicle choices, and the discovery that we can apparently get train tickets back to Moscow from Ulan Bator for only £229 each, have meant it's been a good day for getting the trip sorted. I'm a nervous wreck getting on a Ryanair jet from Stansted to Belfast - God knows what I'd be like taxiing for take off on the 8 hour Aeroflot service from Mongolia to Russia.... Give me 4 days of train travel through eff all instead.

still running y'know

Oh yeah, and I have run 11km so far this week (over two sessions) in preparation for the half marathon. Roughly doing 50% of the distance I apparently should be at this point (if the official 7 mile training run taking place on Sunday is anything to go by).

Pah.

I laugh in the face of well defined training schedules, choosing instead to go for the "run a little bit further each time" method. Seems to work. I'll get round anyway. Only gotta run 3 times further than I did tonight and I'll be almost there.

Vehicle rules for our "original" Charity Rally finally released...

We can basically take a commercial van or truck, or find an additional USD 2500 to cover import tax on any of the vehicles that, in my mind, I thought would be ideal - i.e. 4x4s

I have been fannying about, unsure about making the switch to the rival rally until these vehicle rules were confirmed, but feel comfortable now that we're making the right decision. The prospect of trying to get one of the tax exempt vehicles donated to us in the current economic climate and then raising £1500 between the two of us and also finding the money to fund visas, travel, flights etc is just too over-whelming for our first time out.

The new rally means more upfront payment from us, but also allows us to choose our charity and focus all our energies on raising money for a worthy cause rather than trying to satisfy all the conditions to make it to the start line. More to follow once the deposits are paid, but in the meantime, if you do happen to have any of the undermentioned vehicles you'd like to give to the people of Mongolia, feel free to get in touch!

__________________________________________________________________________________

Rule 1: Tax exempt models for 2010 can be no older than 9 years old, therefore for 2010, your vehicle has to have been manufactured in 2001 or later.

Rule 2: To be tax exempt, your vehicle must be one of the following:

• Single cab pick-up truck (see models below – if you have a model in mind that is not on our list, email us and we’ll see if we can get an exemption for it).
  
• Ambulance [Separate cabin, room enough to carry gurney and medical supplies]
  
• Truck/lorry. [Single cab, NTE 3½ tonnes.]
  

Please find below an indicative table of the models that are exempt. We will supplement this from time to time.

Table of tax exempt vehicles
Make	Tax Exempt Model
Land Rover	Defender Ambulance
Nissan	Navara (Single cab)
	Cabster
Ford	Escort
	Transit cargo vans
	Minibus/school bus
	Medium duty trucks
	Pickups
Mitsubishi	Canter
Isuzu	Trucks
Mercedes	Ambulance

NON-TAX EXEMPT VEHICLES

 If you really don’t want to take a tax exempt vehicle, no problem! But you can pay the tax man! You will need to transfer the import tax to us before you leave for Mongolia.

There are two tiers of tax exempt vehicles:

• Preferred non-tax exempt vehicles
  
• Non-preferred non-tax exempt vehicles
  

Regardless of which type of non-tax exempt vehicle you take, your vehicle cannot be older than 9 years old, so must have been manufactured in or after 2001 for the Mongolia Charity Rally 2010.

Preferred non-tax exempt vehicles

You need to:

1. (a) Review the table below of preferred, non-tax exempt vehicles, and if your vehicle falls within it;

(b) proceed to review the tax brackets below to see what tax will be payable on your vehicle.

Table of preferred non-tax exempt vehicles
Make	Taxed Model
Land Rover	Defender
	Discovery
Nissan	Terrano
	Patrol
	Pathfinder
	Navara (double cab)
	X-Trail
Toyota	Landcruiser
	Highlander
Mitsubishi	Pajero
Isuzu	Trooper
Subaru	Forester
	Tribeca
	Legacy
Jeep	Cherokee
	Patriot
	Liberty
Mercedes	GLK Class
	GL Class
	M Class
Honda	Pilot
	CR-V

Tax payable on preferred non-tax exempt vehicles
4x4 Import Taxes		Import tax amount (in USD)
		Year since manufacture
Size of engine		0-3 years	4-9 years
1	1500 cc and below	500	1000
2	1501-2500 cc	1500	2000
3	2500 cc and above	2000	2500

my 800th post

I could use the occasion to tell you something momentous, fascinating or exciting, but instead I will use the platform to advise that I think I have a hernia. It sort of makes sense - weird lumpy bit in my side, starting to be painful since I went running this evening, and it only appeared after I spent the weekend hoiking furniture around my mum's new house. Well, it's either that or I'm just being a hypochondriac as usual.

In other news, I'm off to a gig tomorrow night! The mighty Blazing Zoos are playing at the Windmill in Brixton. "The Blazing Whos?", I hear you cry...... "We didn't have you down as a nurturer of fresh young musical talent".

And you'd be right. For said Zoos are neither young, nor - if the self-effacing lead singer is to be believed - talented. They do, however, contain a former member of one of my early 'favourite bands', Jesus Jones, and their singer is none other than Mr Andrew Mueller, travel / music / random observation journalist and author of two of my favourite books - Rock & Hard Places, and I Wouldn't Start From Here. Highly recommended, both. If his singing is half as good as his writing, it'll be £4.50 well spent. And if not - well, it's only round the corner from the flat. That, I believe, is a win-win.

Haven't really drunk since New Year because I have been feeling rough - burning pains in the back being the initial complaint. Weirdly, I now don't really fancy a pint tomorrow - the thought of it, and of waking up on Saturday morning, is not appealing. Finally, after 13 years bordering on alcoholism, I seem to have kicked the habit. It won't stop me drinking tomorrow, obviously - I'm still as susceptible to peer pressure as ever. But behind closed doors, where no one else can judge me, it's Ovaltine all the way baby.....

Best of British

My extensive research on Ebay this evening has led me to the conclusion that the only make of car that it will be possible to get for around a hundred bucks is a Rover 400.

This is no bad thing, combining as it does middle-management semi-luxury, a sense of patriotism and just the right amount of - well - shitness to satisfy the 'banger aspect' of the rally. I am keen to find a car that needs work to get it ready for the trip - much to my team mate's chagrin. Our discussions descended into the 'heated' category this evening, largely focussing on the perceived inabilty of me to learn a camshaft from a seatbelt in order to fix a 'spare or repair' up to meet the challenges that lie ahead. My theory, on the other hand, is that as long as the chassis is sound, fixing the car before we go will force me to learn how the bloody thing works, and that can only be a good thing if we break down on the road. The alternative is luck out on buying a car that seems to work fine, not learn anything more than the basics of car maintenance, and then have the thing grind to a halt somewhere in the Ukraine with me unable to work out why. Given the options, I think we can safely mark up the outcome of the first debate as a victory for me. 

On my head be it.

72 days

until the Reading Half Marathon. The Reading Half marathon, which I am entered in, and competing alongside 5 of my friends. That's only 10 weeks, and my legs are hurting after a 3.5 km jog on Tuesday. I would have gone out again this evening, but the snow has turned to sheet ice and, whilst a broken ankle may be a good idea nearer the time, it's not high on my list of priorities for the time being.

They reckon that you shouldn't increase the distance you run by more than 10% a week. That means next week, I should be able to do 3.85 km. And in 10 weeks time, just ready for the race....?

err, 9.07 km.

Less than half the distance I will be expected to drag my puny chicken legs round in a bit of "friendly" competition with 'the boys', some of whom I may have given a mild ribbing in terms of who would be fastest. Time to rip up the training rule book (and probably my tendons). Aaaargh!

Cars for courses

Hmm, a new rally, a new issue when it comes to finding a vehicle. Honestly, you'd think they were trying to make us work for the privilege or something.

Been trawling Ebay this evening for something that fits the critieria of our "new" (as yet unsigned up for, but the decision has been made. I think) rally.... No older than 1998, but costing no more than £100.

It is, as you may expect, a bit feckin difficult. Nigh on impossible, in fact.

It would appear that scrap yards offer at least 100 quid for an old car, so it may be that we have to take to skulking furtively around outside, resident doberman gnashing its teeth through the fence at us, offering to "do a deal" down a back alley with the bloke who pulled up in a slightly sad looking Proton.

Honestly - can't do one rally cos the cost is too high, can't do the other cos it seems the price we can offer is too low.....

Any 2nd hand car salemen out there, get in touch.

Home from school early

The view from my window and the time it's been posted to the blog tell you that the snow has arrived in my corner of South London - and not before time. I was starting to get jealous of the hysterical news reports from all points of the UK. Thankfully, I expected it and managed to purchase a pair of trackie bottoms yesterday before trialling them last night - so Reading Half Marathon training has officially started! 10 weeks til I take to the streets and alleyways of Reading to prove I can do it, beat my friends, and hopefully raise a bit of cash towards the Mongol Rally....

Happy 2010!

Here's hoping it's suitably epic for all of us. In a good way, obviously.

(wo)man down!

Things have not been progressing particularly on the rally front. Bureaucracy, unrealistic (in my book) requirements from the organisers and radio silence in response to my queries have not filled us with confidence.

Somewhat predictably, none of the major vehicle manufacturers wanted to know or help, despite the fact we were only asking for the odd contact name of firms who might be able to sell us an ambulance (whilst hoping, of course, that they just said "here, just have one"). So thanks, Mercedes, Ford, Fiat, Renault and Volvo. Still in search of a nearly new, low mileage, functioning ambulance for free.

A more crushing blow was the news this evening that we have lost a team mate. After wrestling with her conscience and responsibilities over the last few weeks, Lucy has unfortunately concluded that it's not going to be possible to fund the trip this year. The perils of being self-employed and simultaneously shafted by HMRC.

Gutted that my best mate will not be making the epic trip with us, but if we don't continue to try and do the rally this year I think there's a strong possibility we won't ever get round to it - I can see normal life closing in again if we let this one slip through our fingers and before we know it we'll be swimming in mortgage payments and nappies (or the like).  We've publicised our plans far too much as well to back out this early.

So J and I will continue to plan and are still determined to be at the starting line in July for our trip due east.

The only thing that may change is our choice of vehicle - or perhaps even our choice of rally. I've been really unimpressed by the lack of contact from the organisers and the seemingly unreasonable demands being made from us: a £2-3 grand vehicle & £1500 sponsorship just to be allowed to reach the start line, plus all our petrol, living expenses, visas and flights home to fund on top of it.

Compare that to our alternative - £500 a head which buys us all our visas, a cap of £100 on the vehicle cost, and a roughly-set route meaning that we may miss out on the odd country we want to visit, but we'll have companionship on the road. Having enquired about the potential pitfalls of import duty on such an old banger, I've been told "we're not sure, but if it comes down to it we'll be parking in the short stay carpark at Ulaanbaatar airport and not looking back". Obvious mild irresponsibility aside, that's the kind of attitude I was looking for (not to mention the fact it only took them 10 hours to reply to me) - the kind of charity rally I want to be part of. Plus, there is no minimum amount for us to fundraise and whatever we do raise can go to any charity we blimmin well like. Sounds to good to be true, doesn't it? All we need is a grand. Anyone?