Cripes. Finally got down 'n' dirty with a bit of rally organising admin this evening. I have constructed a highly professional looking spreadsheet with columns and numbers and lists.
So far have discovered that we shouldn't need any jabs, as long as we have diphtheria and hepatitis A vaccinations... Do we? Who knows. Sounds easy enough to sort at any rate.
Visas, on the other hand....
We have a rough idea of a route, designed to allow us to get to Ulaan Baatar in the limited time we have available without stressing - take the Black Sea to the north, head through Ukraine, into Russia, over into Kazakhstan, a wee detour round Uzbekistan, east to Kyrgyzstan, back to Kazakhstan, up into Southern Russia once more and finally across into Mongolia. On the way back, our plan is to take the train back to Moscow and fly back to London. Sounds great, eh?
Unfortunately, so far my attempts to understand if we can get a triple-entry visa for Russia and a double entry visa for Kazakhstan have just confused me. I'm cross-eyed in a sea of 'transit visas', 'tourist visas', 'letters of introduction', rules, regulations and red tape. I'm not sure we can get more than a double entry visa for Russia without applying for a Business visa (at more than 4 times the price) - all of which means that, perversely, it may prove "simpler" and more economical to change our route to South of the Black Sea - and head through Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.
Got to be honest - I've had more depressing dilemmas!
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