Wednesday 24 October 2007

Ze Postcard

Today my parents got my postcard from Mongolia. Total time in the mail: 2 months, 1 week. Long live the Mongolian Postal Service! I can't help but wonder how long the card would have taken, if hadn't mailed it at the main post office in Ulaanbaatar.

Friday 5 October 2007

438080!

That's how many Tögrög our trusty Polo was still worth at auction, after the Mongolian countryside had done its very best to destroy it. 438080 Tögrög translates to about 261€ in case you're curious. This just happens to be more than we paid for it in the first place.

Not bad!

Team Ruhrpott's Polo brought in even more money (450000 Tögrög), probably because their car still had its front bumper and bonnet attached. Ours was more of a self-assembly kit, with half the car strapped to the roof.

As far as Polos go, 500000 MNT seemed to be the limit, so I think we did pretty well. The only cars that made substantially more money were either much newer cars or 4WD, like the Suzukis and the Justy. Which makes sense, because it's pretty much impossible to drive through Mongolia without 4WD.

Trust me, I've been there.

On the low end of the spectrum, Team Bataar-Mobile's Polo fetched a whopping 20000 MNT. That's about 10 Euros. If you consider that the car looked like this at the end, a full tank of gas is the only way the new owner got a good deal there.

In total the cars have raised about 60000€, which probably exceeds the original purchase price by quite a bit. So here's our Mongol Rally Top Tip for the day: If you want to increase the value of your vehicle, drive it to Mongolia.

Monday 1 October 2007

Roland?

It's just been pointed out to me that one of our photos apparently features a mysterious headless man. I didn't notice him before, but the picture is definitely a bit freaky. Check it out.

Who knows, maybe I've accidentally caught Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner on film? Not sure what he's doing in Uzbekistan of all places. Probably still chasing that son-of-a-bitch Van Owen.