Part 1

A way from the Russian check-point to a Mongolian one goes via the pass Durbet-Daba (2400 m), neutral zone is 23 km wide. Straight at the pass boundary posts (old, of soviet times and modern ones) and a turnpike are placed. First of all at the turnpike Russian customers check your documents once more. Secondly, if the Russian terminal is too busy, cars that are going from Mongolia are stopped there. Just beyond the turnpike the asphalt road ends and the earth road begins. There is a rule at the check-point: nobody could rest at the neutral zone. So, you must cross the boundary before the time of closing terminals. If you have no enough time, you will have to start the procedure of registration from the very beginning the next day.

Special features of registrating motorcar:
To enter Mongolia by the personal car you should have only an international driving license, they don’t demand any other permissive documents from Russian State Motor Vehicle Inspectorate. It is also unnecessary to change Russian license plate to Mongolian one. If the car is driven by power of attorney, a notarially attested power of attorney is demanded.

When crossing the boundary local duties are raised. The Russian side raise duties for registration the car and when going to Russia – about 6$ (in rubles) for sanitary disposal. The Mongolian side raise transport taxi and insurance – all in all about 30$.

The information about the car is put down by the owner of the car to a customs declaration and is received by a computer database of Mongolian custom.

Special features of import/export different goods:
1. Sport and expeditional equipment is temporarily imported to Mongolia without limitations.
2. Using motorcar radio transmitter, portable satellite terminals and GPS is allowed at the Mongolian territory, so import them is not limited too. Problems can appear on the Russian custom that demands declaring such a technique with specifying serial numbers and etc. So it is preferably to use the technique, certificated in Russia, otherwise even if you manage to import the device, you will fail to export them back.
3. Importation of narcotic, asphyxiant and explosive substances as well as uncanned meat to Mongolia is prohibited.
4. Importation of fish and meat from Mongolia to the territory of Russia is prohibited.
5. Importation is realized by general rules of importation of hunting weapon and in the presence of the international license. At the boundary the owner of the weapon should be met by the representative of Mongolian side with the permissive document from the Mongolian police. There should be indicated the name of the weapon and the serial number of the barrel.

The currency is imported to and exported from Mongolia without limitation.

Important comment:
1. The check-point Tashantinsky is a rather modern terminal, appointed with an arch of metal finder (that wasn’t working) and an X-ray unit like in airports. Customs official treat tourists with rucksacks truly, - they have enough problems with “shuttles”. In order not to provoke extra questions, it is desirable to show them one trunk with equipment, in that case you will not have to unpack all rucksacks.
2. They were only going to open a new terminal at the Mongolian side. That time all the custom service were sitting in a small one-storied house and of all methods of supervision use only visual examination. This expedite the process of registration noticeably.
3. When leaving Mongolia they demand to fill a special declaration where main information about the person who departs is presented and also the presence/absence of symptoms of infectious diseases (plague and cholera) is marked. There are the examples of filling the declaration in Russian and in English at the check-point. A form of the declaration costs 3 rubles, so it is desirable to have on yourself small change.
4. At the entrance to Russia in the Russian terminal the car is subjected to sanitary disposal (foot-and-mouth disease), and people pass medical examination (external symptoms of plague and cholera). All the procedure takes 2-3 minutes.
5. Even if there is no queue, it takes at best 2-4 hours to pass th the boundary.
6. If you are going to pass the boundary on Friday, it is necessary to stand in a queue from the early morning or lately night. It concerns specially those cars that are going to a boundary from Mongolian side: by the time of opening the check- point several tens of cars that are stuffed with “shuttles”. They are being examined thoroughly and for a long time.
7. If you nevertheless have to pass the night near the boundary, it’s better to do it straight in the car, not leaving the queue.
8. A privileged order of crossing the boundary for inhabitants of the Kosh-Agachsky region was repealed, so even natives are to have a passport for traveling abroad with visa or All-Russian passport and an invitation. You have to take it into account if you are going to cross the boundary by the car with native driver.

It is recommended to register your group in a local rescue and recovery service: Western Siberia. V. Zukov rescue and recovery service, Barnaul, Papanincev str, 190, phone number 62-29-00 local one, the leader –Ivanov Vladimir.

2.1. Other variants:
To groups, that are planning a route at this region, we recommend strongly to profit by the service of the company “BiyskAltayTur”, phones: (3854) 233111, 719600 (dispatcher). E-mail: ivan@mail.biysk.ru bialtur@mail.biysk.ru. The leader – Zamchalov Ivan. You can order a car for entry and entrance beforehand. (In February 2005 a car of this company take tourists to start of the route, mine Warm Spring)
There is no problem to hire a car to an any point of Altai in Biysk. There a company “BiyskAltayTur” is working. The cost of approaching along asphalt roads is about 5r/km, a cross-country approach - according to agreement. There is no regular bus from Kosh-Agach to Gorno-Altaisk longer, everyone profits by the service of private taxi. A bus station has already been working in Gorno-Altaisk, there is a timetable and you don’t need to wait for a bus to Barnaul. Some tourists prefer private taxi that costs as many as regular bus, but is much more comfortable.
We recommend you to acquaint throughly with variants of going to a region that a described in the reports by K. Beketov, S. Bezditko, S. Ulchenko, A. Miller, D. Shornikov at the site http://www.tourism.ru/phtml/users/list_subregions_reports.php?8. The residential population all in all is friendly, with the exception of not sober people that can make tourists’ life more difficult. In is recommended not to communicate with them.

In winter cattle-breeders can grant you a roof for rest, passing the night and cooking.
To get a permit to a border zone tourists have send to Altaic frontier troop (“659783, the Republic of Altai, Ulagansky region, settlement Altash, army part №2080, to a leader”) an application form the turning out organization with the list of participants and their passport information.

Frontier guards have the right to control the documents in 10 days. The registrating of permit to a border zone in Aktash is friendly, it takes about an hour. Since summer 2005 the temporary registration of those who want to visit Mongolia without visas has been abolished, so the frontier guards have reinforced control and penetration to a region has become possible only through the customs terminal in Tashanta with registrating visas.

Earlier the variants of approaching to a region began in a village and mine Warm Stream where tourists appear from Kosh-Agach. The routes were built as a circus in the mount region Tabin-Bogdo-Ula with the main set of obstacles and further long linear way out through Southern Cuyskiy and Northern-Cuyskiy range (a variant - Katun table-land) up to the Cuyskiy highway. After the toughening of the rules of crossing the boundary strategy and tactics of the trips will be changed.