The Silk Road Breakdown: Losing A Tire In Mongolia

I have a particularly fond memory of my road trip through the countryside of Mongolia. We left the capital city Ulaanbaatar for our epic almost-2-week road trip around the country; myself, another American guy Trevor, his Brazilian wife Juli, and our new local friend and guide, Ebi. We had prepared and made all of our plans, bought our gear for camping in the cold, and were ecstatic to get on the road. We left UB city and the roads immediately deteriorated. Ebi’s heavy-duty SUV was packed with an insane amount of weight (even with big tents strapped to the roof). At some point, one bad hole in the road sent Ebi’s entire front right tire flying off of the vehicle and rolling through the tundra next to us as Ebi expertly brought us to a safe stop on the side of the road (minus one wheel!). The road trip was toast before it began. Or at least, after only a 4 hour drive. Mongolia is still an extremely open and wild countryside with hardly any development in most areas and, consequently, we couldn’t get the parts to replace the tire from anywhere other than UB, from which we had just driven 4 hours. Thankfully Ebi had a friend who was able to send the parts to us and we had no choice but to wait for their arrival. We set up a big tent to block the whipping wind. We climbed nearby hills (I even found a small Genghis Khan statue on the peak of one, guarding the hills and the tundra in spirit and posture). We bundled up and napped in the tent. I ate some leftover pizza I had packed. We waited. When the parts arrived, thankfully, Ebi had the know-how to replace the wheel and get us back on the road in no time. This wouldn’t be the only time that we all felt so lucky to have him guiding us through the wild landscape of beautiful Mongolia. With our wheel reconnected, we got back on the road and had the second beginning of our epic road trip across the middle of Mongolia, which turned out to be one of the coolest, wildest experiences of my life. It might not have been the way that the Great Khan would have traveled but in hindsight, it’s one of my favorite memories from a once-in-a-lifetime adventure with some new friends in a strange place. Note; when I left Mongolia, Ebi mentioned that he would love to do more road trips with tourists coming through. If you have any interest in discussing options with Ebi, his WhatsApp is +976 8839 2999. Please contact him and tell him his buddy Nik sent you!