The last time we wrote a little update, we were (as usual) a little ahead of ourselves thinking we’d be out for a little test drive on the weekend. It’s now a week later and we’re saying the same thing, we should be out in a few days. This has been the story of our journey thus far, everything takes a little longer, a little more effort, a few more parts, than we initially expected. It’s these extra yards, where we learn the most, about the truck, about ourselves, and about why we’re on this crazy merry-go-round adventure.

It has however, been an incredibly productive four or five days . Hammer and tongs, the saying goes, although we’ve also been using wrenches, soldering irons, and more rivets than I can count. We joke sometimes that our truck is held together with spit and hope, but that’s not true, it’s mainly rivets, lots and lots of rivets.

The internal and external lighting and ventilation is all wired and looking pro, we don’t even get out of bed now to turn the lights on and off – nice. Water pumps have been installed, the inflatable tank is full, and fairly shortly the clean, filtered H2O will be flowing into our kitchen and shower, double nice. Even our new chinese indicators are wired up, meaning we can indicate to other traffic which direction we’re going, as if we have any idea ourselves.

Last night, we had dinner with an incredible man called Micko, Liam’s dad (the guy we bought the motorbike off). He is 14 months into a travel from Rottnest to Rotterdam, (that’s Australia to Europe folks) in his landcruiser, with his lovely partner Liesbeth. They have just driven through China and Tibet, and had nothing but enthusiasm for us and our plan to get to africa.

For us, it was inspiring to see a couple of people, so totally happy on the road, telling us that we were on the right track. Long travels like theirs are not always easy, but for them, like us, it’s not about the destination, but soaking up as much of each place as they can. Hopefully we’ll get to spend some more time with them, and it’s likely too, because they have to wait for Russian visa’s, an unpredictable process that begins for us in a few weeks too.

So we’ll leave you, once again, in the hope that next time we update, we’ll have photos of sunshine, nature, and butterflies, instead of a slightly disturbing one of Rikki in a onsey.

(He says it’s not a onsey if they’re overalls, but he also confessed to me the other day his lifelong dream was to have boots attached to his onsey so in the morning he can get dressed with minimal effort sort of like richy rich? n.b Rikki’s birthday is december 3)

When i arrived in Mongolia last february, it was overwhelming because I had no idea what to expect. This time, it was overwhelming because i knew exactly what to expect. It’s been so long between bouts, I was worried what may have gone wrong. Was Rikki’s visa going to work? Was the truck ok? Would we be able to get it ready in time? Fear and excitement are extremely close on the emotional spectrum, and no one ever tells you that realising your dreams, is a very daunting undertaking.

i needn’t have worried. now, four days after arriving, the fear is all rinsed out, and has been replaced by pure, unadulterated excitement. we’ve got visas til the end of July, the truck is very close to ready, and the moment I saw it, I fell in love with her all over again.

Rikki didn’t mess around when I left Mongolia last year, Gorki has come a long way. The solar panels are in, extractor fans, the kitchen is installed, new engine installed, (he broke the last one – ha-ha) there’s a new gas hatch at the back, brand new wheels on the beast … too many improvements to list here, but it’s looking really good. Seeing how far along the truck was, made me realise that this time, as opposed to a fantasy, this trip is a reality.

I’ve really got to take my hat off to Rikki. This is a massive job, and it’s not like a Weetbix ‘insert tab A into slot B’ sort of project, it’s a unique truck, built to his own specifications and desires. Being self employed, it’s hard to find motivation sometimes, and when there’s no salary, it’s even harder, but he’s slogged away, and the results are amazing. It’s the coolest truck I could conceive of travelling in, and I’ve been in the back of many a hippy bus. Compared to most, this will be like living on a super yacht.

I can’t wait to start living in it again, get on the road, pick up the translator, get out of the cities, and start covering some off road miles.

We think we’ll be hitting the road for another little test in a week or so. We have to sort out some electrical things in the cab (when I say we, what I really mean is … ), the water systems (which are designed just not installed), and hopefully a prototype of our tent too, before we head out of town.

I’ve been busy helping out where I can, building storage boxes, painting trailers, and spending money. I bought a motorbike off this nice Aussie kid called Liam, who’d just ridden it right across China on it, we’re gonna take it with us for, mini excursions. It’s the first time I’ve owned a motorbike, and yes, i feel like the Fonz. (Yes mum, I’m wearing my helmet, and that Swandri jacket you bought me is perfect for riding in)

All in all, very excited, feels like we’re on the verge of something magnificent, and I wish you could all be here with us. But until you save up enough for a ticket, you’re gonna have to make do with a few photo’s and listening to me tell you how cool our life is.

Come on – summer’s lovely here in Mongolia, drop your crappy nine to five, and come join me and Rik for a bit of Gobi galavanting!

Rikki and I parted ways back in Mongolia August last year with the agreement to meet back in Mongolia in May. It was a moving, man-tear moment that parting, hopes and dreams suddenly up in the air. As I write this, it’s seems to be time to rendezvous, put money where mouth is, ante up, get back on that horse, roll that shackle wagon out the ol’ store house, fire up the ol engines, or perhaps just drive around looking cool in our truck.

I wonder how the ol’ girl is, Gorki I mean, the GAZ66, I haven’t seen her since august, and Rikki is waveringly vague about the exact state of the truck. But the truth of the matter, is that I’ll find out in about 2 days, yup, that’s right … me and Rikki are meeting back in Mongolia on May 11, and this time, it’s for keeps. The real deal, for real, we really mean it this time, we’re gonna drive that old truck somewhere … anywhere is fine … but we’re shooting for Africa.

I’ve been in Aussie making bucket loads of cash the old skool way, throwing fruit, and those melons have replaced the stuff I got stolen in Mongolia, and have put a good sum back in the bank, which, by the time I get to mongolia, and the truck is rolling, will be slightly smaller (hard drives, tents etc) so we’ll see how far it will get us. For the record, I bloody love farm life in Australia, living in cities is for mugs.

I’m sure as this site develops in the next few months, a few other financial ideas will begin to emerge, but truth is, we forgot to go and get sponsors (or maybe we just aren’t that sure we can do this) and are doing it old skool. Work with what you got. I believe Rikki’s gonna sell some t shirts on the site, translators gonna tattoo for cash as we go, and I’m going to set up a gypsy type fortune tellers booth outside the truck when we pull over, happy ending guaranteed.

But in reality, money is the least of our concerns, the real pressure on Rikki and I, is from the big bad Mongolian government. I’d like to say we got in a little trouble for something awesome like smuggling gold, but it’s not, it’s just for overstaying, Rikki did this on his visa last time he was there (even though all the dudes he was bribing in immigration told him he’d be sweet). So Rikki has to be out of Mongolia in 30 days, it’s been his home for the last four years, and we were hoping to have longer, but those governments, they just don’t bend on some stuff, I reckon we might find out about that a bit more as we start crossing borders.

So ‘yay’ is what you’re thinking. ‘They’re finally doing it!’ ‘Holy-bouncing –catheter-bags’ is what we’re thinking, ‘are we really going to do this?’ We’ve been planning this almost three years, and it’s not as though life hasn’t moved on in that time, we’ve both probably asked ourselves many times in the last six months if we still want to do this. Now on top of that, lots of things are changing, like getting on the road very very fast, and not being able to go round Mongolia before we go start crossing borders and venturing wild.

Thinking a lot also about the website, content, and how to share this journey, how to record it in a beautiful way for a doco later. We’ve had so many different ideas for potential avenues, we’ll just have to see how it goes I think, but I am thinking that with the recent purchase of an iphone (my first mobile in five years) wherever we have 3g coverage, we should be putting up photos and blurgy stuff pretty often. We still wanna put out cool little movies and that, and were hoping to make some kind of audio podcast, but we’ll see how we go. But we think with something like this it’s cool to stay on top of it and put out even a little something every couple of days … even if it’s just a photo of the boring ol’ Kazakhstan mountains.

So thats the long and the short of it, I am on a plane out of Thailand tomorrow, and Rikki is in Korea, waiting for his flight to Mongolia.

Talk to you from the land of blue skies and Ghengis Khan, Mongolia, it’s the beginning!

Alex

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BVBxkNjOtg

This week, we thought we would show you a different side of Ulaan Bataar, this country loves music, its culture is filled with singing and instrument playing. We were invited to the equivalent of American Idol here in the city so we took the chance to enjoy a little display vocal decadence!! Towards the end of the clip, we also bring to you the Mongolian National Beatbox champ, he was kind enough to come down to our recording studio and hit us with some guttural beats.

Oh and by the way, Gorki may, I said “may”, leave the building this week, keep it locked for the next update where Alex will say,”Hey bro, I don’t think we have a fuel tank?”

Till next time
Keep on trucking.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvYRdmzDYis

Here at Truck the World we happily accept any challenge thrown at us, so when one of Mongolia’s biggest bands approached us to make them a music video we gladly accepted.

Alex will explain the whole story when we post the music video later today.

Enjoy the “making of” in the mean time, we had an interesting time making it!

Music on the vid is by Dancing Djedi feat. Mos Def

What could have happened? Have the boys been kidnapped by the Mongol Horde? Have they got internet and TV in their warehouse and just forgotten their goals, lost their direction??

Could this be the end of the dynamic duo? Will Gorki the truck ever be finished? Is Mongolia a real country? Tune in to next weeks episode where all will be revealed!

Well actually, we are still here and hard at work, life has got very busy here at Truck the World Head Quarters, Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia.

We have managed to convince Mongolia’s biggest alt rock band that we are capable of making their next music video, filming has wrapped and Alex is locked in the editing cupboard as I write.

Two new clips will be up in the next few days though how ever. We have our weekly update including a behind the scenes look at Truck the World’s foray into music videos and we introduce Mongolia’s raining national beat box champion. We will also post the world premiere of Mongolian Rock Band – Altan Urag’s latest music video, written, directed, produced, filmed and edited by us here at Truck the World.

Its busy times and we can’t wait to share. Keep it locked.

Rikki and Alex
Truck the World

www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6_kQbFzGJc

The journey has begun, ok so we haven’t quite hit the road yet, but moves are being made. The above clip is a piece that shows the begining stages of the exciting journey that is planned. You get to see us, the truck and the new Truck the World HQ, we tried to find an underground base, but a old spare garage at the local Medical University had to do.

The clip is in HD video format, for your viewing plesure, as this is really some of the first HD content we have posted , hit us with any comments or if you have issues seeing the content in high definition. To see this clip at full reolution, click here then click on the HD button on the bottom right hand side of the video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjx1_wmQvm4

Here is a little piece just for you, a compilation of Mongolian city life when its 20 below zero.