Necessary car modifications

Having moved the limo into Bath, workshop space is now at a premium, subsequently we have taken to converting deserted car parks into guerrilla-garages by night. Tonight we chose the Oldfield park primary school car park to set up shop. To aid in our visibility on the road and to improve handling and performance we have decided to fit the car with electric-blue neon’s along its full length. A large number of holes drilled into the chassis and a bag of cable ties later we had a single strip of “neons” attached.

fitting blue neon lights to the limousine for the 2014 mongol rally blog

Fitting neons to a rover 827 limousine  regency mongol rally  2014 team

Later we moved to a council construction site to fit the second strip, despite several no parking signs and a large amount of chain-link fencing the authority of the limo and the rover marque seems to dissuade people from approaching us and requesting we cease our occupation. This authority has become somewhat of a recurring theme, initially one of the major objections to buying the limousine had been that it would be “a nightmare to park” this seems to be almost the opposite of what we have experienced. Despite parking anywhere we have pleased for the past several weeks we haven’t been questioned, fined or prompted to move once. This includes extended periods parked up in taxi ranks, bus stations, and outside unesco world heritage sites as well as inconspicuously parking across several spaces reserved exclusively for university of bath security and traffic enforcement personnel. We can only assume that people see the limo and either assume that some high profile, rover loving, gangster or perhaps a funeral procession is close by, or are simply intimidated by the sheer power of the rover marque and styling of the car. Either way, we have been unmolested by parking tickets despite our utter disregard for parking etiquette.

Guildhall bath rover 827 limousine mongol rally

Any self respecting limousine owner has a set of diplomatic flags. After a quick visit to http://www.flagpoles.se/ (the leading online diplomatic flag seller) and the realisiation that a simple setup could cost in excess of £500 and would only be rated up to 75mph the decision was made to make our own bespoke flag holders. After some quick napkin calculations and a visit to the University of Bath machine shop we were proud owners of some of the highest strength flag holders ever seen on a road legal limo. Conservative calculations estimate a speed of 175mph could be achieved before permanent damage would occur to the poles.

limo flag lathe turning rover 800 827 mongol rally

Upon fitting a pair of dignitary flags our immunity seems to have extended to all rules of the road, as seen in the following picture. If you are familiar with bath you will know that this is the main entrance to the historic roman baths in the centre of the town, normally just walking here is stressful enough with the number of tourists, but the limo finds passage with ease, the flags easily carving a route through the crowds and past no-entry signs. When the masses become too much one passenger can simply step out and walk in front of the car and beckon people authoritatively to step aside. Given our success in Bath I feel we will be attempting to approach wider known landmarks on the continent as we pass by, we just hope our union jacks will carry as much weight on the other side of the channel.

Roman Baths Entrance Somerset Rover Limo 827 800

However our flippant attitude to the highway code may have been misguided. Somehow we inadvertently entered into a CCTV covered temporary bus lane 4 times in 2 days, as we learned to our disappointment the next week when we received letters from the council. The bus lane is pretty poorly signposted and the lane isn’t painted as it is only operational between 10-6, but I still think we should be exempt as we can carry more than 8 passengers, making us technically a bus. You win this time Bath & North East Somerset Council.

bus lane fine bath limo 827 rover

Visas for the Mongol Rally

Applying for visas can be nearly as fun as the Rally itself; everyone likes stamps in their passport and receiving packages. Additionally it is a chance to get some of that money out of your bank account that has been weighing you down. During the application process you may even make some friends at embassies to meet on your trip.

You have the choice of either using a visa service such as The Visa Machine or Real Russia, or you can organise everything yourself. We went for a bit of a mixture. Organising your own visas takes time, but once you have figured it out, it is very quick to fill out a second application. Because there were four on our team we thought it would definitely be worth applying ourselves as we would save the administration fee times four! Getting visas directly yourself is significantly cheaper in most circumstances.

It is important to always double check any information you find online  against the official embassy website, visa applications procedures seem to change nearly every year, this account is accurate to the procedures as they were in 2014. Additionally our team is all British and this advice may not be relevant to other nationalities. There may be extra requirements, or fewer!

Before you start:

  1. Make sure you have a fair number of empty pages in your passport (at least 1-2 per visa).
  2. You are going to need a good amount of time, around 2 weeks per visa (some need to be done by April, e-visas can be done at the same time as others).
  3. Ensure you have at least one year left on your passport.
  4. You should scan all of the used/marked/personalised pages in your passport, these are necessary for some forms, and will be useful when you are filling out applications and your passport is away at an embassy.
  5. For some of the visas you need to have a fairly good idea of your planned entry dates, therefore you need to have a pretty good route plan before you begin applying for visas.
  6. If you are applying for a few visas you are going to need a bunch of passport photos. We  saved a fair bit of money by printing these ourselves. You will need a couple of these to apply for your international driving licences also, so it is worth printing a couple spare.
  7. A printer and scanner.
  8. Ensure you have a thoroughly sharpened pencil or your quill and ink set to hand.

These are not full guides, typically some of the areas of the application that were unclear to us are highlighted and omitted when obvious. So, only use this article in addition to carefully reading the application instructions given on the embassy website.

 

Turkey

The visa application process for Turkey is VERY EASY. It couldn’t be more straight-forward. British citizens (and many other nationalities also) only require an E-Visa to enter turkey for up to 6 months.  The process is completed entirely online so you do not need to travel to an embassy or send your passport away. Additionally at the time of writing, the cost of the visa was only $20 making it one of the cheapest we bought.

We found the process so user friendly that we sent the Turkish embassy a congratulations message, and true to their impeccable service standards we received this reply within minutes.

mongol-rally-2014-team-visas-turkey

It is well worth completing this one yourself. Visa services charge between 50-100% mark-up to cover administrative costs for this particular visa. This may not be too much for an individual visa but for the whole team you can make a big saving getting this one on your own.

The visa will allow you to stay in Turkey for a total of 90 days in any period of 180 days.

Get your Turkish visa here: https://www.evisa.gov.tr/en/apply/

 

Visa Duration: Up to 90 days

Visa cost: $20

Level of difficulty: EASY

 

Azerbaijan

This year it was easiest to get this one through the Visa Machine since they have just been authorised to provide Azerbaijan e-visas. These last for 15 days, and are issued by the Azerbaijani government to a limited number of tourist agencies. They are cheaper and less time consuming than standard tourist visas. Once you apply through the visa machine they will send you a how to guide for filling out the form.

As with the Turkish e-visa you do not need to send away your passport to complete the application process, everything is done via e-mail. This means you can get this visa while other applications are processing; just make sure that you already have high quality scans of your passport.

This visa requires proof of hotel bookings during your intended stay. Booking.com is a great website for booking hotels in central Asia and has the additional benefit of allowing you to cancel most bookings without paying any fee up until the day before your arrival. Check on the specific hotel to ensure that you can cancel, that they don’t charge you and that a deposit and credit card is not required.

 

Visa Duration: 15 days

Visa cost: £92.53

Level of difficulty: MEDIUM

 

Turkmenistan

We haven’t technically gotten this visa yet. We have only applied for a Letter of Invitation for a visa. We then take this to the Turkmenistan embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan where we will be given a letter of permission(not a visa) which allows us to board the ferry into Turkmenbashi. From what we understand, the embassy is only open between 9.30am until 12.30pm on Mondays and Fridays so we need to time our arrival accordingly.

Update: When we got to Baku this year we found that the Turkmenistan embassy now opens 5 days a week especially for the Mongol Rally. Hopefully this continues! (2014)

We’re then hoping to take the Caspian sea ferry to Turkmenbashi and when we get there, we should then be able to exchange our second invitation for a transit visa giving us 5 days to cross the country. If you don’t get out in time, you will incur impressive fines.

More information here: http://savoirfaireabroad.com/mongol-rally-the-lowdown-on-tourist-visas/

Again we chose to use the visa machine for this one, the LOI needs to be acquired from a tour company in Turkmenistan and the VM sorts this out for you. The deadline for the VM application for the 2014 rally was April 1st.

 

Visa Duration: 5 days (from entering the country)

LOI cost: £39.11

Level of difficulty: MEDIUM

 

Uzbekistan

The form is completed on the website and then you print out a pdf copy and sign it. We were able to send off all of our applications in one envelope, putting each in a separate plastic sleeve.

There were a couple of things about this one that we weren’t sure on which we eventually got answers from the embassy after countless failed attempts at reaching them by phone (only open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 10am and 1pm).

  1. For inviting party, if you are from the UK you can put none
  2. For place of visa issuance put London (if that is where you are applying)
  3. For address in Uzbekistan just put down the address of a hotel on route
  4. For purpose of visit we put down: Auto tourism. Travelling by car for Charity Rally
  5. For passport issuer put IPS
  6. Create a totally new application for each member of the team
  7. Compile the separate applications into separate packages and post altogether

When you arrive in Uzbekistan you need to register. Bear in mind that during your time in Uzbekistan you need to stay at a hotel at least once to be registered. The registration also needs to be done within 3 days of your arrival (Saturdays and Sundays count as part of the three days).

We followed the Uzbek embassy on twitter to ensure fast processing of our applications.

visa mongol rally uzbekistan

Visa Duration: 30 days

Visa cost: £67

Level of difficulty: MEDIUM

 

Kazakhstan

For Kazakhstan, we got a 30 day tourist visa and all was fairly straight forward.

It was also the first visa which required proof of travel insurance. We used Campbell Irvine who are aware of the rally and cover its participants.

The main point of confusion on the visa application was the questions about transit. This is specific to transit visas so we put the great abbreviation N.A in these fields.

We’ve recently found out that the Kazakhstan government have issued a statement saying that British citizens will not require a visa for a stay of up to 15 days between 15th July 2014 and 15th July 2015. Check the www.gov.uk website if this will stand in the future.

This application required hotel bookings. We booked 3 hotels in Kazakhstan adding up to 30 days of stay on booking.com. We then cancelled the bookings when we successfully received our visas back. We’re starting to feel sorry for the hotels that think they’re receiving our business and probably many other ralliers.

 

Visa Duration: 30 days

Visa cost: £35

Level of difficulty: MEDIUM

 

Russia

For the Russian visa you need to acquire a Letter Of Invitation first before you can apply. We did this through Real Russia as it seemed to be the cheapest and most well renowned. This was very straight forward and the website tells you everything you need to know. We opted for a 30 day double entry visa as we hope to drive back. The 30 days starts from the first date of entry on your visa.

The visa application form is an online one that is then printed and is the lengthiest one we’ve filled out for the trip. It includes such questions as:

  1. Have you ever been afflicted with a communicable disease of public health significance or a dangerous physical or mental disorder?
  2. Do you have any specialized skills, training or experience related to firearms, explosives, nuclear, biological or chemical substances?
  3. Are/were you a member of a professional, civic or charitable organizations or do you cooperate/cooperated with any of these organizations?

We applied for a general tourism visa. There is also an option for auto-tourism which you need to provide a V5 for. We are still unsure whether using a general tourism will be fine, although it appears that the Visa Machine advises people applying through them to select tourism, so it is probably fine. You need to list hotels but don’t have to provide booking confirmations for them. You also need to include details of your travel insurance but don’t need to post it with your application.

It is also important that you register when you enter Russia. Extensive information here: http://www.realrussia.co.uk/visas/russian/registration

 

Visa Duration: 30 days

Visa cost: £107.20

Level of difficulty: TRICKY (although easy enough if the lights are on and somebody is home)

 

Mongolia

In 2014, the Ministry of Foreign affairs announced that all British passport holders do not require a visa when travelling for tourism or business for up to 30 days. This policy was new to this year and isn’t guaranteed to continue so check the following link to see if this is still the case:

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/mongolia/entry-requirements

 

In Conclusion

Organizing visas yourself is really not so hard, using a visa agency doesn’t really reduce the amount of paperwork all that much, trust me do it yourself for the easier ones and save the money! If this helped you out or if you have any new information that could be helpful for future adventurers post below!

That excellent feeling of having your passports back in your hands, priceless:

mongol rally visas turkmenistan uzbekistan russia

LMLS in the York Vision

York Vision just put up an article covering our trip on their site!

Read it here:

http://www.yorkvision.co.uk/lifestyle/mongolia-in-a-limo/29/04/2014

Or look at the text below:

A PPE graduate (2013) from the University of York is part of a 4 man team driving a 20 year old Rover stretch limousine from London, England to Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia for charity this summer. Dominic Falcão, along with Steven Brace, Oliver Skittery and Jack Chartres are undertaking the 15,000 mile round trip in aid of their chosen charity, Médecins sans Frontières, as part of the Mongol Rally 2014. The Rally has only a designated start point, London, and end point, Ulaan Baatar, for the team to pick a route between.

They have opted to drive through Europe, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia, crossing three deserts, including the Gobi Desert, on the way. Médecins Sans Frontières are a humanitarian charity that provides medical assistance to countries affected by armed conflict, natural disasters and poor healthcare systems. “We’ve chosen to support MSF because the majority of the funds raised go directly to running their essential support programmes,” Steven explains. “Their work is particularly urgent and relevant given the number and scale of conflicts occurring today” Dominic adds. Typically cars in the rally are required to have an engine size of 1 litre or less.

However, when the group found a bargain 2nd hand limo on eBay, they could not resist the offer. “We contacted the rally organisers to see if an exception could be made, and when they heard we wanted to use a limo they were all for it”. Dominic was told by his driving instructor that he was the worst student he’d had in 40 years of instructing and would certainly crash within a week of passing his test. When Jack told his parents about the rally they weren’t completely on board. Two days after telling them he received a 6 page hand-written letter from his mother pleading him not to take part. One of her many concerns was that Jack, who measures in at 6 foot 5 inches tall “would be too cramped”. This was before Jack had informed them that he had purchased a limousine.

Aside from parental concern, the team have other hurdles to overcome. Steven, who suffers from chronic car sickness, hopes that he will be able to obtain a driving licence in time for the start of the rally on the 19th of July. Insurance has proven to be a major hurdle. Initially the boys found that after contacting countless insurance brokers the same question came up every time. “Why do four twenty-two year old students need insurance on a limousine?” Unfortunately, “More seats and extra legroom” was not the answer they were looking for. They were finally successful when they found a specialist broker that covers convicted and banned drivers.

When asked why they chose a limo they replied “With one of the longest continuous histories in the motor industry, the Rover marque has always had a reputation for luxury without extravagance and style without ostentation. It has maintained this status with the Rover 827 limousine which includes exclusively full-grain leather interiors and fully electric wing mirrors. The Rover 827’s top of class air conditioning system makes it the only practical choice for crossing the Gobi desert. This paired with state of the art soft-air suspension will allow a smooth journey across potholes, river crossings and arid desert planes.” The team are hoping to raise £2,500 for their chosen charities; three of the team have run half marathons to raise money and Dominic has shaved his head, waxed his legs and armpits and is piercing his ear and nipple to raise money. They have additional fundraising events planned for the near future. To follow their progress, and donate, like them on Facebook at “London Mongolia Limo Service”, find them on Twitter at @mongolrallylimo or go to www.mongolrallylimoservice.co.uk.

LMLS in the Bath Impact

Just had an article about the trip published in the Bath Impact click on the image to read the full story.

mongol-rally-team-2014-limo-service-london-article-newspaper

 

 

Three mechanical engineering students are part of a team of four preparing to take on a 10,000 mile charity rally from London to Mongolia, in a 20 year old Limousine!

Steven Brace, Oliver Skittery, Jack Chartres and Dominic Falcão have signed up for the Mongol Rally 2014 to raise money for their chosen charity Médecins Sans Frontières and for the official rally charity Cool Earth. The Rally travels through Europe, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia crossing the Gobi desert on the way.

Médecins Sans Frontières are a humanitarian charity that provides medical assistance to countries affected by armed conflict, natural disasters and poor healthcare systems. “We’ve chosen to support MSF because the majority of the funds raised go directly to running their essential support programs.” Steven explained.

Typically cars in the rally are required to have an engine size of 1 litre or less. However, when the group found a bargain 2nd hand limo on eBay, they could not resist the offer.  “We contacted the rally organisers to see if an exception could be made, and when they heard we wanted to use a limo they were all for it”.

When Jack told his parents about the rally they weren’t completely on board. Two days after telling them he received a 6 page hand-written letter from his mother pleading him not to take part. One of her many concerns was that Jack, who measures in at 6 foot 5 inches long, “would be too cramped”. This was before Jack had informed them that he had purchased a limousine. Jack exclaimed, “This 20 foot executive vehicle will be perfect for my long legs and my mum’s nerves.”

Aside from parental concern, the team have other hurdles to overcome. Steven, who suffers from chronic car sickness, hopes that he will be able to obtain a driving licence in time for the start of the rally on the 19th of July. Dom, the team’s 4th member, a graduate of PPE from York University was told by his driving instructor that he was the worst student he’d had in 40 years of instructing and would certainly crash within a week of passing his test.

Insurance has proven to be a major hurdle. Initially the boys found that after contacting countless insurance brokers the same question came up every time. “Why do three twenty-two year old students need insurance on a limousine?” Unfortunately, “More seats and extra legroom” was not the answer they were looking for. They were finally successful when they found a specialist broker that covers convicted and banned drivers.

When asked why they chose a limo they replied “With one of the longest continuous histories in the motor industry, the Rover marque has always had a reputation for luxury without extravagance and style without ostentation. It has maintained this status with the Rover 827 limousine which includes exclusively full-grain leather interiors and fully electric wing mirrors. The Rover 827’s top of class air conditioning system makes it the only practical choice for crossing the Gobi desert. This paired with state of the art soft-air suspension will allow a smooth journey across potholes, river crossings and arid desert planes.”

The team are hoping to raise £2,500 for their chosen charities; they have all signed up for the Bath half marathon on the 3rd of March and are planning other fund raising events in the near future.

To follow their progress, and donate, go to www.mongolrallylimoservice.co.uk.

 

Choosing our car for the Mongol Rally

Finding the perfect car for our trip took a considerable amount of time and thought. Bearing in mind that we are going to have to sit in this thing for 8 weeks, through 22 countries and 6 time zones, it was not an easy decision.

Initially we had our hearts set on an immaculate 1993 Fiat Panda, Parade edition, with a full length retractable canvas roof it would have been perfect for Jack’s larger frame. We had organised to collect the Panda from Liverpool but when the seller found out our plans for the car he got cold feet. Understandably he did not want this future automotive classic to meet an untimely end in the middle of the Karakum desert.

Untitled-1

Artists impression of the team Parading to Ulan Bator.

Several months later we had finished mourning the Panda, the search for the perfect car continued. After spending more time scouring eBay than revising for our exams, we had exhausted nearly every category eBay autos had to offer, only “commercial” vehicles remained. We organised by Price: Lowest first and there it was, the 1994 Rover 827si Regency limousine. Buy it now.

IMG_4853

This is what Ollie looks like at 4:30AM

The following monday Ollie and Steve were sat on the 4:30am train to Eastbourne. They had arranged to meet the seller outside the station to take the limo for a test drive. The seller usually met people at the taxi drop off, but didn’t think the limo’s turning circle would be capable of navigating the tight corners; however, the rover easily fit into the adjacent coach bays.

Steve kicked the tyres plenty of times, checked the electric partition was working, and decided that the Rover was good to go. Paperwork was signed, a man was paid and the keys were handed over.

Ollie had the pleasure of driving the limousine home, whilst Steven was busy testing each and every one of the remaining seven seats.  A pitstop was made to refuel both the team and the car. Without much thought Ollie headed straight for the car park, forgetting that the Rover is significantly longer than a standard space. Although surprisingly this did not pose an issue, as you can see.

IMG_4875

Bay parking a limousine, no problem.

Calling in at Bath, Ollie and Steven headed straight to the Royal Crescent for a postcard photoshoot, image at top of post. Heading into town and with a successful bay park under his belt, Ollie confidently went for the parallel park. Absolutely no problem at all!

IMG_4952

Parallel parking a limousine, no problem.

With over 300 trouble free miles on the clock, our spirits were high, we began to believe the Rover reliability issues we had heard so much about were pure hyperbole. The cambelt remained in one piece, the cylinder head was not “warped into the shape of a pringle”  and it had not snapped in half.

The next morning the Rover did not start.

Breakdown count: 1

IMG_4888

Rover reliability issues