And here my troubles begin

Tashanta is an ugly Kazakh town on the border with Mongolia. Here we meet many people participating in the Mongol Rally. One of them is from Vitoria, my hometown. His name is Sabi, in his 20s, sports many earrings and wears a Basque Beret. He has been in 20 countries in one month.

In Tashanta, there's a wedding and a local guy invites us to spend the night at his yurt. But first we want to get the exit stamp from the immigration office. Here the officer tells me that there's a problem because I haven't registered my visa. I tell him that I have tried to register in Moscow but I was told that no registration was necessary if not staying in one city for more than three days. My host in Omsk also asked at the registration office and he was told the same thing. None of this seems to impress the immigration officer who tells me that I must pay a fine of about 70 euros. He writes something that he calls a 'protocol' which states that I didn't know about registration, which is not true, and then he takes 2000 roubles plus 200 roubles commission. He prints a piece of paper, cuts off a slip and writes the current date. A woman in plaincothes comes, her head down, signs the slip, takes the money and disappears into the houses behind the immigration office. That's it. No receipt. It's a shame that after such lovely experiences, I have to end my stay in this country with the bitter taste of being robbed by a representative of the Russian government. When we come back, we can't find the guy who has invited us to his place and people lead us to the worst hotel I've been to in my life. It's freezing inside and we're being watched by a grumpy old man. I ask this man to make some fire in our room. He makes fire with a bit of lumber and a sack of dry cow dung. The kids pester us. To make things worse, a dozen or so Mongolians appear and the old man wants to put them up in our room. We object. Finally they go somewhere else.

Next day, it's it's all clear to go. There's a 20 km long steep hill which ends on a gate, the last checking point in Russia. After this, the asphalt ends and I'm in Mongolia.