This is what it took

Here follows a list of things we needed, used or otherwise spent on stuff during the trip from London to Ulaan Baatar.

The money we spent on the road
Numbers are obviously approximate.

• $58 for bribes to officials like traffic police.
• $790 for documents, visa-extensions, copies and the like.
• $620 for food and drink in cafés, restaurants, hotel lobbies and fast-food joints.
• $19 for parking.
• $30 for fake car insurance we were forced to buy.
• $6 for 20 pots of black tea and 2 cups of coffee.
• $60 on taxis.
• $1200 for petrol.
• $100 in fees for «services rendered» in countries where we needed help from a fixer.
• $58 for oil change and tightening of screws on car.
• $7 for entrance fees to must-see places.
• $230 for an airplane ride from Mashhad, Iran to Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
• $70 for exchange-, service- and other types of fees.
• $12 for ice cream.
• $14 for road tax.
• $50 for souvenirs.
• $860 for hotel rooms when we couldn’t pitch a tent due to weather, terrain, climate or politics.
• $25 for hookah’s. Yes, that’s hookah’s!
• One foldable camping saw as payment for welding on the sump guard.

In addition comes the price for the car, vaccinations, more papers/visas and shit, a fortune in camera and computer equipment, phone-bills, marketing-budget, £1000 for charity etc.
Let’s call them «sundries».

The things we used (up)
We are not counting nerves here, although we should!

• 139 baby wipes.
• 186 litres of bottled water.
• 6 AA-type batteries.
• 120g of human hair.
• 800 Yak in Black business cards.
• 1 tube of tooth paste.
• 1 tooth brush.
• 2 USB data cables.
• 1/5 of a can of shaving cream (approx.).
• 1,5 kilos of pistachio nuts.
• 1 roll of duck tape (that we gave away to the Chinese team).
• 27 packets of crisps and one packet of glow-in-the-dark cheeze(?) snacks.
• 6 Snickers bars, 2 Milky Ways, 2 Twix and 2 Mars bars.
• 0 litres of sun screen oil (not clever).
• 1 carton of tissues.
• 2 band-aids.
• 15 SD-cards at 34 GB each for photos and video.
• 1 kilo of fruit (assorted).
• 1 carton of Turkish Delight, which took forever to consume.
• 30 t-shirts.
• 2 pairs of socks.
• 5 rolls of toilet paper, whereof 1 used up during two days of food poisoning.
• 1 hotel-sized bar of soap (the kind that makes you look like a giant).
• 1/100 of mosquito spray.
• 40 pairs of one-day contact lenses.
• 2 disposable lighters.
• 1 pocket knife.
• 2 human ribs, broken in Mongolia.

The things we didn’t need
Let this be a lesson to you.

• 40 packets of quick-boil noodles that Lars insisted we bring, in case of emergency.
• Water-purification tablets (we drank only bottled water for the entire trip).
• Imodium, to counter «tourist-tummy» and be able to drive on.
• Talc.
• A fold-out barbecue.
• A viking-style drinking horn.
• An axe.
• 1 spare tyre.
• A dead parrot (Norwegian Blue).
• 2 woolly hats.
• Gloves.
• Socks.
• 1 saw.
• 1 air pump.
• International driver’s licence (the Norwegian one was enough).

The energy we expended
A bit of science for the kiddies.

• We used approximately 128 000 calories sitting in a car and driving. That’s enough energy to bring 1 liter of water from room temperature to boiling point.
• In addition comes 22 000 calories expended while sitting around and waiting in consulates, embassies and offices. Enough to power a 25-watt light bulb for one hour.

Altitudes and temperatures

• We went from the lowest elevation near Ramsar in Iran at the Caspian Sea at 23 meters below sea level, to the highest point on the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan at 4.655 meters above sea level (the Ak Baital pass).
• There was a total difference of 48°C on the trip. This was between The Cosmic Ray Station on Mt. Aragats in Armenia at 5°C in the morning, and near Tehran at 53°C in the afternoon.

4655 m above sea level on the Pamir Highway

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