Hey Friends. I wanna cross that border from mongolia to russiain mid july on my bike. I will have my 10 day transit visa by then and wanna ask you for any recent experiences from other people. At the russian consulate in UB i was told that i cannot cross by foot or bike. therefore i needed to provide a bus plate number and i was told that appears on the visa. So but i also read that other cyclists were able to cycle across before so does anybody have recent experiences?

2. question: We will take the main road to barnaul from taschanta and then straight down to rubtsovsk/kazakh border. BUT, isnt there a shortcut also passing the beluha mountain area? what about that? is it allowed to ride there or even possible? Any experiences on that topic are highly appreciated. Thanks!