Technomads: A 13,000 KM Pedagogical Road Trip to Mongolia

After a few years in Istanbul and a very yabancı life, it is time for us to go on a big adventure in 2020!

We are two French gentlemen in our 30s, having lived in Istanbul for six and two years respectively. Salim is fully invested in his managerial work in a Turkish industrial company, while Kevin is directing projects for a French company producing furniture for cosmetics groups.

As with many projects of this kind, the idea came up during a late Summer evening in Istanbul. Both passionate about travel and adventures, but completely unqualified in mechanics, we thought that crossing 1/3rd of the globe in a second-hand car would be a good opportunity to fulfill our need for adventure and challenge our limited mechanical skills.

We then decided to add more meaning and purpose to this challenge by organizing a technological and knowledge caravan from Istanbul to Ulaanbaatar. We will venture to visit universities along the way, at different destinations of the trip, to bring them technical materials (3D printing machines, gearboxes,etc.) and give technical presentations. In doing so, we hope to maintain and reinforce existing partnerships with Turkish universities. The philosophy of the trip is to inspire young students and academics from isolated universities, and hopefully offer new windows into various knowledge and research.

Our adventure will start in mid-July and will last over 40 days. Departing from Istanbul, we will firstly cross Turkey via the Black Sea highway all the way up to Rize. We will then pass the Georgia border and cross the high landscapes heading toward Azerbaijan. After few nights of nature camping, we will enter Azerbaijan and drive east to the Caspian Sea, finding our first break as we need to wait for a suitable ferry to carry us and our car to Kazakhstan, navigating the deep waters of the region. Our arrival to Aktau, Kazakhstan, will mark the start of the “Stans” and the beginning of long desert steppes. Driving to the east, we are both sad and excited to stop by the Aral Sea, dried up due to human activity. With less than 30% of the surface remaining, the sea is surrounded by desert sands and wreckage.

The Aral Sea also marks the beginning of Uzbekistan, thousands of kilometers passing thousand-year old cities and the remains of fallen empires, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva – hidden gems of central Asia. The road will then take us to the mysteries of Tajikistan, stuck in the Himalayan mountains and newly freed from decades of conflict. We will then enter Kirghistan and circle around the İssyk Kul lake from the South before joining back into Kazakhstan and the old capital city of Almaty via the Canyon of Charyn which will mark the midpoint of our trip. From there we will zigzag across the whole country from South to North, reaching Nur Sultan (also called Astana) where two Russian friends will join us from Minsk for the end of the road trip with their own motorbikes. We will then enter Russia from the Ural region, driving up North to Novosibirsk for another university stop. Our road will then take us to infinite and thick Siberian forest, tundra, and lakes. Driving southeast, we will then reach our final and dream destination, Mongolia! This should start a long off-road drive on endless steppes and shamanic mountains. The drive will take us to the last university in Ulaanbaatar and the ending point of our project.

Finally, after some rest we will head up north, back to Russia and the city of Irkutsk, bypassing the famous Baikal lake from the West. From there we will take a plane back to İstanbul. We are still evaluating the best solution for bringing back our car, otherwise we will need to sell it and leave behind our memories (bumps, dust, and scratches) in Russia.

As we now have a clear program and we are looking forward for the departure date, we would like to thank all the companies, organization, universities, and individuals supporting us in this unique project. Their precious contributions are helping us to cover a tight and complex budget composed of material for universities, our car, visas, camping material, gas, food, and most probably a few unplanned costs.

As we will drive several thousand kilometers with a diesel car, it is also important for us to balance this carbon impact. That’s why we decided to make this trip carbon free by offsetting our carbon emissions by donating to social projects participating in tree planting and ecological investment around the world.

As the most interesting is yet to come, we invite you to follow us on Instagram and Facebook. You can also support us via our online funding platform : https://www.cotizup.com/technomads

We hope that this adventure to come will inspire you in your own project this year and open you up to our world’s wonders!

Technomadsly yours!