The End of the Road

The next morning, the time had finally come for us to part ways with the Mighty Perodua. It was time to go to the Mongol Rally finish line! We rolled into the finish line parking lot and took our obligatory triumphant pictures. It was great to catch up with some other ralliers, and that feeling of accomplishing our 10,000 mile journey was truly amazing.

Yup, the dots on the map are finally connected! We made it!

I wanted to take pictures on the car the entire trip but Sebastien only let me at the end. I swear the roof was made of plastic and kept puckering in, which is why I look nervous.

MR2012!!!

We had a sad and heartfelt good-bye with our lovely car. We highly recommend the Perodua for any future Ralliers. Or anyone in general, it is nearly impossible to stop this beast of a car. After all that we put the car through, 3 flat tires and a change of fuses were the only things that went wrong!

We were so sad to leave our car, and we hope a nice Mongolian gets good use out of it!

Last shot of Tweety in the car parking lot - which was filled with cars in a lot worse shape than ours!!

After saying goodbye to Tweety we headed inside to chat with the other Ralliers and to open our Finish line kit! My sister Meena and her husband Adam had given us a finish line kit that we couldn’t open until....you got it.... we got to the finish line. It was a Styrofoam cube that had gotten us into a few prickly patches with border guards wondering what was in it. Through sign language and actions we managed convey that it was a gift and a surprise and managed to get it through all of the border crossings. We were excited to see what was inside. We weren’t the only ones! A bunch of ralliers stood around for the unveiling.

Opening the finish line kit

The assortment of goodies were perfect (though the chocolate had melted and re-shaped  a few times), Sebastien was excited to have a great cigar and the beers were even still cold from sitting in the car the night before (Mongolia is cold at night!). We shared the wealth with our friends and relaxed.

Thanks Meena and Adam!

The day that we dropped the car off was also the day of the final finish line party. We went for dinner with a few people – to a restaurant that ended up giving most people a slight case of food poisoning (oops!). 

Sebastien had managed to stay more or less healthy the entire trip only to fall victim during the last few days!

He felt wonky at the beginning of the party, and after saying hi to most friends left to go relax at the hotel room. I stuck around to catch up with the other teams and get the gossip on the trip. 

There was a lot! Some interesting team dynamics (read: fights and friendships potentially ruined), Mongol Rally romances, and more. It was interesting to hear all the stories and revel in the shared glory of finishing our adventure! There was an interesting finish to the night when one of the other Canadians got punched in the nose by a random dude, and that point was an opportune time to make my exit!

Party time