Believe it or not, there are actually two Mongol Rallies: the proper one, and a copycat one unimaginatively named the Mongolia Charity Rally. It’s a long story, but this additional rally was formed by former Mongol Rally affiliates that were unhappy with the way the original rally was being handled. The Mongolia Charity Rally‘s entry fee is less than half of the official Mongol Rally, and there are no age or engine restrictions for the vehicles involved (which leads to some teams going all-out in custom Land Rovers…a bit too prudent for my taste!).
It is a much smaller affair (only 19 teams for the 2009 rally), but I’ll give them props on one thing—they coincide the launch date with Genghis Khan’s birthday and the traditional summer Naadam Festival. This event features traditional Mongol sports (such as wrestling), food, music, and most importantly, Mongolian people!
A friend who is doing the rally and I were fortunate enough to head over to the launch site and check out the proceedings a few days back. Now, we haven’t started the rally yet, so I’m not sure what our launch will look like, but I’m guessing that it won’t be as culturally relevant as this launch was. Check out the pictures over in the gallery to see how it went.
