Celebrating one’s achievement in true style at the end of an adventure is nothing short of essential and the Mongol Rally 2008 arrival party was a bash up to the task. A heady mixture of feasting, live music, enthusiastic dancing and drinking, it went down a storm.
The Official Arrival Ceremony earlier in the day hosted by our awesome sponsors Nomin and Chevrolet was a huge success. As the award winners (and anyone near the stage at the time of the celebrations) mopped Champagne from their brows, the feast was being prepared at the party venue.
The party was also hosted by Nomin and Chevrolet and the rally sponsors had laid on a massive dinner for all the teams and a free beer to get things ticking along at the evening shindig. The food was ravaged in a matter of minutes and the music cranked right up.
The first band to play were local Mongolian rock band Black and White, whose performance kicked off the dancing, with some golden oldies making for a good sing-along.
Mongolian dancers strutted their stuff with a performance for the teams and then more live music followed from the band.
The highlight of the evening was an impromptu gig from the Gentlemen Rascals, a rally team who had only arrived a few hours earlier. As they played and entertained, they gradually stripped to deliver their tunes with only their pants on. Legends!
Joined by Paul from Two Small Guys One Small Car as lead singer the improvised set went on and everyone loved it.
The party went on through, and then way past, the early hours and the dancing descended to throwing each other across the dance floor and what can only be described ‘assisted break dancing’ or spinning each other round and round a lot. Some serious shapes were being cut on that dance floor! For some sleep deprived adventurists there were plenty of comfortable seats and comfy corners – quite a few party snoozers had to be woken up at going home time!
The next day’s hangovers were helped along with a few bruises for our more acrobatic dance floor movers, some cracking memories and a lot of slightly embarrassing photos.