Help - stuck in India
 

Hi to all
We are currently in Delhi but are having alot of trouble obtaining a visa for Iran mainly due to british citizens being treated the same as US citizens when it comes to visas.
Have checked out the 15 day border rumour with Iranian embassy in Uk, Iran and India and they all deny it.
Now looking at either flying back or heading up through afganistan, tajistan, uzbekistan, turkmenistan, azerbajan and armenia to Turkey but proving to be logistical and expensive nightmare with visas!
Any suggestions?

huu,

try Air kasakhstan to get out of Delhi to fly to Almaty.

I did it in 05/2000, and I was the first to fly a bike with them on this route.

Than you will need a visa for Kazakhstan and the other Stans to get to Turkey - they are not cheap. Maybe try to get the Kazakhstan visa in Delhi and the others visas as well. Just explain your situation to the embassador, as I did in 05/2000 to the embassador of Kazakhstan.

Flying myself and the bike was cheap in 2000, but than I had big trouble and big expenses getting it out of customs in Almaty.

So, this is just an option for you ... it is not going to be cheap or trouble free

Instead of Almaty you could try to fly the bikes to Turkey ...

Enjoy India

Mika

Or Pakistan KKH, China to Kashgar, Tourgart Pass to Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan to Azerbijan Turkey.

You would have to wait for the snow melt in KKH but it does have the most incredible mountains in the world. Kashgar is an interseting place and the road from Tashcorgan runs past the Mustag Ata. You would have to organise a guide for the China bit but you could do it easily in a week. Try Caravan cafe.com

Kyrgystan is relaxed with visas,Karakol and lake Issy Kul awesome but you should be able to organise one before hand. Pick up the the Uz and Tk visas in Kyrgystan. Great silk road cities and weird shit Turkmenistan await.

Duck down to Pamir highway.

I would avoid Afghanistan, recent reports from freinds working there in NGOs.

Shame to miss Iran but the alternative is probably better.

http://users.netlink.com.au/~asimpson

www.r80gs.it

cheers

alec

PS check out Vincent Dannas site and also Sean Howmans web page. Lots of photos and info.

[This message has been edited by simmo (edited 08 April 2006).]

I concur with Alec. You can check out our blog at http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mcmillan/ for info on the Pakistan to Central Asia route. We were in the same situation as you with the Iran visas.

Don't forget also that there is no border crossing between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but you can go via Georgia.

If you use Caravan Cafe, the cost to go through China is around $1100usd. Not cheap, but probably cheaper than bike shipping and a passenger ticket.

Good luck, Central Asia is an amazing place...

update
 

We are still here.

Having had 2 agents try to rip us off we now have located a company who imports superbikes into Delhi from US ad exports Vespa scooters to Italy and UK by sea. We are awaiting comfirmation that there is space in the container for the two bikes (that are now crated) and then hopefully we'll be away.

In the time being the F650GS was broken into and the some cables cut in an attempt to silence the datatool alarm. The thieves suceeded in breaking the seat off, ripping the alarm out but then seemed to have given up and left the bike alone - and guess what nobody heard a thing!!!!
Never did like the datatool system anyway!

Keep you updated

Hi Becky and Bill,
We met you in Delhi before your shipment troubles, and the guys of KRP Racing told us your problems. (we went to see them to buy tyres).
We feel very sorry all went wrong for you, and we hope you are ok now, and still having faith.

Vero and Severin.