Camping in Asia - Horizons Unlimited

**peerke** · #1 22 Sep 2003

Hi all,

I'm currently in the very early stages of planning my trip from NL to Nepal and back (roughly russia, kazachstan, inda, pakistan, iran, turkey).

Is it possible to camp a lot on this route? Or should I just leave the tent and the cooking stuff at home and eat out and sleep in ho(s)tels all the time? I know it's not the most important thing but for some reason I keep asking myself this

Thanks a lot!

**Billy Bunter** · #2 22 Sep 2003

Dont know about the russian side of it but as for Nepal, India, Pakistan, Iran there are no real camp sites as such, in some cases you can camp in hotel car parks/gardens, but probably not in major towns... but `personally` i wouldnt reccommend it anyway, especially when you consider how cheap the guest houses are in these countries....

Some parts of Turkey has camping, and there are some quite good sites around Istanbul allegedly.

Hope this helps...

Will

**peerke** · #3 22 Sep 2003

Thanks for your reply!
Do you think it's worthwile bringing all the gear anyway? Is it going to be useful one way or another?

**Billy Bunter** · #4 23 Sep 2003

Firstly, this is just my opinion and for the route your talking about and i am sure many would disagree, but...

I started out with the full monty of camping kit, if it was in the shops, it was in one of my panniers!! i then started to realise how little i was using it so started off loading stuff bit by bit, sent some stuff home and just left bits and pieces in guest houses across asia, the number of times i have tried to leave a guest house but got stopped by very helpful staff who think i have, by accident, left something important in the room....

What i ended up with was a light sleeping bag (guest houses can get cold), a sleeping bag liner (essential), mozzie net (stops all manor of wildlife in dodgy and not so dodgy places).

A small tent isnt a bad thing in an emergency but i only used mine in oz cos it was getting a bit expensive there, but had lugged it 30000ks to get it there, when with the money i would have saved on petrol in not carrying it i could have bought a cheapy when i arrived in oz instead!!

I would always carry a few emergency rations of food to get me through a stranded day or two.... but all this cooking palava was often more expensive, and definitely more hassle and less pleasurable, than getting down with the locals and enjoying some very interesting and tasty grub....

Hope it helps.

Will

**peerke** · #5 23 Sep 2003

Thanks for the useful info!

Peerke

**beddhist** · #6 29 Sep 2003

Hi,

Although I can't comment on Russia and Kaz, in Asia you probably don't want to camp. In Turkey the camp grounds are too expensive, often dearer than a room. In India and Nepal there are almost none, so you camp wild and you'll have spectators until nightfall, although they won't hassle you.

I would definitely take a tent, however: I've run out of daylight in India and Nepal on a couple of occasions without finding ANY accommodation. You could just roll out your sleeping bag, but probably end up feeding the mossies...

------------------
Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Jenny & Peter.

**parkie** · #7 29 Sep 2003

Am in Eastern Turkey at the moment - spent the last 2 months camping through Europe and Turkey.
Has saved us a packet.
Camping free at several campgrounds ýn E.Turkey - haven't yet been offered a free room!
Downsýde is we have a large load. can't have ýt both ways.

**peerke** · #8 29 Sep 2003

Well the idea was to rush through Europe and get to Turkey as fast as possible, I can always go to central/eastern europe later since I'm from NL

Btw, the plan has changed to just doing Istanbul - Kathmandu, because of time (only 6 months). Anyway, I guess I settle for a cheap tent and a small camping gas thing for unexpected situations and maybe my coffee in the morning, since it seems that coffee is not very popular beyond Turkey