Marcin and I rode from Bam to the border and checked into the PTDC crap-hole in Taftan at 4pm. Marcin is on a fairly heavy 1150GS and I'm on a super-light XR650R. I enjoyed leaping the speedhumps, overtaking trucks along the gravel etc. Marcin said he bottomed on some of the speed humps.
300km from Taftan to Dalbandin is fine, but narrow so you have to give way/overtake on gravel. In Dalbandin, you buy Iranian fuel for 50 rupees from bottles/jerries.
300km from Dalbandin is mixed. there is 100km of crap and 20km of road works. there are some lovely passes and mountains and desert. just take plenty of water.
I suggest you leave Taftan early - we left at 7am.
say hi to Major Ashar at the army post 20km from Quetta. he'll insist on a police escort, but that was the only one we accepted.
from your biking point of view, Taftan to Quetta is better than Quetta to Sukkur which was long, hot and into the sun. and crap.

The "Taftan PTDC crap-hole", hah!! I went into there to get directions and let me tell you it looked like the Hilton compared to the hotel (I use the word very loosly) on Iran side of border. It was in process of being demolished (renovated they said), no running water for who knows how long but 2 unisex pan toilets with no doors still in constant use & never cleaned since installed 50 years ago...., we put dirty bike cover over the beds before laying on that as it was cleaner than the beds with no sheets provided, room door had no handle so could not close it, shouldn't complain as other rooms had no doors at all, dirt and rubble so thick on floor you couldn't see floor, this filthy flea infested crap-hole made the PTDC look 5 star! Border was closed early, or we would never have stayed, we had no option. Group of Turkish packpackers slept in bulldust and broken glass rubbish tip that surrounded the place rather than pay $10US each to sleep inside..... don't blame them, in hindsight it looked more tempting than inside.

Other than that, Iran was great.... enjoy!

Skillo

...but now its renovated, isnt so bad for 100.000 rials.
rather clean,shower was working und you get not bad food and also coffee! ;-)
there were worse ones in iran for more money.
hotel in mirjahve is beeing to get renovated and is closed in the moment.

helmut

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Hey guys, looks like I'm a week or 2 behind everyone. Just arrived in Kerman, Zahedan tomorrow for India visa, Pakistan Monday.
Where is everyone and how is the situation there? Heard I'll have to be escorted for the trip. Any latest news?

Cheers Tc

a quick one:

which is the best place to get a Pakistan visa on the road? Turkey or Iran?

thank you in advance.

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as i heard, you get iranian escort from kerman to zahedan. i came from the persian coast via cabahar and iranshar, no escort, no problems. currently, i'm in quetta. also no escort in pak. helmut

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alexpezzi.....

Got my visa in Iran, with little hassle, but a bit of running around. They actually asked my why I only wanted 2 weeks! Turkey, don't know.

Helmut....

Thanks for the info. Bloom is the place to stay in Quetta, by the looks of it. What's it cost?

bloomstar is great. we paid 600 rupees (10$) for 1 night
nice people, too

we crossed into India yesterday. In Iran, we had escort from Bam to Mirjaveh (for some reason, the hotel management insisted we even had to have them while going to town in Bam). VERY slow with the escorts in Iran, took a whole day to get from Bam to Zahedan, and almost half a day from there to the border, which is only around 80 kms. Seems like they´ll only call the next car to get going, when theyve reached the place they think is suitable for changing the escort, and you end up waiting 45 minutes or 1,5 hours in the middle of nowhere, and when the other car finally arrives, it´ll take you 20-30 kms, and then the same again, ridiculous stuff sometimes. They get paid to escort you, so thats what they do, and its not their problem, if the night is coming or the border is closing.

In Pakistan, no escorts until Nushkin, 130km from Quetta, where we ended up staying the night in a police station as hotels were very few, and even the ones that might've existed, werent happy to take foreigners. Only escorted some 20kms out of town. Leaving Quetta to go to Sukkur, we had escort some 50kms in the Bolan Pass area (and they drove real fast, too!) then again free to go. Escorted the last 30-40kms into Sukkur, which was actually good, because it was getting dark, and they took us straight to the hotel. (And I managed to drop the front wheel into an open sewer hole in the dark, the whole lid was missing and couldnt see that in tight city traffic - no major damage, but one more good reason NOT to ride in the dark!!)

After Sukkur, no escorts. Met some tourists on the Indian border, who said they had been escorted right up to that point, though. But in general, they seemed to work better (and more flexible) in Pakistan, than they did in Iran. Didnt lose much time with Pakistani escorts, but in Iran they really were a pain.

BTW, the road from Taftan to Quetta is actually ok for about half of the 600kms. First some bad bits until 30-40kms east of Taftan, then very good all the way until Dalbandin and even a bit further, only then it gets narrow and bad (and goes worse until Quetta). You´ll probably want to stick with the main roads in Pakistan now, so this was the only section that was actually bad. The road condition varies greatly in other areas, too, but usually there are just short stretches of bad road.

Ta for the road info. I'm planning to stick to the main highways as per the last image on this page:

Roads


From what you are saying I can not expected sealed good condition tar all the way from Iran, through Quetta, Sukkur to Lahore (N-40, N-65, N-5) but is it doable I dont want to be doing river crossings and the like on a heavy sports-tourer abit of pot holes etc is ok but anything worse will be impassible unless I hire a truck.

Have been reading Peter's Travels - Destination: NZ - Peter's Home Page and that all sounds a bit to hard going!

Hi road conditions from Quetta Sukker Multan then Lahore are fine Quetta to Sukker 1 day Sukker to Multan another then Multan to Lahore 1 day.

Unless you want to pi** the police escort off and demand to go from Sukker to Lahore in one day then you will get there about 10 pm. after leaving Sukker at 9 am.

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Pakistan road condition (hopefully I still remember correct):

Taftan-Dalbandin:
first 40kms bumpy, then very good, almost like "autobahn".

Dalbandin-Quetta:
good until about 40km outside of Dalbandin, then goes very narrow, bumpy with holes, but only a couple of short spots with sand or anything really hard. You just have to go very slowly (especially if your on a streetbike). Last 25 kms into Quetta a real pain, very very bumpy and dusty because of roadworks, that felt like an eternity, but its still do-able! Its good to stay in Dalbandin or Quetta for the night, and start really early so you will reach the end of the bad section in daylight.

Quetta-Sukkur:
Good until 30kms from Quetta, then slow, slow mountain section, with partly damaged roads being repaired, again bumpy with holes everywhere, took us 4-5 hours to get from Quetta down to the river valley, where there was even more roadworks and very slow going again. Then after one village, suddenly a perfect, fast highway for 150 kms. Some 60 kms before Sukkur 'back to reality', a narrower country road with bumps and holes again.

Sukkur-Multan-Lahore:
In and near city areas the road can be bad, and with some sections being repaired. Otherwise its a dual-lane highway where we were able to go 100 kms per hour (we didnt feel like going any faster because the traffic is chaotic!) Sometimes the surface was perfect going the other way, while our side was only being built to the same standard, will probably be good in some months.

We rode on a 650 Vstrom, which may have more ground clearance than normal streetbike, but not much, and with all our luggage its almost nonexistent. Had to be very careful, especially with those speedbumps that are everywhere. Still, the engine guardplate and centerstand have taken some hits.

But no river crossings, no deep mud, only a little soft sand on this route, I thought it would be worse.

Brilliant cheers for the update and update from Joe the Celt here: State of emergency..... - ::. UKGS'er.com .::