Turkey to Iran border crossing June 2013
 

We're riding two up and plan to cross into Iran via the Dogubeyazit border in the next few days and wondering if anyone wanted to team up to ride through Iran and maybe onto Pakistan?

Currently in Erzurum.

Paul

Hi Paul, I plan to do a similar route in 2 months time, riding home to Australia. I'm keen to hear your advice on which boarder crossings are best/recommended , iran-Pakistan and Pakistan-India. I'm in the process of getting the visas, I have read on some forum that proof of security escort is required for the Pakistan visa? Do you or anyone know anything about this?
Thanks in advance
Ash

be careful with the 'fixers' at this crossing, nothing too difficult but some have got into near fistycuffs with them.

Some are casually dressed and are easy to spot, they will loiter near the entrance to the only building after you go through the gate. They will ask for your documents. The one I had a run in with was wearing a suit, and was going in and out of the government office that deals with the carnets, using the stapler from the desk.. as the staff don't wear ID its very difficult to tell. Anyway, he ran around with the carnet, got me a form, put it on the desk of a member of staff. After all officialities were done, the VIN checked, I went to ride off and he started demanding 50euro, Damn, i'd been done. Told him anything I pay I want a government receipt from the woman back in the office. He tried to block my way, so I had to practically run him over to get away. Oh well. Had this trick but only asking for 100 pakistani rupees for a photocopying fee at the wagah border also.

You then proceed a km or so to the last gate. They don't always let you ride off without showing proof of insurance. So you have to leave the bike walk past the last checkpost, and there are some buildings on the roundabout that sell insurance. I paid $30 for 3 weeks, some have paid $100, some $20..

good luck! If you don't find Iran amazing i'll eat my shorts.

and P.s don't stay at Hotel Ararat in Dogbiscuit.

I had things stolen off my bike whilst the bike was parked in the lobby.. and worse the hotel owners son (the well spoken one that works in the kitchen, not the really kind one that works on reception) got really nasty with me because I wouldn't go on a date, threw a plate of dinner at me, got verbally aggressive, and then at night tried to break into my room!

Hey Paul,

we are planning to cross to Iran end of next week or beginning of the following one. If you like, send us a message, maybe we could do part of the trip together.

We are two guys riding XR650Rs, but we are still waiting for our Visa now and have to ride to Erzurum in the next few days.

Juri

Hi Juri,
We’re currently in Shiraz in Iran at the moment. Are you still in Turkey? Have you had success on you Iran visas? I suspect you may be too far away to catch-up, but message anyway. Where are you going to after Iran?

Ash – in light of recent news we are more than likely not going to cross into Pakistan and instead head to Bandar Abbas and ship to Dubai then onto India. If it's possible to ship direct to India, we will do that instead.

We got our Pakistan without and proof of security escort. We used Lost Horizons for the LOI and Itinerary [there’s a post somewhere on here about it] then Visa HQ to apply on our behalf. We didn't actually go to the embassy as the train fare was equivalent to paying visa HQ. We supplied everything, even if it was optional – bank statements, letter from work saying we were going to return, tenancy agreement, utility bills, photocopy of driving license and passport photos.

Out if all three visa’s we needed, it was the most difficult in terms of what we had to get together, all in vain now but never mind. We never mentioned anything about travelling by motorcycle on any of our visa applications.

We’re having dinner with a guy tonight who is travelling from Australia so has just recently passed through Pakistan - will ask him about the proof of escort thing and crossing points.

Had a brief conversation with him earlier and rather than a police escort following you, it’s one guy who sits with a gun on the back of the bike and makes you travel slow. After travelling in Iran in the blistering heat, going slow is the last thing we want to do, plus we’re two up so not sure where the gunman would have gone.

With the fixers at Dogubeyazit/Iran – we got approached at the first gate but just bypassed him politely and only spoke to people at desks as fern suggests. We did change some currency at the border with one of the dodgy guys but we got 6,000,000 million Rials for 600 TL which was good. You should basically be looking for 30,000 - 35,000 Rials to the Dollar.

We had similar experience with Insurance except we actually paid $100 for a years insurance as they said that’s all we could have, plus we read on another blog about guys who had paid the same and passed a week before us. The insurance men gave us a free lunch though as we just happened to be there at lunch time.

Iran is amazing and we love it. Hope you do too!

Paul & Amy

Hi Paul,

we are still in Turkey, hopefully finally getting our reference numbers issued tomorrow or on Monday.

Guess we are too late to catch up, you are right. ;)

Have a great trip!

Juri