I think you need a tourist rather than a transit visa for Russia; in any event, I'm not saying its impossible, but I've never heard of anyone getting a transit visa for Russia. Not sure if you can get a tourist visa on the road; US citizens can but I'm not sure about Germans.

And personally I would drop the idea of the Ural; whatever you find will probably be beat to hell, and my understanding is that riding a sidecar can be a bit tricky, and you might not want to be learning the ropes in the mountains of Kirgizstan.

In 2011 I was in Central Asia and trying for transit visas (UK passport).

In Tashkent I was refused, just 'no'.

In Bishkek I was able to apply, but then told my dates were too far in advance.

Eventually I got a ten day transit visa on the spot in Oral (Urask) in Kazakhstan.

Officially you can only get the Russia tourist visa in a country where you have the right to reside, but there are exceptions (I got a 1 year visa in Tehran with no fuss for example). But the Russian embassies in Central Asia are in general not good to deal with.

Going through Azerbaijan is fine, I don't think the penalties are high for overstaying the 72 hours (I remember a $20ish fine reported by someone... have a search). But note that the Sadarak / Dilucu border is in the exclave of Nakhchivan, and is not accessible directly from 'mainland' Azerbaijan.

Good luck

EO

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.

Hello Till,

I think the route Kyrgyzstan-Kazakhstan-(Ferry)-Azerbaijan-Georgia is easiest for a spontanuous travel, because:

Kyrgyzstan:
No visa neccessary

Kazakhstan:
No visa neccessary for a visit up to 15 days (up until the 15th of July). You can also find this information on the homepage of their embassy in germany: VISUM 15 days however, might be somewhat tight, so that if you have an easy opportunity to get a proper tourist visa (valid longer), that probably would be the better solution

Azerbaijan:
evisa, which can be obtained without sending or bringing your passport anywhere. You just have to send in a copy of a passport, a picture, the application form and a hotel booking conformation per email(!). I recommend Azerbaijan travel agency as besides just getting the visa they also helped us out with the hotel conformation (as we have none in advance as individual travellers). They were very friendly and replied immediately when we had questions about the Azerbaijan visa. This way you dont have to rush in 72 hours.

Georgia: No visa necessary as well, for example stated here: GEORGIEN Visum Einreise Papiere erforderliche Impfungen

I cannot tell too much about the Russian visa, but I heard that an overland transit visa is difficult to obtain (also it means again: rushing). Tourist visa is possible I guess, but I dont think neccessarily without struggle. So if I were you I would prefer the ferry. I would not skip on Georgia as I heard again and again and again that it is the most beautiful country of the Caucasus

Hope that helped.

Kind Regards,
Saskia (also from Germany )

The 72 hour rule in Azerbaijan relates to the customs allowance for the vehicle, it is not related to the visa. A transit visa is easy to get (from the Stuttgart embassy by post, for example) and needs no hotel bookings or invitations.

I was told by AZ Customs last year that with a 30 day visa, a vehicle can stay up to 30 days in the country, but I have not heard of anyone who has done this. Also, I think an evisa is valid for only 21 days, so to get 30 you would need to go for a full tourist visa, which requires a letter of invitation (though I managed to get one last week in the Hague with just an applciaiton form... a lucky mistake perhaps).

I would definitely recommend Russia however; Derbent is probably the most charming city in the Caucasus, though Tbilisi is also nice.

EO

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.

I have read a helpful report on some forum (maybe even on the hubb?) about the vehicle issue, I hope what they write is true. Unfortunately I dont find it right now:

Cars can be imported up to 30 days into the country without having to pay deposit. However, motorcycles are for some reason excluded from this rule.

So those people contacted the Azerbaijan customs and they told them if they exceeded the 72 hours they would just have to pay a 20-30 dollar fee when exiting the country, so apparently they actually recommended just overstaying the 72 hours. But when they actually arrived at the border, the customs did not blink an eye apparently and just issued their motorcycles the amount of days that their visa was valid.
I will see if I can find that post again.

For the length of the evisa: You can apply for a certain date and a certain amount of time that you would like to visit. Within 30 days from the date of issue, you can spend your amount of days your visa is issued (maximum of course 30 days).
I got this information directly from azerbaijan24 which is one of the authorized travelling agencies through which visa have to be issued. I never read about 21 days.
However, if you stay longer than 10 days, you have to register through a hotel or something similar I think.

So maybe for our trip we will also have to do more research on how likely it is that we can stay longer than 72 hours with the motorcycle. As we enter from Georgia and leave via ferry, we also thought about just going to Baku within the 72 hours and putting the bikes in the customs somehow until the ferry actually leaves.

I'll be starting a similar trip in August. Start in Mongolia, cross the caspian sea and then into Europe through Turkey. If your time frame is similar and you want company for part of the journey, send me a PM.

I just want to quickly thank everyone here for supplying me with information, really helped me out in a troubled time.

A week ago I arrived in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and quickly started looking for an Ural sidecar.

There were some people mentioning the unreliability of those bikes and some were doubting Id find one i a good shape.

Wez hooked me up with Sergei who is a local here and we had contact even before I left Nepal.
He started looking for Urals for me, even though he reckons I should buy one of those chinese bikes.

But I already set my mind on riding back home on a Ural and honestly, I don't trust those chinese bikes more than I trust the Ural.
At least for the Ural it should be easy to find cheap parts along the way and they're fairly easy to fix.

So we went out and started looking for them - turns out there is not too many around.
I ended up in some dodgy backyards where I was shown half assembled Urals and other bikes - always promised that the engine has been just rebuild, so new Cylinders, pistons etc.

One can say a lot on a long day, and I don't doubt they had been rebuild.
But just not in the past 5 years or its equivalent of 20thousand kilometres.

In the end there was only one bike available and it was about 100km out of Bishkek.
We called the guy but he reckoned he already had another client who was keen on buying it.
We weren't sure if he's just playing mind games to rise the price or if he was for real, so we waited until the next morning to let him know we're coming out there to inspect the bike..

He then told us he's pretty much on his way to bishkek, because the other client ( who turned out to be real) wanted the bike and would pay him the asked price of 700 USD.

So there we were, the only bike available at the moment is slipping through my hands just like that.

So I outbid him and ended up paying 800USD ( Im broke, but 100 bucks more or less, who cares.)

The bike is in a reasonable good condition - Sergei reckons its one of the best bikes he has seen around and the guy riding it 100kms was proof enough that it at least runs.

We went to the notary and I got the Power of Attorney.

So now here I am, with my 1987 Ural sidecar - estimated 8500km away from home.

There is a few things that have to be fixed( carby) and I have to prepare the bike for the trip.
My next step will be installing a 500watt inverter and getting a car battery in the sidecar.

I was also thinking about installing some spotlights on the sidecar as well as small sound system for nights around the camp fire.

I am fairly good with mechanics, but I was thinking of finding a good local mechanic who could check the bike fore me and prepare it for the trip - I reckon by the time I go to the local markets and find the parts I need Im already gonna get ripped off and the price difference might as well be the wage for the mechanic..

Does anyone know a good mechanic in Bishkek?
And does anyone know where I could get panniers and a tank bag?

Any help is appreciated.
Thank you very much