Wordt een gezellig NL onderonsje hier........:offtopic:

Lilian,

Period for the Stans is perfect; april til june.


Saskia,

You will be traveling mid summer, did you check temps in Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan in summer?

I would choose Turkey central plateau, Georgia (2 weeks till here), around the Caspian via Astrachan to avoid the ferry (we did it this year), Uzbekistan (3,5 weeks), Kazachstan (5 weeks), Russian Altai (5,5 weeks), enter Mongolia at the west side (Tashanta) to UB and sell or transport from there (7 weeks).

Check our website in Dutch: Welkom bij camperreis.nl - Familie Peerenboom

Groetjes,

Jeroen

Lillian, the train back from ulaan bataar sounds like an interesting opportunity if we have enough time :). It is nice that we appearantly dont have to plan everything in advance, but just can decide on the spot what we do.
Do you know yet, which route you will take to reach the stans? Iran?

Jervig, this route sounds nice, but do you think the north caucasus is safe enough? We read a lot of bad stuff about it, but we can imagine, that sometimes people also tend to exaggerate and talk worse about stuff, than it actually is.

This would be a rough outline of the route in this case:
https://www.google.nl/maps/dir/Ensch...7.92!3e0?hl=en
Maybe entering Uzbekistan later than indicated, maybe skipping the pamir highway, etc etc, we will see about that.

About the temperatures: Our thought was, that in a country like in this route Uzbekistan we get up very very early in the morning and pack our stuff as long as it is kind of cool and then travel fast, so that the temperature doesnt affect us so much. We thought, that only if the roads get really bad and we have to drive slow and extremely concentrated, it might be a serious problem.

Jervig, this route sounds nice, but do you think the north caucasus is safe enough? We read a lot of bad stuff about it, but we can imagine, that sometimes people also tend to exaggerate and talk worse about stuff, than it actually is.

As I wrote, we did it this year, still feel sorry that we didn't spend more time between Georgia and Astrachan. We never had unsafe feelings.

GRTZ,

JP

I went via Georgia, Azerbaijan, Dagestan, Chechnya then round the top of the Caspian Sea into Kazakhstan without feeling threatened this year. I certainly didn't feel the North Caucasus was dangerous.

Only issue anywhere was a very drunk Russian in Astrachan but that can happen anywhere.

You'll find more details here

Shaun's Blog Archives - Speed Couriers

Thanks Jervig, Leuk. ;)

Habi, Yes we are taking the route through Iran. Didn't you consider this at all or ? We heard a lot of positive stories about this country.
This is our travelscedule : route

groetjes
Lilian

Yes, we did consider and still do, but this would then be the one and only country we would need a carnet de passage for. And we are not sure if this is worth the effort and money, but also we still need to do more research :).

Your route looks like it will be an awesome trip. Good Luck with china, i read a lot about how difficult it is to go there as a foreigner if you want to drive yourself :). I would also like to visit china - not next year of course, but sooooomeday.

Habi, I was lucky enough to know someone who needed a bike so I had it sold before I got there.

Several people have been selling them there in the past few months, maybe look up the travel bikes for sale section and send some of them a PM.

And it is possible to get through Iran without a carnet...I did it.

Tom.

It's pretty interesting to read this thread.
I'm planning (hoping) to go from Dubai to UB and back in 8 weeks and was thinking that it might not be possible but it does seem doable and I have no problem driving hundreds of km everyday, I quite enjoy it actually.

I'm so looking forward to it.

Hey Habi (and Lilian)!
Go for Iran, it is absolutely amazing! No matter how much time you'll spend there, you'll want to stay longer! Fuel is dirt cheap and the rest (food, drinks and shelter) you'll get offered from pretty much anyone when you stop on the side of the road.. for free... It was, next to Mongolia, the highlight of my trip! Especially the part between Turkey, Armenia and Tehran..
The cost of the carnet is more than worth it, even if it is the only country you'll need it for. The only problem will be time :-) as said; you'll want to spend more time there! (and one extra small problem: no beer :-( )

Taking the ferry costs money as well and you'll risk getting stuck and you arive in not the most beautiful part of the world (my friends got stuck 6 days, and still needed to do the crossing, others lost 7 days and had to cut Turkmenistan out of their trip).

Going north I have no experience so can not add to that.

I did Europe - Japan in 3.5 months and averaged 200kms/day (including +750km/day in Europe and Turkey). I think more than that would have felt to fast (for me), less unnecessary. 300 is a bit much but if you don't take the odd day off, surely doable, certainly seen that you are limited in time.

Safety: I sent back my packsafe stuff and locks when I was in Iran. By then I realised people are good, don't steel and actually want to help you more than anything. At least past Istanbul when heading east! I was maybe very lucky but on a 4 month trip was never stopped by the police (only the normal road blocks and borders), never had anything stolen or felt unsafe or whatever. The odd thing that does get stolen, well obviously sometimes people are unlucky and it is those poeple that share more often than when all went normal (the whole idea of news is based on negative ideas and experiences; it's in our nature to share negative stuff). Safety wise I think you're heading for the best part of the world!
Actually when I think of it, not only safety wise ;-)


Enjoy!

You could follow what Kim and Seb (Wanderingsouls.be) did. They drove to mongolia and then took the train (from Irkutsk, if I remember well) back direction Moskou.

Saves on time and (according to their saying) some monotonous Siberian travel.

You can finsd more on their website and here on HUBB http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...580#post431511


Planning to do something similar in 2015. see http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...rope-add-72399


regards

Patrick

I talked to them in the Oasis about it.
And I was thinking about this because I had Pain in my foot ( mongolian roads:scooter: )

But in the end I decided to go by bike.

And to be honest, I dont think that it really takes more time and I did like the landscape from Baikal to Novosibirsk ( that is where Seb and Kim went with train )

I am also not really sure if you save time when you need to wait in Moscow for your bike ( If it is not in the same train )
That was the reason why I at the end drove myself.

And to be honest, I liked the landscape around the Ural and from Ufa up to Moscow ( Kazan, Nishni Novgorod... )

Leaving your bike in Ulaanbaatar
 

Hi,

My wife and I drove our Merc truck/camper to Thailand this year from the UK and when we past through Ulaanbaatar we stayed a few nights in Oasis, when we was there I watched the Oasis staff making crates and putting motorbikes in them ready to be shipped so if you plan on shipping then I would start by asking Oasis, also we met a couple from USA that had left a bike at Oasis for 3 years and was just collecting it when we were there, so I am sure you can store it at Oasis long term.

Hope this info helps

Kind regards

Dave
www plodd.net

hello
we want to cross China in September October 2015 from Mongolia to Laos
we are with a sidecar.
which agency did you choose to cross China ?
Congratulations for your trip and complete information
regards
christian

Hello Dave (and others), I am the other half of this adventure :)

I have contacted Oasis, just to find out they work with Pan Europa Transport as mentioned above. Prices go well over 1000 euros per bike.
As our plans for the next few years are far from clear I would not like to leave a bike in Mongolia to pick up later, selling is still an option.

Today we sorted out some uncertainties about the schedules here and we will probably have more time than we thought.... Which brings us back to the possibility of doing a round tour. As Carnets are costly and require a deposit consisting of more than a multiple of my current financial stockpiles :D we are looking at the route around the Caspian sea (unfortunately that means Iran has to wait for another trip).

Next challenge will be getting a multiple entry visum for Russia. A requirement is that we can show a previous Visum, which neither of us has. Anybody know if a Transit to Kalinigrad counts? :innocent:

Hello!

For transportation, you can contact Sambor (he writes here) at

ADVFACTORY – Home � ADVFACTORY

He transports bikes from Kyrgyzstan every year, and maybe he has also something from Mongolia...