Trip from Europe to Mongolia, Saving Time
 

Hello everyone,


we are a Dutch-German couple and we are planning to do a motorcycle trip to Mongolia in the summer of 2015. It is the first time for us to do a very big trip.

Unfortunately, we only have limited time (~7 weeks, from beginning of July until end of August) and decided, that the entire trip to Mongolia and back would be too many kilometers in that time and that rushing so much would not very enjoyable for us. This is especially, because at the moment we favor the southern route through turkey and iran, which means more kilometers.

We looked at different opportunities to save time, namely taking the plane back and shipping the bikes or even leave (=sell) them in Mongolia or taking the bikes on the train for our way back, and we even thought about rushing on the shortest way through russia to Mongolia and then back, which we concluded, would not be very desirable. Also we already sent lots of e-mails to shipping companies, travelling agencies, the Mongolian embassy, etc. to get a clear image about our opportunities.

Unfortunately, we are a little bit confused, because it is hard to really weight the pros and cons of the different possibilities to handle our "time issue", which is why we would like to ask other travellers about their experiences.

It appears to be difficult to pre-arrange stuff like taking our bikes as luggage on the train. So our main question is, if it would be possible and perhaps easier to arrange a train ride on the spot in Ulaan Bataar or Ulaan-Ude to for example Moskau, when we want to return to the Netherlands, instead of now going crazy about a perfect planning.

We would be very thankful if someone has experience with how easily this kind of stuff can be arranged on the spot and if this is a somewhat reliable plan. Also all other kind of input about how we could arrange everything would help us :).


Kind Regards,
Saskia

Fly then ride
 

Have you considered flying yourselves and the bike(s) air freight to Mongolia then riding back.

Basically if you have limited time and don't want to leave Mongolia in a rush trying to organise the transport of your bikes back from your destination then this might be a better option.

Also, as you get closer to Europe, there are more possibilities to put your bike(s) say on a train on the way home if you are running short on time or not interested in doing motorways in Europe...

Sounds like a fantastic trip, I would like to do it myself one day.

Hey, thank you for your answer :).

We have considered transporting the bikes back and already have e-mailed about prices with companies. Also we are still waiting for a reply of the russian partners from a dutch travelling agencies for russian railways, which we contacted, about our opportunities to transport the bikes on the train.

But transporting the bikes in general and transporting them on our way TO mongolia instead of back in particular might be problematic because of a couple reasons:

First of all, our budget is simply very limited. Also transporting the bikes this way would exceed their value by far anyways (both about 20 years old, one has already run 100.000 kms :D).
And last but not least we are not sure how reliable it is, that the bikes actually arrive in mongolia when we arrive there and want to use them. Most companies that we had contact with, avoided to be particular about delivery times :D.

We just heard a couple times, that travelers arrange this stuff spontanously and we were wondering, if this is wise for us to do. By the way, we are students, and if something goes wrong and we would be a few days late for university, that would be very undesirable of course, but not the end of the world :).

7 weeks it's not too bad, if you are just riding across Russia, visit Mongolia and then arrange shipment back.

If you want to take the southern route through Iran and the Stans, my advise is: don't go to Mongolia!
It's plenty of things to see and places to ride closer to Europe in Cental Asia and shipping the bike back is easy: don't rush, enjoy your ride and enjoy Central Asia, which is, beacause of many things, better than Mongolia...

First of all:
Mongolia and back is possible in 7 Weeks.

Last year i did it in 7 1/2 weeks, and still i spent 2 weeks in Mongolia with my family ( my wife is Mongolian )

OK, i had to go back faster, but it was no problem to do it in 12 days from UB to Vienna.
Also we did Mongolia kind of slow, because we also wanted to see a lot.
10 days of riding in Mongolia.

Our way to Mongolia was Vienna, Galati/Romania, Odessa/UKR, Volgograd, Samara, Omsk, Barnaul and the Russian Altai.

In 2015 I am also planning to do it again in 8 weeks, and I also want to spend 2 weeks with my family.

At the Moment I am planning to go to Turkey, Georgia, Russia, Kazhaksan, ,maybe Kirgistan, Russian Altay and Mongolia northern route.
And back the fast way, this time Jekaterinenburg and Perm....

So I really think it is possible.
Also to see a lot when driving, even if you have to do some km ..
You just have to get up and get going on the street :scooter:

Thanks for the answers.

We also got to a point, where we figured that we have to make a decision between focussing on Mongolia or focussing on all those central Asian countries, since without reliable, cheap and fast way of transport, there is no way we can do everything in 7 weeks, without that we feel rushed.

We decided to go through the southern countries: Turkey, perhaps georgia and azerbijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Taijikistan, Kyrgystan and Kasachstan (if i spelled names wrong, sorry, i dont remember their english way of spelling^^).

From there on we will, depending on time/money aspects either just ride home and take a train in between, or we still go to Ulaan-Bataar, sell the bikes and fly back via plane. But we will decide this later, when we have a more detailed planning about our route until Kasachstan.

Any kind of advice or suggestions are still always welcome :)

I rode from England to Mongolia this summer, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbajain, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan, Kyrgystan, Kazakhstan, Russia then Mongolia.

Just under 17,000 kms in 2 months. We did a significant proportion off road which is of course slower than a more direct road route. So a lot will depend on what bikes you are on and where you want to ride. I really loved Kyrgyzstan and Tadjikistan but you could save at least a couple of weeks by missing them out. Alteranatively there is so much to see and do even without going to Mongolia.

However with regards to shipping to or from Mongolia here are my experiences from this year.

I flew my bike back fron Ulaanbaatar. I emailed 4 companies in UB but only one seemed switched on and effiecient. Landbridge in UB, speak to Mr Enkhbayar who speaks good English, his email is bayaraa@landbridge.mn.

Be warned though that airfeight will be charged by volume, not by weight and it ended up costing me around £2,200 to fly my bike back to England from UB.

Road freight would have been a lot cheaper but takes several months.

Oasis guesthouse had brochures for a German freight company who will ship in or out to UB contact andreas.koenig@pan-europa.de

I believe that Zimi from Switzerland used Pan European to road freight his bike out to UB and it arrived on time for his onward trip to Magadan.

I hope some of this info is useful. Good luck with your trip.

Thank you for the detailed information. We already contacted pan europa (and also other companies) before, but after they sent their offer and a lot of thinking about everything, we decided that we cannot afford transporting the bikes, neither by truck, nor by plane.


We are already intensively planning for about two months now, but somehow the more information we gain about everything, we just get more and more uncertain about where we want/can go and how :D.
But now we at least decided, that we go the southern route to kasahzstan, no matter if we still go to mongolia afterwards or just straight home from there (even though it is hard to let go of mongolia as 100% certain main destination, since we are already pretty fixated on this idea for a while).

If you want to ride the southern route throug Iran and the Stans, my advice, as I wrote a few posts ago, is not to go to Mongolia: you can ship the bike back easily and pretty cheap from Bishkek to Europe.
If you want to ride Mongolia, do it: doing the Stans and Mongolia in 7 weeks is possible, but you will be in a rush.
It's up to you and to the way you want to travel, if you like to stop or if you prefer to just ride through places

I did both, and, as for now, I prefer to visit less places but with more time.
Anyway, it will be a great trip and you will want to go back to those places:-)

Just take more time and take a gap year from uni and take your time :)


Nepal to Holland 2014

Sending a bike back from UB with paneuropa is about 1000 Euro.
You will need the same amount of money when riding back!!!
I calculated it and drove back because it is more fun.
And never before I did go somewhere with my bike when it was on the back of something....
It was always me on the back of my bike

I am also just calculating my time for different routes.
And with the Stans you need time.

For me it is clear, my target is Mongolia.

I rode this route this year from Munich, Eastern Europe, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia and sold my bike in UB.

This took me 11 weeks and quite a bit of it felt rushed on occassions doing 500-600 klm day after day. Yes it's doable, but it is not fun.

Please also keep in mind that in June/July you will experience extremely hot weather. We rode in Iran/Turkmenistan for 5 days in a row over 45c and went almost a month without a day under 38c. You will need to take days off in these conditions to recuperate. bier

The riding highlights were Georgia (central border crossing from Turkey, not the coast), Southern Armenia and Northern Iran (absolutely spectacular), Tajikistan/Kyrgyzstan and the Altai Mountains in Southern Russia/Northern Mongolia.

I'm not sure what sort of bike you will be taking, I was on a Transalp and I can tell you that Mongolia was not a lot of fun. The sights were great, interesting people but unless you have a suitable bike ie. a lightweight single cylinder it can be hard going. The combination of washboard and sand drifts make for scary moments on a heavy bike.

If I were you i'd ride to Bishkek or Almaty and ship your bike back from there. Leave Mongolia for another trip.

What about the idea to make it till UB, leave the bikes and come back one year later and drive back home?? 2x 7 weeks!!

GRTZ,

JP

Well, thank you for the more answers :>

Jervig, due to university related stuff we cannot be sure, if the year afterwards we will have enough time to do a trip at all. Unfortunately :(


Daze, actually what you describe is almost exactly what we plan to do by now :). We are just not sure yet, if we go through iran and Turkmenistan (Carnet is expensive) or take the ferry from Baku to Aktau (time schedule not reliable), or if we go from Azerbaijan to Russia and then Kazakhstan and then south through uzbekistan (safety issues in North Caucasus). "Worst" case we enter russia from Latvia and then go South. We will see what time brings (financial aspects, safety situation in different areas, etc.). There are many opportunities for the final route. We also still need to do a lot more research.

We like the idea of selling the bikes in mongolia and flying back, because after mailing with the customs it turns out that there is not much of paperwork problems :).

We are going on a Honda Transalp and a Dominator, which we think shouldnt be a problem.

Interesting is the aspet of time issues that you mention, which is also one of our bigger concerns. But we "only" have to average a little more than 300kms per day, so we thought especially because in the first few days in Europe we can make a lot more than that already, and if we plan our riding and especially resting times well, the time schedule should be okay - at least we expect that right now^^.

Daze, was it hard to find someone to sell the bike to in Ulaan Bataar? Did you have to sell it far under value?

In 2013 there were this Dutch couple going to UB on (one) motorbike.
They shipped the bike back from UB by train (Transsiberia railway) to Moskou but it cannot be booked in advance. You have to organise it on the spot. I dont think they had any trouble doing this. This trip took 3 months.
We are a Dutch couple as well, planning our trip in 2015 as in the same direction (and further to NZ), scedule now is leaving Holland in april and do the Stans in june. I agree on the do not hurry-mode; it always the tension-wanting to see and do-time and also enjoying it!:smiliex:
Groetjes
Lilian

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...

Sambor ships bikes from Warsaw to both Bishkek and UB (and Tblisi I think) and back. You can ride from one to another. The cost is not cheap but if time is an issue, it saves a lot of time.

Modman and I are arranging to ship bikes to UB in 2015, fly in, ride UB to Bishkek and fly back. We're planning around three to four weeks riding. If all goes well, we'll overshoot Bishkek and spend some time in the Pamirs/Bartang etc. before heading back. The total cost of shipping and flights will be around £2,000 (€2,500) but it saves us the better part of six weeks travel. Running my own business means that I just can't be away for that long so I'm biting-the-bullet and coughing up the money.

ADVFactory tell me bikes must be in Warsaw 29 May, arrive UB 25 June, must be in Bishkek by 20 August and arrive back in Warsaw 10 September. You can do the reverse trip but I don't know the dates. You can also collect and drop off at the same location.

Hi,

7 weeks should be fine.

We rode this spring / summer from London to Mongolia and back. On 2 honda XR125… and including 3 total breakdown, one bad accident that left me unable to ride for some time and numerous road repairs and taking our time … it took us just a bit above 3 months. (including a good 3 weeks stranded here and there, waiting for trucks, repairs or for recovery of my accident).

We rode through France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakh again , Russia’s Altai and Mongolia. We then rode to Irkutsk, took the trans-Siberian train to Moscow (takes 3 ½ days). Then we took our time back across Europe. We did a total of 12,000 miles.

The trans-Siberian train is an easy option. It is very straightforward to organise the bike there and you could go from Moscow all the way to Ulan Ude (or other way round). From there the border to Mongolia is fairly close. It is also very cheap, we paid about 14,000 roubles per bike if my memory is correct.( I put details at the time on SEB thread about the trans-siberian).

One option is that, if you go via the Stans first, and you feel like you are running out of time, you could get back to Russia and get into the trans-siberian. It has many stops.

Cheers.

Thank you for the helpful information :).

So we actually already decided on this specific route that you also did, maria41, (georgia-russia-stans-russia-mongolia-back through russia with train), but investigating on our possibilities regarding russian visa more deeply, we now found out, that it will probably be pretty much impossible to do this route, because we are students and we didnt find a way yet to get business visa at all without a real job....

Which leaves us the possibility to skip the stans for now and go from georgia directly to mongolia, which would probably be very tight on schedule with a 30 day double entry tourist visum, even if we take the train on our way back.

Or we really have to sell the bikes in Mongolia and fly back.

Also in general we underestimated the costs for everything a little bit, so shipping is no option at all anymore and going via Iran and turkmenistan also rather not. Besides the cost aspect, here also the paperwork looks extremely difficult.

Currently we are bombading agencies who organize russian visa with requests for more information :D.

Try to apply for a "humanitarian" visa. Some of my friends, who are retired, did that and they breezed through Russia!
This Visa also includes sport events, it does not need to be Humanitarian at all.
Ask Real RUssia, if you are in the UK, (even if not, I would still ask them, as they deal with lots of things like these and could give you good advice!), they were pretty good on that. I am a contractor (self employed) and was not asked for proof of work when applying for my visa. Neither my husband now I think of it. Only that I had enough money in the bank!

Speak with the agencies see what they say. You should be able to get one. Either Business or Humanitarian. Otherwise, as you say, it will be too tight. And it would be a shame to miss the Stans.

Good luck.

Humanitarian visa is an interesting idea.

We look into the organization of the russian visa intensively now, maybe we will figure something out.
After talking to so many people on the phone we also start to get a feeling for who actually knows their business and wants to help us and who not :D. I will post when we figured out the visa issue.

Cant all countries be as easy as mongolia or kyrgyzstan :)

Your Russian Visum will be no problem at all!

May be you can manage with two times transit, cost €30,= each.

If you plan to stay longer than 11 days on your way back you can take a tourist visum.

GRTZ,

JP

I Got a multiple Entry 1 year business visa and I never had a visa before.

I also was at this time a freelancer and I got that.

All I did was to have it a visa agency done for me.

So far the agencies (and we talked to plenty) either said that there is no way to get such a visa as student or that they dont know. Even the people we had the feeling actually wanted to help us, said that it doesnt work. One was suggesting to get a second passport and then apply for two tourist visa at a time, but i think that would be pretty illegal :D.

Apparently its a new rule that you have to have been in russia before at least once in the past year for a multiple business visa. One agency says thats a fixed new rule, the other says that it depends on the mood of the person who approves visa at the embassy.

But we will figure it out; as soon as we have a more specific idea of our possibilities, we will approach the agencies again and ask for help to arrange it.

Hi Saskia.
I did Switzerland - Wolgograd - Aral - Osh in 21 days. Not too much to see except it is on the side of the road. Long distances are the same (Ukraine, Kazskhstan)
Also Switzerland - Turkey - Azerbaijan - ferry Baku - Turkmenbashi - Uzbekistan in 16 days. Much more interesting scenery. Problem is the ferry… but still possible.
Now we do Switzerland - Turkey - Iran - Turkmenistan - Tajikistan - Kyrgyzstan in 31 days. Most interesting. Most expensive (needs CdP).
I agree, 7 weeks all the way to Mongolia is very stretched if you want to see something off the paved roads.
Why do you want to send back 20 year old bikes? You can get them for Euro 1000.- by the dozens in Europe. Sell them for couple 100.- and you replace them easily, or not?
CHeers from Osh.

Hi Wildman.

For the money you spend on shipping you would be able to rent one of our XT 600 E and take them as far in to Tajikistan or Kazakhstan, Mongolia as you want. New tires fitted, large 23 l. reservoirs, fully serviced.

Just as a option.

Thanks Muztoo for these timings,
l need more details about your trip Switzerland, Turkey, Iran, Turkm.: Did you drive across former Yugoslavia or did you use the ferry to Greece? And about your whole trip, did 31 days inlude some loops for visits in Turkey, Iran, ....?
Thanks in advance,
RR.

Thank you Patrik

It doesn't save me any time though as I'd have to ride the bikes all the way back from Mongolia, right?

Is it an option to find someone who can drive to bikes back?

:)

HI Roro.

Check:

MuzToo Abenteuer Seidenstrasse

for more infos…

CHeers

Right. But you can do border west Mongolia to Kyrg in 2-3 days…. and it would give you a nice loop in Mongolia (southern and northern route). And you would see the beauty of Kyrg...

Thanks a lot Muztoo!

RR.

So, I just thought I post our final route planned:

Through Europe and Turkey to our first main goal: Georgia!
North through Russia, into Kazahzstan and then to Kyrgyzstan, the second main destination!
North again through Kazahzstan and Russia into Mongolia all the way to Ulaan Bataar.
For the way back we will have to see, how much time we have, hopefully we can go to irkusk and then take the train to at least moskow.

So we sorted out the Russian visa; we will get a visa via telex for multiple entrances.
For all other countries, we decided to choose the "easy" countries, for which we either need no visa at all or a very easy to obtain visa, since this is the first big trip for us and we dont want to risk that it gets too complicated and expensive.

Some question about the trip:

How are you doing about Iranian and Turkmen visa?
And can you tell me which border posts you are using for entering in Iran,Turkm.,Uzb.?

Thanks in advance.

RR.

Her is going via Turkey and Georgia, so he won't touch Iran.

HABI:
I am going exactly the same way this year to Mongolia!!

That's not what is written on:
MuzToo Abenteuer Seidenstrasse

RR.

My question was to Muztoo...of course
RR.

Thanks again.

It actually works out €400 more expensive to rent for three weeks than to ship bikes, we won't have to retrace our steps and will get to spend more time in Mongolia.

We'll be shipping our bikes to Irkutsk and taking three weeks from July 11th to ride to Bishkek via Mongolia, the Russian Altai and Kazakhstan.

Mongolia to Kyrgyzstan in 2-3 days?
It's a 2200-2500 kms ride with 3 border crossings.
I think you are a bit optimistic...

As I am planning to ride to mongolia this summer, I will need a multiple entry for Russia. Can you provide contact details of the Visa Agency you used?

Thanks in advance

Patrick

I used www.visum4you.at

They got that without any problems.
And they have partners in other countries.
As what they told me, it is the letter of invitation what makes it possible.
If this is from the right authority, then there is no problem getting a multiple entry visa.

thanks. I'll bear that in mind.

regards

I am maybe a bit late, but I have a good experience with Pan Europa. Sent my bike from Tamm in Germany to Ulan Bator for approx 1000 euro.

7 weeks is not much. I would rather send the bike in Mongolia and start the trip there. In this case, you have no pressure about flights for the way back, no issue about crating and shipping the bike.

You can slow down your tempo if you see that you are too fast, or do a little bit more.

That's the way I would do it.

I took 2 months to go from Switzerland to Mongolia and 4 months to come back. And I had a feeling a was almost in a rush... So 7 weeks, don't tell me about it!

Well, I did it in 8 weeks, and I had time to spend 2 weeks just relaxing in Mongolia.

Just on the way back, I did hurry up, but still with no stress at all.