Follow up to this post ... it seems the Khandagayty border and the Mondy border (north of Khovsgul) have both been made Multilateral (open to foreigners) in 2014.

__________________

Thanks for the update Mr Colebatch

I'm preparing for some border permits for this year's trip (specifically Dagestan and Ingushetia but the procedure is the same). It asks for the name / details of the inviting party and I'm wondering what to do...

- leave it blank?
- use the details of the inviting agency for my visa?
- ask a local friend if they will help (I have friends in both regions, but I am hesitant to ask given the relations with the FSB there...)

Cheers

EO

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

Good News Walter!

I ran into some cyclists and they wanted to cross that border. Wonder how they got on last summer. It would be funny if the border was open all along. Can't say I would feel bad though. Had a fantastic trip on your tracks as it was.

Opens up new route options for this year :-)


Have the forms changed? I don't remember filling this in. The Tuva FSB did ask for the visa details after I submitted the form, but we just called them and told them I didn't have the visa yet, which seemed to be OK. The Altai FSB did ask for it and it worked out great.

Cheers,
boarder

The form is not asking for visa details, but for an inviting person / organisation.

Mondy and Khandagaity were certainly bilateral only in 2008.

EO

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

We've just tried Borshoo/Khandagayty and been turned away, so no, it's definitely not open for non-Russians or Mongols.

Laurent

__________________
2- and 4-wheeled explorer and photographer
Overland Aventure

(TL;DR : we failed to get the permit with the instructions in this thread)

We intended to drive from Altaï to Tuva so we followed the above instructions. We sent emails with forms to both FSB (Altaï and Tuva) and only got replies from the Tuva side. We tried to contact the Altai FSB office by phone when in Russia, through a Russian, but the phone number was wrong. They got another number from which they said they would call back (they didn't). So we tried to show up at the Gorno-Altaysk office, but failed to find it. So we ended up at the FSB compound in Kosh-Agach, which is easy to find as it's one massive and new compound.

There, after much waiting because of our lack of knowledge of Russian, we were finally ushered in to their office, where they told us they hadn't received our application. Much to our surprise, once passed the entry gate sentry, they were very kind and keen to help us, they even went through the compound to find the only guy who could speak a few words of English (with Google translate helping).

We showed the recipient address (altay@fsb.ru) and they said it's wrong. Ok, so we started to copy another address from a poster hanging on the wall, but they said no, it's also wrong. We asked for the correct address for the next ones, so a lady left running through the offices and came back much later, panting, with a piece of paper. Then they spent another few minutes trying to type the e-mail address with laying characters, which they hardly understand. This is the address they gave us (the last version) :

pu.gornyjaltaj@mail.ru

I still have my doubts, "pu" might be "ru", etc.. I haven't tried it. Anyway, we asked if it was possible to get the permit on the spot. The guy said maybe, come back later, and then it wasn't possible. They told us that it takes 20 days (not 60) to clear a permit for foreigners. So went ahead and with their help, we filled out the permits, meaning to drive to Tuva in a month when we would cross here again back from Mongolia.

One month later, we showed up at the FSB in Kosh-Agach, met Vitaly, the English speaker, who was visibly a little embarrassed that we actually came back. He left for a few minutes before coming back and telling us that the guy processing the permits has beed run down by a car and was dead.. ! (sounds like the dog ate my homework to me, they probably threw the forms in the bin).

Bottom line : it's not that easy, but if you speak Russian I bet it's much easier. Also, it seemed the permits are processed in Gorno-Altaysk, so it would be more useful to show at their office (maybe somebody can give the coordinates ?).

Maybe others can fill in with more helpful details.

Cheers,
Laurent

PS: another catch : they were reluctant to give us a permit, because we told them we intended to go to Kyzyl and would then enter Tuva on a border zone without a permit for Tuva, and that is forbidden. We told them a permit awaits us in Tuva, but they didn't care. We tried to explain that the permit could have been sent there at the checkpoint, or that at the checkpoint they could call Kyzyl and asked for permission, but they couldn't care less. We would be "breaking the law" as they said. So that didn't help.

__________________
2- and 4-wheeled explorer and photographer
Overland Aventure

whew, thanks for the detailed write-up. Tuva is still on my list...

Sorry to hear about your problems.

The Gorno-Altaysk FSB office is maybe just 100m from where Google Maps says it is. Very easy to find and I'd say most locals would point you when asked for "FSB". The address is also on the FSB web site (along with phone numbers and email addresses). It's a large new building with top security and lots of satellite dishes. It's this building:

https://www.google.com/maps/search/F...55!2d51.942186

I was told by email and on the phone that I could not get the permit in Kosh-Agash, they insisted on Gorno-Altaysk, which was a detour for for me.

The border permit I got included Tuva! Infact I was told by them that this is the only way to do, which makes sense. You have to get a permit for the whole area before you enter it. I was checked both ways and on the Ukok and the permit was fine.

They were surprisingly friendly too. I pointed out that they missed an area I had requested and they added that on the spot.


Cheers,
Steffen

Hi

we got our permit 3 years ago in Aktash and used the adress pugornyjaltaj@mail.ru as stated in an old post. If that adress is still valid, or you have to use the adress with an additional point (pu.gornyjaltaj@mail.ru), you have to try.

Fine that the permit is now processed faster, in our case at least for the Tuvan permit, it had a processing time of almost 60 days, as can be followed by the date you applied and the date of the stamp on the permit.

We were this year also in pogranzona, but in Mongolia in the NP Tavan Bogd. Permit processing in Olgii is possible within one day, but still some open questions (especially if you need a guide or not).

Kind regards

Christian

__________________
Cycling in Asia: Thailand to Turkey, Siberia and Central Asia

Hello,

i'm considering doing the Tuva track in July 2016.

Has anybody ride it in 2015 and has some recent info on the area?

How are the roads?
The section between kosh agach and Mugur Aksy (190 km)can be done in one day?

Any info, track, gps point, beside the ones in Walter file and OSM, would be great.

On the other hand, if I fail to get the permit in Gorno Altaysk, has anybody tried to cross to Abaza on any of these roads:
https://goo.gl/maps/R3rgPom5ySQ2

Thank you,
Adrian

any news about the border crossing?
i want to ride in the tuva-region on my way back from UB...

according to this side:
http://www.infomongolia.com/ct/ci/22...trol and Ports
its open

this side says, it's also closed:
http://caravanistan.com/border-crossings/mongolia/

It's NOT open to foreigners. You may be able to cross Mongolia to Russia, but definitely not the other way. We got turned back in 2015 and had to postpone the Mongolia leg of our trip because of it.

This is the Altai FSB email that worked for us: pugornyjaltaj@mail.ru. They took about 3-5 days to respond.

Ha, here we go, finally. So what did they answer..?

__________________
2- and 4-wheeled explorer and photographer
Overland Aventure

Another Altai-Tuva interested. Anyone knows if it´s posible reach Tyungur following the P373, that goes parallel to Katun River? It seems that it is a trekking track in some sections.
At G. Maps and G. Earth, this P373 cross Katun River by the nonexistent bridge.
Last year we camped between Chuya River and Katun River, there was two new bridges over them, probably the new road goes to Inegen, but don´t know if it is posible continue to Tyungur.

See you off (or on) the road.