Europe to Nepal 2025 - Oman to India - Shipping Motorbike ?!?
 

Hi there,

(Short Version)
Anyone ever shipped a motorbike from Oman/Emirates to India/Pakistan? Suggestions?

(Long Version)
I am planning my 6 months trip to Nepal for quite a while now. This year I wanted to hit the road for real in June. Motorbike (Yamaha Tenere 700) is ready. All luggage basically just needs to be filled. Only thing missing is the Carnet application.

Anyhow - with the recent conflicts Pakistan - India - Iran - I kind of have to change my route on last call. First I was thinking about the straight - through Iran way - but with the late news out of the motorbike community I kind of think it's not worth the effort. Idea was always to kind of pass through the hot summer of Iran fast and enjoy Pakistan, India and Nepal for real. Note: I anyhow still applied for a visa to Iran - but I am not very eager to do this route.

2nd "classic" option from Europe was always the Stans-route to Kirgistan - then China (can be organised) and from there to Pakistan. This unfortunately leads right into the Kaschmir area - where things are going bad since two weeks. Resulting in a no go area right now as well.

3rd option would be the way trough Afghanistan. Which feels like double risk since it ends as well in the conflict area Kaschmir.

4th and (Right now solution)
I spent quite some time now reading about the Irak, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Emirates to Oman route. The whole visa situation seems for Germans (like what I am) quite doable. Most do E-Visa or even Visa on arrival. Only hazle could be the Irak Kurdistan region - when continuing further south into the Irak. But this was done by other travellers before.

I kind of like the idea and diversity of this option. Big downside is the summer temperatures that will probably meld my soul and travel spirit right away. And - second problem right now is - how the hell to I get from the Arabian Peninsula to southern India or Pakistan if I want to skip on Iran?!?

As far as I know there is a very from the Emirates to Iran. Might be an option - in case of a quick pass trough the country...

Alright - that's my thoughts on this. Any suggestions, opinions are highly appreciated.

Greetings

Martin

Hi Martin,

I'm on the road at the moment with a similar goal; getting to India. I'm currently in eastern turkey. With the recent closure of the Wagah border my plan to go through Pakistan had to be changed. So now the options i had/have would be either Iran > Turkmenistan > other stans/Kyrgyzstan > China > Nepal > India, or Georgia > Russia > Kazakhstan > other stans/Kyrgyzstan > China > Nepal.

Turkmenistan is a pain in the back to get a transit visa. You need to book a tour etc. I met people doing this. Its not impossible but you better figure this out way in advance. There is no "get to the border and see" around these parts, not at the moment anyway. Turkmen embassy in Ankara is a shitshow.

Then there is some options to go through Afghanistan. Definetly possible. There is no foreign embassies there to most western countries so if youre there and you run into trouble thats on you. I didn't look too much into this, but if you were to go to Afghanistan you might want to organise this in advance as well or risk getting turned back. From the information I found there are few embassies to Afghanistan, and then there are even some that are not recognised by the current regime, so you may even get a Visa but it wont be accepted when you get to the country.

Crossing from Aghanistan through the Wakhan corridor into China is not an option from any of the information I could find.

With the recent arrest of two british bikers (reasons aside) in Iran and the difficulty of getting a visa for Turkmenistan i made the choice to go through Russia. A transit visa for Russia can be gotten quite easily in Georgia (e visa does not work if you want to cross into Kazakhstan).

Another option is taking your bike from Georgia to Azerbaijan and then taking the ferry to Kazakhstan. This is definitely possible but certainly more expensive and time consuming than going through Russia.

Crossing China is obviously no issue, though expensive and you also need to plan in advance. Unfortunately the southwestern route is closed to foreigners apparently, so a longer tour is needed going northeast past the Gobi desert and then back south to Nepal.

I haven't come across any tours crossing China from Pakistan to Nepal, but maybe that's an option, though it would probably not be any faster/cheaper with the southern road closed to foreigners.

Concerning your thoughts on taking a ferry from the Arabian peninsula to Iran or India or something. Ive looked into this. Besides not helping with the India/Pakistan border situation it seems there is no ferries. There are many news articles describing the wishes and plans of several countries to start such a ferry service, but after searching for specifics I always came across the same info: there is no such ferry service at this moment.

I recommend you check out caravanistan forum, there's a lot of good info there. Hope i don't step on anyone's toes by mentioning this, but this forum has unfortunately become quite dead in recent times. I have heard many bikers saying that the facebook hubb group is very active though. Cant speak to it myself because I don't have facebook.

I hope this helps you. Maybe ill see you on the road. bier

Marc