Route advise for Central Asia

[Daan-N]

Hi,

We are planning on a motorbike trip, which we will start in September from the Netherlands with end goal Kuala Lumpur.

We are facing some difficulties with our route from Turkey on. We initially planned to drive through Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand towards Kuala Lumpur (purple route on the picture below). But, since there are a lot of political uncertainties now in Iran, we are looking for alternatives.

We are thinking to travel via Georgia, Azerbaijan and with a ferry to Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tadzjikistan, Pakistan, and so on (black + red route). But taking this route, it seems from Tadzjikistan to Pakistan we either have to pass China or Afghanistan. Afghanistan we definitely would like to avoid and it seems that crossing China for that part comes with a lot of hassle and costs.

We are also not sure of the safety in the northern part of Pakistan (Kashmir region), so as third alternative we thought of the green route. But again, we would like to avoid traveling too long and costly in China.

It would be great is anyone with (recent) experience on these routes could advise us on that.

Thanks a lot

Daan & Rahel

[santosh]

Following this thread since I am in similar situation with regards to China. When are you planning to enter China if it has to ?

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[eurasiaoverland]

Afghanistan: not advisable due to security and logistics.
Black / red route: you will need to pay for a tour through China, try to find a group. I think you will have to enter China from Kyrgystan.
Green route: not heard of any foreigners taking the Xinjiang - Tibet highway through Ali for quite a few years. Even if it's possible this would be hugely expensive, far more so than the quick route from Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan.

Northern Pakistan is safe (apart from a few areas away from the main routes). It is not Kashmir - that's a separate area (Google: AJ&K) which you won't pass through unless you specifically want to (and have the necessary permits for AJ&K).

I would not worry about security in Iran, it's a very safe country and you will pass through oblivious to the garbage being shown on the news. The issue is that if your bikes are larger than 250 cc, they will not be allowed to enter Iran.

So if you want to do this trip, you will need to pay for the China guide, unless you ship your bikes.

EO