Female Riders-Overland India-Europe
 

Looking to get feedback from women who have ridden overland, and what their experiences have been. I am especially interested in hearing about travel through Muslim countries.

Anyone travel solo? If you did the trip did you travel with other woman or a man?

I'm hoping to leave in August, still looking for other traveler(s) to join.

Thanks-
Cat

email addressed removed by Grant - see link, and also http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/faq.shtml#notify for why.

[This message has been edited by Grant Johnson (edited 27 January 2002).]

Hi

If you get hold of a copy of The Adventure Motorcycle Handbook by Chris Scott, there is a section in there on female's that have been on overland trips.

You may want to checkout the thread on what women bikers have wore when travelling through Muslim countries.

Julio

Hello Kipper,
we are two of the women who wrote about our experiences overland (Belgium to Pakistan) in Chris Scott's "AMH", so yes, we have done it and survived ;-)
We will also go back next year for 6 months, leaving beginning of April. We prefer the route in the opposite direction (B->India) though, as to get used to things 'slowly'.

We travelled without men (in 1999), the two of us on two bikes, and have had no problem. Not in Turkey, not in Iran and not in Pakistan.
Men and women alike in these three countries were very curious, friendly, and totally AMAZED to discover we really were women on bikes. We even received standing ovations in Iran by groups of women.

The further East you travel in Turkey, the more conservative. And some cities are more then others due the presence of shrines or other holy places. Konya and Erzurum for instance (though Erzurum featured a nice collection of Internetcafés and the very best restaurant we had on the whole of our journey!). In Turkey we saw women in thick chador's or even carpets, one eye peeping through, and covering up completely as we rode by (something we never saw in Iran by the way!).

In Turkey we dressed normally, but never in T-shirts or shorts, obviously (except on touristy coast resorts where you can problaby wear anything (or nothing??)).

Next, crossing into Iran is an experience of its own of course. It took us a week to start feeling at ease in our robes and scarfs (obliged by law). Much depends on the specific location and on the individual people. The differences between towns and villages (and/or between rich and poor) are huge: you might see Isphahani women barefoot in stylish sandals, bright scarfs covering only half of their hair, and coloured 'manteaus' just beneath their knees, whereas in a small country village you will only see shapeless black chador's with just a mouth, nose and eyes peeping out.

We found Iran more open (in a way) to women then Pakistan. In Iran, women drive cars, are doctors or lawyers, chat and talk lively, even to men sometimes (at a respectful distance), and most of all: you see just as many men as women in the streets, day and night. Not so in Pakistan: coming from the West, it took us 3 full days to see the first woman, and she was an Afghani refugee in burqa (totally closed piece of thin cloth down to the ground which is just transparant enough to see through; burqa's also exist with a gauze before the eyes). In Queta we saw, say, 5 women a day apart from the refugees, dressed in 'shalwar kameez'-for-women (long shirts over large trousers, in bright colours) like you often see in India and always with scarfs.

In Iran, we first dressed in manteau's with a scarf we bought in Turkey (as you need to dress up upon entering Iran). The coat was black, synthetic, with lining and even had shoulder fillings. Underneath we wore our Dainese protectorvests, a combination which made us look like the Hulk.
Since it was late April, and we were riding for a week on plateau's, the heat was more or less o.k. Further East though, we bought thin pale-coloured coton coats with buttons, and muslim scarfs like the schoolgirls wear: basically a piece of cotton cloth falling over your shoulders, with a hole for your face. We found this more practical then scarfs which tend to fall off as you take off your helmet (yes, we did wear this under our helmets).
The rich women found us slightly overdressed, but as we often travelled through small villages, we felt more at ease this way.
The robes got dirty quickly with "motorbike stains" as you can imagine, but at least they didn't get burned from the exhausts as the Turkish 'manteau's'. Working on the bikes was annoying because you can't roll up your sleeves - we will sew some velcro on them for next year. Also annoying was the heat in these things and not being able to "take of your coat" when eating in a restaurant for instance.
Inside their home however, Iranians do take off their coats and scarfs, and wander about in tiny T-shirts and skirts.

In general, we just look around and more or less adapt to what we see.
Nicky, who wrote long chapters in the AMH about women on bikes, came from India and wore the Pakistani female 'shalwar kameez' for her entire trip through Iran.

In Pakistan, we went back to normal clothes: light trousers and wide shirts.
Here again we noticed the huge difference between cities and countryside. In Islamabad, we saw some of the hippest women we ever saw in muslim countries. But outside, we never saw 1 woman driving a car, nor even bicycles. We just saw very few women on the streets.

All this said and done, even men can't wear whatever they like: it's not proper to wear T-shirts in the streets, let alone shorts.
O, and do not shake hands with ANY men, guides, friends... It is really not done, not even in big cities or amongst foreigners.


Then, another problem you might encounter is getting a visa. As women travelling without men, getting a visa is not straightforward. We had to go via an agency in Holland because not one Belgain woman we know of has been able to get a visa travelling by herself. They don't ask for your means of transport. Once you have the visa, getting in and out is easy.
But visa's depend on your nationality, the country where you apply for one, etc. The Lonely Planet site should have answers to that.
Other issue to deal with is the 'Carnet de Passage en Douane', the import/export file for your bike. Sure you'll find the necessary data for that elsewhere on this site.

So. Hope this already takes away a bit of the mystery.
If you need other questions to be answered, don't hesitate to contact us.
You will have a remarkable unique experience for sure. Travelling as a woman alone through muslim countries opens up doors which otherwise remain firmly shut.

Happy biking,

Iris and Trui

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Grensstraat 200, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
tel.: +32 (0)9 236.20.78, e-mail: see link above

email addressed removed by Grant - see link, and also http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/faq.shtml#notify for why.

[This message has been edited by Grant Johnson (edited 27 January 2002).]

Hello Catherine,

I'm totally SURE that the roads once outside of India will be much safer - though I did have a journey-stopping accident (*) in Pakistan (some kilometres before Kushab, South from the Salt Range). From what we've heard, India's traffic is the very worst on the entire globe. We fear it really much and have already decided that we will take the smallest roads possible. In case we really need to cover distances anywhere near the Grand Trunk Road, we'll put our bikes on a train - I don't want to die a heroine on an Indian road!!
So if you have already survived India, things can only become better - traffic-wise surely !

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Traffic and fuel:

In Pakistan, traffic is --it seems-- much less dense then in India, but same "style" of driving: too fast, no brakes, no rear mirrors, anywhere on the road, no driving permits. I guess not drunk either, but maybe drugged at times. The horn, just like in India, is THE most essential means of surviving. And if you get to the mountains, people just drive over the entire road. Though I must say that trucks let us kindly pass crossing the Suleiman range.
Fuel: in towns. Careful for the quality, especially in Baluchistan: some stations mix fuel with alcohol, causing detonation problems with engines, even in Enfields. Some bikers we met, said you could smell it if they had been cheating with the fuel. We had 33-liter tanks (for some 500 to 600 kms) so we could be 'choosy' on our fuel.

In Iran (driving on the RIGHT again!), you'll find better roads then at home, permitting to travel long distances at once and plan trips properly. On top of that, the fuel comes virtually free.
City centres start wherever you see a "forbidden for trucks" sign, and even the smallest towns have ringroads.
Fuel is to be found at town's exits, but in the East sometimes it's a bit harder and you might have to ask around. For the stretch Quetta (P) to Bam (I), there is fuel in Dalbandin, in Multan (border) and Zahedan, but it seems nowhere else in between. You better fill up at every opportunity because this is not a road to be stranded during the night.
This one stretch is particularly dangerous --for anyone travelling by their own means of transport. It goes right along the Afghani border and it's a smugglers/bandit area. The border there is porous, so all kinds af people wander about, also lots of soldiers.
Also: from what we know, since late 2000 (at least going East) foreigners are forced to ride in convoy like it was 6 or 7 years ago, leaving from Bam and just for a few kilometers outside of town where you're left on your own again... Ridiculous, but that's our last information from first hand. They make you wait for hours before the soldiers arrive to 'protect' the convoy, which of course doesn't leave you enough time to cross the border the same day (closed after 16 or 17 h) and forces you to ride in the scorching heat... I don't think there is any convoy going West, so you might be spared of such annoyances.

In Turkey, roads are worse again, and traffic is o.k. Plenty of checkpoints in the whole of Kurdistan (Western Iran, Eastern Turkey) by bored soldiers - usually friendly, no problems.

You should also watch the seasons: during winter, Western Iran and Easter Turkey are BLOODY cold with snow and frost.

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General:

Nicki McCormick (from the AMH) travelled by herself on an Enfield some years ago (coming from India too), and she did not encounter specific problems. We know of one German woman who did this journey by herself shortly before that, a French woman in the seventies (in the Shah era), and there is an Slovakian woman, 'Benka', on her way home from around the world right now, but that's all as far as we know.
Apart from the usual 'difficulties' when travelling by yourself on a bike (which men of course also have), I can't see any reason why it would be crazy to do it.
It's not even that far. We spent 10.000 kms and about 2 months before the accident, with quite a bit of sidetrips.

I wouldn't camp in either Pakistan or Iran or Eastern Turkey, unless it's a campsite. In Iran sometimes the distances between places with hotels can be great, but leaving early enough in the day should give you no problem.

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No problem to contact us for any questions. We will be gone ourselves from mid-July to mid-August so we will not get your mails then, but any other time, sure.


Safe riding, in India as well as on your way to Europe!

Iris and Trui


(*) My accident was due to a man jumping from some bushes RIGHT before my front wheel. We rode some 40 km/h and I didn't even have time to brake - the bike hit the man, set itself accross, and my right leg got badly trapped between the frame and the road => leg broken on 3 places - tibia twice and thin bone (can't remember its name) once - fortunately none of the muscles or nerves were ripped off which means that I can walk again. After 2 years now, it still hurts, but I can ride bikes and I can even run short distances. AND we have been extremely lucky with local police, local first aid, a very good orthopedic surgeon in Islamabad and the Belgian Embassy. All have been unusually friendly, helpful and very professional in every sense.

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Grensstraat 200, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
tel.: +32 (0)9 236.20.78, e-mail: see link above

email addressed removed by Grant - see link, and also http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/faq.shtml#notify for why.

[This message has been edited by Grant Johnson (edited 27 January 2002).]

Hi there

My friend Becky and I travelled together on a BMW R80GS from England to Australia 2 years ago and spent a month in Iran. It was a fantastic country to visit- the most hassle-free (men-wise) of any Middle Eastern countries I've been to.

We bought chadors in Dogubayazit, the last town in Turkey before the Iranian border. They can be bought in the market- just ask around, make sure you try them on over your bike leathers. We wore our jackets on top as they were big and baggy enough to get away with in Iran.
We had the headscarves on as well, and as the others have said, it gets really hot, wearing a black synthetic tent over leathers is NOT recommended in the desert.
Becky was threatened by a soldier with a gun when she literally had only a few strands of hair showing, so you do have to be careful.Though I have heard that things have relaxed a bit lately.

We got our visas in London, it took 2 months of waiting before they were finally approved, blokes we knew only had to wait 10 days.

Good luck.

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