When were you planning on going through Pakistan?

hi Mez,

I was looking at taking it easy in turkey to get the worst of the August heat out the way and head on towards India as soon as possible after then, though if I get a Pakistan and Iranian visa after todays news, I'll be amazed.

Was aiming for a bit of walking in Nepal in November and heading south through India after then. Might well just spend more time in Turkey and see if its possible to fly to somewhere in India if overlanding is too heavily restricted.

Feel free to send me a PM if anything crops up and you think we might be heading the same way at the same time. I'm doing my best to get paperwork in place while still in the UK (mid-June) then just going to have to wing it as best as possible if its not all sorted by then.

Pk
 

about mid Oct it was planned for..... :frown:

Pakistan visas by post
 

Hi

Apparently it is illegal to post your passports from India -no courier company or post office will touch them. In light of this and other recent events we think we'll have to bite the bullet and return to oz and try from there and then return in a few months. Even if due to all recent events we don't get Pak visas if we go back to oz we can miss the worst of the heat berfore entering Iran and work to pay for shipping to Iran which wasn't in the budget at this stage fo the trip! Bugger!

Pakistan visas
 

Hi

Finally a break through! We tried again on the phone to speak to the Pak embassy in Canberra asking that they grant us a visa remotely. The guy kept saying we needed to return but he eventually (to get rid of me!) asked that I set our full case out in a letter /email to the commissioner. He replied after 2 days saying that as a "special case' he would accept our application and grant our visas without us returning to India. Not sure how useful this is as a precedent as a "special case" but a big relief to us! We still have the problem of sending the passports as it's illegal here by post or courier -off to the embassy tomorrow to see if they can send them in their mail. So relieved not to have to ship again!
Ann and Andrew
Drivingoz2uk2.com - Driving around the world

Perserverence pays off, glad to hear that you'll get your visa.

By the way in your post I think you meant, that you won't need to return to Australia and not India, just a typo but we get what you mean and thanks for posting back.

Now that you'll be going to Pakistan, have a look at this:
Pakistani truckers' perilous journey - Risking it all - Al Jazeera English

Might give you an idea of where to go, or not in Pakistan...

Happy and safe travels.

Pakistan visa
 

Hi thanks for that -yep the "return to India" bit was a typo - maybe as we don't seem to be able to leave India as it looks like I might have crowed too soon!
Whilst the Pak embassy in Canberra are happy to do this and give us visas under our "special circumstances" we are still facing the problem of getting the passports to them ...far easier said than done!
It is illegal to post or courier your passports from India (and they check!) as u are by law supposed to always have them on you.

Thought the Oz or Pak embassy here might come to our aid -spent the day there but no go. They won't do so as is illegal -no locked bag service any more ...stopped 2 years ago. Off the record they suggested we give to someone trustworthy who is returing to Oz ....but no likely candidates ...what to do??

Does anyone know of any neighbouring countries policy on this? We met someone who'd couriered passports o/s from Bangkok but then it has been done from India too ..just a big risk. Is there any country/courier service it's offically allowed? If anyone has any ideas on this one we'd be all ears!

Thanks for the link on Pakistan -if we ever get there!!!
Ann & Andrew

Bugger on the shipping .... Can't hide it in a set of "documents" to be sent via FedEx? Some money may help too ...

+1

Failing that if the Pak Embassy in Australia will issue your visas under special circumstances then by logic so should any Pak embassy. I would suggest to get the Pak Embassy in Australia to Contact internally the Pak Embassy in Nepal and get them to agree to issue your visa, then it would be simpler for you to go to Nepal, assuming you're not in southern India...

You could ask the same thing of the Pak embassy in Canberra to send an internal note to Pak Embassy in India (New Delhi) other than that I can't think of any alternative at the moment.

Good luck

Hiya
Thanks for that, all food for thought. We rang Fedex in Sri Lanka and they have no problems with sending passports. Latest plan is a trip there -and spend a pleasant 2 months waiting for the summer to pass and maybe the political heat to settle (hmmm) This plan is being lobbied strongly by Andrew the surfer amongst us! That or Nepal I guess. Be good if the long promised ferry to SL materialises for this ...but I guess that's another topic.....Thanks to all for input Ann

I posted my passport via DHL from Thailand to Germany for the Pakistan visa.

Contact "Maximondo" on the forum. She posted her passport with DHL from India to Australia and back.

Cheers,
Frank

Pakistan visa
 

Thanks Frank will try -was that a while ago?? Seems to be very strict now they searched our parcel (we'd hidden the passports in documents) and made a real fuss when they were found "If you do this without telling there will be a big problem " etc ..guess it's all got harder here. A few people have told us Thailand is a good bet
Ann