Caravanistan

Experience as a woman on her own can be quite different from men or couples. But if you have a guide with you it should be good. I do think it is a good idea to check for a female guide. That might be more relaxed but also means you can get into the same stuff, whenever men and women need to be sepa...

From Vladivostok motorbikes are often shipped in various ways. So if it will go as cargo it can go many places, wherever you want. But you will not travel with the motorcycle (like the passenger ferry from Vladivostok from South-Korea or so) and shipping time might be annoying. You could look at air...

Locals can be dismissive about stuff that is not special to them, but it can be special for tourists. They probably see the Fergana Valley as some place which is not fully secure and has poor facilities. These are just some assumptions. But we have noticed this in past travels, where locals were dis...

Did you already buy the van? A nice van but such a new van will not like the diesel in Iran and probably Uzbekistan (where they have little diesel) The annoying thing is getting from kyrgystan to russia, because once you are in russia you could decide to just drive it as the roads are reasonable and...

I think Kyrgystan is a better starting point if you are renting a car, and going across borders with it. Next to that, it is not clear what you want to do. I would skip Turkmenistan, to much hassle, not good for such a short trip. I would focus on 2 or 3 countries. If you want to do the Pamir highwa...

@Kalpazan: I am wondering how many stars you gave the mine field camping spot

Because of the stories at the time, we took the route over Tavildara, so that you come from the north side into Qalai Kumb. I guess this is not helping if the Qalai Kumb area is becoming restless. But all in all it was a very nice route, and more relaxed. It may be a bit harder for cyclists though, ...

If it is youtube, it may offer a translate function.

At the time (2012) it was only possible to enter from turkey side, as the Iranian side was only for residents of Iran and Iraq. So please check this.
Because of that and time constraints we didn't do it.

Yes Russian is useful. Also in Tajikistan. But it will not be 100% guarantee as mentioned above. And we barely spoke any Russian (just the basic words) and we also got by. Speaking the language better will get you more into contact with the locals. In Iran only the young generation speaks some Engli...

Hi, well, ours came with a high roof, and then we made a camper out of it. You could also chose a folding roof. The kids sleep in the high roof, their beds are 150 centimeters long. Will need to be extended at some point. I don't have very good pictures of the car finished. The drawback of the old H...