Caravanistan

Hi all On this topic - I’m planning on Moscow/Uzbekistan/Kazakhstan and then into China via Xinjiang, all by rail. So was planning to apply from London for the Chinese visa with cancellable flights London to Beijing, hotel etc. However I’ve now realised I’ve already got my Russian transit visa in m...

We (German and Singaporean with German residence permit) are long-term travellers and we applied for our Type-L (tourist) Chinese visas while on the road. We applied to the Visa Application Service Centre in Berlin, which stated on their website that they accept applications by post. They also say t...

We managed to get a TCell simcard in Dushanbe! We went to the TCell shop just northwest of the Opera Ballet, at the junction of Huseynzade Street and Rudaki Avenue. It looks like the main shop - big and has free WiFi. One of the staff (who spoke good English) first said that according to a new law, ...

We just got our permits yesterday, still easy! Same procedure as the last two posts

We bought gas canisters in Dushanbe at the Green House Hostel for 45 somoni per 220g canister. We found large 450g canisters in the big sports shop on Rudaki Avenue close to Somoni Avenue, but they finally quoted us 230 somoni (reduced from original quote 300 somoni) which was still completely over ...

We crossed the border on 3 Jun 2019 (with bicycles). On the Farap side, there is a checkpoint about 500m before the main building, where many people were waiting. A soldier asked us to go to the front of the queue, where we had our passports checked, and then he directed us on to the main building. ...

What crossed the border on 30th May 2019. On the Iranian side, a female officer asked us to open all our bags and she thoroughly checked a few of them (we have 12 panniers), and then ignored the rest. She also asked to see our photos, so we clicked through them on our cameras for her to see. Once, s...

We changed with some guys waiting just after the border crossing at Sarahs. We had heard from a local that the rate should be 18.6, so we tried negotiating as much as possible and the highest the money changers would go was 18 Manat to 1 USD.

We are a Singaporean and German couple currently cycling from Germany to Singapore. We are entering Turkmenistan tomorrow and plan to cycle the usual route through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan (Pamirs), and then through Kyrgyzstan to Bishkek. We've gone through all the things we're carrying on our bicycle...

We picked up our visas in Tehran today! Paid $45/person upon collection (on top of the $10/person we paid when we applied). We initially said we will collect in Mashhad, but we called them to check if we could pick it up in Tehran and they said we can pick it up anywhere (in Iran, we assume). The nu...