Cycle Tour through Central Asia

[Chris Natalie]

Greetings Steven and Others,

I will be bike touring from Europe through Central Asia into China and ideally to Nepal. I was wondering specifically what the most logical, affordable, beautiful and secure route would be through the area. The initial thought was through Iran and into the Turkmenistan and across, but it seems quite expensive for a person from the U.S. to get through Iran and Turkmenistan. The second thought was a ferry from Baku into Turkmenistan and third being Baku into Kazakhstan. I would love to ride on the Pamir highway, but I am not clear on the necessary things to do so. Thus, I was wondering if I could get some advice on the best route, and necessary visas/permits to get figured out maybe in Turkey before we get to these countries. I know there is this information scattered around the site and forums, but I do much better with direct communication and would really appreciate any input people have. Thanks so much!

Chris

[steven]

Hi Chris, there are many different routes possible, and they all have difficulties. There is no logical route. As a cyclist wanting to avoid Iran but take in Turkey and Caucasus, the Baku-Turkmenbashi boat is best. It is very tricky though. The boat to Aqtau is easier since you have a longer visa in Kazakhstan, but you will have to wait longer. Flying is easiest, but you probably want to avoid that. Getting a Chinese visa on the road has become very difficult recently because of bigger difficulties in Bishkek, keep that in mind (you might have to fly anyway.)

Information on visas is very extensive, it is all collected under caravanistan.com/visa. It will take you some time to read it all and get your head wrapped around it, but that's the way it is.

[andyoxus]

I cycled quite a bit of Central Asia last year. In the end, I'm extremely happy with the route:

Bulgaria (Varna) - Georgia (Batumi) - Ferry
Georgia -> Azerbaijan (Baku) - Bike
Azerbaijan -> Kazakhstan (Aktau) - Cargo ship
Kazakhstan -> Uzbekistan (Kungrad) - Train
Uzbekistan -> Tajikistan -> Kyrgyzstan -> China (Kashgar) - Bike

Caucasus to Uzbekistan vs Turkey/Iran to Uzbekistan:
- No visa for Georgia. Good riding
- Azerbaijan visa a pain. Good riding
- No visa for Kazakhstan (till July 15 2015 at least, for UK, US etc)
- Get to see great things in W Uzbekistan: Aral Sea, Savitsky Museum in Nukus, Khiva
- UK, US and Canadian citizens have to book a tour to get an Iranian tourist visa (not sure if you actually need to take the tour)
- Avoids the Turkmenistan visa and mad dash across the desert

Route choice:
- I think we got lucky making up a route through the Caucasus
- There's not much choice through a lot of Uzbekistan
- We entered Tajikistan via Denau - good riding again (finally some hills) and less busy than the Oybek crossing. Avoids the huge pass
- In Tajikistan, we followed the M41 out of Dushanbe as far as Khorog. Much better than the southern route out of Dushanbe which is hot and busy. M41 is *very* quiet and quite remote. From Khorog, you can head to the Pamirs via the M41 (classic Pamir Highway), via Ishkashim (the Wakhan Valley - we did this - gorgeous) or via the Bartang Valley (pretty wild - don't know much about it). After that there's no choice until Kyrgyzstan - we turned right at Sary Tash and went to China

I think the main issues cycling the Pamir Highway are political - borders can close, the whole of the GBAO can close, GBAO permits might not be issued. This was the case last year, but we were lucky - we got our GBAO permits with no problem in Dushanbe. But we knew that in the worst case we could have been forced to travel directly from Uzbekistan to Kyrgyzstan - not such a bad thing.

Visas:
For the above route as an American you'd need Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Tajik and Chinese visas
Azerbaijan: Tbilisi is currently a good place to apply
Uzbekistan: not sure. We got ours in London (UK passports) and explained we were cycling, so they gave us 30 days (definitely enough time) in a 60 day window (flexible enough)
Tajik: we got ours in Baku in 3 days
Chinese: apply for the new 10 year one before you leave home. You need to show flights and hotels, so make sure you can cancel anything you don't need...

Andy

[Chris Natalie]

This is very helpful thanks so much! I may come back to you with more questions, but I am at work currently so I can't now. All of the info is much appreciated.

[andyoxus]

Happy to help, either here or offline - email is (my first name) at stemhaus.com.