BootsnAll Travel Community

My girlfriend and I would like to go overland from India to Turkey. As we are both US citizens we have decided that Pakistan is right out. How feasible is it to make such a trip? What difficulties can you see arising with this route?

We are in Southern Thailand now and have the past 6 months travelling all around China and South East Asia. The first time in China we did not get to up as far up into the Gobi as we would have liked so we thought it would be nice to pass into Kazakstan from Kashgar. Any feedback is good feedback. Thanks.

There are probably people around better equipped to answer some of these questions than I, but I have done some research into similar trips through asia.

The largest problem that I'm aware of is the difficulty in getting Iranian visas. Americans have long been blacklisted by Iran - Brits and Canadians seem to be more recent additions to the blacklist - so it's unlikely you'll be able to get a visa unless you go as part of a tour. (Also, geographically, you can't get from Uzbekistan to Iran without going through either Afghanistan or Turkmenistan)

The route that I'm interested in would include a ferry from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan, then through Georgia into Turkey.

Central asia has a reputation as a bureaucratic nightmare, but I've not found anything indicating that you can't do my route independantly, and I'm aware of at least one tour that runs along it, so it is possible.

The US severed diplomatic relations with Iran 30 years ago. I think you will find it impossible to get Iran visas.

"...Pakistan is right out..." I'm not sure what you mean by that exactly, but Pakistan has been in tulmultuous turmoil in recent days and is currently under a declared state of emergency.

Neither of these places are safe for you to travel at the moment.

Re-route?

Iran would probably not be a great route. I second uzbekistan - turkmenistan - ferry - azerbaijan - georgia - turkey. Although I hear the ferry to azerbaijan is a hassle, but doable if you have the right amount of bribe money... check out fullpassport.com and read about how they did it.

you could also go into kyrgyzstan and get a flight from bishkek to istanbul on turkish airlines. that way you could bypass all the craziness in between.

when are you planning on doing this route? I will be arriving in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on April 6th (a little ways off but not sure what your plans are) for a few months of russian lessons - so let me know what you decide! I may have a place for you to crash if you come to kyrgyzstan :-)

i also heard that passing from china into kyrgyz or kazak may be dangerous because of the terrain.

iran is possible... although i have not done this personally, i was told when i was in turkey (and trying to get to iran) you can hire cabs at the border to get you across. this is obviously extremely illegal, but it is happening apparently. when i was there it was very beginning of 2006. so this was fairly recent. i ended up not going because of time. i was told it would take a bit of trial and error getting a taxi driver to do this... and i was needing to be in istanbul in less than a week for a flight.

i also know from conversations with people that have been to iran that they are some of the most hospitable people in the universe. i think you would be extremely wise to not say much about being american, as this may hinder the process slightly BUT i feel like you could pull this off without a problem if you played your cards right.

is it gonna take some serious guts to pull it off? absolutely. but if you really wanna go i wouldnt give up on it.

also.. perhaps a much much much safer route to take would be to try and get a press/media-related visa. i think these are possible. you would need to work closely with the embassy though and it may take a lot of work.. or just plain may not even be possible.

G'day mate,

You can travel all the countries start from India-Pakistan-China than to the Stans.

north Pakistan is safe so just skip the cities streight to Hunza valley.

fun trip

Cheers Iman