Carnet de Passage

Went to the ADAC headquarters in Munich today to pick up my Carnet de Passage for the motorcycle. The Carnet is kind of like a 'visa for vehicles' and is mandatory for a number of countries, including Iran, Pakistan and Australia. (I can't recall the complete list of countries where the carnet is needed – if you're preparing a similar trip, check with your local vehicle association – or better: try the forums on Horizons Unlimited).

After pre-arranging a meeting time at the ADAC, the whole process was very straight-forward and only took about 45 minutes, with a bond of €3000 paid in cash. I'm lucky to have German nationality/residency (and a German bank-account, so the bond can be paid back once I finished my travels): because the bond for the ADAC is relatively cheap compared to the UK RAC's equivalent, the ADAC was very popular for UK-based motorcycle travellers for quite a while. In the UK, the deposit/bank-guarantee for a carnet can be up to 8x the value of your vehicle, depending on what countries you'd like to travel through. However, the ADAC recently stopped issuing carnets for non-German residents – rumours say the RAC wasn't too happy about losing business.

Leave a comment

Tajikistan Consulate in London

Just thought I'd share the good news for those of you from the UK who're planning to travel to Tajikistan in the future: Tajikistan have just opened a consulate in London. The address is 33 Orvington Square, SW3 1JL. Telephone number: +44 (0)20 7584 5111

Leave a comment

Kyrgyzstan Visa

Got the Kyrgyzstan Visa back today. I had applied for an express service at their Berlin embassy, and express it was: 4 working days (not counting the time to mail it back & forth). Krygyzstan and Tajikistan were the easiest visas: no letter of invitation, 2 1/2 weeks processing time for both of them, and no time limit on entering the country. Visa's left to do now are: Iran, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and India.

The Letter of Invitation (LOI) for Iran will arrive before the 17th of April. (I can highly recommend David from Stantours.com for sorting this out). After that the passport has to be at the Iranian embassy for 3 (express) or up to 10 working days.

Leave a comment

Tajikistan Visa

Got my Visa for Tajikistan back from the Berlin embassy today. Processing time (door-to-door) was 7 working days. I had applied to the GBAO permit for the autonomous region Gorno-Badakshan, but I can't see it penciled in on the visa – so will have to contact the embassy next week.

Leave a comment

Uzbekistan Visa

Finally got my Uzbekistan visa in London today. What should have taken 5 days took over 2 weeks after all. I even had to supply an additional letter from my employer, stating that I'm going for "non-professional purposes".

After some further questioning at the embassy (with no sense of humour whatsoever), I finally managed to put a smile on the embassy official's face the moment I mentioned motorcycling: "By motorcycle? Are you part of the Mongol Rallye?" - "Only two of you? Wow!" - "Which motorcycle? Which route?"...

What used to be a dry and bureaucratic government official, became a very friendly and enthusiastic chap – and I'm now looking forward to visiting his country.

Leave a comment

Uzbekistan Embassy in London

1st peg in the sand: I went to the Uzbekistan Embassy in London to get the visa-applications rolling. When I phoned them up last Friday, I was told there's "long queue, very long queue". Niet – no queue at all :)

To make a good start even better: the visa might be ready as early as 3rd of March. And, being German citizen I don't need a letter of invitation either. Happy days!

Leave a comment

4 Turkmenistan Embassies - 4 different answers

Over the last few days I inquired for a Turkmenistan transit visa. One would think this is reasonably straight-forward to obtain, given the fact that I've got plenty of time (about 2 months) to sort out "all things visa". Well... here's a bit of "entertainment" for you: In order to get a TKM transit visa, I need visa from the bordering countries – in my case Iran and Uzbekistan. Problem is: The Iranian visa is only valid for 3 months. As I'm intending to leave the UK beginning of May & want to enter Iran beginning of July, I can't apply for Iran any earlier than April – and the visa application takes up to 3 weeks (with my passport being at the Iranian embassy for those 3 weeks). However, processing time for the TKM transit visa is up to 2 weeks (in which case I'd get my passport sent back home when I'm actually on the road already).To cut a long story short: I phoned up 4 different TKM embassies in Europe, trying to juggle dates around. And I got 4 different answers. I don't want to go into too much detail about their Berlin, London & Brussels embassies (going anywhere from unfriendly to actually being helpful).

Top jigger (and my advice if you intend to do a similar trip): the Turkmenistan embassy in Vienna/Austria. VERY friendly, VERY helpful and it completely fits the "overlander's bill": apply any time in advance & wait for the result after 2 weeks (even without leaving your passport or having obtained the Iranian visa). Once the visa is granted: make an appointment, go to Vienna, pay the money, present the passport (with Iran/Uzbekistan visa stamped in now), get the TKM visa – job done. According to the Vienna embassy it is "very rare that a transit visa doesn't get granted".

The whole Turkmenistan thing gave me a bit of a headache, because it's the only way to connect the Silk Route from Iran to Uzbekistan. (Only other option being Afghanistan, which is not on my list of preferred countires, given the current political situation).

Leave a comment