Hi, i`m planning to ride to india from the uk september 2010, there will be 2 of us both on royal enfields. Does anyone know how difficult visas for iran and pakistan are at the moment. I`ve been told you might need an invite to get in to pakistan( not sure if this is correct ). Or does anyone know of a ferry from iran to india ( unlikley i know but you never know )

we went through Iran- Pak - India (currently in India) this summer. As you know things are not too good. We managed to obtain our Iranian visa by using David at Stantours. he is good and will give you accurate and up to date information. when we went through Pak we had to have a military escort. no choice.
we had to obtain a 'letter of recommendation' or it may have been called a 'letter of no objection'... for our visa application for Pak when we applied. this might be a real problem as I can not see any British embassy being happy about handing out these at the moment.
the only thing you can hope is that things will improve and not get any worse.

we looked into other route possibilities - ferries etc. but did not come up with anything. but our research time was short and you have time. so fingers crossed you will come up with a result!

first things first try to get info from David at Stantours. you do also know that you will need a carnet.....
good luck.

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Lisa
www.2ridetheworld.com

We sent our application off for our Iran visa a couple of weeks ago and are expecting our reply any day now. we decided to use an agent for this visa as it's vital for us to get this one efficiently and chose to use Persian Voyages. Narin at Persian Voyages was really helpful and didn't anticipate any problems. Included in her fee is the required LOI etc.

I've spoken to someone at the Pakistan HC in London this week after reading all sorts of horror stories but they seemed really helpful and just said that as long as all my forms were filled out correctly it should take just 5 days to process. They did mention that I'd need to have a pre-booked hotel or a letter from a resident national in Pakistan which I assume is to act as some sort of guarentee or LOI?...

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www.motoventurers.com

i went with iran travelling centre as the agent for my iran visa see link
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-contact-47865

for the pak visa i am pretty sure you will need a letter of intro / recommendation from your own embassy, probably cost about 30 USD.

provided you have the MFA number from the iranian agency, and the loi from your own embassy, both the pak and iranian visas should be obtainable in delhi. you have to go to each embassy, pick up bank account details, deposit the fees into their bank accounts etc. and generally waste time running around getting photos they are happy with etc. no big deal but expect to spend 3-5 days in delhi.

i think you will have the most trouble getting a carnet for your enfields. there is a link somewhere on hubb for the indian automobile agency and info on getting a carnet for an indian bike. i vaguely recall the link saying this is particularly difficult or painful.

i went thru india-pak-iran-turkey from 30 jan - 7 mar '10 and generally had a great time. i had escorts most of the time from sukkur-quetta-taftan-bam (except for when i left the 125cc bikes in the dust...) also i was never threatened or felt in any danger at any time. the pakistanis are a welcome relief after india...

if you can handle the BS paperwork in india, once you reach turkey you will feel the time and effort well worth the reward.

happy travels
dave