Some infos. I am in Djibouti now, and I am arranging crossing to yemen. It's looking good, way better that I thought. Finding a boat is a piece of cake, just going to the port and ask around. Crossing with my car will be USD 380 plus fees of Mocha and Djibouti port (probably USD 250 all together).
Going across should take between 10 to 16 hours, depending on weather.
Getting the Yemen visa in Djibouti is a joke, made in one hour, no letter from your embassy needed or anything.

Now, my goal is to make it to Oman by the coast road, possibly. Anyone has information on it? Is the road and border crossing open to foreigner these days?

Thanks.

I have read recently that construction of a bridge between Djibouti and Yemen has commenced. Can you confirm that?

Since you are already going to Yemen: don't miss Sana'a. It will blow you away (not literally, I hope ).

The tourist police in major towns issued my travel permits. In the safer places I travelled without, but the situation has since deteriorated. Even back in 2007 there was a section of the coast road I wasn't allowed to use, but from Sana'a it's not even a detour.

If you have a GPS you can get some coordinates from my web site. If you have a Garmin GPS you can get pretty good maps from Worldwide routable Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap.

Let us know how you get on.

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Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

Hi Peter,
They didn't begin the work for the bridge yet, it's still just a project. I don't think there will be a bridge anytime soon.
Thanks for the info on the tourist police, I guess i will try to get authorization on the way. Seems that the situation right now is pretty bad, and I want to make sure I don't have the police against me in addition.

Another thing I just remembered: go to the tourist police in the morning and not on their day off (can't remember whether that's Friday or Sunday). I was told by the man in charge to come back the day before I was due to leave, "we are open 7 days". Yes, but on the day there were only two guys sitting on the floor stuffing their cheeks with qat and they just told me that I couldn't ride back to Oman, it was too dangerous.

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Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

FYI, I was able to do the crossing with my land cruiser for around US$700 including loading/unloading from Djibouti to Mokha. Crossing was 17 hours, but should be less if you get a better boat.
Once in Mokha, i drove to Aden, and was able to get a travel authorization from the police building just across from the Aden Hotel. Then, I drove, and was escorted by military from the first checkpoint all the way to Mukhalla (600km). They all ask you to pay, but you can just say you have no more money. From Mukhalla to the Oman border (600 km again), I went without escort.

Hi Nicolas,
I'm now in Oman, looking for a way to get across Yemen and on to Djibouti. I've been told that the road from the Oman border is closed to foreign vehicles, and I need to put the bike on a pick-up truck. Do you think that's bullsh*t from the travel agent, or the situation had changed since you were there ?

Also, I've been denied a Yemen visa in Dubai (they only do the Dubai residents).

Anyone else with up to date news on the Yemen situation ?

Cheers,
Laurent

PS: Oman is great, go there. Will post more.

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2- and 4-wheeled explorer and photographer
Overland Aventure

The Yemen border crossing seemed pretty laid back to me, I think you should be able to go through with motorcycle. But I am not sure of course.
Your biggest problem is to get the yemen visa. If they didn't give it to you in Dubai, you may have the same problem in Oman.
If you get stuck, two solutions. There are many boats who can take you and your bike departing from Dubai and probably Muscat going to berebera, Somalia, which is safe. But you will need to obtain the djibouti or ethiopian visa in advance, which may be tricky as well.
Safest solution would be to get the Saudi visa with 5 days transit and make a run to Jeddah where you can take the boat to Sudan.
I guess if you can get a Yemen visa, go for it. You will get a military escort from Mukalla to Aden, most probably. Road is very good and one of the most beautiful around the border area. Refuel every time you can, some places run out of gas. Mukalla is very nice and you get good food.

Yemen visa is a PITA to get since this year, after the US airplane incident.

You need to do it through a tour company (or a personal contact in Yemen) who'll be responsible for your safety, which means they want to escort you with a 4x4 car all the time ($$$). We contacted over 10 tour companies in Yemen and only one (Yamanat Tours, info at yamanat dot com) was willing to arrange us a visa so we could travel on our own (in return providing our detailed itinerary in Yemen). Cost 200 USD per visa for tour company (transferred through Western Union), who had to contact both Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sanaa who then sent the information to Yemen embassy in Muscat that we were granted a visa (it's the only way to do it outside your own country). Plus 10,5 OMR for Muscat embassy for issuing the visa. It took us 2 weeks to figure this out and get it done, so for you it will probably be quicker, but still try to reserve a good week for organizing Yemen visa in Oman. Make sure to be clear that you want to receive the original visa at the embassy, if you do. Otherwise I understand there is an option of having it sent by DHL to where ever you like to pick it up. Ours was valid one month for entry and then one more month to actually stay in the country.

We are on the way to Sanaa now. No problem with the border crossing on the coastal road. We were asked for 55 USD road tax or something at first but we got around it. Only had to buy insurance which cost 2,5 OMR. No escort till Al Mukalla. The road from Al Mukalla to Aden has become very tricky lately and police even don't want to escort you, since they will be the targets as well. The road to Sanaa through Marib is not possible at all. Currently Yemen really seems to be a country on the edge of abyss, which is pity since it's a fantastic country.

Will update you how it goes.

I guess it really depends what passport you carry and where you apply. I got it in one hour at the yemen embassy in djibouti for something like $35.

Margus,
this is good news. I've contacted Yamanat tours, Mohamed, he said no problem, it'll be 300$.. talking about inflation.. I guess the guys are trying to make up for the loss of tourism by overcharging those rare guys who don't have much of a choice.

Also, have you used Western Union ? it seems here in Oman they only deal with Omani residents, not tourists.

As for Saudi.. yeah, I did give it a try, but in Dubai the consulate only deals with UAE residents, they wouldn't even talk to me. They don't even care, they've outsourced the whole visa businnes to a private company! Plus, it seems the transit visa is very rarely granted for tourists.

Good luck and keep us updated on how it went and which route you've taken. Have you had trouble with the permits for some areas?

Nicolas, I guess the 35$ visa is old story, but good for you. Currently in France it's 125 euros. Even the Oman visa just went up from 7 to 20 OR!

Cheers,
Laurent

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2- and 4-wheeled explorer and photographer
Overland Aventure

This is way too much money. The $35 visa I paid was at the end of July. Every country has a different fee schedule.
And the escorts are free. When you arrive at the checkpoints, the police has to accompany you, it's the law. No need for private escort that are probably anyway police making extra money.
Remember that the most we pay, the most difficult it makes it for people coming after us.
Anyway, I know that sometimes there are no other way when you are stranded. Good luck to you.

What we heard from Muscat embassy is that the 200 USD we paid was actually very cheap (guy at the embassy said that tour companies pay well over 100 USD for different institutions in Sana'a to have the paperwork sorted, so not much left for them). Actually we were asked 230 USD in the end (and 270 USD if the visa is sent with DHL), but since they quoted us 200 in the very beginning we insisted to stick with it. I guess it is extremely rare case for them to make a visa this way and now Mohamed just knows it is too much hassle to make a visa for an independent (un-guided) traveller and to have all the information sent to another embassy abroad (to Muscat in our case). Maybe that's why the price now suddenly got "reasonable" and we were just lucky they made a miscalculation in the initial price quote. Interestingly still, one guy who arranged his visa through Yamanat just before us got away with only 150 USD.

The visa fee in Muscat embassy is 26 USD but they just do not issue visas for foreigners w/o the approval from Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs - and this is where the Yemen tour company comes in play since I doubt any personal contact or a regular friend in Yemen has the expertise to handle all the paperwork on Yemen side.

Western Union worked in Oman for us, effectively.

From border to Al Mukalla you're all good on your own but you'll be escorted from Al Mukalla to Aden (or a side-trip to Wadi Dawan and Wadi Hadramawt/Shibam which we did). We found it can be a problem to organize escort in Al Mukalla to Aden, we had to wait 2 days till some big group of rich western tourists took the same route with 4 Land Cruisers and we could go with them. We were told that no permit was needed if we traveled with an escort. In fact, we never went to the police station in Al Mukalla, instead our hotel did all the sorting.

To continue to Sana'a on your own then in Aden you need to take the permit from Security Council in Khor Maksar in Aden (ask from police or taxi drivers, people know where it is), make around 10 copies of the permit since you'll be giving them away on the road on different posts. No escort needed.

Currently in Sana'a and sorting other paperwork to continue. In sha'Allah all goes smooth...

Ride safe,
Margus

Hi Margus,
how's your trip, did you get into Ethiopia, and what about the story about them asking a recommendation from your embassy to get a bike into the country ?

I'm in Sana'a, but the funny thing is, in just a few weeks I've had a slightly different experience than you. I'm going to explain here for anyone interested in goign to Yemen, but that also means that the situation may still be completely different in a few weeks.

The border crossing was easy, they didn't ask for any road tax. They asked 2 OR for the insurance, but I gave them 1.5 and they were happy.

In Mukhalla, the tourist police told it was Ok for me to ride solo to Hadramout, not even a permit was required. Instead, at every check point the policem called Mukhalla and asked if I was OK to go. No prob at all in Hadramout, the police manager in Seyoun said I was Ok to go around alone as well, Shibam, Tarim, Wadi Do'an, all cool, no escort needed. I didn't feel there was a need for it either, even with all the AQAP rant.

The inland road to Sana'a was still closed so I had to get back to Mukhalla, back at the tourist police where they told me I could just ride it through to Aden. I was a bit skeptical about it, but I left pretty early anyway, and as I expected at the first check point 20km down the road they stopped me and called for an escort (waited 1h).

I changed the escort mid-way, and after lunch left with a police car with 4 armed cops. Then somewhere on the coastal road in the middle of nowhere we've been stopped by 2 guys from a local tribe armed with Ak-47 who discussed with the police for 15 min. Then they, uh, firmly "invited" me (and my escort) to their village 500m off the road. There I was served tea in the shade of a tree while the cops where talking on the cell phone (good thing there was a coverage!). And there was a lot of arguing in Arabic with a dozen or so armed locals, who apparentily didn't all agree about the next steps. Finally after 2h of negociation, I was free to go. The police was never in trouble themselves, but they stuck to me and didn't get wound up into a fight, they calmly talked them out of kidnapping a foreigner. I think that was the right thing to do, but it was a bit difficult to know what was going on as nobody was speaking any English. But as long as I kept a low profile, and quietly drank my chai, I wasn't hassled.

Back on the road there were 4 or 5 military vehicles and an officer welcoming me with a proud "no problem", but we all very quickly got the **** out of there, this time with enough firepower to scare away the disgruntled locals.

Aden to San'a was cool, just a road permit needed. In Sana'a I was interviewed by the head of the tourist police, asking me what I thought about the "incident"... well, what should I say, I got through didn't I ?

Bottom line is, I wouldn't quite recommend the trip although it's entirely doable, and Yemenis are pretty nice altogether (when they wear daggers and not AK-47).

Cheers,
Laurent

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2- and 4-wheeled explorer and photographer
Overland Aventure