hello,

you re right to think about different alternatives and then take the most appropriate one, depending also on the time and the money that you have and facilities to get LOI/visas (according to your nationality) ...

Possible options Kazakhstan - Pakistan:

1: Tadjikistan - Afghanistan - Pakistan? Like Henri, is that legal, safe? Can one just get the Afghan visa?

legal : yes, why not ?
i wanted to but i didn t dare doing it in late 2002 early 2003 because of safety matters, things change, but, how could i recommend you to go ?
seems very exciting :-) but the riskiest option, i d say.

2: Kyrgistan (or Tadjikistan?) - China - Pakistan. Is this the famous Touragart crossing, expensive and all? Can it be arranged?

to be in china with a bike, officially, you need time to make the paperwork and pay a lot, unofficially see the different overlanders experiences on the hubb : if you succeed at the chinese borders, great, otherwise you need to find quick alternatives, eventually make visa extensions to wait for other visas, etc ...
seems very exciting also if you can make it illegally : otherwise, too much paperwork and money. also less risky than 1- , i d say.

3: Turkmenistan - Iran - Pakistan. Is the border open between the first two?

yes, why should it be closed ? henri and others were there recently. i did this option + ouzbekistan during my trip.
the easiest and safest route, i would say, and still exciting.

4: Fly from a stan to Pakistan (or India, my actual goal). Has this been done before?

why not ? no idea if someone did it before

Thanks for any input. I have two months two plan, so that should be ok.

sorry, not much help but good luck :-)

in this region, afghan, tajik, pak may be the less safe countries. other -stans countries are relatively safe. LOI/visas etc ... take also time and money sometimes, for your preparation.

NB : the info (details on each country) is a bit old on my website but you can have a look : http://vincent.danna.free.fr/infos/index.html

good luck, pls let us know

[This message has been edited by vincent danna (edited 24 June 2005).]

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Vincent Danna

* www.va-project.com
Sept 2008 - dec 2009 : Voyage et art contemporain en Amérique du sud.

* http://vincent.danna.free.fr/
2002 - 2004 : Un tour du monde en moto.