Well, we are now in South Asia, and we ended up going through Central Asia, China and into Pakistan per my original post and I can say that it was an amazing experience!

Greg from Caravan Cafe organized the China portion of the trip and was very helpful and professional the entire time. We had no trouble organizing everything between us online.

The only advice I have is this...don't go too late in the year...we had to load the bike into a truck over both the Torugart and Khunjerab passes due to heavy snow and ice on the roads. This was in mid to late October. If you are planning on taking this route, get into Pakistan prior to October 1.

Putting your bike on a truck over an international border crossing can be quite expensive as there is usually some paperwork and bureaucracy involved. And the normal cargo trucks crossing borders are usually full and have no room for a bike, so these are not really an option.

The original cost to arrange the paperwork, permissions and guide ended up costing around $1100usd, but the extra cost of trucking the bikes through the snow ended up costing an extra $500.

Not cheap, but going through Central Asia was an unbelievable experience and one I can highly recommend for anyone seeking a route that's off the beaten path.

We will have more information on our HU blog sometime in the near future...

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Dave
www.mototrekker.com

[This message has been edited by davidmc (edited 12 January 2006).]

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Dave McMillan
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/mcmillan/