Southern road from Khorog, Ishkashim and along afghan border
 

Hi everyone,
I'll be heading to Khorog this week, and I would like to take the southern road from Khorog, through Ishkashim, and continu the road along the wakhan corridor until it goes back to the main Pamir highway.

I just heard yesterday from other bikers (from HU as well :scooter: ) that a special permit is needed for this road. I already have my GBAO permit, of course, but I never heard of this extra permit. I can't find the thread on the forum, just posts that mention the road but not the permit.
I know I need a special permit to ride in the wakhan corridor on the Afghan side. But I'm not planning to do that and will stick to the Tadjik side (single entry visa.).

Does anyone knows about this permit ?

Cheers,
JB

Hi

as long as you continue from Khargush to the Pamir highway, the GBAO permit should be sufficient. Only when you plan to pass via Zorkul, you need to pay the entrance fee of the National park. This is usually checked by the soldiers. You get the necessary ticket in Khorog or in Murghab.
When we were there, even with the NP ticket, the soldier tried to make problems, saying you need also approval from the border guards in Ishkashim, but I never heard from anybody else about this issue.

Enjoy it.

Christian

GBAO permit is all you need, if you go back on the M41 through Khargush Pass.
Permit is needed for the Zorkul lake area, as Chri8 wrote, but I doubt you want to ride until there.
This infos are from last year, I don't know if something changed this year, but I think no.

Actually lonely planet still say you need a "special GBAO permit" to go to Ishkashim, but is not true.
GBAO permits can look different each other (depends from where they are issued) but they are valid all for the same areas.

He is right. Since my GBAO permit is on an extra piece of paper this year I play a game of not showing it at the checkpoints. So far nobody has called me out. :-)

Unlike last year, Lake Zorkul is open. You can get a permit at the PECTA info in Khorog city park. It is 35 TJS pp/day plus 10 per motorbike.

great, thank you all !
Yes, I intend to take kargush pass, not to go further on the south road. So my GBAO should be enough.

On mine, I don't have any mention about which regions I'm allowed in, but just a mention about the lake Sarez.. I'm not allowed in :welcome:
I guess I can go anywhere else..

Not true: GBAO permits can look different, but they are all valid for the same area.

Did you saw this permit from "someone" with some region written but not Ishkashim? Or did you saw a lonely planet guide in his hands?

I think it is theoretically possible to have limited areas. After all, the intent of the permit is to restrict movement of the local population. Practically, most foreigners will just get a stamp in their passport at the embassy or consulate that says "all areas, except Sarez Lake". I have seen probably a dozen different variations of the stamp. The checkpoint guys often don't know what they are looking at in a foreign passport.

This year I have the separate piece of paper from the OVIR. The areas are handwritten and individually listed. I make a point of not showing it unless specifically being asked. So far so good. As always they ask what country I am from after they study the passport for a while :-) I think they assume as a foreigner you are good to go. Either that, or the "bike talk" distraction works too well.

How many areas do you have in your permit this year?

Actually I think the sentence on LP and the following spreading of the needing of "Ishkashim" written on the permit can have been generated from some guard at some checkpoint in search of some well hidden extortion...

Ok, so it looks different than the many different versions of passport stamps, but this doesn't mean that it's not valid for travelling to Ishkashim.

Unfortunately, the absence of Ishkashim, can be a good excuse for some corrupted guard to ask for some bribe, but the validity of the permit should be the same.

My handwritten one does list Ishkashim, but as mentioned before, I never showed it at the checkpoint between Khorog and Ishkashim. Just gave them my passport.

If it works, this is absolutely the best way to pass, Ishkashim being written or not on the permit:-)

In 2010 we had problems, because of the GBAO-permit, stamped by the Vienna consulate.
The stamp did not contain the Roshtkala-district.
We were stopped by the KGB far beyond Roshtqala, where the valley was already sparsely populated, and they wanted to turn us back. We should ask in Khorog to get the district included. They absolutely knew about this omission of Roshtqala.
After some hours of tee and eating together, we could pass without the permit, though.

I read many times about problems with Roshtkala not being on the stamp of the permit and actually as for last year it was not yet on the permit stamp from Bruxelles consulate.

Anyway, I think it was, and maybe still is, like I said before, only a good excuse for the guards to ask for some bribes...

Strange that they would bother writing that on there ... its pretty much impossible to get to Lake Sarez by motorvehicle anyway. Its certainly not going to be on your travel agenda. I dont know of anyone who has been there with a motor vehicle of any sort. But at least you know that you cant hike there either now!

Indeed this stamp is now also finally in our passports, even in English. So no problem any more about the regions.