Hello,

Me and four of my friends plan to ride from Dubai to Nepal. We will cross Iran, Pakistan, India and onwards to Nepal. Can anyone here give me the latest update on border crossings between Iran and Pakistan? Is it safe? Which crossing should we enter Pakistan from? Anyone has any experiences with this?

I cant find enough information on the internet and I'm getting all sorts of mixed search results. I need to decide for sure before we make our plans.

Thanks

I have been researching this of late as well but sorry I don't have any first hand information for you.
You are getting mixed search results because the Iran/Pak situation changes almost monthly so info will vary.

As you probably know, you will need a Visa for both Iran and Pakistan (there are lots of posts on this, Google search:

site:horizonsunlimited.com pakistan visa

and look for posts in 2011/2012)....

Here is a good thread on border crossing that is recent:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...closed-63488-2

It discusses that the Taftan border is currently open and has been crossed in both directions in recent months. It also is apparently the only border crossing between the two countries for foreigners.

Areas east from Bam in Iran are said to be somewhat dodgy with smuggling of drugs and arms... and basically the same goes for Baluchistan in Pakistan. Especially Quetta seems to have increasing safety concerns.

But on the other hand, many travellers have ridden through there, some just lately, with no problems. Nobody can guarantee YOUR safety, because it depends on your own actions as well. Personally I think I would ride through there at the moment, but I´d follow the situation closely. Remember the travel advisories always list the worst things that have happened, may not necessarily be wrong, but how high is the likelihood, that something like that will happen to you? Among the highest risks to your safety will no doubt be traffic.

So, everyone has to decide for themselves, whether they want to go or not.

Did that route in June this year in my Mitsubishi Delica... After Bam I spent the night in Zahedan before crossing into Pakistan at the Taftan border....

My route was somewhat dictated to me my the police (made me attain a NOC letter in Quetta)

Dalbandin - Quetta - Sukkur - Bahwalpur - Multan - Lahore

end of the day its your call. The advice is received was to follow main roads... Dont deviate into the desert on your own, dont ride at night... Listen to the police escorts.... and you should be fine....

Borders wise the Iran/Pakistan (Taftan) border was a breeze for me.... Keep your wits, but they might assign a police escort to help you through the immigration/customs process. In fact the Turkey/Iran (Dogubeyazit) was a nightmare border in comparison

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I'm currently riding from Dubai to Delhi and most probably cross Iran - Pakistan border some time next week and then ride up to Lahore. Will let you know how it goes.

we crossed the border at Taftan with five bikes last week. No real issues, you get police escorts all the way in Iran from Zahedan to the border, which can be a pain as you'll have to wait in between handovers (can take up to an hour...). In Pakistan we were able to ride without escorts most of the time but had to stop at checkpoints and were taken off the road at sun set as the police doesn't allow you to ride at night. The hotel in Danbaldin is fine with free wifi and (not free obviously...)

In Quetta we couldn't leave the hotel without police escorts and got a NOC to travel to Lahore over Karachi as the more direct route (over Sibi and Sukkur) was deemed too dangerous.

All in all a great experience.

Some areas n balochistan need carefull crossing and the local law officials take good care of it. In all such areas they provide escorts.
For those more worried about security, taking a train with their bike in it is also an option.

Cheers
Omar

Hi,

Can one ride his own motorbike thro IRAN.

I am and Indian settled in India want to ride thro Iran into Turkmenistan. I want to know if there are any restrictions of riding your own motorcycle thro IRAN. We are all ridding an Enfield 500 cc We are 4 riders ridding to UK from Iran.

My plan is to ship the motorcylce from India to Bandar Abbas and ride from there on to Quchan into Turkmenistan Uzbek Kazak Russia Europe UK.

Kayjay

I crossed Iran and Pakistan last december by bike.

-----Iran: (BRING CASH MONEY)
Crossed the Turkey - Iran border in under an hour (gave a little money to speed things up - $20) and had to pay for bike insurance.
Normally you have to get a fuel card, but nobody mentioned it and I kept my mouth shut about it.

Traffic can be a little crazy, especially in the big cities.
On certain highways there are tollbooths, but they let me pass every single time without paying.

basicly I felt safe af in Iran


-----Pakistan:
You will get escorted as soon as you leave Taftan (unless you camp somewhere and just go), otherwise the venue you are staying will alert the police to escort you.

Took me 7 hours to go from Taftan to the border (around 80km) because I had to wait on escort switches which lasted hours and the Iran escorts can be quite rude.

Border crossing itself went fairly smooth, especially if you let them take pictures of them sitting on the bike
Nobody mentioned insurance, so I didn't either..

It took 2 days to reach Quetta, where you can't leave till you get your NOC.
Then I got escorted all the way to Multan, where I lost them thanks to a local who had police ties and offered me a place to stay.

About the escorts, some of them on both sides will ask for a gift (money), just smile and pretend you don't understand or that you have barely any money left cause you just left Iran where you can't use your credit cards.

So basically I felt safe in Pakistan but annoyed as hell because of the escorts.

To Kayjay, you know that getting a Turkmenistan visa is really difficult? So try to get that first.

I think if you have proper documents then no body can stop you any where. But in only 1 situation, You need to avoid any type of weapons or drugs. or also avoid to put a big amount of money in cash. just some 1000 or 500 $ is enough. and when you need it, you can use ATM. Pakistan has international banking system. And never do any thing which is not allowed in pakistan, like short clothes, openly drinking and firing etc you know. Pakistan is a very beautiful and interesting country in the world. And if you want to visit pakistan then surly you can. Thanks hope you can understand as well.

I have not been riding in areas like Pakistan or other high-risk countries, but...

Risk assessment in general always combines two factors:

1. what is the likelyhood that a event happens? This is a factor that the traveller can influence him/herself, e g by avoiding certain situations. If travel advisories talk about bomb attacks to religious sites and large gatherings of people, then simply avoid them. Of course this will take some of the experiences out of the trip but will reduce the risk.

2. what will be the consequences if the event happens? In the ultimate case this would be death. This is nothing you can yourself influence.

Now everybody has to do the math for him/herself!

Now you might call me a coward, but personally my free time is to valuable to constantly consider my safety!