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Route advise for Central Asia Route advise for Central Asia
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Photo by Sean Howman, The Pamir highway in an unseasonably cold late October, Tajikistan

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Photo by Sean Howman,
The Pamir highway in an unseasonably
cold late October, Tajikistan



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  • 2 Post By Daan-N
  • 2 Post By eurasiaoverland

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  #1  
Old 8 Jul 2019
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Route advise for Central Asia
Hi,

We are planning on a motorbike trip, which we will start in September from the Netherlands with end goal Kuala Lumpur.

We are facing some difficulties with our route from Turkey on. We initially planned to drive through Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand towards Kuala Lumpur (purple route on the picture below). But, since there are a lot of political uncertainties now in Iran, we are looking for alternatives.

We are thinking to travel via Georgia, Azerbaijan and with a ferry to Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tadzjikistan, Pakistan, and so on (black + red route). But taking this route, it seems from Tadzjikistan to Pakistan we either have to pass China or Afghanistan. Afghanistan we definitely would like to avoid and it seems that crossing China for that part comes with a lot of hassle and costs.

We are also not sure of the safety in the northern part of Pakistan (Kashmir region), so as third alternative we thought of the green route. But again, we would like to avoid traveling too long and costly in China.

It would be great is anyone with (recent) experience on these routes could advise us on that.

Thanks a lot

Daan & Rahel
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  #2  
Old 9 Jul 2019
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Following this thread since I am in similar situation with regards to China. When are you planning to enter China if it has to ?

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  #3  
Old 9 Jul 2019
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Afghanistan: not advisable due to security and logistics.
Black / red route: you will need to pay for a tour through China, try to find a group. I think you will have to enter China from Kyrgystan.
Green route: not heard of any foreigners taking the Xinjiang - Tibet highway through Ali for quite a few years. Even if it's possible this would be hugely expensive, far more so than the quick route from Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan.

Northern Pakistan is safe (apart from a few areas away from the main routes). It is not Kashmir - that's a separate area (Google: AJ&K) which you won't pass through unless you specifically want to (and have the necessary permits for AJ&K).

I would not worry about security in Iran, it's a very safe country and you will pass through oblivious to the garbage being shown on the news. The issue is that if your bikes are larger than 250 cc, they will not be allowed to enter Iran.

So if you want to do this trip, you will need to pay for the China guide, unless you ship your bikes.

EO
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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.
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