thanks matt, if i hear nothing from key2persia before i arrive, ill apply for a transit visa 1st in istanbul and then in ankara, ill let this forum know what happened

Hi there!
Visas might be the least of your worries! I have just come back out of Iran into Turkey, having been advised by the Iranians and the British Embassy in Tehran that Baluchistan (and especially the road to Pakistan) is a no go area. 12 people were shot dead there a week or so ago. A hard descision but my transit visa gave me no time to hang about and suss out the situation etc. I was in the middle of the country at the time, four days from either frontier! So had to make a snap descision. In the end, having no experience of this kind of thing I had to follow the official advıce and turn back.
The British Embassy reckoned the area was 'extremely dangerous'. Tourists are especially vulnerable they reckon and as I only saw one other tourist the whole time I was in Iran it looked like the rebels didn't have a great many to choose from!
I hope you get a full tourist visa whıch wıll gıve you the option to hang about and suss the situation. Good luck and take care, remember there ain't nothing heroic about getting shot dead on holiday!
Matt

Plan B
 

Kinda interested in the alternative route.

Matt- Glad to hear you gave those pesky baddies the slip

Hope you manage to get an alternative (and safe!) route to Nepal sorted soon.

Cheers

Mike

The End - not.
 

Matt,
Just read your blog. The Foreign Office have been warning about that part of the world for some time and it seems a shame to think that they're right (I'd love to make that trip too) but too much risk is a bad thing. From my nice warm, safe but dull desk I'm hoping that you can find an alternative route-good luck- but if you can't it looks like you might have time and, hopfully, budget to make the most of your return leg.


J

Dear JCBP,
Yeah, its a real bummer. I knew that the area was dodgy but it had been quiet for a while. I don't mınd a bit of risk when it's not too current and it's within reason but 12 people gettıng shot the week before one arrives in a place is just a bit lively for me!
However, the violence starting the week before you get somewhere is better than the day you turn up!
Unfortunately this was just where things start getting cheap too! So instead of spending the next while riding through cheap countries I'll be riding through Europe!
Am now toying with shipping my Bullet to India and doıng a circuit including Nepal and Pakistan. Can't keep a good (ish) man down! I reckon it'll be a year or so and will have to sell the XT to finance it but there's no point in whinging, at least I wasn't one of the twelve!
Matt

Regardıng alternative routes, I believe the only land route goes up through the stans then down through China and Afghanistan. Unfortunately way out my budget (was already stretching ıt ;) )

Rollin'
 

Matt,

Keep it rollin' rubberside down & keep on blogging - it keeps the rest of us sane.

J

cheers for the update matt, im currently in budapest heading for istanbul next few days. going to suss everything there, if you hear of any developments could you update this forum, ill do likewise. does anyone know of shipping by airfreight from turkey to pakistan?

cheers.

A few days ago a whole lot of people were stabbed - in Berlin. So, will you not visit Berlin from now on? I think one needs to look at the situation and not take a few incidents too seriously. There have been tensions between the local Beluchis and the Pak govt. for some time. But will that affect tourists? Thousands have been killed in Nepal, but bikers still go there and enjoy themselves. Anyway, everybody must make their own decisions.

I'm going later this year.

Dear Beddhist,
Wıth respect, people getting stabbed in Berlin is an entirely different situation. I'm well aware of the risks of worrying too much about 'percieved danger'.
Twelve people were shot dead the WEEK before I arrived in the area, it wasn't simply the general level of tension of which I was well aware existed in the area.
They were not shot dead in some general area but on the very road you HAVE to travel on to get to the frontier.
The Iranians used the term 'a considerable escalation ın violence' and the British Embassy in Tehran told me that tourists were specifically likely to be targeted. In the end, rightly or wrongly, I decided that being reletively ignorant of the specifıc situation (not being a Baluchistan political expert!) I would have to take the advice of experts who knew the area, the situation and the likelyhood of being shot; the best I could think of was the UK Embassy, and they said it would be (and I quote) 'extremely dangerous'. Note they did not say 'be careful' or 'its a wee bit risky.' Their advice was pretty unequivocal. In my opinion if you can't take the advice of experts then you are worse than an idiot.
However, I WOULD give it another go, at a different time. Hopefully the situation will have have calmed down and you won't find yourself in the same quandary when you get there.
Risk is cool until someone dies, then suddenly it isn't. I have been there more than once.

Matt

It strikes me that the problems along the Iran/Pakistan border are at least in part down to rebel/bandit activity in a particular area and thus very different to a non-specific threat or the occasional random acts of volence that can occur pretty much anywhere. The Foreign Office is warning against travel to that specific part of Iran and whilst to some extent they are likely to err on the side of caution the diplomats on the ground are not in the business of spoiling people's travel plans lightly. I imagine that most folks reading HUBB (dangerous generalisation??) have a pretty healthy ability to weigh risk in the context of travelling and I'm sure that Matt has made his decision in the light of the best advice he could find and weighing his dreams against his obligation to look after himself.

J

ignore the nonsense Matt, you're the one there and your decision is what counts. you'd think here of all places people would respect others' decisions and choose to say nothing instead of saying nothing positive.

have you thought about flying Ankora-Delhi? Colesy is flying that way and I think he said it was about £700.

Doug

I have the same problem.... need to get to Pakistan. Hope I can do it. Maybe Ankara to Delhi is not bad. I'm considering shipping from Jordan to Karachi. I'll eye-ball things for a while. In Turkey now, then Syria, Jordan, Lebanon.... then I'll see. Need to decide around Jul 15 what I am going to do.

People in Iran are very friendly. You are German and they will respect you.
I don't think you will face any problem.
May be I say this because I am Turkish but know that if you are an American, I would say: "Don't Go".

Yep, the Iranians are without doubt the freindliest people I have have ever had the pleasure of meeting. It made the whole situation in the south seem all the more bizzarre.
I lost count of how many times Iranians stopped me in the street and welcomed me to Iran and being British was never a problem.
I would love to go back some time and have a better look round.
Matt