Thanks for all the infos!
 

All together at the Hubb, thanks for all the infos (and the good vibes:-)) you are all giving to us!!
We finally decided to make the trip, so we are looking forward for our own trip.
@Brian and Mary: Thanks for the infos, hope your journey will go on the same (safe) way it did till now! Love to hear from you on your ongoing journey!
@Bunda: Our starting date will be (probably) the 12. of August, let us know how your time schedule for the trip will be, perhaps we can meet and roll some days together, especially the problem zones are a bit more safe (and if its only for the moral) to make together...
@KennyE: Bombs in Quetta, shot holes in the windshields of the escort car, sound a bit like adventure. How was your security feeling in the area? Have you felt safe or was it a bit scary?
@(all the others) Keep on posting and keeping our moral up!!

We keep on posting all our infos that we will get the next days and weeks.

Greetings from (getting more and more excited)
Eva and Thomas

Hi Eva& Thomas,

At no stage did I feel threatened, although I did feel that we attracted more attention to ourselves in the towns/cities by having the escorts. The escorts were a bit tedious at times but we gave them a hurry up when needed. The Pakistani people are a friendly bunch.

Enjoy your trip.

I did it in 2006. At the time, there was a small war going on between rival tribes on the Iranian side. Also, there was no gas to be had in Zahedan, so the police took me to an (illegal) vendor. Taxi and police cars have their own pumps in Zahedan. No go for bikes!

From Zahedan to the border I got an escort. At one point it was a full-fledged truck with 5 guys and a center-mounted machine gun in an open bed.

No escort in Pakistan till Quetta. From the border to Dalbadin, it took me 8 hours. I got stuck for an hour or so (see http://tinyurl.com/c4trxf) when I had to take a detour because they were working on the road. That was August 14th and a LOT of sand had blown onto the road in various places.

From Quetta I went to Peshawar, then up to the KKH and down to Islamabad and out to India. Pakistan is GREAT ... you'll love it.

Iran/Pakistan
 

My partner Mick and I leave the UK 1 August to travel across Europe to Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and India, we aim to be in the Himalayas, especially Nepal and Bhutan by the end of September.

If things go really pear shaped, has anybody got any information about maybe a boat from either Oman or Iran to Mumbai? We can wory about coming home at a later date :mchappy:

Sue - the Old Adventurer - getting her old age pension in July and making whoopee!!

Hi Sue

Don't be put off by too much you hear about Pakistan. I've lived here a while, and it's really not as bad as the hype... Baluchistan seems to have settled down a bit, though it's not risk-free. Just remember though that even at the worst of times, I'd still say there's a greater risk from dangerous traffic and roads as there is from any kidnapping etc... I'm not sure if that's comforting!! India is even worse!

If you do decide to ship from Arabia to India, be prepared for a wait. There are ferries which take new cars, but they don't take private cars, unless you're lucky and make some good contacts. You can always container it, but it's a bit of a ballache and expensive...

So go through Pakistan!

Make sure you get your visa at home though, it's much easier.

Take care

Daniel, in Hyderabad, Pakistan

Care to eloborate? Curious minds want to know.

Thanks Daniel for your encouraging words. We have decided to go to India via Iran and Pakistan, reading travellers posts is always uplifting, it's the news reports that unsettle - but then - good news never sold papers!

Won't apply for my carnet though until I get that Pakistan visa in my passport!

Get the Iranian visa first. It's much harder to get.

Hi Eva and Thomas,

If you like a preview of your trip watch my videos on: Going East - Home

We did travel from Holland to Nepal end 2008 with no major problems.
Enjoy!

Hi Sue,

we also decided to make our trip, despite all the negative infos we get in the news. We will decide in iran, wether to make the border crossing or not, but at the moment, all looks like we will do it. At the moment we are a bit concerned about the fightings in northern pakistan, because our main target for our trip is the kkh. Let's watch the things as they go on, we have found some more local infos in Pakistan Newspapers : Newspapers from Pakistan : Pakistan news, looks a bit more realistic than the stuff you here...

So, we are also looking forward an hope :-)

Eva and Thomas

@Daniel: Thanks for positive words, we need it at the moment ;-)

Hi Guys,

Just crossed Pakistan last week and we had no problems @ all.
We met several other travellers onroad who were positive aswell.

For our route you can check the google map op our website Rondjeom.com (in Dutch only). If you don't want to ride a very long day on bad roads, take the two day route from Quetta South to Sukkur and then up to Multan instead of our route.
We only had a escort the last 150 kliks from Dera Ghazi Khan to Multan.

We did not ride the KKH because of the unrest in the north, but met other travellers who went there without any problems.

So far no problems, the heat and traffic is our only concern so far...

Greetings Sander

Sander en Jolijn: :thumbup1:

Bad news
DAWN.COM | Provinces | French tourist kidnapped in Chagai
The guys on the roof are police, not easy to know who you are dealing with.
Peter,in Oslo

Advise: Keep as low profile as possible.
When we were in Quetta end 2008 we also did get inside information about kidnapping. We then did stay 2 extra days in the hotel and restarted our travel unexpected.
You can read our story on Going East - Home

What do you mean with "very long day on bad roads"?:eek3:

I'm planning the cross of Pakistan for october. Bike is a Honda CB500 (road bike).

Possible/unpleasant/highly unpleasant/impossible ??