Hi Guys,

A bit of information from experience...

A couple of friends scouted out the Omid Inn a couple of weeks ago for potential to stay there. Although there is a courtyard, the hotel is apparently not too nice (it smelt of wee). Instead we went to the Akhavan hotel which also has secure parking behind for bikes and will let camper vans stay there too. It is a tad more expensive than the Omid but it depends on what you are willing to put up with; you get what you pay for - at the Akhavan you can haggle if there are a couple of you.

You will need police escorts all the way from Bam to the border which closes at 2pm Iranian side - Pakistan is 2 hours ahead still I think. Try not to give your passports to the escorts, they wont give them back and will delay you longer than necessary. Keep pestering them and they get fed up. We just keep repeating where we're going to to any question asked and they eventually will think you're stupid and give up and let you go Yn Shallah.

Camping is possible at the border, we camped on the doorsteps of the hotel for free who wanted $30 for 3 of us and refused to accept $20 for beds.

On the Pakistani side we were really lucky and had no escorts from the border all the way to Quetta. Do this in 2 days, its much more enjoyable. There is a hotel in Dalbandin for 300Rps a night.

There are no petrol stations between Taftan and Quetta. Fill up in Iran on the cheap. Black market petrol is available in Dalbandin.

About 20km after Dalbandin there are some salt flats on your right hand side, great fun to mess about on for an hour (if you have no escorts!) If you do, play around anyway.

From Quetta you're supposed to go south to Sukkur then up to Multan and Lahore, we went straight across to Lorelay with escorts, then across to Multan, but the road is shockingly bad for about 60-70km after Lorelay - A friend snapped his White Power rear shock in half on a bump! Apparently you are supposed to have permits to do this but we just made a dash for it anyway.

In Lorelay we stopped at the most unsecure police compound in the world. Everybody seems to live in there and people just climbed over the walls to say hello. Seriously annoying after a long days ride.

It took us 16 hours to get from Lorelay to Multan, the police wouldnt let us stop anywhere and we had an armed division guarding our bikes all night.

We had escorts all the way to Lahore but they were much more organised for this stretch and it is all good road.

Good Luck!

Duncan - Currently in Lahore.

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http://ktmthump.blogspot.com

hez guys been great reading zour reports about whats installed for me ahead sounds like a bit of a pain but should all work out in the end
im in istanbul now should have iran visa tomorrow morning then im headin down the med side of turkey and back up over the next week then onto iran where i have to get pak and i believe indian visa there as well so that could take a bit more time then on wards pretty fast to india if anzbodz else out there is looking at doing the same let me no and will meet up for a ride and a chat about routes ect..
oh and im 24 on an old 250rs
cheers john

Hey guys.
We passed over to Pakistan yesterday. We had no escort until we passed through a checkpoint outside Zahedan. Think we got lucky as we didnt have to wait long at checkpoints to pick up new escorts. We drove from Zahedan to Quetta in 16 hours which I think is fairly good considering how bad the roads are for a car. Definately the hardest day so far. Had a guard in the car most of the day but in the evening we were followed by 4x4 police jeeps...dont be afraid to just drive off on these escort (espically when there driving at 20 mph), there is another one waiting for you just up the road and there just happy to see you out of there area.

Take it easy....you will need to on these roads

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Liam

see you at the embassy ın the mornıng perhaps.. ıstabul hostal at the moment, bıke ın gallıpolı f65.

Andy

We're currently in Bam and are heading to Zahedan tomorrow. Will be crossing on 23rd. With one other vehicle. Haven't heard from anyone else, assuming you're sorted?

Jo