Hi Hathan,

I've just been through Pakistan and Iran and I can't imagine how you'd get through overland without a CDP.

It's the first thing they ask for on the overland crossings after saying "Welcome to......". and I was often asked to show it at Police check-points, of which there were quite a few in Southern Iran and Balochistan in Pakistan.

Hope this helps.

Frank.

Hi hathan
I drove througt Iran from Bazaran to Bandar-e-Bushhehr and back Shiraz, Esfahan, Ardabil and border with Armenia. Except of Bazagran nobody ask me about CPD. I was stopped few times in cities by police only for invitations us to their homes and making pictures.
As I wrote before I was in Iran without CPD. It is possible but of course you have wait on border few hours for preparing documents and pay for that.

Save trip
Bartosz

__________________
Bartosz
www.wyprawy4x4.com.pl

hello
few weeks ago entered iran at bazargan border. big border, lot of people and a few people trying to get your money. were leaving iran at the southern border at essendere/sero. really small and quiet border. it is really easy. people are really helpfull. there are only some running moneychangers but not a real problem. i would really advise going there. only the road we took from the border to the west of turkey was a bit ''scary''. the road along hakkari and the iraqi border is full of military checkpoints and the military people are pretty nervous. small (not that good) but beautifull road. you don't feel really safe there. sirnak is good. has also some hotels and from there it feels safe. hope this is helpfull

@Bartosz: How much did you have to pay for CDP replacement (Temp. Doc) to the fixer?

"
No x-ray machine and no search in car and bags."

In 2011 after leaving Iran and on the Turkish side, my whole car was inspected (included with XRay machine) at this border .

RR.

Bazargan was definitely the worst border that we crossed.

Be prepared to all sorts of scams.

The Turkish side was great, everything very organized, friendly and helpful blokes. After having your stamps done and your bike x-ray scanned, they open the gates to let you go. Easy and simple.

The Iranian gate is face to face with the turkish one, so, once the turkish one closes, the iranian opens. Good! Now we were in. An overweight fella smart dressed came to us and politely asked us "passports and carnets please!", okay, passports and carnets handled to him. 30 minutes later, he came back asking to move the bikes a side and come inside the building with him. Than, we realized that HE WASN'T a staff member, he was someone who can nail you first, by the first gate, (while the rest of the scammers stay very after, at the bottom of the hill), he gets your papers, sort out your stamps to make you pay for some insurance later and make his money!
Well, we are not stupids, when we realized that he wasn't a staff of the border, we had a big argument with him, we toke ours docs back and started sorting out our stamps ourselves. (funny that, the border is such a mess that nobody uses a badge or an uniform to distinguish the staff from the crowd, you know who is staff because the person is behind a desk). You will need about three stamps and the carnet done, which can be done my yourself quite quickly (depends how busy the border is). After having the passport and carnet stamped, the border agent asked if we had insurance for the bikes... we said we have a green card that we bought in Turkey, he replied that it doesn't work in Iran, that we have to buy a new one, at this moment the fat fella came again like a vulture after a new piece of carrion, he joined the border guy and both started talking about the insurance, that we should come outside, get the bikes and follow them in a car to the bottom of the hill where a little building with INSURANCE written in the entrance was placed. I went to the building and a man behind a desk and computer asked me to have a sit, done. I asked to him how much was the insurance and he replied asking me to ask the two fellas that brought us there, at this moment I realized that something was wrong, if the man behind the desk, which works with insurance could not tell straight away how much the insurance was, is because there was something wrong about it. so, I asked the border guy how much was it.... 100 euros each for year, I replied saying that we just needed for 10 days! "Well, doesn't matter, you have to buy for a year" he said. After much discussion and a pile of stressful moments, we refused to pay this stupid money, so, he finally said, "you can go without insurance than, pay me 30 euros and you can go", I didn't have any small notes in euros, but I had 20 pounds note, so, that worked, and he let us go. The fat fella wasn't happy, of course, the scam didn't work with us and he lost money, bastard. So, finally we were free to ride Iran!

In our case, nobody asked us to buy any petrol card at all, and I don't think worth it, unless you gonna spend months in Iran. The petrol is very cheap even without the card, 7000 rials per liter, or 4000 rials with the card.

Just a note: at the bottom of the hill at the border you will find hundreds of people trying to exchange money and convince you to buy insurance... Be smart, make sure to check on line in Turkey what if the exchange rates for the currencies you have to Iranian rials, otherwise you will be lost to negotiate price with this guys. When in Turkey, we could not find any place to exchange money for Iranian reals, the only place we found was at the border and inside Iran.

Petrol in Iran is okay, I read here before my trip that the petrol is cheap but the quality is bad. Bullshit, the petrol is more than fine, actually, my bike got even more economic with Iranian petrol, I did't notice any substantial loss in performance, anyway, I wan't in a track day, I was riding a adventure bike in a public road. If you eventually ride take your super bike to Iran, just ask for petrol super at the petrol station, it has more octane, but it is not available everywhere.

When you get to the border, do not handle your docs for anyone polite just because he is dresses smartly. Park your bike a side and get inside the building to make sure about who is in charge.

Iran has one of the most friendly people you can find, but the borders and the police are disgraceful.

Make sure you have some money exchanged at the border, enough to have petrol, food and accommodation paid until you reach a big city. Yes, you can pay hotels with dollars, but the exchange rate is not gonna be that great.

Don't expect people speaking english so easy (unless you are in a big city), was had to make them understand the language of the signals!!!!!

BIG tips:
- because the Iranian money has so many zeros, they informally cut one zero from the money, so, 40.000 rials is equal 4.000 tomans. Get familiar with this! so, if they ask for 10.000 tomans, means 100.000 rials!
- get a mask, actually, get a mask and some spare ones to use all the times, Iran is very very polluted, if you are western, you will face a level of pollution that you never saw in your life, some times, the atmosphere gets so polluted that you barely see the end of the road.

If you need more info, let me know!

Good luck!

Hmm, seems to be a question of luck. When we went through this summer, everyone was really nice and helpful on either side. Someone made sure our carnets got to the right counter and did not want any money for this. No x-ray, no search or such, just checking frame and engine numbers. There also was a smartly dressed chubby guy asking for our documents, but we did not play the game and he was alright with that. Then there was another one, quite vicious, trying to scam us into buying a 'mandatory insurance', scaring us with stories about how illegal it was to ride without it. We asked for the price and politely told him we were not interested and he got angry trying to get some baksheesh for letting us off, but we told him to go and enjoy his solitude somewhere else, which he did. Never pay people to leave you alone - your just showing bystanders how to make quick money.

Iranians are extremely friendly and nice and you hardly find someone who is not - but if you ever get into a bad situation, just don't let anyone intimidate you. Physical violence has pretty high penalties on it, so even if people get agitated and seem on the verge of snapping, they very unlikely ever will. Just keep calm, state your points repeatedly and walk away if you can or get someone local to help you.
For every crook there are five bystanders who will come to your help.

I had a pretty nasty fight with a taxi driver in Tehran who tried to scam me into more fees. Took fifteen minutes, I walked him to the desk of my hotel and told him to call the police and in the end got my money back with him dropping my luggage on the pavement and shouting and swearing at me.

Just keep calm.

Just don’t carry alcohol and “curious” stuff. Nice country and people.[/QUOTE]
Hi
Does anyone know if you need 3rd party legal road insurance for a motorbike to enter Iran?
Thanks
Nick

"Petrol in Iran is okay, I read here before my trip that the petrol is cheap but the quality is bad. Bullshit, the petrol is more than fine"

Petrol, I don't know (but I believe it's fine). What is not fine is Diesel, and I'm sure because we had problems with our "injections" due to bad gas-oil (only good for their "old" trucks ans buses!
Yes I know that Bazargan is a lot of hassles and it's better in Sero (I've tried the both in 2011)
RR.

Hi,
I messaged the following to joasphoto brother here but please, I can use all the help i can get (Think i should start a thread on it):

Thank you for your informative post here and as I just read your reply below, I have certain you're the man to help me out with my problem. I intend driving from Karachi, Pakistan all the way to US (if the budget allows), but I certainly would like to drive to to most of Europe at least. I have driven within Europe before but that was many a moons back. I have a few questions I will put them down in bullet points below:

A: Crossing Iran into Turkey which of the two borders would you recommend, Bazargan or essendere/sero? Heard the latter is "Scary" with a lot of military checkpoints.

B: There is Just ONE CPD that my country, PAkistan, will issue and it works throughout the journey right?

C: Which route would you suggest to take through Iran coming from Pakistan and how safe is it? My other option is to book the car or van (I need to decide between the two), to Bandar Abbas and take the wheels from there on. I'm a filmmaker/photographer and hope to document a lot before i die. This venture is something i have always craved to do and now in my 40's, I think it's high time i take it on.

Thank you for reading this patiently. Hope to hear from you soon.
Take care. God bless.

P.s: Forgot to add... I'm not rich!