Hi all,

I know this has been discussed to death but I am still confused.
We are now in Shiraz and we will get in Zahedan in a few days. I am a bit worried about the Zahedan-Quetta leg.

At what hour does the border open ? The lonely planet guide says 7 am iranian time. There does not seem to be enough time to reach Quetta in daylight.

Can you go from Zahedan to Quetta in one day ? Or it's better to stop in Taftan overnight and start next day to Quetta ?

How long does it take from Taftan to Quetta ?
Do you have to notify the police (iranian ? pakistani? ) of the crossing or not ?

I would really appreciate some pointers from the veterans.

Everybody here in Iran is looking at us like we are mad when they find out that we are going to Zahedan.

thanks,
Ciprian

Zahedan - Quetta in one day ? ...... not possible ....stay in Taftan for the night. There was a hotel right next to the border .... Only one in the village too..

Taftan-Quetta ? ...hmm... i think it was around 600 km... There is a gas station around 150 km to Quetta ...before that only drums...

There was no need to inform police or anything ... quite sure still not needed

They look at you as if you are mad in Zahedan? .... They used to look at me like all through the route ....

Cheers,

Best bet is to overnight at Dalbandin - halfway. Most people overnight here.

Road between border & Dalbandin was very good so we thought we could push on & reach Quetta in the same day, however road conditions deteriorate after Dalbandin so much slower.
Ended up spending the night in Nushki - quaint guesthouse left over from colonial days. Locals very welcoming but undercover ISI agent found us while we were out eating dinner & forcefully suggested we would be safer remaining in our guesthouse....

__________________
Rich
www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/richardandlisa
www.youtube.com/richparkie

Hi,

The Iran border closes at 16.00 exacly! But it is a nice border and they don't mind if you camp there. We went from Kerman to Bam (stayed on the carpark of a very big hotel on the left before the roundabout to the center - police will know and it is in the Lonely Planet - its free. Next day from Bam to the border (left at 6.00). Fairly good road.

We just went through the border on time and stayed on the pakistan custums carpark. They will take you there for your car or bike. There is a hotel 30 meter away from there aswell, but the customcarpark was for free aswell.

Taftan to Quetta is 600 KM. From Taftan till Dalbandin you can do in half a day, but the road after that is realy bad. One biker did it from the border to Quetta in 12 hours and was exhousted. We with our landrover serie 3 took half a day to Dalbandin (stayed at the policestation - you can camp in there courtyard of the prison! - but there is 1 bad hotel aswell)

From Dalbandin to Quetta, one day. Bloomstar hotel is waiting!

People say it isn't safe, but we didn't feel that way and people were really nice. Good luck!!

Miles

MilesToGo

Milestogo, as Im planning to go there in a bit more than a month, may I ask some more: have you had police escorts in some places, if so, where and how´s travelling with them?
How is Pakistan in general, roads, people, security.. do you plan to spend a long time in the country?

We stayed the night in Zahedan then crossed the border early. We rode steadily to Dalbandin and pitched out tent in the police station compound, where they let us use their basic facilities.

Next day we headed off to Quetta and stayed at Bloomstar Hotel (where an illegal went down a treat!)

We headed north from Quetta towards Ziarat and stopped here for 2 nights where we were clocked by the police but no problems. Onto Lorali where the road became hellish as it quickly turned into a mixture of deep sand, rock and gravel.

Along this route we camped in a military oficers mess and petrol station without any problems and this was probably our highlight of Pakistan. We got picked up and escorted by army/police at DG Khan to Multan.

As a woman i felt very comfortable in Pakistan, the people were very friendly and hospitable and i would love to re-visit one day.

Hi,

The police escorts in Pakistan nearly sent us mad, we argued and told them we didn't want an escort, tried every trick in the book but they continued to escort us most of the way from about 100km before Quetta all the way to Sukkar and on to Bahawulpur (the road via Lorali was closed to foreiners at the time due to unrest).

"Escort is for your safety Sir"
"Oh so this area is unsafe then"
"No no, Pakistan is very safe, very friendly Sir"
"Why do I need escort then"
"Escort is for your safety Sir"
"Ahhhhhhh"

We managed to avoid escort from Taftan to Dalbandin by leaving town without reporting to police like we were told we had to. But after days of escort from Quetta to Bahawulpur we made a plan to escape by leaving early and quickly, told hotel staff we were going in opposite direction and made a quick exit towards Multan. No more excorts in all of Pakistan after that. There is a little more info and pics in our HU story if interested, address below.

Regards
John
www.horisonsunlimited.com/tstories/skillington

If you wish to avoid the crappy, hellish road through Loralai then I suggest that from Quetta you head SE to Jacobabad then north through Punjab.

Have yet to hear of anyone with good things to say about the route through Loralai....

__________________
Rich
www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/richardandlisa
www.youtube.com/richparkie

Hi Pecha,

We went from Quetta to Lorelai and spent a night here. The roadconditions till the junction to Lorelai where pretty bad. Lots of fun but tyring.

After Lorelai we went ot Fort Munro and came into Punjab province. From there on we got escort and weren't even allowed to visit the fort. We had to drive till 0100am to reach Multan. We were not allowed to stop and sleep altough we almost fell asleep. This area was restricted and they were constantly asking from whom we got permission to travel here. Our only respons was showing the visa.

The road was oke. In Multan we slept at the policebaraks were the recruits got trained. After that the escorted us to the bazar for shopping and to the pologround to watch a game.
In the afternoon we were escorted to Lahore all the way.

There we were twice remove from our sleeping spot and finally brought to the Police headquarters. At 2400 hrs. They decided that we had to go. After two hours discussion we finally went to bed.

We had to report if we wanted to go to Islamabad, because the wanted to escort us. We had enough and went escorted to Wagha border.

Roads to lorelai pretty bad, from lorelai to fort munro, pretty bad. The mountainpass after Munro was under construction so we had to wait half a day to get through.

People in Baluchistan, very very nice. Punjab the same. We felt never insecure but the police kept saying that there were great risks. Probably because Musharaf wants no trouble before the election in november!

Try to get rid of the escorte and you ll have a great time in Pakistan!

Enjoy.

Hi all,

Thank you for your answers. We arrived in quetta. We had an escort from kerman to zahedan, but we managed to escape them after that. No escort from taftan to quetta.
We stopped in danbaldin over night.

Hi all,

Just a quick update, after quetta we had police escorts all the way to lahore :-(

In multan no hotel wanted to give us a room, we thought we are going to sleep in the police HQ... finally the police chief was able to persuade a hotel to give us a room for one night.

" In multan no hotel wanted to give us a room"
What is the concept of the hotels in Multan then.... and why dont they want to accommodate foreigners - hotel owners must be well off around those parts, then, or what?? Has this happened to you many times in Pakistan, or just in Multan?
Weird stuff! But thanks for the update!

Well, people were scared, they would only give us a room if the escort would remain in front of the hotel. I don't know what were they scared of, we had no problems whatsoever.

In Sukkur one hotel refused us also.

That does NOT sound very encouraging, if the locals are afraid. Good to hear you had no problems, however... but overall the news about the country are getting worse by the day. Guess we´ve really managaed to pick the perfect time to visit Pakistan, just before the elections!

Even their embassy in Stockholm wanted to know very precisely, for our visa applications, exactly where in the country we are planning to go. They´d want to see our flight tickets and hotel reservations, which we obviously do not have.

It's not the locals that are afraid, only the hotel managers. If you go to the hotel with a police escort, the receptionist has to sign a paper that you are in their care. They have no reason to take responsability so they just refuse to give you a room.

If you can get rid of the ecort you have no problems.