I’m happy to announce that I have finalized plans for a new set of countries to travel. I call it ‘Travel Volume 3: The Hippie Trail Quest’ which is based on my old man’s grand tales of hippies back in the days doing the trip to India via Iran and Pakistan. If there ever was such a thing, I don’t know. My dad loved to tell stories spiced up with exacerbated events. Anyways, he inspired me enough to travel to Iran, Pakistan and India. These countries are very far away from my initial dream of doing the Silk Road which would end with a cross country tour of Mongolia. Current situations made this dream a very difficult and uncertain endeavor.

Going from Georgia to Azerbaijan is not possible as the land borders of Azerbaijan are closed. You may fly in and out of the country but that doesn’t help much. I could go via Iran but that means I have to cross Turkmenistan which is sealed off for tourists. Going via Afghanistan is off the table for obvious reasons. If I did decide to fly into Uzbekistan from Georgia I still have to obtain a Russian visa to reach Mongolia. With the current war in Ukraine it’s not a sure bet for a citizen of an unfriendly European country to get a Russian visa. If the Russian visa fails I would have to fly into Mongolia which would land me on the eastern side of the country in Ulaanbaatar and that defeats the whole purpose of crossing the country. After Mongolia there is China and they are definitely not letting tourists in at the moment due to their strict COVID rules. Perhaps you can understand why all of that gave me a planning headache.

So I had a look at the world map. There is a land corridor south of the Himalayas which I can travel all the way to Myanmar. Myanmar’s land borders are also off limits for foreigners. But that country is so far away and easy to jump over with a short plane ride to Bangkok - if I ever should want to travel that far. That made an easy decision for me. I will go via Iran to Pakistan and then India. This has been done recently by other travelers. It’s confirmed to be doable.

Northern Pakistan and northern India have some amazing mountain nature which will be definite touring highlights. Biking there also means I have to time the seasons. I can begin biking north of Pakistan late March and then northern India during the summer months. I’m in Armenia now and it is October. I want to make it to the Persian Gulf and the coast of Iran before winter takes hold in the high altitudes of Iran. Then stay as long as my visa permits in the south of Iran before going to Karachi in Pakistan. My plan is to go for an extended visa in Pakistan waiting off a winter month before traveling north. This however depends on me getting a sufficiently long visa period for Pakistan. If that does not happen, I will sail to Dubai from Bandar Abbas in Iran, stay in Dubai for winter and then fly to Pakistan or India. Let’s see how it goes down the road. In any case, I’m excited about all of the different scenarios.

• news iran pakistan india biketouring

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armenia and mountains of syunik

2022-10-14 | blog

During my biketouring in Armenia I’ve cycled over high mountains doing the Vorotan Pass, the switchbacks of Tatev and the Meghri Pass. Camped next to the blue marvels of Lake Sevan and Lake Vorotan. I’ve visited Yerevan and educated myself on a ...

biketouring iran part 1

2022-11-07 | blog

In this bike touring blog for Iran, I am covering a big country and many miles of cycling. I’ve decided to split the blog post in two parts. In the first part, I’ll bring you from the Armenian border town Meghri and into Iran where I biked throu...