It looks like we are ready

It looks like we are ready to start our adventurous trip – conquest of Asia. A bit scary…but our wish to travel, see and feel is bigger!

The purpose of this blog is to share our impressions and to write down our adventures for our memories which we will experience during our trip to Central Asia.

Who we are

We are 4 young Lithuanians who decided to travel in a bit different way when we used to. We are Viktorija, Ruta, Mantas and Laimonas. Three of us – Viktorija, Mantas and Laimonas – will start our trip from 11 June 2011 and our third team mate Ruta (me:)) will join us after one week in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (I will come by plane (Vilnius – Kyiv - Tashkent)). Viktorija, Mantas and Laimonas will travel by car through Russia and Kazakhstan to Tashkent, Uzbekistan where all the team will meet:)

Map of our trip

We are planning to visit Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, including Pamir highway (part of silk road). Our plan is to follow this route:

Vilnius (Lithuania) – Latvia – Moscow (Russia) – Ryazan (Russia) – Samara (Russia) – Uralsk (Kazakhstan) – Aktobe (KZ) – Khromstau (KZ) – Aralsk (KZ ) – Baikonur (KZ) – Kyzyl-Orda – Shymkent (KZ) – Tashkent (Uzbekistan) – Buxara (UZ) – Xiva (UZ) – Samarkand (UZ) – Pskent-Andijon (UZ) – Osh (Kyrgyzstan) – Kzyl-Kurgan and Sary Tash (KG) – Karakul (Tajikistan) – Murghab (TJ) – Rabat Sasok-Kul (TJ) – Dzhiland (TJ) – Khorog (TJ) – Dushanbe (TJ).

Duration of our trip

We will try to manage the abovementioned route within one month. As I will join my friends after one week, I will skip Russia and Kazachstan part.

Idea

The crazy idea to take Pamir highways was born in the head of Laimonas. He was following the impressions of participants of charity rally (which originates from UK) for a long time. One day he came with that idea to us and said – why not doing this now? I (Ruta) know Laimonas for a long time, we’ve been travelling quite a lot together, therefore, I thought – if Laimonas says that, we have to do it!

Preparation

It was last autumn (2010) when we started preparing our trip by firstly buying Lonely Planet – Central Asia. We all had tasks. Firstly, we have to read it, also search information on internet and then decide where to go.

After doing this homework, one nice and sunny morning we went for skiing to Poland and in the evening after spending a great time in the skiing slopes despite a pleasant fatigue, Laimonas and Mantas made a route for our trip with exact dates and places.

Equipment

Old car (with all spare parts), tents, sleeping bags, primus and ourselves:)

Just a few words about our car. We decided to go by car and leave it in Tajikistan then buy tickets to fly back home by plane. As me and Laimonas had our old cars in the yard we decided to go by one of them. These were Nissan Primera (1993) and Mercedes Benz (1984). However, after Laimonas made a research what cars do Tajik people like we were suggested that they prefer Opel rather than Nissan or MB. Laimonas made friends with local Tajik who was our guide as to what particular car we should buy. The boys started to look for a car which would be able to take us to Tajikistan through Pamir highways. And one day they found it! A green dream called Opel Astra of 1996:). We had to make some improvements to the car and to invest a bit, but it was worth it as we plan to go such a long way! Our metal horse costed us (including all improvements) approx. EUR 1000 .

Visas

That was probably one of the most expensive part of our preparation. We needed visas for Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Also my friends Viktorija, Laimonas and Mantas had to collect visas for Russia and Kazakhstan. As we had plenty of time we decided to arrange visa ourselves without any help of travel agencies (in which case we also saved lots of money), except for visa to Russia. It took us around two months to organize visas to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan and around one month to arrange visas to Russia and Kazakhstan. Average duration of visa is 10 days, except for Russia and Kazakhstan (approx. 5 days).

Tajikistan visa

Probably the easiest situation was with getting tourist visas to Tajikistan. We applied to the Embassy which is located in Berlin, Germany. A nice lady who was so kind to explain us everything on phone made the process very easy. We sent our passports along with the filled in applications directly to the embassy by post and in two weeks’ time we had our passports in Lithuania with Tajikistan visa. Along with this visa we also obtained permit to visit Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) (we had to state additionally in the application form that we want this permit). Visas cost EUR 50 each. We did not need any invitation letters. We also sent additional EUR 10 (in cash) for post services.

Kyrgyzstan visa

Then we applied to the Embassy of Kyrgyzstan which is also located in Berlin, Germany, for Kyrgyzstan tourist visa. The guy in the Embassy was not that fluent in English, however, he did his best to explain everything to us and we also had our visa in two weeks. Visa cost EUR 50 each, no invitation letter was required, we also sent additional EUR 10 (in cash) for post services.

Uzbekistan visa

Unfortunately, we needed Letter of Invitation (LOI) in order to get visas. And of course – it costs some money and only local (Uzbek) travel agency is accredited to issue such. So we started looking for a cheapest travel agency. After some research it came out that despite ordering the LOI we have to book all hotels for the whole stay in Uzbekistan and, of course, pay them in advance. The average price for a night in a hotel for a double room started from $50. As we are going by car (an old one!) and we may stop anywhere, such condition of booking all the hotels in advance was not acceptable to us. So we continued our search for a better proposal and we found! One travel agency - ClimberCA" Ltd. - accepted to issue LOI for $50 each without booking all the hotels in advance. So in two weeks we had our LOI and we were ready to apply for visa. The nearest Embassy of Uzbekistan is located in Riga, Latvia, so around 3 hours drive by car. We went there, paid 70$ per each visa (although they say in their web site that tourist visa costs 50$, however, they may apply some unclear additional fees, which, of course, they applied!) and less than in one hour we had our visas!

Russian and Kazakhstan visas

Viktorija, Mantas and Laimonas went to the Kazakhstan Embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania, and, as far as I understood, they were quite surprised that it was not that easy as it was with previous visas. Firstly, all persons had to be in person in the Embassy (funny, as Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are ok even with getting passports by post, Uzbekistan Embassy did not make any problems as we went there just two of us and had passports of other two friends). Then a person was not very friendly and helpful (e.g., he sent to get new copies of the passports because he considered copies which my friends submitted to him too dark, although he had a copy machine just behind him!), he asked many questions which we did not understood why (e.g., what we will do with our car, although they told him that Kazakhstan is not our final destination and we will only cross Kazakhstan). Anyway, they got that visa, but not tourist visa as they explained during visit to them that we need invitations for that, so my friends were issued transit visa, valid for 6 days J. Just for the information – my friends paid in advance to the Embassy a fee applicable to tourist visa. Tourist visa costs more than transit visa, however, although all their accounts are in Lithuania, they do not return money, i.e., if you paid more – it’s your problem….

Finally, Russian visa. My friends decided to do that through travel agency, Svite, due to many bureaucracy requirements. Just to mention, that Svite made some discounts taking due regard to number of people (3), so all in all it cost approx. LTL 170 per person (approx. EUR 50).

ANYWAY, we have everything now, we are prepared for challenges and READY TO GO!:)