Just wanted to give you some feedback about geting visa in Dushambe for onward travel to the West
Uzbekistan visa
We got our Uzbek visa in Dushambe on the spot with an LOI from Stantours. The visa cost us 75$ each.
Iranian visa
We also got the Iranian visa in Dushambe in three days with a LOI from Iranianvisa.com. The visa cost 140$ each and took 3 days. You can only hand up your documents at the consulate on Friday and it will be generally ready on Monday. So if you come on Tuesday, they will tell you to come back on Friday to give your documents and have the interview. The prices are not coherent. A swiss guy paid 75euro at the bank and two other swiss paid 100 euro directly at the consulate on the following week.
Turkmen visa
The Turkmen transit visa took 8 days to process in Urgent mode. We asked for 5 days and were only given 3. We found it was very unfair since a french and three swiss (also cycling) who were processing their visas at the same time, asked 5 days with the same dates and itinerary as us and got them. Looks that being Canadian is not so good for Turkmenistan. The visa cost 55$ for Express (one week), 35$ for two weeks. Note that you need to have both Uzbek and Iranian visa already printed in your passeport to process this transit visa.
While waiting for your visa, I suggest you to stay at Aventurer's Inn Hamsafar. Despite of the not very organized owner, the place is very pleasant, offering kitchen, free internet, nice shower and you can put your tent for 5$ per person. Rooms are 15$. No breakfast as it was mention in the LP guide.
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