Entry Visa at Sust for the over-landers from China

Bonjour from Hindu Kush, Chitral,

In response to the posted queries, the emails and calls from the travelers about the entry visa at Sust, let me update the forum.

The VOA at Sust for 30 days is still issued to the over-landers from China to Pakistan.

Later that could be extended at Gilgit, Skardu, Chitral and Islamabad.

This facility is almost for all the nationalities except Indian and Israeli passport holders.

Moreover, the Kalash Spring festival "Joshi" will be celebrated in the valleys of Rumbur and Bamborate (14th to 16th of May) in Chitral, Hindu Kush.

The wild Hindu Kush style polo, will be played at the highest polo terrain of the world, Shandur pass, from 7th to 9th of July.

So let's go to the land of mountain gods and enjoy the songs of fairies.

Bon voyage au Pakistan..

Edited by: chitralguy

Good information for the tourist

thanks and take care!

Hi Imran,

That's the exact info I've been looking for. The BBC finally had an article on the Hunza river lake and the possibility of it overflowing. I see that General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, Chief of Army Staff,has just visited the lake, so now there might be some positive action taking place, Inshallah.

Has anyone come down the KKH from China this season yet?

Cheers,

Steve

Thanks Steve for the comments.

General Kiyani visited the lake and the calamity stricken people from Ata Abad yesterday and it seems the things are in the final stage and I hope it wouldn't affect the settlements on the banks of Hunza river.

I've not met any traveler from China yet, let's wait for some genuine travelers to come up with reviews.

Ciao,

Chitralguy

and the cost? what currency?

thanks

It depends upon the nationalities, you could pay in Pkrs.

Ciao,,

Thanks for this good news! So I assume this means that Chinese officials are letting foreigners on busses without visas? thank you!

Happy travels my friend..

Glad to know this, will be waiting for updates from travellers :)

Hi!

Got VOA in Sust 10 of May. it's ok!

so how it goes - check post @ Tashkurgan, frontier guard asked me, do u have pakistani visa?
me - not yet, but @ sust - VOA
he - wait a minute pls (go to the room for something like make call - don't know) -
after 5 min - exit stamp in my passport, BUT - be sure u have double or multi entry china visa, because in case of problems @ sust u'll get stuck @ 4 700 masl pass and cannot return to China. also my friend had single entry china visa and the guards hadn't let him out of china. also - i've been told that let u chinese get out or not - it's like a russian rulette, the phone not working etc..., depends on good karma ;))

then few hours in the bus, @ Sust:
me - hello guys, whats up?
pakistani guards - so do u have visa?
me - not yet
guards - so u can get it, no problem, the cost is 150$ (it's only for russians and usa, overall - much cheaper).
me - yep, i know, it's not problem.
guards - welcome to Pakistan, sir!!! (all 4 ppl, working at the border - 2 guards, the chief + accountant - all doing something to arrange visa for me %))

i don't know, do u need this information? i had tickets from kashgar to home 10 days ahead, but army closed the roads and boat service. i asked them to help me, because my tickets cannot be refunded and date-changed, and i have only 100$ cash - that's not enough for any flight from islamabad to anywhere. so please - help me to cross the lake, because otherwise i cannot return home.
all the pakistani army did can do @ the moment - to call the press and make press conferense. i've hanged around their headquarters 2 days - a lot of media, a lot of some government ppl - or who they r. so the first day - was cloudy and raining and they said the boat service is closed, and the hellicopter cannot go such the weather. but the second day - the weather was perfect, few hellis with the media persons flying via the region all day long. but when i told them 'bout my situation, they said - sorry, man, but today hellis only for media ppl, but tomorrow if (1) the weather will be fine, maybe (2) will be hellis and perhaps (3) - we can help u to cross the lake.

so i head down to islamabad, bought one way ticket to home for 600$.

my advise - u can go, and the kkh adventure absolutely the MUST, but keep in mind u have to be very-very not fixed-dated of arrival/return due to the lake situation.

and keep in mind - the road conditions is awful weird!!! it's not the highway as they call it - it's pure off-road treck!!! from karimabad to gilgit - 103 km (5 hours by bus), gilgit - raikot bridge - 3 hours, gilgit - islamabad - 28 hours.

and wish to thank all u guys here at the forum for support and help, especially tim (dog) for his great report, that my travel come to life. it was absolutely the great (had trek to Nanga parbat alone - and meet no ppl at all during 8 hours walk at all, - fantastic! u and 8 000 masl mountain, tet-a-tet. is it possible in Nepal? - don't think so.)

but very sad that all can do pak gov + army - to make press conference for bbc and others, but not to help to ppl. so when u see the report from gojal - remember that a lot of bla-bla-blas, jeeps, hellis, army, govt, 'what terrific a disaster' and so on, - but what about to help ppl exept help to reporters?

fantastic report! so it's 150 usd for us passport?

sure! i saw their price-list even wanted to take a pic. btw - @border very pleasant guys - have a laugh 'bout 150$ for usa, because they rich, but why so expensive for rus? anyway, no more expensive visas, so we'r at pole-position %))

nikodeemus, at last, some valuable VOA reviews at Sust are there.

thanks quicktime..

Thank you very much for the information. I will still try from Kuala Lumpur or maybe from Chengdu and as a last option I'll leave it to the border. :)

Fingers crossed my friend..

According to the information I've received also in Malaysia only residents can apply for a Pakistani visa. For anybody intending to travel to Pakistan, the advice seems to be to apply for the visa from the embassy of your home country or try your luck on the northern border. :)

Edited by: nikodeemus

Absolutely right, that is similar in Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangkok, hard to get a Pak visa.

Ciao,

As I feel uncomfortable about sending mailing my passport to my country's Pakistan embassy, I will trust the gods and cross the China-Pakistan border in June-July. And I have a multiple-entry Chinese visa so I should not have problems with the border guards, and I will use lessons learned in China and good guanxi.

Trust the Allah and things will be fine with you.

Bon voyage..

This info about problems for chinese single-entry visa holders is quite disturbing for me... Anybody could confirm that it's really a problem to be let out by the Chinese soliders at the border post? Or anybody has different experiences?

Bonjour from Hindu Kush Chitral,

According to travel reviews regarding the VOA at Sust, the Chinese authorities are allowing the over-landers to Sust across Khunjerab pass.

Let's wait for some reviews by genuine travelers.

safar bekhair..

Thanks Chitralguy for answer.
I hope that maybe someone will give us some more info, because there is this disturbing info that if you hold single-entry chinese visa you might not be allowed to leave China (get a stamp) without pakistanian visa (in case you didn't get one). I know that in Sust everybody gets a visa with no problem, but maybe Chinese don't or they would like to be bribed or something...

Bonjour from Hindu Kush Chitral,

I don't have any reviews about the Chinese visa policy, I could only update you about Pakistan.

Bon voyage and welcome to Pakistan..