Visa headake !!!

Hey guys!!!
Your respond will again save me many KM!!!
I just contact the stantour organisation and they just tell me funny stuff. WE are presntly in China and we will heading north rto Urumqui to get our Kyrghistan visa to pass by bicycle the Iskh..... pass

1. Stantour organisation just confir me tha there is no way to do it by bicycle and i will have to fly or pay for an organisation tour at 400 U.S. dollar . I think this is boul shit, but so, what are you thinking about it.

2. From Urumqui and all the way to Iran, where can i get all these visa and invitation letter. Could you detail me. I think too, for Tumek.. we can only have a transit visa. Stantour tele be than i have to give a godd descrisption of our way and hotel... and such weard stull like this.
I think stantour are oly good for organisation group or such stuff like this!!! His someone can give us the real cycling information to help us to plan the rest of the road beore i head in the wrong way.
Thank you
ge
www.2rouespourvoirlemonde.com<BR>

You will probably get better info if you post on the Central Asia board.

Hi,

I think you need to join a tour to get over the Tourgart Pass into Kyrgyzstan from but a Kyrgyzstan visa should be enough to enter via Irkhesham.

I'm not sure what Stantours mean when they say you need to join an organised tour - it could be that they can only issue you with a letter of invitation if you join up for their tour - where they will be responsible for you.

You can certainly cycle in that direction without having to fly. These guys did it:

http://www.cyclehome.net/wp/?page_id=2<BR><BR>I think they got into Kyrgyzstan and organised the rest in Bishkek.

You could try getting in touch and asking them about the specifics - their contact details are on the site.

Good luck.

Hey Ben, we crossed the Torugart Pass many years ago but I got my visa in Dehli which obviously isn't much help to u.

Monitoring this site though I believe it's possible to get a Kyrgyz visa in Urumqui & the Irkeshtam pass appears to be the standard route these days for cyclists so Stantour's info is incorrect.

There is a post on this branch a bit further down by Huang which has some helpful replies about visa requirements through the Stans but it's coming from Tehran. The info may be helpful to u though & whilst I don't know for sure, I'd be surprised if u couldn't get Visas for the other Stans once in Bishkek.

Good luck & happy cycling,

Stacky

You can trust Stantours. David knows what he is doing and I trusted him. Good guy.

I crossed no dramas at irkishtan november last year_ man I wouldnt do it now 20 below then. I was able to pick up all my visas the country prior, but it took 5 weeks to get the >Iran visa in Bishkek; I heard lots of horrors about tougart crossing, and trust david he is a good fella- he organised my Uz invite

Irkeshtam is an international crossing between China and Kyrgyzstan that is fully open to cyclists--no special permits or tour guides needed. All you need are the normal visas. I crossed China to Kyrgyzstan on a bicycle in August 2006 and met more than a dozen cyclists headed in the other direction. The ride is extremely scenic, especially on the Kyrgyz side. Stan Tours was giving you a big load of BS!

By the way, Irkeshtam is NOT a pass! The Lonely Planet Central Asia guide is guilty in propagating the bit of nonsense that it is a pass. You will, however, cross plenty of passes on your way to and from this border crossing. I don't think the authors ever used Irkeshtam as they devote several pages to the bureaucratically difficult Torugart, but only a small paragraph to the Irkeshtam crossing. Hopefully Lonely Planet will get this right in their upcoming new edition to Central Asia.

Things do change all the time in Central Asia, and the Central Asia branch of Thorn Tree is a good source of the latest information. You should be able to get your visas as you go along, perhaps without having to pay travel agent fees. Tadjikistan is more difficult, and if you go that way you'll probably need help to get the GBAO permit for the Pamir Highway.