Azerbaijan

>>1255658
Are you going for the F1 race?

>>1255658
i've you want to be one of a few tourists, check out Karabakh for a day or two

>>1255658
Bump.

I'm thinking of going into northern Azerbaijan via the Georgia border, can't really find much on the net as it's not a very well travelled area. Would like to know if there's any must sees etc.

>>1255873

No. I'm going in the summer for holidays

>>1256493
Sorry for a late reply the caravanistan forums might be a better resource than here to find out about that area. I found the site useful when organizing a silk road trip last year

>>1255658
Used to live near Ganja for around 2 months, pretty nice area. You should definitely spend some time in Baku, the city is really awesome.
Imo, the Northern and Northwestern part is the most interesting area, imho. Check out Sheki and Zagatala.
Avoid the South, there's a conflict going on there.

>>1257704
>I found the site useful when organizing a silk road trip last year
What was your itinerary?

>>1255878
No access to Karabakh from the Azeri side, IIRC.

>>1257740
Initially Tehran-Shiraz-Yazd-Mashad-Herat-Ashbagat-gas crater-Turkmenbat(overnight)-Samarkand-Tashkent(overnight)-osh-karakol-Bishkek(overnight)-Almaty-Urumqi-Xian-Dong Sheng/ Kangbashi new area-Shanghai.

In reality The Turkmen transit visa applied for in Tehran and picked up in Mashhad had a high chance of being rejected, which it was, so I flew down to Kabul from Herat and spent a night there and caught the bus up to mazar-e-sharif and crossed into Uzbekistan at the friendship bridge/Termez crossing. Also spent more time in the mountains around Karkol after diving plans at the lake fell through (2 vs 4 days) so I ended up flying to urumqi rather than catching the mini bus from Bishkek and then the train Almaty. Was in a rush to get to Urumqi since accommodation was already booked since the Chinese visa conditions are quite onerous

>>1257886
>so I flew down to Kabul from Herat and spent a night there and caught the bus up to mazar-e-sharif
When was this?

>>1257886
Sounds like an amazing trip, but maybe a bit rushed, no? How much time did you spend?

Also, please share whatever you want of your Afghanistan trip - especially stories, but also pics of course.

Also, if you have the time and feel like it, could you maybe say a bit about the difference between the Stan-countries and which you liked the most?

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>>1257889
Mid-late June last year. There was a bombing of a police graduation ceremony a couple of days after we left Kabul and then stuff really starting kicking off in Mazar about a month later with the German embassy bombing and appear to be going south ever since.

>>1257904
It was a bit rushed i took a semester off uni and worker for about 6 months at two casual jobs to save and then spent a bit under two months on the trip, going back to uni for the second semester. Afghanistan we we're terribly ill most of the time as we caught what turned out to be parasites sharing an pre fast meal with the hotel staff in Herat. Had a local from couch surfing and at other times the hotel owners son show us some of the sites. I missed out on going to the Turkish baths as i was feeling too sickand most disappointingly we where supposed to travel to the hotel owners farm to check out a bit of the country side for a day trip, once he checked out the security situation but by the time that happened again we were too sick.
Kabul was never racking since most of the places we wanted to stay had fucked up internet presence with sites missing number no site existing any more and/or dead email server so I had to cold approach a guest house in a back alley with armed guards at night to try and organise a booking but we couldn't stay due to them wanting to pre-screen people for security reason despite the fact they had no current contact details on the internet we could find. We ended up staying at some expensive western style hotel that had been bombed before which we couldn't really afford due to the atms not working with either visa or mastercard but out of sheer frustration i tried my bank card which for some reason worked. Organised the same driver for 6am the next day who drove us to the bus station and negotiated a price which we later found out was less than what some locals had to pay after an English speaking guy asked us what we paid and he said he had payed about 10% more.

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>>1257904
Between the two other stans we visited Kyrgyzstan is far more open socially, has a better tourist infrastructure and has a less oppressive air to it. But we had some luck where we ran into some guys some Samarkand in Tehran and they showed us around the city once we got there and we got to hit a lot of local spots so I would say i enjoyed Uzbekistan more for that reason. Sorry about the shit typing in the other post i was struggling to proof read on the tiny reply window.

Pictures are of Herat citadel and the Herat Minarets

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Cheery ice cream in Mazar feat. my traveling buddy

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Guys showed us around Samarkand

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Rest break on the road between Kabul and mazar

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Ala-kul a rocked damn lake at the top of a 3500m mountain in Kyrgyzstan

>>1258206
Great photo. Happy to see more if you've got any,..

How much did the prices of accommodation, travel, entry fees etc vary between the 'stans? Do you speak Farsi or any other languages?

>>1258470
50usd in Herat 100usd in Kabul and 25usd in mazar. Prices in the other stans where around 10-20aud about the same you would pay for a hostel/ b and b in other developing countries which lack some tourist infrastructure. Visa for Afghanistan was 100aud Uzbekistan was 110usd all up 60usd for the letter of invitation and 50usd for the visa, Kyrgyzstan along with Kazakhstan (even though we didn't end up going) was visa free. Uzbekistan is very expensive if you don't change money on the black market it's illegal for everyone but especially illegal for foreigners we where lucky that another local contact (not the guys above) did it for us, the rate was a little more than double and the prices have given for Uzbekistan are using this rate. For transport Trains in Uzbekistan are around 10-20aud and buses minivans in Kyrgyzstan where around 8-12aud. I only spoke English and my friend had a little Chinese, we got by by making English speaking friends before we arrived and Kyrgyzstan's tourist industry is surprisingly English friendly. This is 80usd in Uzbek some from the black market

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>>1258580
forgot pic.

>>1258580
Ok cool. Is it possible for foreigners to buy or rent a car?

I really want to go to Central Asia. I'm bad at planning though, I usually just book a flight and wing it. It seems like somewhere that demands a bit of forethought..

>>1258690
Yeah a lot planning involved but there are some good resources around on the net. Looks like it is possible especially if you start in Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan, but I have no idea beyond that if you check caravistan they have a bunch of articles about specific border crossings/ customs stuff you need to worry about with a car.