January ~ June 2007

A cold & sunny morning of January 2006, I left my family & French countryside by hitchhiking with the dream to reach Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam overland across Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Dubai, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand & Cambodia.

Thanks to hospitality (hospitality club), hitchhiking, a 3000€ budget & all the wonderful people & travellers I met, I safely reached Ho Chi Minh City by cycle in June 2006.

The most difficult parts of the journey were most probably the administrative procedures & delays to obtains visas on the way.
It took me two weeks of incertitude to obtain in Ankara the Iranian visa I applied for in Istanbul. Lucky me for being French, because I met some American & English travellers who were desperate and had no choice, but to renunce to cross Iran for having lost hundred of euros trying to obtain their visa at every embassies and consulates of Iran in Turkey...
My main deception was to be forced to leave Iran after two weeks for being categorically refused any visa extension in Tehran & Esfahan ;( What is more, the application procedures for the Pakistani visa in Tehran took me more than a week to finally obtain a 2 weeks visa.
Due to draconian security measure, the application procedures for the Indian visa in Islamabad were very tiring. I should have applied elsewhere than in Pakistan, as the Indian embassy there, only delivers single-entry visa instead of 6-months multiple entry visas in other countries...
Luckily, obtaining my Nepali visa at the Indian border, my 2 weeks visa for Mynamar in Kathmandu, my Cambodian visa in Poïpet and my visa for Vietnam in Phnom-Penh was really quick & easy (from 5 minutes for Nepal to 24 hours for Vietnam & Myanmar!)

In spite of visa troubles, the road was welcoming & easy. The only dangers I could feel were the 2-3 times truck drivers tried to rape or rob me in the Central & Eastern parts of Turkey.
The road safety wasn't that bad, but it was always a great pleasure to safely reach destination after a 160kph fast ride aboard a tuning car in the slovenian fog, a 180kph aboard a taxi between Zahedan & the pakistani border, a 24 hours bus ride along the vertiginous Karakoram highway in Pakistan, a motorcycle tour of Nepal or a 1300km cycle ride across Thailand, Cambodia & Vietnam :)

Hitchhiking : F ~ I ~ SLO ~ H ~ RO ~ BG ~ TR

Plane : United Arab Emirates

Bus & Train : Iran ~ Pakistan ~ India

Motorcycle : Nepal

Bus & Boat : Myanmar

Bicycle : Thailand ~ Cambodia ~ Vietnam

-MaP-