Day 66: Silk Road Update

Since arriving back in Switzerland I’ve been busy making preparations for the next stage of my trip: the Silk Road.  I’ve been doing a lot more reasearch and have been stocking up on the things I need, including maps of the region, about three kilos of Lonely Planet guidebooks (because I’m sure I’m not going to be able to find them en route) and some outdoor gear I reckon I might need.

At the moment my plan is looking like this:

• Turkey (one week): Fly into Istanbul and head east through Cappadocia and Nemrut Dagi to Van in the far east of the country.
• Iran (two to three weeks): A round trip of the country covering all the major tourist destinations.
• Turkmenistan or Afghanistan (one week): I need to get to Uzbekistan somehow and these two countries stand in my way.  Turkmenistan isn’t an attractive option as it’s ruled by a nutbag and is virtually impossible to get a visa for.  It’s a shame as the Silk Road passed through the country and the city of Merv is meant to be a highlight.  While it’s easy to get a visa for Afghanistan, unfortunately the security situation isn’t so flash there at the moment with the Taliban up to their normal shenanigans – so says my Canadian mate Trevor who’s in Kandahar with the NATO force (thanks for the invite though Trev!).  On top of that, my old 5/6RVR mate Cocksy (who now works for the UN in Kabul) won’t be in town at the time I’ll be in the neighbourhood.
• Uzbekistan (one week): Visit a couple of choice old Silk Road cities in Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand.  The only hassle is the visa issue as it looks like I need a Letter of Invitation and minimum two week to apply.
• Kyrgyzstan (two weeks): An ecotourists delight with a wide array of trekking and mountain sport options around the lakes and up in the Tian Shan and Pamir mountains.  The homestays with some of the local shepherds in their yurts are meant to be a must.
• China (three weeks): Arrive into the country over one of the mountain passes from Kyrgyzstan into Kashgar.  Then either east around the desert to Golmud and then down into Tibet or south-west along a highway closed to foreigners into the western part of Tibet(preferred).  Make my way to Lhasa and fly from there to Hong Kong.

Of course that plan is contingent on many things, not least of which is the issue of obtaining visas for all these places.  Now I’m not much of a fan of consular officials at the best of times – they’re lazy slackers who work three hours a day and are generally incredibly unhelpful – but some of the stuff I’ve had to deal with here even in Switzerland has been downright ludicrous!  The Chinese Consulate in Zurich takes the cake.  I asked my questions, filled out the forms and handed them in with my passport, and was then asked by the guy (with a ten-word German vocabulary) for my Swiss work permit.  When I told him I didn’t live in Switzerland but was passing through he told me he couldn’t help me as they were only authorized to deal with Swiss citizens and residents.  When I asked where I’d need to go for a visa he looked at the front of my passport and pointed – Australia!  No f#cking way!!!  I said I wanted to speak to the embassy in Bern about it and asked him for their number, but the lazy prick refused and told me to go to a phone booth to get it.  That’s when I really lost it…

I was also screwed around by the Iranian embassy but at least I got a result.  In the end I had to pay a travel agent to contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran on my behalf to get them to process and send an authorisation to issue a visa letter through to the consulate in Istanbul (where I wanted to collect the visa).