We have had the idea of cycling from Göteborg to Bangkok for at least three years and during these years we have read blogs and books about cross continental cycle touring. The ideas went from dreams to something highly plausible about two years ago and the decision to go was made about one year ago.
The last year we have carefully planned everything from choice of route to what equipment to bring. The route has been changed a few times and we have exchanged a lot of our old equipment in order to make our luggage lighter and less bulky. We knew what lay ahead of us and nobody could say that we did not know what we were heading into.
We have flown across the euro-asian continent so many times that we have lost count and with a minimum of hassle and effort you will board an aircraft in Copenhagen in the night and arrive in Bangkok the following morning. This smoothness is all gone when traveling overland and everyone who has ever tried has run into the visa hassles of central asia.
All this was known to us and we made our best to make a good plan for visa applications. We knew we would have to wait for the visa process somewhere so we tried to make it coincide with longer stops in cities we wanted to visit anyway.
What we didn’t plan was to make mistakes…… 😉
When applying for a Uzbek visa a letter of invitation (LOI) is needed and travel agents recognized by the Uzbek government can issue such documents. Already in April we contacted one company and they carefully informed us what we needed to do in order for them to be able to issue a LOI. When the LOI never came I checked our e-mail correspondance I found out we hadn’t sent in all required documents. We had forgotten to mail them the letter proving our employment and the clock hadn’t started to tick yet, but it does as of today….
Getting a LOI takes 10 working days and we can’t apply for the Uzbek visa until we have received the LOI which probably will be on Friday June 21. The Uzbek visa will then be ready around June 28.
We still haven’t applied for our visas for Kazakhstan, but we will do that in Baku. Rumours say it is a straight forward process that takes 4 days since there is no requirement of letter of invitation. Our initial plan was to arrive in Baku today and start the visa process for Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It will take around 7-9 working days to get both visas and then we would try to get on the unreliable ferry connection across the Caspian Sea.
I got very upset when I understood that my negligence to provide all required documents will delay us with one week, but this mistake also provided us with an opportunity for Wej to let her knee rest properly. If everything would have been according to plan there would be a risk that we had pressed forward too early.
We planned 10 days (Monday-Wednesday) for the visa process and then budgeted 7 days to get onto the ferry. Now we will have to spend the 7 days waiting for the ferry to wait for the LOI instead and to make up for the time lost we will try to find a flight that will take us across the Caspian Sea.
It is very frustrating to have to wait for nothing, but we are in good company of a lot of other travelers and cyclist who are stuck in the same situation.
So there is not much to tell more than that we are stuck in Tbilisi….
Meanwhile, please enjoy some photos of Tbilisi.
We checked in at the hostel where the british cyclist we rode with in Turkey was staying. They left for Baku two days after we arrived and we waved good bye to them in front of the hostel
We paid 20 GEL per night for the two of us (80 SEK, 9 €) for this little room in a not so well managed guesthouse.
After 5 nights at the first guesthouse we decided to upgrade for a better one
Tbilisi has plenty old beautiful buildings
Wooden balcony
Beautifully carved wooden details on this balcony
Check the wonderful iron railings on these balconies
Mtkvari / Kura river flows through Tbilisi towards Baku and the Caspian Sea
Yellow buses at a major bus stop
Quality time at a cafe 🙂
Beer and e-book reading on the ipad.
Oj..kan förstå er frustration. Håll er vid gott mod o Wej, passa på att vila ditt knä! Skönt i bedrövelsen att ni har sällskap av andra olycksbröder o systrar(?).
Kanske firar ni Midsommar i Baku:)!
Hej på er! Förstår er frustration, men glöm inte att ta dagen som den kommer! Sönderplanera inte er tur! Utan, har ni nu fastnat här, så passa på att ta ledigt, utforska och bara vara! Det är ju en del av tjusningen att ge sig ut som ni gjort! På en sådan rutt ska sådant här hända….. Det är det som prövar vårt tålamod och om vi kan vara i nuet! Ni har dessutom ett knä som behöver vila! Målmedvetenhet är bra! Men glöm inte att leva i nuet! Kram på er! Vi kan ju skåla samman på midsommarafton då!! 🙂
Tack för kloka ord 🙂
Vi lovar att försöka se det hela från den positiva sidan och använda tiden till att vila, sortera bilder mm och förbereda oss för kommande strapatser över stäpper och öknar i centralasien.
Tror det var meningen att du skulle få vila ditt knä Wej. Ni har gott om tid. Väldigt roligt är det att läsa vad ni skriver och se på bilderna ni lägger upp.
Great news! 1st – Wei can rest her knee. 2nd – You can explore gently on your bikes and gather up the 70kms you missed last week 😉 3rd – You can really explore the culture & customs of both Tbilisi & Baku (Baku old town for example looks interesting to really immerse yourselves into). 4th – There are at least 10 Strava segments in Baku town centre. 6th – You will be even better prepared for the next phase of your adventures. And 7th – you need to find the 5th good reason to stay a week in Baku. Then write a blog entry which gives us a full insight into that elusive 5th reason. Take care, rest & be happy. You’re such an inspiration!
I don’t know if it is true but I have heard that toothpaste has great powers to reduce inflammation when applied to the knee 😉
Jag vet inte om det är sant, men jag har hört att tandkräm har stora befogenheter att minska inflammation när de appliceras på knä 😉
ผมไม่ทราบว่ามันเป็นความจริง แต่ผมเคยได้ยินว่ายาสีฟันมีอำนาจที่ดีในการลดการอักเสบเมื่อนำไปใช้กับหัวเข่า 😉
John Miller: Wow, hade aldrig kommit på den tanken själv.
Hi Joakim & Wej,
We are a Finnish / Vietnamese-American couple cycling the same way. It seems that we are a couple of weeks behind you and we are quite slow at the moment. It would be nice to meet you some day if you happen to stop somewhere for a longer period of time. Our plan is to cycle to Vietnam and maybe we will visit Thailand and Laos as well. Who knows, maybe we will see you somewhere in South-East Asia.
Our Turkish visa is ending tomorrow and we will cross the border to Batumi.
Amie+Olli
Hi Amie and Olli
Sounds like a great tour you are making. It would be great to meet and exchange stories. We will be in Thailand from arrival in early december all through January and hopefully february too.
We’ll save the e-mail address you used to make this comment and contact you when there is more time.
BTW – get your Azerbaijan visa in Batumi. It’s much easier than in Tbilisi.
Hey guys,
Seems you are having a great time in Tbilisi. Would love to see some more photographs of cycling through the beautiful Georgian countryside – though I have heard that the roads are not exactly ride worthy.
Hi Janit,
We only had 40 km of really poor gravel road in Georgia. The rest was mainly good asphalt. If you check Georgia under the “daily maps” you can see which route we took.
As for pictures. We have been talking about setting up a picasa account with our best photos in high resolution but we think it has to wait. The internet connections have been really lousy in Kazakstan and Uzbekistan and uploading even small files is difficult.
/Joakim