Leaving Turkey - The Caucasus

LEAVING TURKEY...
was a bit odd. Since Diyarbakir it seemed I was struck by bad luck. First I tried to continue to Lake Van being stubborn and cycled all day in the pouring rain, ending up being soaking wet catching a cold. Decided to skip Lake Van and go straight to Erzurum by bus. Unfortunately the guy sitting next to me was even more sick than me and probably transmitted some of his germs to me. So upon arrival in Erzurum I felt really sick and had to stay in bed for a week! Went to the Iranian consulate several times inbetween, but after more than 4 weeks still no Iranian visa in sight. Had no means to contact the consulate in Ankara and the guy in Erzurum refused to help me with it. Decided to leave for Georgia and reapply for one in Tbilisi. Right as I was about to leave Alexandre, a fellow cyclist from France bumped into me. He successfully obtained his visa...

GEORGIA
As Georgia being a post-soviet country, I was prepared for the worst, but to my surprise it turned out to be very charming with friendly, respectful people! Cycled along the main magistrale to Tbilisi. Enjoyed Tbilisi meeting lots of great people, fellowtravellers and locals, especially talking to women again. One of the most outstanding encounters was Jumber Lezhava, at the time being 67 yo., georgian worldcyclist (9yrs, 3 mths on the road, 230 countries travelled) and holder of several Guinessbook records in doing pushups! And, by the way, a really nice, generous and easygoing person! Waited 2 weeks for the Iranian visa - in the end they gave me 15 days instead of the 30 I had applied for. So some major issues for onward travel still existed. Decided to go to Baku, get at least an Usbek-visa there, eventually talk to the Iranian consular general if I would be given the chance to do so, and see then what I'll do then...

AZERBAIJAN
No problem leaving Georgia, except for the weather, humid at first, then rain and heavy winds that almost blew me off the road. I even had to push for a few kms because of the wind! Was friendly welcomed at the Azeri border, everybody was shaking hands with me while I looked in golden smiles... The clouds opened up, sun was shining and a few kms behind the border I was invited to drink tea. Unlike in Turkey were people simply sweeten there tea by putting sugar in it, most of the Azeris chew the sugarcube, keeping the chewed sugarcube in the mouth and drinking the unsweetend tea over it. Equally well practised with sweets and pastry. My positive impression lasted till the next day, when, despite of the friendliness of most people, I was made feel like a traveling wallet. I also got pretty sick of greeting everybody and explaining myself all the time when I stopped to have a short break. It's quite understandable though that I am an attraction and people are curious, but why do they expect me to explain myself and do it 20m further ahead again, and another 20m further ahead again...? Pretty annoying!
But my luck returned and I met Arturo and his family. They are argentinean, working for an NGO here in Azerbaijan and I really owe them a lot, as they not only welcomed me warmly, hosted me, fed me, they are also responsible a great deal that my mental health rebalanced and made me eager for the next leg of this journey! Thanks a lot, I'll never forget that!
Being in Baku, most of the issues sorted out themselves: Going to Afghanistan is not realistic any more due to lack of time. I still could make it though if I would fly to Iran, go straight to Mashhad and hope that I will get a 30 day afghan via there. If not, lots of bureaucratic hassles ahead. So I decided to take the ferry to Kazakstan and go from there to Usbekistan. Had been extremely lucky with the visas here. Got them all in 1 week, even with a public holiday in between. Even got a Chinese 90 day visa within 1 day without LOI (Letter Of Invitation), which I heard they would start asking for that now.


BACKGROUND INFO:
The "standard route" through Central Asia is going from Iran on a 5 or 7 day (if lucky) transit through Turkmenistan to Usbekistan. As I was planing to go to Tadjikistan and had the Tadjik visa in my passport already, I was tempted to go there via Afghanistan. But, as the situation can change quickly there, this option could turn out to not be valid any more due to safety issues or visa restrictions from one moment to the other. To obtain a Turkmen transit visa, one need to have the the onward ("Usbek") visa prior to the application of the turkmen visa. Or at least one cannot get the Turkmen visa stamped in the passport prior to the usbek-sticker being in there. Obtaining the Turkmen visa will take at least ten days. The Usbek one will also take several days. That leaves me 4 days at best (1 day for bordercrossings) to travel from one border to Teheran and on to the next border. Iranian visas can be extended, but as far as I know there's a fee, probably as high as the application costs, it takes up to 1 week to process and there is no guarantee that I would be granted another 15 days, more time, or even less. I was also planning to use the time in ran to pick up some of the local language, Farsi, which is also useful in Afghanistan as the local language there, Dari, is closely related to Farsi. So, to cut a long story short, too many questions, too much hassle, too many uncertainies.

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