{"id":70,"date":"2019-03-03T18:43:52","date_gmt":"2019-03-03T18:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/?p=70"},"modified":"2019-03-13T14:57:33","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T14:57:33","slug":"stanexpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/2019\/03\/03\/stanexpress\/","title":{"rendered":"Stanexpress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\nMaybe\nyou sat once together with other travellers, talking about travel\nstories and destinations. Then you might heard the expression &#8222;The\nStans&#8220;. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"905\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/DSC_0050.stans_-1-1024x905.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-120\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/DSC_0050.stans_-1-1024x905.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/DSC_0050.stans_-1-300x265.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/DSC_0050.stans_-1-768x679.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/DSC_0050.stans_-1-1200x1061.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/DSC_0050.stans_-1.jpg 1993w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><figcaption>The 7 &#8222;Stans&#8220; in Central Asia.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:left\"> Mostly they are talking about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/travel\/countries\/kazakhstan\/\">Kazakhstan<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/travel\/countries\/uzbekistan\/\">Uzbekistan<\/a>, Turkmenistan, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/travel\/countries\/tajikistan\/\">Tajikistan<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/travel\/countries\/kyrgyzstan\/\">Kyrgyzstan<\/a>. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/travel\/countries\/afghanistan\/\">Afghanistan<\/a> and Pakistan are also part of the Stan-collection, but because of many reasons they are not so frequently travelled.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>\nThe\norigin of the suffix &#8222;-stan&#8220; is coming from Persian and is\nalso used in the Turkish language. The translation would be &#8222;place\nof&#8220; or &#8222;country&#8220;. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nThe\nnames in Turkish or Persian of the countries which had experienced an\nPersian influence in the past have the suffix &#8222;-stan&#8220; in\ntheir name. For example &#8222;Bulgaristan&#8220; (Bulgaria) or\n&#8222;G\u00fcrcistan&#8220; for Georgia. Other than country names you will\nfind a lot of provinces in this area having the suffix, for example\nDagestan in Russia. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nAnyway,\nthe mentioned seven &#8222;Stans&#8220; are the countries which adopted\nthe suffix into English and we are going the travel them. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, not all of them. Our Express is our caravan and crossing the border in this area is not always the easiest with a car. I am writing this post in the Beginning of March 2019 in Tbilisi Georgia. So far we drove since September (we spent the first 7 months in our caravan between Denmark and Bulgaria) from Germany through the Balkans into Turkey, then Iraqi Kurdistan and Georgia.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/embed?mid=1bMU_ICzqlBLgyKKHpxKJtA7_KGnaGrFB\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>Roughly the route from Germany to Georgia.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> So far border crossing where easy, but going more east it will change (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/category\/travel\/on-the-wheels\/border-crossing-car\/\">reports about border crossings<\/a>). There are more or less 3 ways to get to the Stans.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>through Iran\n\t<\/li><li>crossing the Caspian sea\n\t<\/li><li>passing through Russia and Kazakhstan\n<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>We would love to go to Iran, it is actually a big\ndream of me. The problem is the so called \u201eCarnet de Passage\u201c. A\npaper given from the auto-mobile club in which your car is registered\n(in our case ADAC in Germany). \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Basically you pay the mobile club some money for the\npaper plus a very big deposit. You will need this paper when entering\nIran, Pakistan and India (talking about this area) with a vehicle\nOnce you get back to your country with\nthe vehicle you will get back the deposit. It is a kind of guarantee\nthat you will not live it in the country and maybe sell it. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I only made a surface\nresearch about, realizing it is not an option for us. The price for\nthe carnet (12 months) in Germany for a car would be around 330 \u20ac\nplus 5 000 \u20ac (!!!) deposit. The deposit is according to the value\nof you vehicle, but a minimum of 5000\u20ac. It is more then we paid for\nour Caravan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As an information on\nthe side: This prices are different in every country. Friends of us\nwent to Iran with a car registered in Turkey. The price for the\nCarnet was only a few hundred Dollars. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am not saying get a\nTurkish Numberplate (you would also have to deal with costumes etc.),\nbut if you want to drive to Iran it could be worth to check on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, this is not an\noption for us. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next option\nwould be crossing the Caspian sea. It would be possible from Baku in\nAzerbaijan to Aqtau, Kazakhstan or from Baku to T\u00fcrkmenba\u015fy\nin Turkmenistan, to make the list complete there is also on ferry\nfrom Russia to Turkmenistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now\nthe problem with Turkmenistan is the Visa for a German Passport.\nDuygu would not need a visa for Turkmenistan. Entering Turkmenistan\nwith a German Passport would require booking a tour with a licensed\ntourist guide. This would be very expensive and would not make us\nsatisfied at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many\npeople are applying for a transit Visa and only spent a few days in\nthe country. In this case you would not need a guide, but you should\ntell exactly the route how you cross the country and as well the\nexact dates from entering and exiting. \nPlus there are all sorts of payments when entering the country with a\ncar (GPS device, special road tax, etc.). All in all a week in\nTurkmenistan would cost you a couple of hundred Dollars. This is just\na little bit to much headache and money for us, so we decided not to\ngo to Turkmenistan (for now, maybe it will change on the way).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another problem taking the ferry to Turkmenistan is\nthe date of entry. From all what we heard is, that there is no fixed\nschedule for the ferries leaving Baku. They are going when there are\nfull and returning when they are full. Waiting a few days on the\nharbour is just normal. Unfortunately the will not care about it on\nthe border. Which means, you are applying for a 7 days transit visa\nfrom which you will spent 3 days waiting at the harbour. This would\nleave you with 4 days in the country. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Crossing to Kazakhstan would spear you all this\nheadache, but still cost you a decent amount of money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Considering all this (it\u00b4s mainly a question of money) we decided to go around the Caspian sea through Russia. At the moment we are waiting for our Visas for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/travel\/countries\/russia\/\">Russia<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/2019\/03\/13\/russian-visa\/\">click for more<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once we have our Visas we will go to Azerbaijan,\nRussia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. We will\nalso try to go to the north of Afghanistan, but the situation there\nis changing constantly. So we will see once we are in this area. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/embed?mid=1SnczPp1lQw_z5ZgPD49JHl6ejxI3-5TC\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>Going to the Stans<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We would love to go further, but entering Pakistan would require a carnet de passage. Entering China is possible, but again only with a guided tour or changing your number plates into Chinese plates for a lot of money.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe you sat once together with other travellers, talking about travel stories and destinations. Then you might heard the expression &#8222;The Stans&#8220;. Mostly they are talking about Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Afghanistan and Pakistan are also part of the Stan-collection, but because of many reasons they are not so frequently travelled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[20,13,25,26,16,14,24,18,22,23,12,10,21,9,15,17,19,11],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paMWFm-18","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215,"href":"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions\/215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rockandrollcaravancafe.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}