We have three months left on our teaching English contract in China, and we’ve officially started planning our next adventure. It’s turning out to be quite the undertaking. We anticipated some challenges traveling to one of the least touristy regions in the world, but it’s still surprising how much preparation is needed.
Visas in post-Soviet Central Asia are getting easier to obtain, but they’re still not straightforward. In this part of the world, we need a visa for every country we’re visiting except for Kyrgyzstan. These visas must be secured beforehand and often require hotel bookings, train tickets, and sometimes even a letter of invitation from a local company.
We spend our free time working on our website and planning the trip through Mongolia, Russia, Central Asia, and possibly Europe. Our days off are filled with Skype calls to embassies, waiting on hold, choosing routes, reserving train seats, booking flights, and trying to finalize dates. This is definitely not our usual spontaneous travel style, but in Central Asia, it’s necessary!
We’re determined to make it happen and are incredibly excited about it. We know all this effort will be worth it! The good news for our readers is that we’ll share all the information about obtaining visas, trains, and transport throughout the region to make it easier for others to follow in our footsteps.
Central Asia is one of the last travel frontiers, and while entry isn’t simple, other travelers have told us it’s a paradise for independent travel. The region features a mix of cultures along the Silk Road with stunning mosques, towering mountains, and vast grasslands where people still live a nomadic lifestyle. We can’t wait to mount a horse, grab our trekking poles, and join them.
Our goal is to explore off the beaten path in this already remote destination. We want to trek into the wilderness, stay with local families in yurts, and navigate this largely untouched region on our own.
Along the way, we’ll share our experiences and the pros and cons of traveling in this part of the world. Stick around, it’s going to be an amazing and fascinating journey!