UKC

I am about to embark on a highly unorganised last minute bike trip in central asia, I am currently in china and am going to fly to Urumqi and then hoping to cross a land border into Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan, both these countries are visa exempt for uk citizens if you fly in by air, their websites are unclear as to weather you can cross the border by land. Does anyone have any good info.
any other advice about what to see and do also appreciated
ben

In reply to climbercool:

some one must know!

In reply to climbercool:

Kyrgyzstan you get 60 days I believe when you cross the land border. Best crossing is at Irkeshtam.

I crossed by bicycle last year like this.

In reply to climbercool:

I had no problems travelling in and out of Kyrgyzstan visa free via land borders last summer.

As of yesterday, reports of the Tajikistan government stopping the issuing GBAO permits again.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/73446

This happened last year (for different reasons) just before my trip but I phoned the embassy in London and they gave me one - so it always seems flexible.

The Uzbek embassy in Kyrgyzstan didn't like issuing me a visa more than 3 months in advance in 2011 but we talked them into it and they issued it on the stop.

Do lots of research regarding a Turkmen visa - this is the trickiest and most long winded to get.

In reply to climbercool:

Check http://caravanistan.com/visa/ and the forums on that site - best source for current knowledge that I came across, and as you may find the situation can change with very little notice, and different embassies and border crossings have very different implementations of the rules!

In reply to climbercool:

many thanks for all the help. after looking at the caravanistan website it would appear I will be fine travelling through china into Kazakhstan.
Ben