In May 2003 the Editorial
of the website of journeys announced the project of a trip round the world.
After two gallops of test with my truck, the first to
West Africa and the second to
Northern Europe. I took part in the general assembly of the association of
the “Camping Cars sur les Routes de la Soie et du Monde” at the end of
September 2005 where I met members wishing to go to China in 2006. In October,
I began the study of the China-2006 journey with the idea to seize this
opportunity to visit Mongolia. Several scenarios were studied. These studies
were based on experiment of the preceding journeys of members of the association,
on consultation of guidebooks, atlas, digital and paper maps, and Internet sites.
To go to Mongolia I decided to
take the Silk Road. The eleven countries to be crossed required four
letters of invitation and seven visas. The daily plan was used to define the duration of the visas to be taken.
After having taken contact with the embassies concerned, I was convinced that
the cost of an agency specialized for this work largely compensated for the
search of the letters of invitation on the Web and the sequence of the
embassies for obtaining the visas in assigned time. I choose VALS.
The first difficulties appeared
when VALS announced to me that it was not able to obtain the
letter of invitation for Azerbaijan. Being in Paris on the 31/01, I went to the consulate
of this country and I obtained from the consul that a letter of
motivation was enough.
My serenity degraded the 08/02
when I was contacted by VALS which announced difficulty to me of
obtaining the visa for Russia. After discussion we changed the entry and exit
dates in order to be compatible with the three months of validity
of the visa preceding the entry in this country.
I was not at the end of my
disappointments. VALS announced the 23/02 to me that it was not able to
obtain the visa for Turkmenistan which had changed the conditions of
obtaining it. Via Yves POLGE, I obtained the email address of an agency in
Ashgabat which cancelled the statements of VALS. But alas the production
times of the letter of invitation then the visa in France, at least three weeks,
were incompatible with my daily plan if not to do a rally with the
risks and unforeseen inherent in the visited countries. I had to give up
my project to go by the Silk Road. I decided to take the north road by the Ukraine and Russia.
The saga of the visas continued
on the 03/03 when VALS informed me, there too, of an alleged change of the
conditions of obtaining the visa of Mongolia. Always via Yves POLGE, I
contacted an agency in Ulaanbaatar. After having telephoned the Consulate
of Mongolia, the 06/03, it proved that the statements of VALS were not
founded. The consul assured me that to have a 30 day visa it was enough
to write a letter of motivation as I had done for Azerbaijan. However it
was necessary to provide the payrolls and the banking accounts of the last
three months attesting the payment of the payrolls, as well as a
certificate of repatriation insurance. To avoid the same disappointments as for
the visa of Turkmenistan, I decided to go to seek myself the visa in the
embassy of Mongolia. I taken the TGV from Arc-Draguignan to Paris on the 08/03. I
obtained the visa in express.
The difficulties encountered for
obtaining the visas highlight that VALS did not organize and
anticipate the actions to be undertaken to obtain the four letters of
invitation and the seven visas. I had provided the daily plan as well as
the sequence of the entries and the exits of the visited countries. VALS showed its incapacity to manage such a project. Moreover
this agency brought no added value. I had to study personally the
conditions to obtain visas, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Mongolia.
The consequence of these risks
was to differ my departure from the 27/02 to the 18/03. A posteriori I
could say, if I had remained the necessary time in the Camp-site of the
Bois de Boulogne, I would have undoubtedly had all the visas to go by the
Silk Road. That checks the proverb that one is ever better served than
by oneself.
The daily plan
was redefined for the north road, Central Europe and Russia.
The trip from west to east spreads out over nearly 15,000 km. To follow it on
maps, travelogs were cut out in three parts: The route from France to the
border of Mongolia, Mongolia and the way to the border of China, then China.
The continuation of the “Globe” is another story.
The trip in China was studied with a Chinese tour operator until mid December.
This choice posed some problems of times due to emails with China by the means of Chinese located in France.
I thanked Yves, Stephen and Clive, members of association, for help that
they brought to me. They visited China in 2000 and 2002 and Mongolia in 2004.
Alas, the candidates to the China-2006 journey desisted gradually. Thus at the end of
December 2005, I remained the only participant. I should announce to the
Chinese tour operator the cancellation of the project.
On the other hand, two members of the association had contacts with
China Comfort Travel France. We could set up a
group, which is composed of three vehicles, an Unimog, a Toyota 4x4,
each with a crew of two people and my MAN truck with me in solo.
The cost of the visas is
given by the visa table.
----The visas of Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan had any utility now.
----The visas with two entries, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, had also any utility.
It was the price paid for the inefficiency of VALS.
I left one week before my travel companions who joined me in Russia
at the latest in Barnaul. We crossed the Mongolian border on the 01/05/2006
at Tsagaannuur. The Chinese border was crossed on the 30/06 at Torugart Pass.
China-2006 ended at the checkpoint of Zhangmu at the Sino-Nepalese border.
