2015

In January 24th 2015 we finally crossed Indian/Myanmar border after our cars were parked for a year in Nepali village (close to Kathmandu) .

The movie will tell the missing part of the story …

To be continued …

(For all full size pictures please visit galleries)

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09.01.2014 (by Press)

We are currently in Siliguri, India, in a nice hotel. Well… the hot water and internet get switched off after 12 at night. But it’s okay, they turn it back on at 6.30 in the morning. So as you probably know by now we were not allowed to enter Myanmar, because we didn’t have a special permit that was required by the Myanmar government. And it was nice of the embassy of Myanmar in Berlin to not mention any fucking word of this permit and just gave us visas and said yeees you can go. Visas on the border actually didn’t mean anything without a special permit. Okay, so we just had to find a way to get that permit, which turned out usually takes about three months to get and we hoped to get it for the next day. Well, yes as we discovered in an internet cafe (that didn’t have internet) that it was possible to get the permit in about 10 days but we just had to drive to another town (about 200km away on curvy mountain roads) sign ourselves out from India in a police station and then drive back to the border (another 200km) aand then pay Seven Thousand American Dollars to get a permit to enter Myanmar and be allowed to stay there for three nights. Well ten days and a lot of money didn’t sound pleasing to us so we started to search for other options. We talked to the estonian embassy in india if they could give us some advice and provide us with information, we went through dofferent scenarios what we could do with the cars because of carnet de passage we could not leave the cars to India but had to sign them out of the country first. So here we are two days later and seems like the plan is to drive to Kolkata (Calcutta) and try to get ourselves, with two cars onto a boat that would take us to either Thailand or Malaysia. Or get our cars onto a cargo ship and have them delivered to Estonia while we fly to Thailand to cross the finish line of our journey. 
We’ll see. 

Goodnight. 
– by Press
ass

no date (trip details)

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no date (maps and routes)

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06.01.2014 (by Press)

Blööh. I am feeling a bit sick in my stomach right now and I’m sitting in the back of Blue driving BACK from the Myanmar border. We did not get into Myanmar. There is no other easy access to Thailand besides Myanmar. We are Fucked! Maybe, maybe not. In the bordertown Moreh, we got information that through a travel agency there might be a way to access myanmar, so we are now driving back to Imphal to see if we can go this route. Right now we are just driving, we have no clue. Volli started drinking and some of us who don’t smoke had to have one. The morale is low by now. We considered some other options too. One of them would be trying to get a visa to Bangladesh and get on a cargo ship from there to Thailand, maybe Malaysia. Other option would be to dump the cars somewhere, hopefully sell them and jump on an airplane from Imphal and fly to Bangkok. A step at a time for now. Since I wrote the blog last time before christmas, I’m gonna try to bring you up to speed with what we’ve been up to so far. 
Pakistan. Pakistan was a headache. Since we entered Pakistan and to the moment we exited, we always had an armed escort. Constantly we had to stop in police checkpoints, take all our passports go fill in paper work to move on. Sometimes we didn’t give a fuck about the escort and the military and just kept on going, but always soon out of nowhere or from the next police checkpoint we would have another car ahead of us that we had to follow. To be honest it felt safer with the escort but the problem was that police checkpoints took so much time (sometimes we had to wait for a new escort for an hour) and the other problem was that the escort always drove ridiculously slow. Sometimes we didn’t care about that either, we just drove past the escort and we showed them what speed we want to drive, sometimes it worked sometimes it didn’t. By the end of it every person in uniform, anything that resembles a police checkpoint, makes me want to throw up. It’s incredible actually how free we are back home. 
When we first entered Pakistan, we were in the Balochistan territory, as I understand the Balochis and Pakistani do not get along very well. And we thought that Balochi territory must be exited quick, because Taliban is there and we always had an armed escort with us. We thought that once out of Balochi territory, everything would be reallly nice! Freedom after all this crazy Turkmenistan, Iran and Balochi military police crap. But somehow the Balochi territory did not want to end. After a good daylong drive along the Afghanistan border (we didn’t see any Taliban – just empty land of rock, nothing there), we made it to Guetta, a city not too far from the Afghanistan border in the Balochi territory. As we were used to by now, we just wanted to cruise into the city find a nice hotel and settle in for the night, but just before the city we were told not to go anywhere, we had to wait for the local city police who was going to escort us to the hotel, we told them a random hotel name we found from the gps. The escorts switched every 10 minutes and it felt like I was in some active military zone. We got to the hotel but it turned out to be a shithole. Another convoy was arranged to another hotel, I think at some point we were even escorted by a steel plated armour truck, what the fuck was so dangerous in this place?! They told us that everything is okay, and yes all the people were very friendly to us, helpful, they arranged a safe escort for us, so the thing was that there was suppose to be this 1% – terrorists that were causing shit, so all this armed forces crap because of 1% of some assholes. I don’t know what they are fighting for though, maybe it’s a good cause?
We got to the hotel that was gated off, had a thick high brick wall built around it and patrolled by the cops and military, it was like driving into the most secure government building. 
We parked our cars and by the looks of it that random name of a hotel we gave to the police wasn’t gonna be the cheapest but it was getting late and getting around the city was extremely difficult so we chose to stay in a nice clean four star hotel for about 65 euros per face per night in a shared room. But it felt good to be in a civilised place, it also felt like outside of the walls of the hotel was a war going on. We had some late lunch around 1am in the hotel lobby, surfing the internet seeing what was going on in the world. 
It’s crazy what has happened lately in some of the places we just drove through. In Volgograd, Russia there was a terrorist attack. Driving through it, I never thought it could happen there, it just didn’t seem like that kind of a place at all. I’m suspecting some false flag crap. Close to the border of Pakistan and Iran where we drove past was an American drone attack, many people killed. If an American drone would have killed me, I would have been a bit angry at Washington for sure. Having been to these places, the local everyday people are so friendly and nice when they talk to us, even though we look white, but this Political shit is really fucking everything over in this world. Fuck greedy politics, trying to control pieces of land, trying to steal resources, we all live on the same planet, sharing the same air, same resources, people really do live in their little worlds, think just for their own good and don’t see the bigger picture.
Anyway, the next day we were gonna keep driving, starting our way towards Lahore and out of Palouchi territory but in the morning waiting for the police escort to come and guide us took so long that eventually they didn’t let us leave the city and we drove to another hotel, a lot cheaper this time. 
Vello and Indrek took the time to fix Red’s water pump, well replace it for a new one and the other guys asked the hotel receptionist if he can find us some vodka to drink. Being unsure of the local food and the bacterias found in it, we thought some preventative vodka drinking was necessary but this time the local Pakistani vodka turned out to be something that we should have been afraid of. I only had maybe a shot or two of that vodka and was the first one to puke my guts out in the middle of the night, shivering and having bad stomach ache, it was one of the worst nights on the trip for me. In the morning the alcohol didnt want to leave the bodies, when finally Toomas forced his vodka out on the side of the road. We still laugh at the sounds he was making in the back of the car – aaahh ööö Salam Salaaam salam salam salam salam oooeeehhhhh. I think two three days later people were still feeling it. Who knows what was in it – so remember, vodka made in Pakistan might not be a good choice unless you want to cleanse your inner organs orally. 
Oh yes, out of the hotel we made it out without an escort, we just didn’t wait for them, otherwise we would’ve probably been stuck in the city another night. It was nice to be driving freely again. I’m not sure when but at some point we got ourselves an escort again. We were driving south and by night we were hoping to find a hotel, but none of the people who escorted us didn’t know where we could find one. We drove miles and miles and I think that was the night where I passed out and woke up in a police station. That was the hotel they arranged us, in the Balouchi police station. We didn’t get any beds but we were given a very dusty room where we laid down our sleeping gear on the floor and settled in for the night. In the morning I noticed there was a hook on the ceiling in the middle of the room and Jürgen noticed some blood stains, so I’m not sure what this room was normally used for, but probably not for accomodating tourists. 
We had breakfast in front of the police station where the police had to keep away local people who came to peek over the wall and slowly tried to make their way through the front gate to watch seven white dudes eating. 

When we finally got to the Pakistan territory the only thing that really changed was that the escort system was better. We didn’t have to stop anymore at checkpoints and wait for the new car to get ready, new cars came on the fly, so we were making good speed to Lahore. We thought Lahore was going to be a perfect place to settle down for couple of days, have a rest, sleep in a nice hotel and take time off. As usual, the nice hotels we end up in are not really that nice. Usually there’s no hot water to take a proper shower. The power of the building comes and goes and at times runs on a generator, which is a bitch for me to transfer film footage to hard drives, basically impossible because at any given moment I could lose power and it would fuck up the whole process and I’d have to start all over. This time the room Toomas and I were sleeping in was so humid that it was very uncomfortable and the window didn’t open so it was hard to get the moisture out. 
The good thing we thought was that now we were in a hotel and the police was gone, we could sneak out and go explore the city on our own without having anyone up our ass. Welll….. After we got out of the hotel, we got to walk up the street for about hundred meters when all of a sudden this random looking guy starts giving shit to us about why we’re here and that this is a dangerous place and what was the purpose of us wandering around here. Soon he wanted to see our passports. Thankfully the police stepped in after a bit to see what’s going on and hopefully he was gonna get this crazy guy off our ass but instead the cop seemed to be afraid of him and jumped into his car and took off.  Finally we got him to go away and we walked back to the hotel. 
Because walking around was complicated, we jumped into the tuk-tuk, the local taxi, which is a small gas operated motorcycle slash car slash birdcage slash circus tent that we wanted to take us to the Walled city, seemed like an interesting part of the town to see. We did some gas refilling stops along the way and finally got off by the mall and had no idea which way to go and what made this more awkward was that everybody on the street stared at us and we looked like aloof headcases not knowing which way to go, so we ran into the mall for cover. We asked for some directions to the walled city and browsed some pirated copies of audio cd’s and dvd’s. I remember Lepper bought a best of Oasis cd, an album that was originally never released. 
We never did find the walled city but we walked around in a very hectic surreal town for hours, i guess the atmosphere you have to check from the photos but it was something of a… Um.. I had never been to a city like this before.
– by Press

no date (maps and routes)

yup

INDIA / NEPAL

As we can see there is not much writing during this period …

hhh

no date

Lahore Pakistan
After escorted by Police all day …
Last night we arrived to Lahore
– by Volli
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18.12.2013

I decided to add some photos made by Andreas to our facebook page – www.facebook.com/easttoeastward
They will be also added to our Gallery soon !
18.12.2013
Quetta (Pakistan) – I will add some more pictures (from different cameras).
– by Volli

14.12.2013 (by Press)

We are currently parked somewhere in the middle of the hills by the Pakistan border, in the Palouchi territory. 
We are now starting probably our most dangerous part of the Trip – Pakistan. 
We were pulled over (again) by the police at a checkpoint and he was wondering why the hell are we driving to Zaehedan, a city by the border of Pakistan. We asked why not to Zaehedan? He lifted up his hand, created a gun sign with his fingers and “fired” a round at us. Dangerous he said. 

We got some time off from being on the road for so long at Bandar Abbas, a city by the Persian Gulf in Iran. Almost the same amount of people live here as in our capital city Tallinn. We found a nice hotel downtown, with air conditioning, a kitchen, proper toilets, showers and even balconies. We checked in for two nights. First night everyone passed out pretty early. The plan was that everyone was free to do whatever they felt like doing. Toomas woke up very early the next day to go around the city and take photographs. I’m not sure what everyone else was up to. I woke up around ten and transferred footage from my cameras to hard drives. It was suppose to take me about an hour and after that I wanted to go explore the city but all of a sudden everybody asked help with some files or help with their photos and so on. I wanted to get out on the streets knowing that I have very limited time here, but I think I got out of the hotel about 2.5 hours later. Volli and I went out for some breakfast and ended up in a hotel restaurant, part of the reason for choosing a proper hotel restaurant was to eat some good food. We didn’t get any. A large plate of rice with mediocre to worse tasting meat was the result, thankfully it was cheap. About three dollars. 
Later on I went out with Toomas to get some footage of the city while Toomas was going to shoot photographs. We visited the local market where they sold everything from shoes, clothes, electronics, huge leaves of tobacco and everything in between. The walk was slow because every other person stopped us for conversation or asked us to take a photograph of them. Some of them took a photo of us with them. Everyone asked where we were from and everybody stared at us all along the way. A lot of friendly faces all in all. 

In the evening we were able to get our hands on some vodka, which was nice after a long journey in a country where alcohol is verbotten, (although we brought in couple of bottles of vodka from Turkmenistan, which the turkmen border guards didn’t say anything about as we poured vodka into empty plastic water bottles). GiAnyway, I’m not sure how the whole deal went down as I wasn’t around at that point but we all got pretty drunk pretty fast in our hotel room before we headed out for dinner. We had some food, the usual rice with some meat as seems to be the main dish here in this country (or we just don’t know what else to order) and then through some nice local folks we got more vodka and a cube of Hašiš..which was given to us for free as a gift to travellers. We had to wait for the vodka for about two hours though. One of the friendly mates had a motorcycle and as we were waiting for the vodka to arrive, he was nice enough to shoot a motorcycle film with me. Getting a ride around the city on a motorcycle in a weather that’s like the warmest summer night in Estonia, was exhilarating. 

After filming we all went back to the hotel drank some local vodka (it didn’t burn, we tested) for a bit with our new Iranian friends, talked about Iran, Estonia, and passed out around 1 to get some rest to continue our journey towards Pakistan the next day. 

Now we are finally in Pakistan. On the border. In a hotel that seems like it used to be a prison before. A huge sandstorm outside. We were told not to go outside for the sake of our safety, meaning that we might get killed. We are inside, playing cards. The power comes and goes. The hotel that we thought was bad in Turkmenistan, the so called ghost hotel, was actually not bad compared to this one. Everyones ears are full of sand. We are drinking coca cola to kill bacterica from local food that might fuck us up. Tomorrow morning around seven we start driving towards India with a military escort. 

The drive from Bandar Abbas to here was nice although we had problems finding diesel. Toomas did an excellent job using his hands and feet to talk to the locals in gas stations to make some deals for fuel. Benzin is sold easily here but diesel for some reason is more difficult to get. Yesterday we were almost out of gas when we finally found a place to get our tanks filled. It was a forbidden business some guys were running in their backyard, which is common here. They had tons of fuel stored there but all of a sudden they told us to leave and got pissed off. Later we figured, because I started filming, they turned on us. I didn’t even realize I was filming an illegal business, I was excited to get some good footage of the locals and us making a deal for gas. Thankfully we were able to fuel up before we completely ran out.

We’ve been sleeping outside for the past four nights. One night we slept in the middle of sand dunes at a beach in the gulf of Oman. Our cars got a bit stuck in the sand, so it took us a bit of time to set up camp. As usual we started with food, then found a good spot to make a bed and a place for fire. Vello and Indrek were fixing our cars, I was shooting around the area. Tom and Lepper were cooking food. 

After sun went down, some of us enjoyed some lamb’s bread and then we went swimming. The moon was out shining light to lead a way over the sandy dunes to the beach. We looked like some german tourists lost in the desert I thought to myself. After a refreshing swim we gathered firewood from the beach and walked back to our camp to settle down by the fire. Since we have no alcohol left, we drank water. Toomas was suppose to tell us a joke… He’s still trying to remember it. The condensation was pretty intense at the beach, in the morning everyones sleeping bags were wet. We also had a morning swim and played around with some crabs that were running around the beach.

After some police checkpoints, small towns, a lot of scenic driving and food shopping we spent some more nights by some more and some less picturesque locations camping out. Sleeping under the stars in the fresh air is extremely relaxing. Also by now, nobodys turned off by the idea of the persian toilet in the morning behind a bush.

Today, the 16th of december we crossed the border of Iran and Pakistan. It’s surreal to look on the map where I currently am. I never thought I’d be here in my life. We were escorted to the Pakistan border by the Iranian police from the last town before the border. Honestly the whole day has been creeping me out. On the border of Iran they tell us about the dangers of Pakistan. They seemed laughing that seven white dudes are going to Pakistan on their own. We are right next to Afghanistan. Taliban is chilling around here. They say Pakistan is one of the most dangerous places. The travel websites recommend NOT to travel to Pakistan. You hear the crap from the media. …And then we get to the Pakistan border. Everyone is friendly and nice around here. They even speak a bit of english. So far so good. Now we’re in the hotel but for our safety we were told not to go outside. One thing Toomas did check at the customs was a notebook of names of people who have entered the country in the past. People from Germany, Australia, Belgium. Ireland, Spain have entered from this border. Tomorrow we start the trip through Pakistan, hope we make it in one piece in peace. 

– by Press
ttt

12.12.2013

Today will be the day to leave Bandar Abbas
– by volli

11.12.2013

Exploring Bandar Abbas
– by Volli

10.12.2013

On our way to Bandar Abbas – hotel / dinner / shower – sleep
– by Volli

09.12.2013 (by Press)

We are currently on the road in Iran, the sun is shining, the weather is sweet. It is our third day in Iran now. Very friendly people around here, although we’ve been sitting in the police station twice now and been inspected on the road twice more. First time was about an hour into the country when we went offroading to find a place to sleep, but we didn’t know it meant trouble snooping around so close to the border. We were escorted to the police station and a history/literature teacher was brought in to translate. Trying to square away paperwork on the border with non english speaking Iranians all day, it was amazing to be able to communicate to an Iranian person in english, but he felt so bad that his english wasn’t very good, but it was actually clear and understandable. They welcomed us to their village and Iran, checked our passports and let us go when we had explained our trip to them. We found a nice hotel with a help of a local young fellow in a small town. Hotel rooms even had a kitchen where Lepper cooked us dinner. It was something something with something, hard to remember after a long day, but it tasted good, we also drank some “water”. Next morning walking out of the hotel I realized how cool the little town looked, so obviously I pulled out my camera and started filming everything, turned out it wasn’t a good idea, as we were asked for our passports in a gas station by the local police and soon we were escorted to a police station…again, for couple of hours. It turned out the town was close to the border so I wasn’t allowed to film anything, nor film the cops which I did of course. I was pretty depressed about the whole situation, because six other guys had to sit there and waste valuable driving time because of me. I almost wanted to go out and have a cigarette, which I’ve quit for two weeks now. I’ll write more about the details of what happened perhaps later, when we’re out of Iran, but let’s just say there was a very intense guy asking me about the photos and videos i took, another guy who told me which photos/videos to delete, which was everything from that town but the dumbest shit was when they asked me what languages I spoke. I told them English, Russian, Finnish, a bit of german and for some reason I had to mention the french i learned in second grade for two months – well after 15 minutes of waiting they actually brought in a guy who was gonna be the translator for us – Speaking French! With my thumb and my index finger showed them how little of french I actually speak, I know I could’ve fluently sing them Alouette but that would probably not have helped. Lepper quietly told me not to tell them that sorta bullshit again. So another 15 and they brought in the intense guy who spoke english. His A I M  was to find out what were were about. After having all our information down, cellphones (with photos in them) checked and a group photo taken of us, we were allowed to leave. They told us that we need a translator for sure, otherwise we’d be pulled over for a long time again in the next city. Yes, twice more has that happened already. Iran itself is beautiful with gorgeous mountains and a lot of dry air and sand particles between your teeth. People are extremely friendly, they look at us like we’re the cast of Last Vegas and take photos and shake hands with us and we have conversations with them, trying to guess what they said to us and they are trying to guess what we said back. It’s fun! Last night we camped out somewhere in the middle of the mountains (check out the night-time photos where Lepper runs around with his headlamp around the campground). We made a fire of some old russian ammunition boxes that we found there and buried a case of the Vana Tallinn under some rocks there. Today (the 10th? 11th?) we’ve been driving a lot, headed south towards Pakistan as you know. We’ve been inspected by the police again of course, we were given some pomegranates (the grenade apples, how do you write it?) by some friendly folks (while inspected by the police) and we’ve seen some beautiful mountains again with some cool Oasis (Forests!) in the middle of sandy fields. Now we’re driving into the night hoping to make it to a beach town (or a harbor town, not sure) called Bandar Abbas by the Persian Gulf.
Update: made it to the city!!! We’ve officially driven into Summer!!! The city is vibrant, full of life and we’re working on getting a hotel room here for two nights at least, hopefully. Best place to take a rest for a couple of days!
Cheers from Bandar Abbas’ Iran
– by Press
ffd

09.12.2013

Morning started well with nice shower and some breakfast made by Toomas as usually :) and we shoot off to explore Iran. Well, we stopped by the petrol station to fill up our cars and we got some attention by the local police and military police I believe as it was border area and Andreas had a camera in his hand. And again we were escorted to the police station. Translator was invited and we were questioned for about two hours. We had to show photos and videos and some of the material was deleted. We have been told that we can make pics and videos only of nature etc. As it was border area therefore it was a problem. After questioning we shoot off again towards Masshad and here we go again. We got stopped by almost every police check point and asked the same questions. Where we are heading to and from where we have came from ? It was quite annoying as we wanted to drive not to stand. It happened time after time till Gonabad where we were escorted to the hotel by the police where we could stay and rest. In the morning we had small breakfast and road continued towards Kerman. Officers were always polite and always translator was invited over the phone or on site. Every time checkings got faster and easier as probably the info started to move between police that we are on the way. After some nice views we finally also felt warm weather. I think today it was around 20 degrees. Before dsrkness we turned off the road and found a good camping spot. Our chef Toomas fried some potatos ( that we bought earlier on the road ) and we set up a fire. We will be sleeping between mountains in a dry river bed around 150km north from Kerman. Tomorrow we will continue driving. Also we have reached more than 5000 miles (8150km) distance from Tallinn. Hopefully we will get out from the river bed as it is quite steep :) I really want to believe that we will get to internet soon and we can update our website with photos and blog! good night :)
– by Volli
qqq

09.12.2013

Still no internet connection (managed to get one in the hotel but it works 50/50). So, still delay with updates. We are in Iran in the city called Gonabad and it is early morning. Just had breakfast and ready to go in few minutes. We are continuing to the south. It is finally getting warmer :) 
– by Volli

08.12.2013

After 5 hours on the Iran border with sorting all the papers we finally crossed the border. Two guys helped us with papers and charged us 55 usd per car. Last guy tried to get some more money and that made us feel not so well as we had a feeling that he tried to cheat us. In general people were really friendly and very welcoming in Iran and it was a really good feeling to shoot off from the border crossing with the smile on the face. As it got dark we probably missed some good views on our way to the first village/town called Kalat but a very nice gentlemen there who we met in the shop on the main road took us to a very nice hotel where we were surprised how really good it was and just for 17 usd per suit :) . On our way to the town we had also a good experience with local security police. We were looking for a camping spot and turned through the hills on the tiny road and police followed us as it was a border area , so we were questioned and taken to the local police station, also a teacher from the village was invited as a translator. We explained the situation and they let us go with warm greetings and welcoming to Iran. What a nice people and great feeling we had. So, in general – nice people , nice place and the mood is up. Lets see what Iran has to offer us.
– by Volli
vvc

07.12.2013

We had two cam/slow days in Ashgabat and continuing now to Iran. Just filled up the cars ( cost us around 10€ – 0,58 per liter in local currency ) and quick stop by the market “bazar” to fill up our food resorces. Before entering Turkmenistan we had a chat with locals and they mentioned that every year each person who has a car gets 0,5 tonnes of fuel by the government for free :) sounds good ! Can we get some too :) hahaa. Fuel prices here are rediculously low compare to the western world.
Delayed blog from 5th and 6th:
Our operator said that they can’t provide roaming service in Turkmenistan. Let’s see how it’s going to be in Iran. All the updates and blog will be refreshed when we will reach internet and can connect our laptops.
Greetings from Ashgabat !
We have no signal on GPS but we will try to sort it out
Also we have no internet connection so updates will come a bit later
– by Volli
ddd

07.12.2013 (by Press)

Hey,
Everyone’s asleep. I can hear the water running inside the walls and a hum coming from the outside of the hotel called “Ministry of Internal Affairs Hotel of Turkmenistan”. A hotel for the government officials. We are in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, our last night in this country. Tomorrow we’ll have probably a long day on the border of Iran. I’m very happy to leave Turkmenistan. Restrictions and constant surveillance is giving me a headache. In the hotel, there’s a need for switich light bulbs in our rooms. Volli and i were asked to move to another room, where bulbs were changed again. Feels like Viru Hotel before the 90’s. Every time I pull out my camera there’s either military or police starting to yell at me to not record anything. Everyone’s afraid of cameras here, and get alarmed when they see one. Thankfully that’s just in the cities, so the countryside with it’s deserts, camels, almost driveable roads and nothing much else can be captured. Although once in a while driving in the countryside you have to hide your camera and stop at a police checkpoint where they take your passport and write down information that you’ve been to that area. Apart from this militaristic north korea like mentality Turkmenistan is pretty cool. The people are very friendly, everyone waves at you, helps you out, even some military folks salute us (when two muddy 4runners with english plates confuse the fuck out of them). Most of the time though the military guys would tell us not to take any pictures, usually after we’ve already taken the pictures. Objectively speaking, Turkmenistan is a pretty fucked up case. On one hand most of the people live in very poor conditions while the rest are partying in golden domed palaces. The center of Ashgabat is like a showcase disney-World, huge luxurious government buildings and universities, everything painted in gold, guarded by military. It all seems proper, but there’s no people around. There’s nothing happening there. The first night around 11pm we walked out our hotel to go for some sightseeing. We were the only people walking on the streets and the rest of them were military guarding the important houses, one man for about every 50-100 meters. Ashgabat was so strict that I did’t get any footage of the local people or the houses. So non of that will be in the movie.
There is an intersting place in Turkmenistan worth mentioning, which is the National Tourist Zone. Las Vegas scale hotels, perfect roads, landscaping, community transport, rooms for thousands of tourists – the problem is, there is no tourists. We were the only ones driving throught this place. No one is walking on the streets, no one is waiting for a bus, no sign of life from any of the hotels. Just from time to time there’s a lonely car driving by a two three lane road.
But probably the most interesting sight we saw in Turkmenistan, and we did see a lot of weird shit, was the HellHole!
In the middle of a Karakum desert, about 70 meters in diameter, lies a gas stove. A huge hole that accidentally appeared into the ground in the 70’s when Russians were trying to get their hands on some gas there. They started digging for it and before they knew it, the desert sand collapsed into a crevis in the land and caught on fire. It’s still burning there today. It was a windy cold day when we got there, but sitting by the hole and being warmed by huge gas flames while eating lunch and sipping some vodka was a unique experience.
I also have to mention that it’s close to impossible to find a hotel in Turkmenistan. First of all the gps doesnt show any hotels. Second of all people are afraid to say that they have no hotels, so they give you random directions to places or they direct you to a place where there used to be a hotel in the 70’s. Police give you wrong directions about a hotel too. When you do find a hotel it’s not really a hotel you were looking for. The first night we ended up in a hotel called Jennet. The first impression was of course pretty amazing. The building looked quite nice and the lobby was although 70’s, it looked very stylish and grand, no other peoplein the hotel than us though. After the beautiful lobby the fun started. Because the hotel was fully booked the dear receptionist had to place us in the unheated part of the hotel,  because the warm part was full, no people were to be seen anywhere though. Pictures were not allowed because the hotel had just gotten worn down so bad but was soon to be completely remodeled for next year. There was a hole in the door that was leading to the back of the hotel, the receptionist said it was broke just today and was soon to be fixed. The rooms were cold and the furniture was exactly the same as it probably was the very first day it was put there only 40 years older. The toilet was a regular toilet but with no toilet-seat, instead a hose drilled through the bowl to be able to flush but since it wasn’t working there was about 6 or seven 5 liter jugs of brown water you could use to flush after you were done. The sheets were dirty, the beds were almost ready to lose their legs, the power outlets were dysfunctional, meaning one of our camera chargers got messed up but the one thing that was nice in the hotel was the Sauna. A gas powered heater in a dark wooden room (no electricity)and three levels of seats in a not so hot of a sauna next to a  welcoming swimming pool filled with some brown seawater dripping from a rusty pipe and a shower that only had cold water and looked like the shittiest shower from a prison movie. It was all so out of this world that – yes – we went there, tired from driving and after days of not being able to wash ourselves, it was all in all a really relaxing sauna with some cold beers, although we did not jump into the pool.
Now it’s time to get some quick sleep because in the morning I can actually take a proper shower (they do run out of COLD water in this hotel occasionally) and also take a proper shit on a toilet that flushes and has a plastic toilet seat. even if i dont have to go, i have to go, because in the land of just holes in the floor in the bathroom you’ll never know when you can shit like a white man again.
(An update on the whole hole in the floor toilet – yes it’s actually not bad to take a dump into the depths of the floor, reminds you of summers in Estonia where you’re out camping. Squatting down for an extended period is not too bad, but I’m guessing It’s probably harder to read a mickey mouse comic in that way, but the really tricky thing in this cultural poop experience is having a water hose instead of toilet paper, that’s when things get a bit confusing! When I was losing my hole in the floor bathroom virginity on the border of Iran, I had to think really hard how to direct the water flow so that I wouldn’t get my pants all wet, that I wouldnt hose down half of my back or run water into my shoes. And it’s not a trial – error experience, when all your clothes are in the x-ray machine in the other building. So after a couple of minutes of my most logical thinking, I found a way to do it, but they don’t put mirrors there for amateurs, so I wasn’t sure if it did the trick or not, but the funniest part is when you’re in a bathroom and your ass is completely wet and there’s no paper to dry it off and you’re ready to pull up your pants. Inspired by the movements of a man’s best friend I was soon out the door, walking funny to the next building to have my camera gear inspected…..again!).
Good night.
– by Press
Early morning of 7 December,
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

06.12.2013

Indrek and Vello fixed Red and me and Toomas went to see the town and get some internet. The only place we could get internet was a shopping mall. Now back in the hotel and having some rest. Tomorrow will continue to Iran. Ashgabat a very nice city but it is not allowed to make photos in the centre and soldiers and local police keeping eyes on it. You can’t walk in some areas too.
– by Volli
ffc

05.12.2013

Woke up, feeling is wasted :) and now we are continuing towards hell hole in the middle of Turkmenistan desert and then back to Ashgabat. Hell hole was a lot of nice views. Andreas got some good shots again and as usually Toomas prepared some food. The road back to the town to a hotel MVD was 253km. Finally a shower and good food. We are taking now 1,5 days off as we need some rest and fix Red.
– by Volli
zzx

04.12.2013

Got to Ashgabat but no luck with the hotels still so we had to sleep in the cars.
– by Volli
azz

04.12.2013

We are on our way now again and the closer to Ashgabat the better the road gets. And when we arrived to Turkmenbashi  it was like a punch in to face. The difference / contrast between what we have left behind and what’s here is just like you compare black and white colour. It’s like you compare gold and mud. 3 lane roads , bus stops with silver coat and air conditioning , restaurants , hotels , cars as high standard.
We are having a lunch in one of the road side restaurants and it feels quite cool for a while to be in a clean place, after that the road continues towards Ashgabat. Good road ended as fast as it started and we are continuing towards Ashgabat. Tried to find a hotel in one of the villages but with no luck.Bought some bread and cheese and still on our way. Beutiful place and views we had in Turkmenbashi with mountains and nice sea and finally we got some sunshine. Now it is dark and we are continuing on the dark bad road behind Red.
– by Volli
ccd

03.12.2013 (Turkmenistan Border and little further)

Well , waiting on Turkmenistan border after an hour checkings on Kazakhstan side. Last part of Kazakhstan road was bad so, the speed was low.
Turkmenistan side of the border control had a lunch break from 13 – 14 but we finally could move. The corridor for cars and walkers was the same and looked awesome, like in an old war movie. It took us more than five hours to sort out all the paperwork and checkings and we could move on. I was happy that we got over finally but the road which I though will be a paradise was even more worse than Kazakhstanian one:) I thought it can’t be worse but it was :) after about 50 km we got to the first village and we could feel some asphalt under the tyres. Ghost town would be the best description of the place. And we found the local store to buy some water and food. The guy ( owner ) was really nice and had a cafe on the other side of the store where we had nice soup and shashlik made of lamb. Food was very good and tasty but I made a mistake asking for sourcream which made our stomachs scream little later ( fortunately not for too long ).
The hotel in the town Garabaogaz was something that I will never forget :) it’s never had any maintenance after it was built by the soviet union I believe. Andreas got some good horror movie shots and few guys had sauna hour :)
– by Volli
add1

03.12.2013 (early morning by Caspian Sea)

What a night we had with some loud metallica music from our our car and some great fire. During the night the wind got so strong that our tents almost fell apart. Anto’s tent did, so he had to fix it in the middle of the night. Wind was so strong that we had to continue without breakfast.
– by Volli

02.12.2013

Crazy road (extremly crazy) and  6 hours later we are in the last village before Turkmenistan. Blue lost its front lights due to vibration and rear stabiliser rod and Red lost its front left shock absorber and front stabiliser rod plus left mirror gave up its holder. But we continued. ( we will fix the cars a little later ) . During this season locals are not driving these roads pretty much at all as it is easy to get stuck. It was a real exercising of the steering wheel today. Now we are by the Caspian sea just about 100km from Turkmenistan border. Its warmer and feels much more better to set up the camp just on the beach. As usually Toomas cooked some food again and we set up the fire ! Good night and speak to you soon.
– by Volli
uud

02.12.2013

Good morning! I woke up four times to warm up my Blue ( actually Blue warmed me up ). Night went well as I had ok sleep and I can hear Indreks voice outside. Its getting light and we will all wake up soon I can imagine. I also believe that Toomas will prepare some food , he is a master in that :) Well I am out of the car :) Indreks voice got louder:)
– by Volli

01.12.2013

What a day. Road from Atyrau was very good. The further we drove, the worse it got. Some parts of it … Just unbeliveable how bad ! Because the road is so bad, on the both sides there’s extra tracks been created by the drivers/travellers trying to avoid vibration and catching the holes on the main road, as it is better to drive in the steppe than on the actual road :) , but we are little unlucky this time as it’s been raining recently which means the tracks have too much water and the surface is very muddy so, it is 100% offroading with mud literally flying over the roof and there’s always a chance to get stuck. Our Red and Blue did well and we kept our feet clean.  It was a very good experience and some very great offroading I ever had ( please remember I am not an offroader, but I believe that now I am ) :) . We are sleeping about 150m from the road and will continue in the morning. Toomas cooked some great dinner and I will be sleeping in the car again,  others in the tents. Andreas happened to have a broken sleeping bag, so he had a very cold night. My cars mudflap came off and radiator has some tiny needle holes in it. Will try to fix it somewhere later where it is going to be warmer. It got very cold now here in the middle of nowhere of west side of Kazakhstan and we also do not have any signal coverage here. It is a very beautiful place though and I really enjoy to be here. Andreas was very excited as he got some good shots during the day. We have no straight road to Turkmenistan from here so, we will be driving straight through the steppe (muddy offroading again) as the real road goes around and is so bad anyway . Sweet dreams and let’s continue tomorrow.
– by Volli
zza

30.11.2013 (by Press)

Hi, 
I have no idea what time is it right now. I’m sitting across two front seats of the blue 4runner. It’s starting to get brighter outside. Everyone’s asleep. I can hear the hum of the diesel engine of the Red. Lepper and Toomas are sleeping outside. Everyone else is in the cars. We are now in Kazakhstan. We’re parked somewhere in the middle of nowhere on a steppe, out of sight for security reasons, a lot of camel poo everywhere. First of all, the roads in Kazakhstan are the worst roads i’ve ever driven on. There are actually some parts of a highway where there’s a dirt road next to it, because it’s better to drive there than on the actual real road. So many holes that theres hardly any room for tarmac. Also camels, horse/mules or something walking cross the road trying to commit suicide. There’s about 1500km of that ahead of us in the next upcoming days. By now, we are done with Russia. It was a hell of an experience for me. It was a lot to take in in such a short amount of time, but I fellt i was doing  a bit of time travelling to my childhood, where everything was endless gray, communism ruled, everybody was equally poor and the city landscape with it’s roads, architecture and transport was just very …um .. Authentically soviet. It’s all a bit too sad, rather fucked up but also extremely thrilling to drive through. We also got to visit the legendary Stalingrad which now is called Volgograd, a city by the Volga river. It was an overcast gray autumn day which made this place seem even more depressed than it probably would have during thr summer months. We drove through this town of 1 million people rather fast and only took a longer break to go see a huge, around 80 meters tall, female warrior (Mamayev Kurgan) statue in the middle of the city on top of a hill, with a nice view towards volga. Everything about this city was so surreal to me that I will never forget this experience. And to remember it, Toomas promised me one of the kitchen magnets he bought by the statue. 
Its starting to get really bright outside now. Off to sleep. 
Ps. I lost count how many times we were pulled over by the cops in russia.
Pps. Its normal i guess, to see a herd of cows walking literally by past the border control offices of russia and kazakhstan three in the morning. 
What a trip so far.
– by Press

29.11.2013

We got to Atyrau. City looks ok. We got a good deal for 12000 local currency a room till 6AM which is perfect for us. Sitting in the cafe and having dinner ! Shower , bed and start early in the morning !
– by Volli
add1

29.11.2013

Good morning! I opened my eyes as sun started to shine into my face and Indrek screamed ”good morning everybody” after few minutes I felt it. Well, mood was good as we had some good rest after the long way and sleepless night. Toomas prepared some food and Andreas had some good shots in the middle of nowhere in my opinion :)
We are on our way now ! It is better attraction than you can have in any world best amusement park with camels , cows , horses , cars , trucks and BIGGEST road holes you can ever imagine ! That’s a hell lot of experience !! speak to you soon again ! Turkmenistan is the next target .
– by Volli
yyyx

29.11.2013

Road got much more better after 50km from the border , smile comes on the face ! :)
Mum , thank you for the chocolates !! :)
– by Volli

29.11.2013

Crossing Russian – Kazakhstan border. Slow and very unorganised. But people on the other side very organised – currency exchange from hand and insurance for vehicles in 5 min. Sale slogan is ,, if you don’t buy it here then in 100m you’ll pay fine to police and have to buy it anyways ,, :) So, we got it but 100m later were stopped again by a very sleepy (for me he looked drunk)  police officer who asked few stupid questions and said ,, have a good trip ,, ! It looked to me that he did not care what were the answers it was just important to write and have something on the paper. All right, lets talk about road conditions :) Russian roads are like german autobahn compare to first road we have here in Kazakhstan. But we finally got to our first camp at around 6.00AM. By camp I mean 150m from the main road sleeping under the open skye. So, good night ( I am sleeping in the car ).
– by Volli
add1
 

28.11.2013

I am on the back seat now. Around 250km to Astrakhan. Police stopped us few times for docs checking. In general the day has been good. No snow and ice which made it much more enjoyable to drive than previous days. Russian cities look depressive to be honest. Dirty and unmaintained. It’s still long way to go. Saw an accident on our way , someone hit the cow and crashed few other cars – hopefully everybody ok. Journey continues.
– by Volli

28.11.2013 (by Press)

Dear Jurgen’s mum thanks for the pills (Jurgeni ema aitahh kurgupastillide eest) ! :) Kurguvalu on taandumas. 
– by Press

28.11.2013 (by Press)

I think I don’t remember anything from today, i think i  got some good shots, shot couple of experimental films that I’m excited about. In the evening I found some beers I had bought from Tartu, Estonia. I finished three of those and because of cold we bought couple of bottles of vodka of which one of them Anto and I shared along the way. At some point I wasn’t sure anymore if I was drinking to fight cold or if I was just drinking. All in all today was peaceful. A lot of driving though. That’s all we did today, but it was beautiful. We were testing out the gopro mounts and shooting first scenes with them. I didn’t spend any time in the Trunk shooting tripod shots today, I was feeling comfortable on the seat and since breakfast was prolonged, I had to drink a beer for breakfast. After we finally did have breakfast I was starting to feel really tired and I slept for about an hour or so, but I felt I was missing out on stuff and maybe not capturing moments I should’ve, so I woke up. Today I was also testing out different lenses. 70-210mm handheld in the car looked really awesome, but was pretty much useless handheld. I think I’ll give it another try when mounted on a tripod. The vivitar 17-28 I wasn’t impressed with much at all, I think I’m not going to use it much along the journey. The L series canon lens with image stabilizing is really the only lens to use in the car since it removes so much camera shake when shooting handheld. We’re on our way to Stalingrad, now called Volgograd, I’m looking forward to capture this historic city so much, but I’m not sure how much time we will have since we have to make it to the Turkmenistan border on time. Tomorrow we will enter Kazakhstan. Right now we’re in some truckers motel getting ready to sleep. half of us have to sleep on the floor, couple of us have beds. The drivers get the comfy beds, rest of us sleep on the comfy floor.
Good night.
– by Press

28.11.2013

Good morning! Fell asleep around 3:00AM. Jokes, conversations and boys had few drinks.
It is midnight and we finally got to the hotel :) nice place :) Had a lunch on our way (Zakusotsnaja). Tomorrow will try to get to Volgograd and Astrakhan. Target Kazakhstan border. 
We need to be by Turkmenistan border by 3rd of december as our 5 days transit visa starts to run. No internet so far so, updates are with the delay.
– by Volli

28.11.2013

Good morning everybody. Snowing … not good (our tires not the best ones). Quick breakfast and big thanks to Indreks friends from Pskov. Slippery roads , ice , snow , darkness and holes :) – here we go again.
Road side hotel around 100km from Brjansk. Finally we got here safely. It was a long day. We had a little issue with Red but grease for 277 rubles and Vello’s and Indrek’s golden hands solved the issue and one hour later we were back on track ! Toomas made some nice sandwiches at the same time !
– by Volli
mmm1

26.11.2013

Crossed border in 1,5 hours … all good … Drove to Pskov … Indrek’s friends met us and helped with apartment . Having dinner and back to bed … Russia starts tomorrow … (Check the gallery for new photos !!!)
– by Volli
add1

26.11.2013

Leaving Tartu – next stop Russian Federation border . Weather is nice (a bit cold) :) We bought last suction cup in Tartu (Estonia) . GOPRO guys we need some more stock here for your stuff (please consider) :) U are popular here !!! :)
– by Volli
abbx

26.11.2013

What a start we had ! Red and Blue drove separately to our first stop/camp which is beautiful Tooma’s place in Türi area. Unfinished jet but will be one of the most beautiful country houses and summer cottages I have probably seen in Estonia (little advertising for Toomas here) :) First day/night all went well (if not to consider that Blue drove opposite direction from first stop. We ended up in Parnu-Jaagupi although we had to drive to Türi :) hahaa :)  , well done , looks like we are going to be in Thailand very soon. Do not ask how did it happen. Boys are still sleeping in the sauna house and they had few drinks before to go to sleep. (Hopefully not too many drinks, as I think they went to bed around 3/4AM). Toomas prepared the beds but I think only few used them , at least that’s what I saw in the morning. We have agreed that we will leave at around 9:00-9:30AM. We had meeting last night with final calculations and first stops planned. Tartu’s Lõuna Keskus will be the next stop for fast shopping to by some missing stuff we need and Russia here we come. The feeling and the mood of the team looks good and everybody get’s along with everybody, at least it looks like (please consider that some people just have met each other for the first time just a week ago. They just knew the names before of the people they go with – looks like estonians are so busy that we don’t even have time to meet each other for 6 months before the trip) :)))) Let’s see what new day brings !!!
– by Volli

24.11.2013

final preparations and Thailand here we come … :)
– by Volli
pic trip 4

14 days to go (10.11.2013)

14 days to go … our Red 4-runner’s engine stripped – head gasket faulty – should be done this week .
– by Volli
trip pic 2

Last Visa confirmed (05.11.2013)

Last visa confirmed !!! Waiting for courier !!! 20 days to go !!!
– by Volli

Car check (29.10.2013)

Car check and usual service by Indrek … for me it looks little rusty :) 28 days to go …
– by Volli
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