The secret to planning a proper trip is to formulate it when you're drunk, tell everyone straight away and then execute it when you're sober. I can remember during one particularly long post-work drinks session in London, that by the end of the night, I was utterly convinced that we were all going to travel the length of Africa in a Humvee with a trailer full of dirt bikes - "in case the shit goes down and we need to get the fuck out of there". Luckily when I woke up the next morning it was all forgotten. That terrible taste in my mouth must have been because I bit off more than I could chew.
Like the roads of Easternmost Europe, the planning of a grand tour is bumpy - always keep your head while you ride the ecstatic highs and the overwhelming lows. It will map out with an initial high as your pen moves freely over the map and you sound out strange placenames. It feels great. Enjoy it. After this expect a low - this is the moment you realise the amount of planning that is involved and, depending on how obscure the places that you want to go to are, how difficult it is to get information. That fear that is rising up in your gut - that's good, it means your alive and is a direct response to the immensity of the task that you've chosen and the fear of you have of failing to do it.The only way to overcome this lowpoint is research. Information is a security blanket. To this end: a friend of mine pointed me to Horizons Unlimited. It's ok I didn't care for the name the first time I heard it either. Whatever you are planning on doing, there is someone on the forum that has done it before and can give advice about the best way to do it. I'm not going to harp on about it but just finish by listing some of the questions I got answers to to give you an idea of the scope:
The best way to get letters of invitation (required for a visa) to Azerbaijan, Belarus and Russia
Quality of the roads in Ukraine, Caucasus and Iran
A request to buy 2 fully loaded bikes in Berlin in August 2012
Best way to navigate through the Caucasus
Is there any way to overcome the 72 hour restriction when bringing motorbikes into Azerbaijan
What's wrong with the routing for open source maps on my GPS
Insomnia. You're awake
but you keep your eyes closed hoping that sleep will flood back in
and envelop you again but it doesn't. Then some problem, some issue
or thought that you managed to banish in the daylight hours enters
and begins to tug at your sleeve demanding attention. You open your
eyes and scan the black powdery shapes that make up your room. You
find when thinking about this problem that it is grossly inflated,
it's proportions grotesquely warped. You cannot see past it. Stay
calm. Try a different thought. Go to your happy place. But there is
something in the periphery of the happy place which as soon as it is
noticed pulls at everything with a profound gravity, consuming all else until there is nothing left but the thought or idea or
problem. Why does every attempt to outmanoeuvre this thought or idea
or problem seem to give it more power and strength? More than that, why is the problem or thought or idea so massive and unmanageable in
the dark when it was the opposite in daylight?
The night hours of the
insomniac is the smallest world one can inhabit. It extends to the
edge of the room or house – the world outside this boundary is not theirs. It is
full of people with purpose. Any attempt to join that world seems
contrived, its contents a mismatch for the internal turmoil that
theirs alone. It's not the problem that has grown – but the world
that has shrunk – the existence of this daytime twin mostly
forgotten and of little consolation.
The size of one's world
is the sum of the people one knows, the places they inhabit and the
catalogue of experiences that that person has. To go to a new place, experience something different,
to talk to a new person or even to have a new conversation with an old friend is to temporarily increase
the size of your world. In other words newness is a synonym for
expansion.
It would be beautiful
if the mind were a better collector – constantly accumulating each
new experience and keeping it in pristine condition so that it
remained there, forever retaining the same space that it was originally
allocated. But is not. This is another example of how consciousness
is an accident because it does not cope well with the necessary
natural circumstances that created it. For the moment that each new
addition is added to the world – each item added to the collection
– it begins to fade (places and experiences forgotten, people are
fallen out of touch with) and shrink and consequently the world as a
whole shrinks.
This is what habit is.
Habit is going through the motions of life without experiencing
something new. And habit spreads. Keep doing the same thing over and
over again and each time you will experience it a little less. The
natural conditions that created the mind before it became self aware
always considered comfort and correspondingly, safety as a virtue.
Habit and routine provided food in the same place, mating occurring
in the same location, at the same time of year and territory,
correctly demarcated provided a safe place to sleep and live.
So why the insomnia?
Consciousness when it realised itself – understood that same moment, that sometime it
would end. Death, or more specifically the inevitability of death, is
the single greatest crisis for self-aware consciousness. What to do,
what to do. Deny death – the first stage of dealing with death no
less- and create religion and the afterlife. This way a world can
shrink – allowing one to reside in the safety of routine and, more
than that, allows order to be perpetuated so that a social order can
be built. Is it a coincidence that religion and feudalism existed
simultaneously and the beginning of the demise of the former resulted
in the end of the latter?
Now the self-aware
consciousness (or mind) knows its existence is finite and, so, desperately
longs to expand its world but needs habit and the corresponding
contraction of its world to slot into the rest of society for a
reliable income. In other words there is a contradiction between
living and staying alive. This contradiction must coexist in a single
mind. No wonder you can't sleep.
The solution? Travel.
The world (as the sum of people one knows, places visited and new
experiences) is vigorously expanded when you go to a new country with
an entirely separate culture – the more alien the better. You walk
along the street with an entirely foreign vista – you will be
struck by its strangeness and differentness – you will experience
everything that would be entirely pedestrian in your habit-world with
a sense wonder. It is impossible not to take up the profound
challenge to routine that is set down by throwing yourself into a
situation where no matter what option you choose your world expands a little bit. The contraction of your world
when you return home is certain by not instantaneous – you will notice
that problems which before seemed hulking seem to have shrunk,
sometimes into insignificance. You are the powerful one now. And when
you fall back, exhausted into your bed you will find you never slept
so well.
Consider the breakaway territory of Transnistria. It's a strip of land about 400km long and 40km wide sandwiched between the Dneister river (hence the alternative spelling "Trans-Dniestr") to its West and the Moldovan-Ukrainian border to the East. Transnistria is the last Soviet autonomous state in Europe and is not recognised by any other country in the world - check out perhaps the best map on wikipedia of a lonely, greyed out world map with "States that recognise Transnistria". It prints its own money, has its own passports and stamps. Much of the Moldovan heavy industry from the Soviet era is in Transnistrian territory, leaving the rest of Moldova as one of the poorest countries in Europe. The split between Transnistria and Moldova proper occurred as a result of the 1992 Transnistrian war.
Moldovan Flag
One only needs to glance at the flags to realise that Transnistria is orienting itself mother Russia while Moldova is setting about orienting itself internally creating an identity for itself. This division is carried through to the language - in Transnistria Russian is spoken while Moldova has it's own language.
Gauging the political temperature in Transnistria is the difficult part. There is scant literature about this breakaway territory leaving one to rely on filmed documentaries. Two that I came across paint the place in completely different shades and it sheds far more light on the techniques of documentary film making than it does about subject of Transnistria. The real question to be addressed is that how does one judge the danger in a travel destination based on two conflicting pieces of information? It's something that occurs quite often and is worth investigation.
The first is from the BBC Series Places that Don't Exist (which also includes in other episodes visits to Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia). Think English public schoolboy toff in a starched white shirt amiably interacting with the natives in a postcolonial age. Simon Reeves is the host, remains upbeat despite some occasionally unpleasant scenes - one in particular involving an elderly woman getting dragged off by police in Moldova for singing a Russian song. The documentary is unapologetic about the state of Transnistria - he relays that his hotel room is probably bugged by the MGB - the Transnistrian variant of the old KGB. In one scene Reeves visits a steel mill, the largest in the former Soviet Union, which claims not to be exporting arms to other countries. Reeves admits that it is entire possible for a steel mill of this size to be doing so and remain undetected while a film crew is allowed in.
Officially the beef that Moldova has with Transnistria is with border control - the border between Transnistria and Ukraine is extremely porous undermining the integrity of Moldova. Reeves does not shy away from this, going to the border which is little more than a dirt road thereby demonstrating that smuggling arms or other illegal goods in such a situation would be extremely easy.
Another issue in Transnistria is the immense power and influence that criminal gangs, indeed one criminal gang in particular, wield. This gang is called "Sheriff" and they have been able to build a massive football stadium at the cost of 200 million euros, while Moldova's one is "crumbling". The ground floor of the stadium is a Mercedes showroom where the latest Benzs are extravagantly displayed. One cannot help but remember an earlier scene in Moldova when Reeves goes to a Moldovan village where a man sold his kidney to buy a washing machine and renovate his house. The implication is that such a disparity can only be achieved here through criminal smuggling given that Transnistria is not able to legally export anything as it is an unrecognised state.
And yet, there are scenes which clearly show that there is no comprehensive system of repression in Transnistria. The first is that they are able to come right up and interview the president during a military parade. When interviewed, the president does not vomit out angry rhetoric, instead he stresses independence, learning from the rest of the world and pluralism.
In the ultimate scene they try to film a "secret" army base, they get quite close to it but they are caught and arrested. They are then released and given their film back.
Now consider the second film about Transnistria - Europe's Black Hole. This opens with a military parade, this is a scene similar to the one in Places that Don't Exist but different by being far more aggressive in nature. Instead of soldiers in dress uniform - they are in camouflage gear, faces painted black and lying prone. These are clearly soldier ready for battle more than just marching around the parade ground. When I heard the opening line "under the eye of Lenin, terror has free reign" my feelers were instantly poised, waiting for sensationalism.
This film relies on the motif of a covert journalist. Scenes are shakily shot in low fidelity film. There are many scenes in a car when the shot drops below the dashboard apparently to avoid detection. The soundtrack is also ominous, drawn out growling bass set to a beat on a kettle drum.
Issues of how reliable this is as a comprehensive picture of life in Transnistria extends to journalistic method as well. Consider the fact that the film's entry point into Transnistria is an arrest warrant issued by Interpol for a person that is hiding there. The association of criminals to the state and the reiteration of the phrase "criminal state" is quite effective until you ask the question - what does "criminal state" actually mean? Not much. Looking at almost anywhere through the aperture of the criminal element and you will get a skewed picture of that place. But this is not just a problem of taking the wrong entry point - there seems to be a concerted effort to skew the perspective toward making it seem more dangerous than it actually is and most of all providing the appearance that the criminal element is one and the same thing as the government. This is given weight by testimonies given by members of the Moldovan government - a government that is still at war with the Transnistria - clearly getting the facts from the enemy.
The implied thesis that the film puts forward is that the Transnistrian people exist under an extremely oppressive regime that is run by criminal gangs. We get glimpses at why they mistakenly associate their lack of tact to obtaining access with repression. When they attempt to enter the same football stadium that was shot in the last film, this time shot from the floor of the car they are in - they are denied entry. The exact dialogue goes like this: "Good afternoon this is a camera crew they would like to look around?" they ask. The response is "that is forbidden". There is no mention of who they work for or what film they are making. Why would someone let you enter and just start filming potentially putting their job in jeopardy? In Places that Don't Exist they did not have any trouble getting access to the same stadium and are given a tour by a very suspicious man in a sleeveless shirt.
This is not say that the film is useless in terms of reliability - one interview describes the horrific experiences of a sex slave that has managed to escape captivity. Attempting to do the same thing beforehand and being punished in a particularly appalling way is the most effecting part.
So which version of Transnistria do you believe? There are certain facts established by the first film that stick in your throat when you try to swallow the second. First - if, in the first film, they were caught trying to film a military base but released with their equipment and footage after a short amount of time, then clearly the Transnistria is not exercising the paranoia that would be expected for the state that is described in the second film. Secondly, how are they able to approach and interview the president which seems free from the presence of body guards which would also be present in such a state? But more than that there is the feeling of freedom of movement - that scenes can be shot at the border relatively freely, that the bank notes printed in Transnistria do not have the president on them because "We don't have a cult of personality of the president" all convey the impression of a state that does have massive criminal problems but is regardless much freer than the one described in the film Europe's Black Hole.
It is important that when people consider travelling to a place that is considered dangerous they realise there are many reasons why somewhere would be labelled in such a manner - the chief one is usually ignorance. I remember travelling to Mexico how paranoid most US citizens were - preferring to cram themselves into US trailer parks instead of crossing the border. This was the results of media that picks and chooses the facts it presents conveying a skewed picture. Also present is self-interest - especially when dealing with government agencies that would prefer their citizens to stay at home - spending their money domestically instead of overseas. I don't know about you but I spent my stimulus money on a holiday OS.
The most tense border crossing I've ever made was with Giulia -
returning from Mexico to the US through Nuevo Laredo in March last year.
Although the leadup was uneventful, the tension increased steadily the nearer
we got to the border, finally reaching fever pitch as our 1976 Chevrolet
Sportsvan was inspected by the US customs station. Aside from the usual fear of
authority drilled into anyone who went to a Christian Brothers school, at the
core of the anxiety was the question what the hell happens once you have left
Mexico but then get denied access to the US? We were essentially in
no-man's-land having already given up our vehicle permit and visas before
crossing the bridge that towers over the dribbling Rio Grande. My assumption
was that the only available option would be to reapply for both, perhaps
dealing the deathblow to our already wretched finances and somehow head back
the way we came. I was curious but I didn't want to ask the custom's guard,
bloated not just with tex-mex cuisine but his own sense of self-importance
questions which would most likely be responded to by "why do you want to
know what happens if you don't get let in?"
I got a jolt of cold lightning up my spine when they asked me for a
document that I did not have. This was followed by soft relief when I was told
that I could buy another one. While I filled out the necessary forms the latex
gloved customs guards went through our van. I spied out of the corner of my eye
a sign which had "You MUST declare" then a list of things which included
mangoes. We had mangoes in the back which I hurriedly declared to one guard. He
came right up to me and said "You're lucky you did that - we could have
sent you back". Eventually, without smile or character, they told us we
could go having left our van a violated mess (unlike the Mexican guards that
always left everything immaculately). I drove off into the Texas afternoon
completely relieved. Incidentally, my plan, if I got turned back from the US
was drive 1100km back to Mexico City - sell the van and fly back to Australia
from there. I would have missed out on my existing flight and a meeting with
someone that had already agreed to buy the van.
Border crossing are almost always tense but you can usually consider
them in isolation, on a case-by-case basis. By contrast the South Caucasus is a
complex web of ethnic tensions, closed borders and Soviet style bureaucracy. This
means that a comprehensive tour of the region must be planned in advance and
take into account each restriction which could impair your movement,
understanding that entry here might cause problems there. It is also important
to take into consideration the mode of transport you intend to take – some states
will place further restrictions or import taxes on you if you want to bring
your own car or motorcycle.
Understand that this region is still in a state of flux - with the
most recent major changes to the map happening as recently as August 2008 with
the borders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia being redrawn as a consequence of
Georgian-Ossetian conflict. The main reason why the South Caucasus has not
organically reached a level of stability is that the freeze imposed on the
region when it was part of the USSR, has now gone. The tensions that predated the
Bolshevik revolution have reignited and begun to smoulder again, occasionally
combusting. As a result it is always necessary to seek the latest information
before you travel there – any one of the countries or autonomous states described
below has the potential to change at any time for a reason as seemingly insignificant
as if one country is hosting the Eurovision finals.
FENCE 1 – Azerbaijani-Armenian border is closed
Nagorno-Karabakh - the name alone is a cultural hodgepodge (Nagorno
is Russian for "highland" while Karabakh is Persian for "black
garden). The image (right) of flaming hole in the heart of Azerbaijan has been
taken from the Azeri Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. This flaming hole
(the flames are animated on the website) represents Nagorno-Karabakh which is
an enclave, with an ethnic Armenian majority, entirely surrounded by
Azerbaijan. Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh has its roots in 1921 when, after centuries
of Armenians and Azeri's living side by side, the early Bolsheviks established it
as an autonomous Armenian state within Azeri territory. This was a move by the
Bolsheviks who attempted to maintain control by exploiting regional tensions.
It is said that Nagorno-Karabakh caused the end of the USSR - being the first
to reclaim power to its local Soviet from the Supreme Soviet in Moscow, it was
the thread that unravelled the whole red sweater breaking a Soviet taboo
thereby undermining the legitimacy of the entire regime. Without Soviet control
Azerbaijan attempted to claim Nagorno-Karabakh as its own. Armenia responded
with the idea of protecting the Armenian ethnic majority there. This resulted
in a series of escalating conflicts began and lasted from 1988-1994 with heavy
civilian casualties on each side. A ceasefire declared in 1994 was by no means
an end to the violence with sporadic skirmishes still erupting on both sides,
the latest of which was in March 8 2011.
Domestic opinion in Azerbaijan and Armenia of the Nagorno-Karabakh
issue is uncompromising toward the other - both see this as a sacred issue over
which they are not willing to budge. The animated image on Foreign Affairs
website perfectly describes how sensitive the Nagorno Karabakh issue is in
Azerbaijan. Although Nagorno Karabakh is autonomous it seems to move in step with
Armenia with the Karabakh party holding a great deal of sway in the capital. The
situation has not improved because there is no dialogue between the two states which
is a function of the less than pluralistic regimes in these countries (in 2000
peace plans were conducted by the respective leaders without opening up the
issue for debate within their societies). Thus if we view the closed borders as
closed not just physically but also in terms of flow of opinion between the
Azerbaijan and Armenia we get an understanding why so little of the explosive
potential of the issue has dissipated since 1994.
The Nagorno-Karabakh issue impacts on travellers in two ways: the
first and most obvious is that the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia is
closed. The second is only relevant if you wish to travel to Nagorno-Karabakh
itself. At the time of writing the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs
site Smart Traveller has the region under a “Do not travel” status. I have
heard that the enclave is most likely safe provided you stay away from the
Azerbaijan border but do not take this as gospel. Nagorno-Karabakh is
accessible from Armenia via the Lachin corridor, a mountain pass legally in
Azeri territory but effectively under Armenian control. A visa is available in
Yerevan the Armenian capital. Note that any evidence of this in your passport
means you would be refused entry into Azerbaijan. I've heard that even having
an Armenian sounding name can cause problems when crossing into Azerbaijan. Ask
for the visa to Nagorno-Karabakh on a separate piece of paper which can be
discarded before entering Azerbaijan.
Also relevant to this border being closed is Nakhchivan the Azerbaijani landlocked autonomous enclave which shares a border with Armenia on the western side. Nakhchivan is geographically isolated from the rest of Azerbaijan, and the Caucasus because it's only borders are with Armenia which is closed, Turkey and Iran. This means that the state can only be accessed via either Turkey and Iran.
FENCE 2 – The Georgian-Russian borders are Closed
The two states, grouped into a single conflict could not really be more different from one another. First is South Ossetia a mountainous grassland which pokes below the Caucasus mountain range. It's population is poor, mostly Ossetians with a minority of Georgians. South Ossetia separation from Georgia is a legacy from the Soviet Union, when the Ossetians sided with the invading Russian Bolsheviks against the Georgian Mensheviks. The second state is Abkhazia which contains the subtropical sea resorts favoured by Soviet Party leaders, including Stalin, and the Ottoman Turks before them. Because of this appeal Abkhazia has a history of being a cosmopolitan destination home to Greeks, Jews and Armenians as well as it's native Abkhaz population which is slowly regaining a majority after being deported en masse during the Soviet era as enemies of the Soviet Union.
Observe the way that both these states dip below the natural border of the Caucasus mountain range, the highest mountain range in Europe. It is clear that they are implied targets in the "restoration of Geogria's territorial integrity" which Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, promised to fulfil in his first term. Russia saw Georgia's new Western orientation as a threat, to which it responded by offering protection to South Ossetia and Abkhazia against Georgia. The resulting South-Ossetian war was depicted in the West as the result of Russian aggression but Georgian nationalism and the belief in Georgia that the west would lend more support than it did lead to the impasse.
One of the most bizzare moments that demonstrates how divisive an issue South Ossetia is is in the lead up to war, Saakashvili invited 70s band Boney M (Ra Ra Rasputin) to the Georgian inhabited town in the heart of South Ossetia. There were claims by Boney M that the band that played there that day were actually imposters.
Georgia lost badly in the 2008 war, losing territory as well as having most ethnic Georgian's expelled from Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The borders from Georgia to Russia as well as these two states are now closed, so they are only accessible from Russia. These borders are patrolled by Russian peacekeepers - one of which said in one interview they were waiting to tear off their peacekeeping armbands and go back to war. Furthermore both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, just as with Nagorno-Karabakh, are not recognised as real states by the rest of the world so are forced to rely increasingly on Russia.
In terms of travel plans, without a very large detour through a third country (Azerbaijan-Russian border is closed to most passports) it is a matter of either visiting these two states and Russia or visiting the rest of the Caucasus. Even travelling by boat to/from Abkhazia is not an option as Georgia has a naval blockade of Abkhazia. The best option is if you are travelling into the Caucasus, black out the areas on your map and, travel wise, just pretend they don't exist.
FENCE 3 – The Armenian-Turkish border is closed
With Armenia on the fringes of Christian world it was always going to be exposed when the radically pro-Turkic Young Turks came to power in 1908. Sandwiched between the Ottoman Empire and the Russia Empire, Amenia allied itself with Russia when Turkey lauched an attack on the Caucasus. Turkey suffered one of the largest defeats in military history and responded with the forced deportation of nearly a million Armenians from Anatolia in Turkey. Most died en route to deserts in Syria or Iraq. This is known as the Armenian Genocide.
The current rift between Armenia and Turkey is not due to the event itself but is largely because of Turkey's failure to recognize it as an act of genocide, terming it instead as a consequence of war. A good deal of the evidence points to event as a deliberate attempt to clear East Anatolia of it's Armenian inhabitants. Although there is still a strain of ultranationlism in Turkey that continues to deny the act was genocide this fence is the most likely to come down soon with the Armenian president attending a football game between Turkey and Armenia, congratulating the Turkish president when Turkey scored.
This border being closed does not have a massive impact on a trip through the Caucasus on it's own but when combined with the fact that Armenia also has closed borders with Azerbaijan and Iran requiring a visa to enter, it does potentially make Armenia a little bit of a cul-de-sac. Travel to Turkey is easily achieved using Georgia as a transit country.
FENCE 4 - Limit of 72 hours on a Motorbike in Azerbaijan
While more of a conceptual barrier that a geopolitical fence - this little Azerbaijani policy has the potential throw your entire trip in to disarray. I have had trouble finding where the policy is directly referred to in official government documents but it has been mentioned on numerous forums by people that have experienced it first hand. As far as I can surmise the policy is that it is possible to bring in a car or motorbike for a maximum of 72 hours (to the minute) on a temporary importation document. The consequences of overstaying this is a massive fine for each day spent in excess of this time.
This issue has caused more agony than any others during planning, and might make you try to resort to taking public transport. Considering that at its narrowest point from Georgia to Baku the distance is 333km this might not be a massive problem until you consider exactly where Azerbaijan is situated - which is on the edge of the Caspian, with its border to Russia closed to all but CIS passport holders. As mentioned previously the border with Armenia is closed and besides when travelling to Baku and back you would have to cross the country twice.
The first solution is to leave your vehicle at the custom's office in Baku - this gives you another 5 days to travel through Azerbaijan on public transport. From there you will have to catch a ferry to Turkmenistan which is where the problems begin to arise. Turkmenistan is described as the grittiest of the 'stans and taking a vehicle there a bureaucratic nightmare. Although petrol is 2 cents a liter you must have a guide with you (at $130/day), unless you're on a transit visa, at all times when travelling outside the capital Ashgabat. The logical answer to this might appear to be to get a transit visa - the issue here is that Turkmenistan seems to close its borders with neighbouring countries on a whim - leaving you high and dry with no time left on your five day transit visa to traverse it's desert interior to a viable crossing.
The second solution is to travel through Azerbaijan to Iran. As previously mentioned getting an Iranian visa can be difficult, especially if you're a journalist or from the USA, and perhaps at the time of writing from the UK. A letter of invitation could help and I've been informed that there is a 75% chance of getting in on a Commonwealth visa - but this was before the UK expelled all Iranian diplomats from the Iranian embassy in London. Another issue is that you will not be informed if your application has been rejected, only if it has been approved, so you could be waiting for a call that will never come. It does make the Iranian visa a little bit of a tent pole for the entire South-East Caucasian expedition if you intend to travel by car or motorcycle.
Conclusion
There are only a few possible sequences if you want to visit all the nations in the Southern Caucasus. Hinging on getting an Iranian visa I plan on travelling in the sequence of Georgia -> Azerbaijan -> Iran -> Armenia -> Nagorno-Karabakh -> Georgia -> Turkey.
