Schedules, Maps, and Guidebooks for Central Asia, Russia and Mongolia

New (dec ’21): a dedicated, fabulous overland guidebook on Kyrgyzstan. See more below.

After two wonderful years in the Far East we left the highly developed and urbanized countries of South Korea and Japan and have returned to countries that are predominantly rural: North and Central Asia.

We had some preparing to do in terms of schedules, and finding the right road maps and guidebooks. Here we share what we have done and learned.

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While we have by no means a tight itinerary, our next phase will include Russia, Mongolia, and ‘the Stans’, as we summarize them: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.

Will I ever learn to spell them properly without depending on the spellchecker? Even more confusing is the fact that they are spelled slightly differently in Dutch.

Even though we prefer a totally open agenda, our journey to this part of the world is defined by two issues:

• Visas, all with way too many time restrictions.
• Climate (severe winters).

Read More: Russia Budget Report

Visas

This is what we got figured out about the bureaucratic hassles. I guess it is relevant for all Europeans, but be sure to check out Caravanistan with excellent and updated info on all paperwork requirements (and lots of travel info) on Central Asia.

Russia

The standard is a one-month tourist visa, which obviously is way too short for us. So we applied for a business visa, which is valid for a year but during that year you can stay only 2×90 days (30 days of travel per 180 calendar days). It’s all ridiculously expensive.

A full description of the procedure will follow in a Travel Information on Russia page. But for the Dutch, I’d already like to point out the excellent service we got at Rusreis.nl, run by Lena and Peter who arranged, among other things, our business invitations.

Mongolia

We can apply for a one-month tourist visa in Ulan Ude, just before the border, which takes a few days ($50). An extension can be arranged in Ulaanbaatar (the capital), for about $45.

Kazakhstan

30-day visa free and you can re-enter as often as you want.

Kyrgyzstan

60-day visa free and you can re-enter as often as you want.

Uzbekistan

In 2019 Uzbekistan has been opening up, among which facilitating visa procedures.

Read more here.

Tajikistan

Bless Tajikistan: e-visa. $50 for 45 days. When in Kyrgyzstan to be organized in Bishkek or Osh.

Turkmenistan

The toughest cookie. They only give 3 or 5-day transit visas for $55, which need to be applied for in advance and apparently hassle.

All this is much, much easier than it was, oh some ten years ago. Having that figured out, the next step was more fun – although with its own frustrations: roadmaps and books.

Read More: Organizing your Visa for Russia

Road Maps for Russia

Getting roadmaps was the easy part. We’re grateful as ever to Reise Know-how for having sent us maps for the next phase. There are a couple for Russia alone, and partly overlap:

• Russia East 1: 2000 000 Travel Map
• Russia West 1:200 0000 Travel Map
• Lake Baikal (Siberia, Russia) 1:550,000 Travel Map
• Silk Road 1:2,000,000 Travel Map

We also got the Reise Know-how maps for Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Central Asia, and Mongolia.

Read More: Stories about Russia

Guidebooks for Central Asia, Russia, & Mongolia

Insight Guides are full of photos they have a very attractive set-up. They are not too detailed but great to get a general impression of a country/place, which invites you to research more.

The ones I will be using:

• Insight Guides Russia
• Russian Phrasebook & Dictionary (with the option to download on your Smartphone)
• Silk Road – ebook

Bradt Guides – Our Bradt Guyana guidebook is one of our favorites ever, and I was thrilled to see there have guidebooks on most of the countries in our next stage. The Guyana guidebook was super detailed and fascinating to read with not-commonly covered topics.

My Bradt guidebooks for Central Asia are:

Lonely planet guidebooks – they are particularly geared to backpacking and full of practical information on accommodation and public transportation, which isn’t relevant for overlanders. However, I do use them for the sightseeing sections, which depending on the destination, can be much of interest of very limited. These are the ones I use:

NEW (Dec ’21) – Overland Guidebook on Kyrgyzstan

Oun Travela is working hard on making a wonderful series of overland guidebooks designed for, yes, overlanders. Check out their website for more overland travel guidebooks! Here is EXPLORE KYRGYZSTAN.

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Still on my wishlist list to buy:

• Roaming Kyrgyzstan: Beyond the Tourist Track, by Jessica Jacobson
• Uzbekistan: The Golden Road to Samarkand, by Calum MacLeod (Odyssey Illustrated Guides)
• Tajikistan and the High Pamirs: A Companion and Guide, by Robert Middleton (Odyssey Illustrated Guides)
• Kazakhstan: Nomadic Routes from Caspian to Altai, by Dagmar Schreider (Odyssey Illustrated Guides)

Apart from the regular guidebooks such as Insight Guides, Bradt and Lonely Planet, I always look out for local guidebooks, brochures, maps, and other information.

Non-guidebooks

Of course, apart from guidebooks I’m searching for other books, fiction or non-fiction, preferably by local writers. The latter is not so evident when being totally unfamiliar with the writers from countries you already know so little about.

• For Russia, find the book list here.
• For Central Asia/Mongolia, find the list here.
• For other books we read and contribute to, check out our Bookshop as well.

Tips, Suggestions, Feedback?

Do you have any suggestions on books I should put on my list? I’d love to hear about them in the comment section below.

Thanks!

Originally published: April 2018 / updated December 2021 (for the EXPLORE KYRGYZSTAN guidebook)

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