Jago 263| Crossing the Tajikistan-Afghanistan Border at Panj-e Payon
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ก.ย. 2024
- On the 134th day I continued my journey to Afghanistan. Honestly, I felt weak and my whole body was still covered in wounds from hiking the Fann Mountains. This was the nomadic life: you have to keep going.
There are many reasons why I decided to go immediately. First of all, Tajikistan's 30-day visa exemption requires registration if we stay more than 10 days. The registration fee is quite large for Indonesians and the SIM card will also automatically expire after 10 days. Luckily this 10-day rule didn't count Sundays so I was still safe even though it was already my 11th day in Tajikistan. Still, my SIM card had expired and I was forced to go to Afghanistan without internet. I only had time to withdraw a little money from the ATM and I had not exchanged it for dollars. Hopefully at the border I would find a money changer to exchange Tajikistan Somoni to Afghani.
The bus took 3 hours from the Asian Express Terminal in Dushanbe to Panj in the south. I got off at Jaihun and only had to pay 40 Somoni ($4). Here I walked 3 kilometers to Jaihun Market, where there is a shared taxi to Panj-e Payon, the border village.
I stopped briefly at TCell shop to ask if my SIM card could be renewed. It's not possible without registration, but the officer was kind enough and share his internet hotspot so I could check the Somoni/Afghani exchange rate and try to contact a Catalan friend who told me that he would also cross to Afghanistan today. No answer.
It took the shared-taxi (20 Somoni) 30 minutes to the Panj-e Payon Border. There was lunch break and the border reopened at 3 o'clock. I met German and Chinese backpackers during the wait. Mark chose to camp here because he supposed it was too late to cross. I accompanied Duke across, passing through Tajikistan immigration. The immigration officer asked me for my Afghanistan visa. I said I would apply for a visa at Afghanistan immigration.
It was more difficult for Duke to pass Tajikistan immigration because his Tajikistan visa would be forfeited if he left Tajikistan and would not be able to reenter Tajikistan in case the Afghanistan side denied him entrance.
At that time (17 September 2023), the information on the Afghanistan visa on arrival at Shir Khan Bandar was almost non-existent.
Finally the two of us crossed the Panj River (upper Amu Darya) and arrived on the Afghan side. The Taliban border guards greeted us nicely and directed us to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office.
The officer called the head office and seemed to be scolded harshly on the phone (we were also scolded in turn). He shouted at us, "Where did you get the information that you can get a visa on arrival here? That's wrong information. Crossing to Afghanistan is no joke!" My friend immediately panicked because he couldn't return to Tajikistan (his visa had been forfeited). I tried to calm him down because the officer said we could try again in the morning.
I told him that on the Tajikistan side there was a waiting room and perhaps we could be allowed to spend the night there. Finally we crossed the Panj River at sunset and were fortunate to be allowed by the Tajikistan military to spend the night there, in the area between Tajikistan and Afghaninstan immigrations, surrounded by tanks, anti-air guns and border patrols.
Legally according to our passports, we had left Tajikistan and had not yet entered Afghanistan. We spent the night in no man's land.
Note: We were likely the first to enter Shir Khan Bandar with visa-on-arrival (without prior visa) and had to bear all the scolding. After us, the visa-on-arrival regime has been implemented officially (smoother process too!).
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Stage 1 Route - Sumatra (DONE!):
Jakarta - Bandar Lampung - Baturaja - Lahat - Pagar Alam - Bengkulu - Lebong Tandai - Kerinci - Jambi - Kuala Tungkal - Batam - Johor Bahru
Stage 2 Route - ASEAN Mainland (DONE!):
Johor Bahru - Kuala Tahan - Kota Bharu - Su-Ngai Kolok - Nakhon Si Thammarat - Chaiya - Nakhon Pathom - Bangkok - Nakhon Ratchasima - Phimai - Nong Khai - Vientiane - Vang Vieng - Luang Prabang - Chiang Rai - Chiang Mai - Pai - Chiang Mai - Chiang Rai - Boten - Kunming, China
Stage 3 Route - China (DONE!):
Kunming - Dali - Lijiang - Shangri-La - Shambala - Litang - Chengdu - Leshan - Chengdu - Xi'an - Zhangye - Jiayuguan - Dunhuang - Turpan - Urumqi - Almaty, Kazakhstan
Stage 4 Route - Central Asia (DONE!):
Almaty - Shymkent - Tashkent - Nukus - Muynak - Turtkul - Khiva - Bukhara - Samarkand - Tashkent - Khujand - Fann Mountains - Dushanbe - Kunduz, Afghanistan
Stage 5 Route - Afghanistan:
Kunduz - Samangan - Mazar-i-Sharif - Balkh - Kabul - Bamiyan - Band-e Amir - Yakawlang - Lal - Chagcharan - Herat - Mashhad, Iran
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Music Credits:
And Awaken - Stings by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommon....
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The Amazing journey.
You went all the way there without first informing yourself of any visa requirements? 🤨
Last year there was no other choice. Tha Afghanistan embassies (previous govt) do not want to issue me a visa. Then I read a report someone got a visa in Tajikistan but his visa was not recognized by the Taliban at the border, yet the Taliban issued them a visa at the border. I thought let's just try going there empty handed and hope they can also issue me a visa at the border. I was scolded, needed to spend the night at the border, but in the end the next day they issued me a visa. Since then you could get visa on arrival at this border easily. I think I was the trailblazer. Haha... many backpackers thanked me for this.
Does the Afghanistan immigration stamp the passport?
Yes.
what time is the bus from dushanbe ?
8 am from Dushanbe to Panj
@BangJagoNusantara Thanks brother. Can we book the ticket one day before ?
You can buy the ticket in advance at the terminal. It's not a popular route, so I think you can even buy the ticket on the same day without worry.
@BangJagoNusantara ok. Thanks for your quick response. Subscribed and support to you 😊
@@nomadshabazshorts thanks for your support!
Pakai bhasa indo ja bang biar view nya banyak
Iya nih, klo pake bahasa Indonesia pasti lebih rame. Tapi ini lebih untuk orang2 lokal (dari masing2 negara) yang aku ketemu di jalan, supaya mereka jg bisa ikut nonton.
Amazing video 8:35
Thank you
Wahh.. sampai Afghanistan. Dari negara ke negara lain naik Bis ya Bang?
Kebanyakan jalan kaki lintas batas. Naik bus hanya ke dekat perbatasan (seperti di video ini). Naik bus antar negara hanya dari China ke Kazakhstan dan dari Abu Dhabi ke Riyadh. Ada jg yang naik kapal, ketika masuk ke Malysia, UAE dan Mesir. Sekali cobain naik kereta antar negara saat dari Laos ke China.
@@BangJagoNusantara sudah berapa tahun gak pulang rumah Bang?
Ini sudah kembali ke rumah. Jalan 7,5 bulan saja. Pertengahan Desember tahun lalu sudah pulang kembali. Rute perjalanannya bisa di lihat di TH-cam Short saya.
@@BangJagoNusantara luar biasa, Bang Jago termasuk faham rute. Kalau saya takut gak bisa pulang karena gak tau Rute.
Haha. Saya hanya ngandelin google map, internet dan tanya2 orang saja. Alhasil pernah juga nyasar, seperti ketika daki gunung di Tajikistan
Visa gimana bang?
Akhirnya besoknya diizinkan Visa on Arrival (bisa dicek di video berikutnya). Konon sekarang dah lancar kalau mau VoA di sana.
@@BangJagoNusantaramakasih bang infonya! Akhirnya dapat ide itunerary lagi kalau ke central asia nanti!
Ketemu Taliban bang ?
Di akhir video itu saya foto bareng Taliban. Haha. Di video berikutnya lebih banyak lagi. Jangan kelewatan ya, akan publish 2 hari lagi.
Jejak
keren ! tolong bikin liputan tentang kemajuan afghan sekarang, kaasian warga afghan karena diluar isinya berita negatif semua ,mereka dikucilkan dunia atas perintah US @BangJagoNusantara
Orang-orangnya ramah dan menyambut tamu. Situasi juga relatif aman. Ikuti terus untuk melihat Afghanistan apa adanya.