It's been an expensive week....

With four months until I depart on the Mongol Rally, the biggest expense in taking part in the challenge was forked out - A whopping £460.80 for seven visas, all at a heart stopping click of a mouse.

Using a Visa Service company, the following visas are now being processed from a small office somewhere in London:

Iran --> £122.00, 10 days
Turkmenistan --> £39, 5 day transit visa
Uzbekistan --> £70.80, 15 days
Kyrgyzstan --> £59, 1 month
Kazakhstan --> £50, single entry, 1 month
Russia --> £68, single entry, 1 month
Mongolia --> £52, 30 days from point of entry (anytime during a given 90 day period)

** Note, this doesn't include a Turkish visa (bought on the border), unavoidable bribes and taxes!

The annoying part of this massive outlay in dosh is that we will just be driving through many of these countries as fast as possible enroute to Mongolia. As the Mongol Rally is in fact a race, and that we hope to make it to Ulaan Bator for Saturday 16th August, we have had to decide which countries to spend extras days in. Iran, Uzbek and Kyrgyzstan have our votes, and we have scheduled a couple of days off (if all goes well) in these two countries.
In applying for these visas you need to stipulate an "Entry date", so a rough itinerary has been drawn up which looks incredible ambitious.