Travelling With Your Own Vehicle 2

Another accquaintance of mine was not allowed to leave Jordan until his film was developed and the shots looked over. The good news: they developed the film for free! Bad news: slide film was developed in a negative developper. Good news: he was allowed to cross the border when they saw the films were blank and they even regretted the whole incident!

In Bolgaria, Rumania and some other Balkan countries, one has to drive the car through a small pool of disinfectant liquid. Moreover,  the car will be sprayed from the outside, so that you will enter the country clean. The undercarriage is inspected using a mirror fixed on two wheels with a handle, whereas a drugged police dog - much more reliable than manual examination - is released into the interior of the car…

To be continued

Text & photo: Janin Klemenčič

Travelling with your own vehicle

From the chapter: Travelling with your own vehicle:

...If you come by van to the Iranian border you will be shown an actual small-size museum of smuggling. There are pictures, objects or parts of vehicles in which someone tried to bring drugs (rarely anything else) across the border. Their owners are still spending educational years (even a few decades!) among Iranian prison rats getting "nan" and water twice a day. 

Iranian border

You will have to park your vehicle beside a long wooden table and spread on it everything from the car. The emptiede inside of the car will be thoroughly scanned (with an electric bulb at night), and your baggage will get a precise examination from one end of the table to another.

Much worse are the Greeks and the Turks: five or six customs officers will rush into the van to ransack it completely. Some objects are not examined at all, other are examined by all officers one after another. A fellow traveller of mine had his film pulled out of its cartridge, because the customs officer wanted to see what was on it. When we all screamed at the officer, he started to stuff it back into the cartridge.

to be continued

text & photo: Janin Klemenčič

How to Travel

From the chapter: How to Travel:

    …Travelling is a kind of sport: testing your skills, capabilities, body condition and courage; competing with yourself and with other travellers. Similar to other sports, it has different forms and disciplines. Swimmers compete in different track lenghts and styles, boxers in different weight categories, climbers are divided into alpinists, free climbers and extreme climbers.

    Likewise, travellers could be divided as regards the number of travellers, the amount of money to be spent, and the means of transport. I myself have tried most of travelling styles and it would be hard for me to choose my favourite one. As well as there are different feelings about each of these travel disciplines, there are also various advantages and disadvantages of a particular style. Let's take a look at each:

BY YOURSELF OR NOT

    Who to go on the road with? Am I able at all to go on my own? Won't that be dangerous? Wouldn't I be lonely and bored? Will I survive on my own and, if I do, what will I benefit from it?

There is no generally valid answer to these questions. The answer depends on your needs and wishes. Certainly, there is always a chance of trying both and than decide…