{"id":6855,"date":"2026-04-26T20:42:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T20:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wheelygoodtimes.ch\/?p=6855"},"modified":"2026-04-26T21:36:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T21:36:53","slug":"tag-049-tiflis-ruhetag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wheelygoodtimes.ch\/en\/tag-049-tiflis-ruhetag\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 049 \u2013 Tbilisi (Rest Day)"},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s next & bike box<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My day today was shaped by constant back-and-forth thinking about how to continue the journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After what felt like endless thinking and research about my options, I went back to yesterday\u2019s caf\u00e9 and tried their breakfast plate. Then I visited a few bike shops to find a bike box\u2014a cardboard box for transporting the bicycle on a plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally, when I decided to take this journey, I thought I could cycle through Iran and then Turkmenistan, completing the entire route to Shanghai by bike. I had already applied for my Iranian visa and it was ready for pickup at the embassy when war broke out, making Iran no longer an option. There had already been travel warnings before that, but I had been in contact with an Iranian guide who said the situation was stable\u2014well, not anymore. On top of that, after three weeks of waiting, my carefully prepared transit visa application for Turkmenistan was rejected, with the explanation that transit visas were no longer being issued. The only alternative would have been an official tour, which is not what I want and would cost about 1,500 USD for 4 to 5 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came up with three alternative options:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. The first option was to cycle to Azerbaijan and take a ferry from there to Aktau in Kazakhstan. However, since the pandemic, land borders to Azerbaijan have been closed, and entry is only possible by plane. I had heard of some cyclists receiving special permission to enter overland from Georgia and leave by ferry. So I applied for an e-visa and sent a formal letter to the addresses I found online. The processing time was said to be 4\u20135 weeks, and it has now been more than 5 weeks\u2014but I never received any reply. So this option is no longer viable.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. The second option was to fly to Azerbaijan and take the ferry to Aktau from there. Initially, I thought I could ship the bike overland and avoid disassembling and boxing it. But that turned out to be a misconception\u2014while some people had done it, it was very expensive and took several days. Since I had heard that the Caspian ferry is quite an experience, I had already decided to fly from Tbilisi to Baku. However, I didn\u2019t book the flight immediately and instead went to buy a box for my bike. By the time I returned, the ticket price had nearly tripled\u2014the cheaper ones were gone. That made the detour much less attractive.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. That left only the third and final option, which I had considered a last resort: flying directly from Tbilisi to Aktau in Kazakhstan. As a bike traveler, I really dislike the idea of flying\u2014I cycle precisely because I don\u2019t want to fly. But now there seems to be no other choice. Russia could theoretically have been an option, but it didn\u2019t appeal to me, and getting a visa would have taken 3\u20134 weeks. If flying is unavoidable, this option makes more sense. The only issue is timing: direct flights only operate on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays at 01:35 a.m. Since we only arrived in Tbilisi on Saturday evening due to the unexpected rest day in Wani, the flight that same night was too soon\u2014even for an optimist like me. So the next available one is on Wednesday, meaning I\u2019ll go to the airport on Tuesday evening.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Staying in one place for three whole days is something entirely new for me on this journey, and it\u2019s one reason why I kept considering option two. I have this inner drive to keep moving forward\u2014something I\u2019ve discovered more clearly about myself during this trip. Maybe it was always there, but I just wasn\u2019t aware of it. Still, after more than 5,000 kilometers, a slightly longer break might actually do me good. I\u2019ll definitely enjoy the vegan restaurants here before heading into the more barren regions of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, where the food will likely be more repetitive. So why not make the most of these days\u2014a kind of \u201cvacation within the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Through all this back-and-forth, I\u2019ve learned that sometimes you have to make decisions even when you don\u2019t yet have all the information you\u2019d like\u2014because waiting can cause options to disappear. That\u2019s not easy for me, but in the end, things usually turn out the way they\u2019re meant to, and that\u2019s often the best possible outcome. Traveling directly to Kazakhstan is logistically simpler and probably makes more sense\u2014I just had trouble accepting the idea of \u201cwaiting\u201d here for three days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n