Just left Tashkent this morning to go in the direction of Almaty and quickly got the longest lift from the trip since France !

Probably my last day hitchhiking here, trying to reach Tashkent from Samarcand!

I took the train to pass the KZ-UZ border from Beineou to Kungrad as there is no other way. Then I slowly hitchhiked to Bukhara where I am currently and also visited the Aral Sea.

I don't really know what to do after Samarcand. I plan to go to Mongolia but I want to visit Tadjikistan and Kirghizstan, but also Tachkent, Turkestan... it is however in two different direction. Could do both but IDK. If someone has a HH route to advise me I'm willing to hear from it ;)

Pendant mon tour du monde en auto-stop, je me suis arrêté à Atyraou (Kazakhstan) juste après la frontière avec la Russie. J'ai été invité par les prêtres catholiques de la ville à prendre un thé (l'un est slovaque et l'autre philippin) et en leur disant que je pensais aller à Aktau, ils m'ont chargé de délivrer des documents et des hosties à la paroisse là-bas. J'ai accepté mais j'avoue que j'avais peur de les casser car en autostop les sacs subissent quand même quelques chocs xD

Je suis parti le matin pour faire 900 kilomètres, peut-être en une journée mais je pensais réalistiquement plutôt deux. Que dire ! En 6 passages je suis arrivé le soir à Aktau, ma destination. J'ai rencontré de supers personnes : on m'a invité pour une pizza, j'ai rencontré des enfants qui ne comprenaient pas ce qu'était le stop et voulaient m'aider à payer un taxi, j'ai fais du stop avec 3 jeunes kazakhs (et ça a marché!), j'ai rencontré des cyclistes français... Une journée incroyable !

Le lendemain matin j'ai délivré les objets de la quête et on m'a donné une chambre où je peux rester comme je veux ici !

I am hitchhiking from France and when arriving in Atyraou, biggest city after Russia in Kazakhstan, I went to the mass in a small catholic church. The priests did an English mass just for me (we were 6 in total, two priest and one sister lol). First time I actually did a reading in English...

I have been invited after mass to take a tea. I said to the priests (one is Slovak, the other Filipino) that I will go to Aktau on the Caspian Sea and they basically asked if I wanted to transport hosts and a document (I believe it is about appointing a new priest) to the parish there. I naturally accepted even though I was scared to break the hosts during the travel.

My journey started in the morning, I have been taken by 6 different people through steppes and deserts and I can tell you one thing : God is good ! I have been so blessed meeting these nice people. As a Catholic hitchhiker, it is always good experience to know what real charity is, especially when it comes from people that are not even Christians.

The hosts are not consacreted, of course, but knowing they will gives a really warm feeling to my heart. They've been carried by me but also by Muslims that drove the cars, some actually praying during the rides. They don't know it, but they did something even better than just helping me getting a ride.

I successfully delivered both the hosts and the document today to the priest (from Belarus) and he invited me to eat, coffee and also... to sleep ! Here, it is not really a church because the administration keep pushing the construction of it. It is kind of a chapel in a house.

Just wanted to share this with you guys. We complain a lot about tons of things but here, being Catholic is very simple and very hard at the same time. Keep the Church in your prayers, and more specifically the little parishes in non Catholic-majority countries (and also pray for me if you want lol, I need it).

Deo gratias !

Because I saw almost no information about HH in today's Russia as a foreigner and seeing A LOT of misinformation about it I want to share my experience, now that I leaved the country. Lot of people want to go to Asia from Europe and because Iran is really unsafe, Azerbaijan not accessible and Russia at war, they just abandon the project. Overall, I can say hitchhiking in Russia is not a problem at all but you definitely should avoid some areas and travelling in general there is quite a pain in the ass because of the sanctions.

https://hitchmap.com/?user=cavalierrustique&starttime=2026-05-01

Bordercrossing from Georgia to Russia

I arrived in Russia trough the Caucasus, amazing place to be! Had no problem at all leaving the Georgian checkpoint by foot, however I hitchhikied in the no man's land to go trough the tunnels because it was sketchy. I was a bit afraid of the Russian checkpoint for lot of reasons. Everytime I hear about it, people were kept for several hours, between 2 and 9 hours ! Phone checked, backpack checked etc.

My experience was very different. First russian soldiers great me so well man, we go some laugh and they even take pictures with me with their phone. One soldier said I need to find a car to go to the customs and I asked him if he can do it for me he said yes and found a car. At the customs, I had 0 problems. No interrogation (just where I planned to go), they did not even checked my backpack but barely just my small bag xD Got a lift to Vladikavkaz in a minute.

They will give you a "migration card" small paper, DON'T LOOSE IT AS I DID. You can have a fine between 3000 and 7000 rubles, no entry again in Russia for some years, no possibility to sleep in most of hostels.

Hitchhiking all the way to Moscow from Vladikavkaz

My true hitchhiking trip to Russia was about to start. I had two choices : the road from Volgograd or the road from Rostov-on-Don. I got a lift in 5 min to the west border of Ossetia by a cop officer. I crossed a military checkpoint with no problem by foot, asked if I can HH and they say yes. Got taken by a truck driver, another one (who invited me to eat). From there, there was another military checkpoint, I asked a military officer if they can find a car going to Rostov for me, he said yes. They really tried to helped me! They found someone that was not going far so I just decided to try on my own and I found 10 minutes later a belarus truck driver that brought me all the way to a gas staion before Rostov where I slept.

My worst hitchhiking day! Big gas problems in Russia

This gas station looked like the perfect spot to go further. Plenty of traffic, restaurants, shops, toilets. Sure, lot of local traffic, but also some trucks and some cars going further. I waited 8 hours !!! No one stopped. Why ? Because of gas problem. Yeah, in theory I would think that it doesn't change anything for the hitchhiker. But people do the queue for like 1-2 hours just to get gas ! And when they fill the car, they probably don't want to stop again. It was a really weird and difficult place to be. But also very interesting to see this apocalyptic and dystopic situtation. Because I was stuck here with another Russian dude that came at the end of the day, we ended up taking a taxi (we tried for 2 hours to have one, even this was difficult !!). I was close to Ukraine so not safe place because of drone attacks (I thought I wouldn't stay there that much tho) and of course close to warfront that's why the gas problem there was INSANE ! If you plan doing something similar, please, take the road from Volgograd and not Rostov. I ended up taking a night train to Moscow and that was such a great experience ! No regrets

I also tried to hitchhike to St Petersbourg from Moscow but ended up also taking a train hahaha. I was just not lucky that day and both in Moscow and St Petersbourg I had friends so my priority was passing time with them instead of passing time on the road, I had just three weeks of visa in Russia and a broken arm so...

Traveling within the international sanctions

You cannot withdraw money, you cannot pay with your card, you cannot have a sim card and therefore you can't have data except in maybe Moscow. This was boring at some points. You should take A LOT of cash!

Bordercrossing Russia to Kazakhstan

E-visa doesn't work to pass this border !!! At least, from what people says. I have heard so many times people doing this and being blocked, it can be actually pretty dangerous. So get yourself a touristic visa in your home country (can't have one in Georgia, just for residents and I believe Turkey is same) or a transit visa and try to find a ride at the visa center in Tbilissi.

Anyway, I hitchhiked from Astrakhan and it was so cool to be in the steppes! Bordercrossing was once again really easy. When I arrived, I talked in italian with military officer he was so freaking kind. I lost my migration card and I wanted to be honest telling it him even tho nobody asked for it when I gave my passport. He said it is very bad thing but I had nothing.

He also said I need to find a car and first car of Russian from Astrakhan that look like Kazakhs, accepted me inside the car despite they were 4. So kind people. No problem neither in KZ checkpoint.

Not every experience is the same

I know a italian guy hitchhiking all the way to Mongolia because he did this e-visa error and he had way harder time at the border to enter Russia, complete opposite than me who crossed maybe 2 weeks before him. But so far I believe he was in Saratov last time and HH is working well. Again, the more far you are from the warfront the better it is

J'ai quitté Astrakhan en Russie ce matin pour le Kazakhstan ! J'ai eu un passage rapidement jusqu'à la frontière. Un soldat russe avec qui je parlais italien (il était trop sympa) m'a demandé de trouver une voiture. 👮🏻

Première à qui je demande accepte malgré qu'ils étaient déjà 4 dans la voiture. J'avais peur car j'avais perdu ma carte de migration qu'on nous donne à l'arrivée en Russie mais je n'ai eu aucun problèmes. 🫪

Ensuite j'ai attendu quand même 45 minutes après la frontière car il y a peu de trafic et il n'y avait aucun camion côté kazak (je ne sais pourquoi). Puis j'ai été pris par Ruslan qui m'a invité à manger et m'emmène jusqu'à Atyraou où je pourrais passer la nuit ! 🇰🇿🇰🇿

Endless steppes on the horizon! Got three lifts from Astrakhan to Atyraou.

I like that shit so much man everything went smooth. My first time in Asia and in this biome. Always wanted to see the steppes! 🏇🏻🏹 Deo gratias!

Well, I wouldn't recommend doing the same as I did but I basically hitchhiked from Turkey to Russia with a cast on my arm. It was not smart but as I had my visa in Russia incoming I did not want to lose it so I ended up continuing my hitchhiking trip, I switched for public transportation when it was cheap and convenient.

Could not pitch the tent tho, so I had to make sure I always had a place to sleep. In Georgia it was pretty easy to find a cheap place and in Russia I wanted to meet a friend of mine in Moscow so I took the train close to Ukraine, after one night spent in a truck.

I was lucky to meet a doctor in a hostel of Vladikavkaz who next became my friend and treated me in Saint Petersburg for free, along with x-rays.

Now I have one week of rehabilitation so I still can't really use my arm for intensive things but at least I don't look dirty with the cast (it was kind of falling apart and turning brown-ish). Now I will take a train from Saint Petersburg to Astrakhan and hitchhike to Kazakhstan in a few days!

Après être parti de Paris, je me suis mis en direction de Moscou pour y retrouver un ami. Ça fait deux mois que je suis sur la route, j'ai dû accélérer un peu à cause de mon visa

Interesting experience

A French guy commented on my previous post saying he's in the same place so we met ! Kinda crazy thing! He's now hitchhiking all the way back to France! Good luck gros!

Even more crazy with low probability: Dutch guy came to the hostel and after having a good talk he said : "Wait, aren't you the hitchhiker guy on Reddit with a broken arm?" It blew my mind hahahaha

All in the same day !!! This is like really crazy

Hey, I try to go there but I don't know how to go as Google maps says there is no route. Does someone has any info?

That was really beautiful guys!

I got a lift from Trabzon Turquiye to Batoumi Georgia by a cool truck driver. Everything was perfect, he took me after 2 hours of waiting time and was happy I was going to be in Batoumi where accommodations are cheap.

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BUT

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He dropped me before the tunnel of the border because he's going to sleep. He told me he was going to stop 10km before, not 30km.

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So despite the fact that he was nice he just dropped me in the dark where no cars wanted to take me, and of course no truck drivers BC they are heavily controlled.

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The tunnel before the border is 3 HOURS LONG of walking, with cars beside you in the dark !!! My left arm is kinda broken and I did not sleep the night before so honestly the worst moment of my world tour trip so far.

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However, after the first section of the tunnel was kind of truck driver restaurant, I went there following my guts and a group of truck driver talked to me, they were friend with the owner and they offered me food, tea and a ride to Batoumi in the night !

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The story is not ending yet but at least I'm reassured now.

Leaved Paris May 6th for a biiiig hitchhiking trip around the world. Everything was perfect from the beginning of my trip. Had good rides, met great people, was invited several times... The perfect start !

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Unfortunately, when leaving Istanbul I felt and cracked my arm's/elbow bone while walking along a highway. It was not even a dangerous thing honestly, I usually avoid any risks. There was just some gravel, I stepped on it and felt.

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Doctor said today I should not move my arm for 3 weeks and get 1 week of reeducation. If it was just that, it sucks but I can adapt, you know.

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My biggest problem is that I got this Russian visa for 1 month and it ends July 21. If I wait for everything it means I will have only one week to go from Bursa (Turkey) to Kazakhstan: spoiler it's impossible!

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I paid 200€ for this visa and was so much complicated to get honestly.

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I considered leaving in like two weeks but I will never be ready to set the tent with one arm for example. Anyway, I just wanted to share my situation 🥲

I was walking along a highway and I put my feet on some gravel, I instantly felt like a potato and used my left arm to find balance. My hand was bleeding and the arm was progressively becoming painful. Kind of stupid thing that can happen to everyone, ironically I climbed the summit of Mount Athos without issues but cannot avoid falling for this lol

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The Turkish hospital was very nice, fast and cheap (I am insured anyway). Total 20€. Maybe this experience is good to remember that anyone can go to hospital for random reasons and it's always good to be insured especially in countries where healthcare is expansive.

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It's good I am staying in a friend's place right now so I can just chill. The doctor said I need at least one week so it's fine 💪 (he said it's a small crack, I cannot use my arm at all for now tho)

I had so many things to eat for free, this guy was a legend. Thanks to him!

It was a hard day tho, long waiting time and I felt on the ground because it was slippery, so now I can't use my left arm it hurts too much