At
least 10 buses daily leave Quetta for Taftan, 608 Kms away on
the Iranian border - a journey of between 15 to 24 hours. The
road is surfaced for the first 500 kms, or as Nokundi, where
you can spend the night in a local 'hotel'. You leave Quetta
to the south and follow the Kallat road over the Lak Pass. At
the foot of the pass, about 30 kms from Quetta, the road forks
and a sign in English informs you it is 2256 kms to Tehran and
686 kms to Zahidan. The Pakistani customs post stops all incoming
and outgoing traffic here.
It
is a long haul to Iran, mostly across undulating desert. The
first stop is "Nushki", 115 kms away, the next Dalbandin,
about 180 kms further on. near here are the onyx mines which
provide the stone for the green ashtrays, candlesticks and goblets
on sale in the Karachi bazaars. It is another 166 kms to Nok
Kundi with a stop for food in Yamaha. The is being surfaced
to the border, so while works are in progress it is slower going
for the last 110 kms to Taftan, where there is another customs
and immigration to negotiate before you cross the border to
Mirjawa and the Iranian authorities. It is still about 100 kms
to Zahidan.
The
train to the border runs only twice a week and is extremely
slow. There was a weekly PIA flight on Sundays from Quetta to
Mashad, Iran, but this has been temporarily discontinued. There
is a PTDC information center in Taftan.