Uzbekistan Visa Problems

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Leaving Kazakstan was fine, the border guards & customs did their usual checks, with a few showing interest because we were tourists; something of a rarity on this route apparently. The Uzbekistan entry started out nice and easily too...customs forms aside (although our friendly providni (a great big, incredibly helpful bloke, who spoke more than just a few words of English). Incidentally he also sorted out our first tranche of Uzbek Sum, for which the black market is a much better rate for exchanging (Euros, Dollars, or Pound Sterling!)

We had the initial interest as expected by now for being tourists, and the passports were collected in the usual manner; typically the passports are collected, then returned an hour or two later, either by the providni or the border guards. We heard the usual stamping of passports, then the guards re-appeared, with the providni.

“There is a problem with your visa”.

Not a sentence one wants to hear in the middle of a border crossing from Kazakstan to Uzbekistan.

“Date on visa is 15th. Today is 14th.”

At which point, I think there was a collective sinking of hearts, and a moment of panic. For whatever reason (I think the Embassy in London misread my form), there were now three hours before my visa was valid. So we then had to determine the best way to deal with this situation, as they clearly were not going to let me off for the sake of three hours. At this point I had to get off the train, in a place where they didn’t speak my language, and I didn’t theirs. We decided fairly quickly that the best bet was for Peter to go on ahead, and that dad would wait with me until they allowed me through the border some 3 hours later. The providni assured us that a taxi would be easy to find, and get to Tashkent in, of course I wasn’t quite so sure!

Off we went to a little compound, with an armed guard, and when we did try to get to peer out at the train to see it leaving, were waved back at the end of the gun - so we didn’t even get to see the train leaving without us. Needless to say I was a little frustrated, but once I’d calmed down a bit, we basically settled down for the next few hours, dad reading, and me trying to surreptitiously take photos...I didn’t get many, as I didn’t want to cause more trouble than necessary, but at one point a guard did wander out in his underpants & vest, and made a bed for himself on the bench a few yards away from us - so guess they didn’t see us as much of a threat. After a while one of the guards wandered out and started chatting, or trying to chat, to us. Dad then proceeded to show him various photos of the trip so far, London, Paris, Munich, Budapest, Kiev, Moscow...
Things improved from there, as he went off and got his Uzbek - English phrasebook, and then proceeded to pick various phrases from it to try on us “You have beautiful children”, “You have a fine sense of humour”....so at least he was being friendly.
Finally it got to midnight, and he went off - put his hat on, as this was an official function, handed us our passports back, and then proceeded to take us out to find a taxi. He waved the first passing car down (with only one headlight), then proceeded to tell the driver where to drive us, and what the cost would be - we settled on US$7, to take us to the hotel Rovshan, Tashkent. The car was a battered old Lada, the driver a battered old Russian, with younger sidekick...they had no English, we had no Russian or Uzbek, but the atmosphere was fine until the car broke down with a nasty smell of petrol, 3.5km from the hotel...fortunately they did manage to revive it, just, and got us to the hotel, only 3 or 4 hours after we had expected, so things actually worked out pretty well - they even had a fridge at reception with plenty of nice cold beers - back on the Baltika for the first time in 2 years!

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