Breakfast is a surprise because even at 6:30 the place is busy, well its not a surprise that the people filling the place are Germans but lucky of us they are not off to the border like us they are headed in the other direction.
Jonathan gives us the good news bad news script. Good news is the border is closed to local for some reason which should make it marginally quicker the bad news is that the bus which ferries people across no-man’s-land is not running so we will be pulling our own cases across the 1km to the other side.
Well “it is what it is” is my response so bring it on.
Well “it is what it is” is my response so bring it on.
After an hour or so on the coach we arrive at the border 21 people all dragging their bags towards a young chap in a nice smart uniform with a big shiny machinegun strapped across his chest this is the “before you get to the border check, check”
He looks at our passports one by one randomly flicking through the pages not sure what he is looking for but I learnt a long time ago you dont mess with people at customs points you just keep quiet and let them do what they need to do.
Well past the first hurdle now 100 mt to the next checkpoint. Heave the bags up the steps (no ramp) now all our passports are collected and taken away to be processed.
Now in reality each passport should not take that long however they dont give them back until all of them have been processed so this does take a little time. This is extended as on of our group (no names Michael) seems to have a different passport number to the one on the list which seems to be catastrophic and something which can not be rectified here at the border so the member will be left behind in Uzbekistan on his own whilst the guide tried to sort it out.
After arranging transport back to the hotel and someone to look after them we are making sure the team member has lots water, fruit, boiled sweets, telephone numbers and are saying our goodbyes where behold a solution is found (after the guide takes some staff member away into a quiet corned and talks to them) and we all get back in line excitement over for now.
Now in reality each passport should not take that long however they dont give them back until all of them have been processed so this does take a little time. This is extended as on of our group (no names Michael) seems to have a different passport number to the one on the list which seems to be catastrophic and something which can not be rectified here at the border so the member will be left behind in Uzbekistan on his own whilst the guide tried to sort it out.
After arranging transport back to the hotel and someone to look after them we are making sure the team member has lots water, fruit, boiled sweets, telephone numbers and are saying our goodbyes where behold a solution is found (after the guide takes some staff member away into a quiet corned and talks to them) and we all get back in line excitement over for now.
They eventually bring our passports back and we are called through in some random order scanned and then have to talk to one of the customs people.
When you enter Uzbekistan you fill out a form which notes all the different currencies you have and you do the same on exit and they using a calculator work out how much you have spent. They then put this back onto the form you gave them stamp it twice and let you go to the next checkpoint where
they type all your details into their computer and eventually stamp your visa
(I never told you how much fun we had getting the visa in the first place, another time perhaps).
Once stamped you get to go and wait outside whilst everyone else goes through the same process. Now some of our party seem to be taking out more money than they brought in which is a bad thing and there is plenty of changes being made and lots of head scratching going on.
When you enter Uzbekistan you fill out a form which notes all the different currencies you have and you do the same on exit and they using a calculator work out how much you have spent. They then put this back onto the form you gave them stamp it twice and let you go to the next checkpoint where
they type all your details into their computer and eventually stamp your visa
(I never told you how much fun we had getting the visa in the first place, another time perhaps).
Once stamped you get to go and wait outside whilst everyone else goes through the same process. Now some of our party seem to be taking out more money than they brought in which is a bad thing and there is plenty of changes being made and lots of head scratching going on.
After an hour and a half we are all through and assembled now we have to get across no-mans-land and off we go it is not really a road more packed earth and stones so progress is not particularly fast, more steady.
Half way across we have to show our passports again to some nice young man in a smart uniform with a big machinegun. this is the last of the Uzbekistan checks however 10 mt on and we do the same with the first Turkmenistan checks by a nice young man in a different smart uniform and a machinegun across his chest.
We set off again and I note we cross a river which is probably the actual border. There is someone stationed every 150 mt along our route smiling as we pass.
We arrive at the Turkmenistan checkpoint and our passports are collected again
and taken away again (we all have visas so this should not present too much of
an issue and 45 minutes later they come back and we are scanned through with
passports stamped. Only one more young man in uniform with a gun to go and we are now getting onto our next coach for another adventure.
All in all about 3 hours which our guide says is not bad.
We arrive at the Turkmenistan checkpoint and our passports are collected again
and taken away again (we all have visas so this should not present too much of
an issue and 45 minutes later they come back and we are scanned through with
passports stamped. Only one more young man in uniform with a gun to go and we are now getting onto our next coach for another adventure.
All in all about 3 hours which our guide says is not bad.
The is not really a problem with all of this process you have to remember that until 1991 they did not have borders as they were all part of the USSR so they have no process and they had to create border crossings and everything which goes with them add this to the fact that 20+ foreigners turn up all at once and I think everything went fine.
No pictures sorry its not the done thing at borders
No pictures sorry its not the done thing at borders