Day 33 307 km ( 10536 km total)
A plan to get to Taraz in Kazakhstan today was thwarted by a closed border, a long crossing, police checks and rain.
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Not many photos today due to the weather, & frankley not much to take photos of.
We headed down the main Tashkent to Shymkent highway to the border, an easy hour away. But when we got there found it was closed to vehicles, (pedestrians only) and were re-directed to another crossing an hour and a half away!
Just after leaving Tashkent, I should add, we accidentaly went through a Police checkpoint without stopping ...oops! We only realised when there was some commotion and whistles blowing behind us, but we pretended not to hear it & carried on. So not wanting to chance going back through the same crossing, we cunningly plotted a route around the outskirts of Tashkent..
Feeling pleased with ouselves we rejoined the main roads and ran straight into another checkpount! Howevere these guys didnt seem aware of our previous transgression and just wanted to chat & look at the bikes for a while.
Finally arriving at the border 2 hours later than planned, at least it was quiet so should make for a fast crossing. Wrong!
They decided it was multiple illogical offices & form filling time, followed by pannier emptying time.
Anyway, well behind schedule we were eventually through and back into Kazakhstan.
Not long after it started to rain, nothing particularly dramatic but enough to make the thought of riding unto the dark looking for somewhere to stay rather unapealing. So after confering, we were both of the opinion that we should head for Shymkent and stop in the first place we saw.
So that we did, arriving wet & dripping in the foyer but keen to hit the wifi & find out how Alan had got on.
Great post! I'm planning to cross the same border in a couple of weeks. What was the experience like at the border crossing? I'm taking film for my old camera, which is sensitive to x-rays and I'm worried about going through an x-ray machine at customs... or that they wouldn't let me take it!
ReplyDeleteHi Jon, The border crossing was OK really (Uzbek to Kazak) - a couple of hours of form filling & being bounced between different desks. They didnt want everything put thorugh the x-ray machine, just wanted the panniers opened, routed around inside and asked if I had any guns as I recall - it was worse going into Uzbekistan.
DeleteThe pre-border police check point did ask for 'souvenirs' but I showed them snaps of my family for a few minutes and they seemed happy just to chat. It makes sense not to have any obvious films/ data cards/books/antibiotics around for them to find though. A film camera is an interesting one, I never had any bother, but a guy I was riding with did have to show them all the photos on his digital camera, not sure what they would do with a film one.
I wouldnt expect any issue taking a camera across the border, if you have exposed film though I would hide it, and if possible keep the camera out of sight too.
All the borders were pretty friendly though, and a smile always helps.
Good luck.