Border Crossing : Tajikistan to Uzbekistan
This was my first land border crossing and new they could take a little while to complete but the Uzbek’s and Tajik’s take it to an extraordinary level of disorganisation and bureaucracy Border crossings are always interesting
About 90 minutes of bouncing your way along the highway you can reach the border crossing to Tajikistan. The crossing looks like a large service station without the pumps, traffic and that rarely mentioned word…efficiency. Not only were we the only westerners attempting to cross but we were the only people there at that time. If you’ve read the Uzbekistan Airways page you’ll realise the process by which you must create a facsimile of your customs declaration. The same obviously applies here however to provide more of a challenge, not all the forms are in English. So with one English form and an Uzbek form in hand we scribe our details. This is another spot where your trusty tour leader comes in handy. Why you ask? Well you must be careful because the two forms (English and Uzbek) do not always share the same layout therefore if you’re not careful you might get your gender wrong or maybe your name! Ok so you can work it out with some common sense but it does make you think.
You complete the forms in the waiting area aka standing outside the passport/customs control ‘office’. With the wind threatening to blow your forms away you stand there using the concrete fence, your knee or one of 2 small tables to complete your forms. Once complete you then file inside to see what’s next in store. As luck would have it we were treated to the fitting out of the border control hut. For reasons that are still unknown to us, the desk, filing cabinets and chairs were outside the office. Inside at the centre of the room was a very large X-ray machine then at the exit door a passport control window. Instead of making us wait outside and getting all the required items in the room and instead of walking 10 feet to carry the items through the door they passed the items through the window after we had already entered the room. Occasionally the official looking man with the uniform and matching hat would help the lackey with the furniture however that was the exception not the rule and he seemed to enjoy watching ‘mini me’ struggle carting the necessary items into the room.
In a desperate attempt to show you the hilarity, confusion, legacy Soviet military efficiency and just because I found the whole episode enthralling, below is a bad image of how it sort of played out.
No man’s land…where children play and foreigners walk
No man’s land…where children play and foreigners walk Once through the door to No Man’s Land (the 500m between the Uzbek and Tajik border posts), you take your form to the actual Uzbekistan border where another officer checks the documents that you have received from the passport control and then opens the gate for you to walk the 500m towards Tajikistan. In this area you see kids playing in the fields plus farmers tending to their crops…I’ve no idea which country owns the land, maybe 1/2 each so the farmer can cross whenever he likes 🙂
Upon reaching the Tajikistan border the process is a little easier albeit without the fitting out of the office. Financial restitution goes a long way apparently 😉
The New Tajikistan Border Crossing
Compare my story to this state of the art crossing
Border Crossing 2 : Tajikistan back to Uzbekistan
After our 5 1/2 day hike, we spent one night in Penjikent for our first non-stream bathe before heading back to Uzbekistan. We thought we knew what we had in store at the border crossing as we had already had to do one. Wrong! Imagine looking along a 2 lane road with a border gate, and along the side of the road around 4 steel containers (the ones used on container ships) used as offices. That’s sort of what it was like.
We arrived at a different Tajik border post to our original crossing and were told that it ‘may take some time so get comfortable’. That didn’t sound too bad so we carried our bags to the shade and wondered what was in store. From what I can tell the locals get a cursory glance as they make their way across and depending whether or not the guard’s left ear is itchy and if his family called him Amir, he may ask them a question of two however it is pure pot luck as to who is stopped/checked.
Hopeful for a smooth exit, we thought maybe a ‘tip’ may help with the process however the inducement was rejected. Why? Greed. Two can play that game. Rather than accepting our ‘offer’ for the entire group, we followed normal procedures and in pairs entered the customs office to have all our belongings searched. Now remember we’ve been hiking for 5 1/2 days so we were quite aromatic 🙂 After about 6-8 of us had been searched, the head honcho decided that he didn’t need to search our bags but our passports and declaration forms would suffice. I think the smell got to him and I can’t blame him one bit. We continued to wait patiently outside the office until we had all had our documents and passports checked. En masse we grabbed our bags and headed for ‘no mans land’ part 2.
Total elapsed time : 3.5 hours.
Once leaving Tajikistan we walked the 500m to the Uzbekistan border and started the duplicate form filling in process again and patiently waited for our passports to be checked and our bags scanned. This was a proper border control with proper machines, outdoor area for checking vehicles and even an indoor area in which to complete the declarations! We noticed the main thing being checked at this border control were books. We still aren’t sure why but they were the only thing questioned and the only thing really searched. The Tajiks and Uzbeks don’t like the Afghani’s, something I didn’t know before going. As luck would have it, the book I was reading was written by Frederick Forsyth…the Afghan. I thought I was in trouble when the security guard picked it up but luckily he didn’t seem too concerned.
One by one we had our bags scanned and one by one we successfully made it through.
Total elapsed time from Tajik to Uzbek borders : circa 5 hours.