7am: Wake up and pack my bags
7.30am: Check out of guest house and breakfast
8am: Get ready to leave and head to the Nukus Uzbek-Turkmen border. Find out my bag missing from the reception! The receptionist makes a few calls and find out my bag mistakenly taken my a group of people heading to the Aral Sea! They send my bag on a taxi
9.30am: My bag finally arrived back at the hotel!
10am: Finally get to the border. After digging with my drug cabinet and checking my registration I'm out of Uzbekistan
10.20am: On the Turkmen side, meeting the customs I show them my passport and quoting my "Visa Number" for my transit visa which I picked up in Tashkent. Turkmen customs ask me "Do I have a guide waiting for me or a letter of invitation?". I told him I don't and was told I only needed to quote the visa number from the Turkmen embassy in Tashkent. He ask me to take a seat
11.30am: After waiting more than hour and some more back and forward talk, he finally issues me a transit visa. However, only gave me a 4 day transit visa instead of 5 days. :(
11.35am: After getting my visa, a thorough bag search of my contents is conducted and my laptop and hard drives are checked to make sure no "sensitive" are in my possession which took a good 30 or so minutes.
12.10pm: Thinking it was completed, I leave only to be turn back and asked to wait.
12.25pm: I go into a interrogation room to be asked more questions from my religion to questions about my links to ISIS....
1.15pm: I'm finally out of the embassy!
Although thorough, the Turkmen border control were quite pleasant to deal with and were quite helpful when I asked them questions about how to get to where I wanted to go and prices. With the lack of transport from the Nukus border on the Turkmen side, I was told I would need to walk to the nearest cross road from the border about 2km in and try hitch a ride after the cross road to Konye-Urgench.
7.30am: Check out of guest house and breakfast
8am: Get ready to leave and head to the Nukus Uzbek-Turkmen border. Find out my bag missing from the reception! The receptionist makes a few calls and find out my bag mistakenly taken my a group of people heading to the Aral Sea! They send my bag on a taxi
9.30am: My bag finally arrived back at the hotel!
10am: Finally get to the border. After digging with my drug cabinet and checking my registration I'm out of Uzbekistan
10.20am: On the Turkmen side, meeting the customs I show them my passport and quoting my "Visa Number" for my transit visa which I picked up in Tashkent. Turkmen customs ask me "Do I have a guide waiting for me or a letter of invitation?". I told him I don't and was told I only needed to quote the visa number from the Turkmen embassy in Tashkent. He ask me to take a seat
11.30am: After waiting more than hour and some more back and forward talk, he finally issues me a transit visa. However, only gave me a 4 day transit visa instead of 5 days. :(
11.35am: After getting my visa, a thorough bag search of my contents is conducted and my laptop and hard drives are checked to make sure no "sensitive" are in my possession which took a good 30 or so minutes.
12.10pm: Thinking it was completed, I leave only to be turn back and asked to wait.
12.25pm: I go into a interrogation room to be asked more questions from my religion to questions about my links to ISIS....
1.15pm: I'm finally out of the embassy!
Although thorough, the Turkmen border control were quite pleasant to deal with and were quite helpful when I asked them questions about how to get to where I wanted to go and prices. With the lack of transport from the Nukus border on the Turkmen side, I was told I would need to walk to the nearest cross road from the border about 2km in and try hitch a ride after the cross road to Konye-Urgench.
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| Turkmen side of the border. Walking towards to closest crossroad. |
