Lets talk about how the border crossing is in Uzbekistan. I have crossed three borders in Uzbekistan, so it’s time for an article like this. Uzbekistan is the only country in Central Asia which is sharing a border with every other country in this region and is landlocked as well.
Border crossings are sometimes simple, sometimes the opposite, but how is border crossing in Uzbekistan?
Border with Kyrgyzstan
When crossing from Kyrgyzstan into Uzbekistan, I went to the border of Osh. This border was crossed during the covid time, this made it a little bit more complex.
I crossed it when it was dark and it rained a lot, the border looked quite shady. It looked like I could have been killed there easily, it turned out to be super simple.
They scanned my luggage there, checked my PCR test and just stamped me in without further questions.
After having the stamp it was very annoying, people trying to convince us to change with them money and get into their car. It was at that time where I tried to do hitchhiking through every county I was visiting. So the people were very pushy and a bit annoying.
A woman was accepting us for the night, because it was dark and so rainy. First she asked for money, but we didn’t have anything due to not having changed anything at that time.
Border with Tajikistan
The border to Tajikistan near the Uzbek city Samarkand.
This border should have been just an exit, but I was rejected at the border so I had to go back to Uzbekistan. It was also during covid and the border was completely empty. There were no issues at all, they just stamped me right away. So I had another 30 days of possibility of staying in the country.
When reentering the country it was still that people asked to get into their car for a taxi, so a lot of walking had to be done. At the end it was similar to Kyrgyzstan, a family wanted to invite us in, but never asked for money. It was super nice, they were super friendly but didn’t really speak English. Such nice people there.
Border with Turkmenistan
The border near the border of Uganch was also quite simple, my luggage was scanned and they were taking a picture of myself and then giving me the stamp. This time a purple one, last time it was red.
When going out of the immigration office it was very annoying. People didn’t stop trying to convince us to go with them, even grabbing my arm which annoyed me a lot! You can annoy me by talking to me, but not touching.
The exchange rate was very bad at the place, but had to change a little bit in order to get a ride to Uganch which was around an hour away.
Summary
In general it’s quite easy to enter Uzbekistan, at least for people from the European Union. The country is opening up a lot for tourism, so it makes sense that they make it easier for people to enter. People for sure need to learn to not annoy people as much, but that’s their business of course.
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