EP-26 | UZBEKISTAN BORDER CROSSING

Crossing the Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan border turned out to be more challenging than we ever imagined. Upon reaching the Kazakhstan exit, we encountered a long queue of cars, followed by agents asking for money to let us skip ahead. They initially demanded $300 for three cars, but we negotiated down to $100. One of my team members hesitated to pay for just a 30-meter advantage, while the rest of us waited five hours in line.

The second challenge came when we had to wait outside the Uzbekistan border entry gate for three hours. Inside, the immigration and customs process was another hurdle; they lacked car scanning machines, forcing us to unload all our baggage from three cars for scanning. We finally set foot in Uzbekistan at 4:30 AM.

But the difficulties didn't end there. The hotel we'd booked took us to the wrong location in Tashkent, and by the time we arrived at the correct hotel, it was 5:30 AM. This was the longest border crossing in my 40 years of travel—14 hours in total.