Sorry for the delay, we've been having some difficulties. Apparently, Blogspot has been blocked in Kazakhstan (or something like that, I was only able to access it once through some friends' computers.... so now that we are in Kyrgyzstan (SURPRISE!!) we can blog a little more frequently!!!
First of all, we ended up going to Astana - the capital of Kazakhstan, weirdest city ever. I'm going to post some pictures, maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day, of the city along with commentary, so I'll skip that for the moment... instead, I would like to fill you in on the glories of getting an Uzbek visa. This really is something that everybody should experience at least once in their lives.
The embassy opens at 2 so we got there at about 1 to save a spot in line. To get a visa, you need a Letter of Invitation (LOI for short) which we did not, and still do not have. This, as you can imagine, is a problem. We were SUPPOSED to have one, but well, it just didn't appear.
So, we decided to go to the embassy to hope against hope that either it would come in or by some miracle of fate the visa would magically appear in our hands. As you can probably all guess, this didn't happen. So we were constantly checking the internet cafe across the street (which didn't print things, the guy told me that he would get fired if he printed something...) and waiting at the embassy with the other foreigners. Of course, they were bitter as well. First, there was Peter, who had been waiting 10 days to get his LOI. Two other Belgians who also had been delayed but then finally got theirs. There were two Finns who had paied AFTER we had but already received their LOIs and finally there was a British guy who was supposed to pick his up in Kiev but it ... well, just never materialized so here he was picking it up in Almaty. That's about 3000 kilometers away.
His words 'If they paid me to create the least efficient way to do this, I would not have been able to think this up.'
Some of the various tricks that were happening;
- The creation of the all-powerful and magical list which, if you didn't sign it, would not allow you to get in. As evidenced by the Finnish girl who walked up and the guard said 'Hey Baby, come on in.' She had not signed the all-powerful and magical list leading me to doubt its power. Soon, we realized there was a second list, which was even more all-powerful and magical than the first list. How smart we got.
- One guard told everyone who had signed the form to wait. Finally, another guard came out and told every one to come in. The first guard then got angry at us and told us to wait. Finally a third guard came out and invited the locals in because 'none of the foreigners had said anything.'
- They did not have the forms which were 'absolutely necessary' to fill out. So we had to find an internet cafe (remember, the only close one didn't print) that would let us print. This was neither convienient nor close.
- Next, the British guy went in to ask about his visa (since it was already about 3:30) and was told that he would have to get 120 dollars ready for express service. His response, 'can I have non-express service?' Yes, of course, it will be ready today. 'So what's the difference?' The response (get this) - 'Nothing, but the TV will tell me how much you have to pay.'
- At 4:30 we left - no-one had gotten in by that point. This was bullcrap.
....
So Kirk and I left for Bishkek. We'll sort this crap later. Hopefully from here.
I went to the Tajik embassy today, I walked in, no line-up, a lovely girl was working there who spoke perfect English, 10 minutes later I was told I would have my visa in two days. Kirk is also a retiree who was too sick to come to the embassy today.
Bishkek is awesome.
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