Escape from Uzbekistan

This will be the last blog post I have to submit via email (and likely the last without pictures) since I am to leave Uzbekistan and its regulated Internet in about 12 hours. I had gotten to the end of the line in Khiva, and lacking a Turkmen visa, I had to turn back. I still have some time to kill before I'm due in India, and so I'd like to go to Khazakstan, which has the added benefit of having direct flights to Delhi.

There are two flights daily from Ugrench, near Khiva, to the capital of Tashkent. I went to the airport with a ticket for the flight for the next day, but the complexities of Central Asian flight schedules and visa requirements meant that I needed to get back to Tashkent by that evening, or else not be able to get a Kazakh visa in time to get the next flight to Almaty.

We arrived early and befriended the old English speaking airport manager. ("I am boss of 11 person!" he proudly told us.) He was able to get us on the flight, but only barely, as he was clearly not the boss of the Uzbek police security detail which decided to copy out by hand the entire first page of our passports. We ran across the tarmac to the waiting BAE RJ85, and had to get the ground staff to reopen the baggage compartment so that we could (ourselves) throw our luggage in.

I'm back in Tashkent now, and will head to the Kazakh embassy directly to see if the visa they promised me last week has materialized. Last week, the exasperated Uzbek clerk confided in me that "Our consul is crazy." If I get it, I will use my ticket for the 6am flight tomorrow morning to Almaty...