Our stay in Tashkent could be considered a success, in that we obtained both the Kyrgyz and China visa we needed. However, not all was smooth sailing…
The Kyrgyz visa, although expensive at US$110, was easily obtained. Even taking into consideration the hassle of paying for the visa via a beaurocratic nightmare at one of the local ‘banks’. The process of applying for the Chinese visa was absolute chaos!

We arrived at the Chinese embassy first thing on Monday morning, only to find out that our chances of getting in were literally nil. Apparently, to enter the embassy you need to be assigned a number. To get this magical number you need to get yourself on the registration list at the guardhouse. To get on the registration list and have any chance of getting a number (you can see where this is going)… you need to arrive at the guard house by no later than 7am. Apparently some people even make the effort to register just after midnight!!

To cut a long story short… we made sure we were at the guardhouse by 6:30am on Wednesday (the embassy is open only on Mon, Wed & Fri), we registered and received our priceless numbers (21 & 22) by about 10am. The actual application process was straightforward (not considering the ficticious airline and hotel bookings) and all we needed to do now was pick up the visas on Friday. We were assured that for this we did not require another number. Alas…

Arriving on Friday we were informed by the guard that we will not get in without a number!! We tried all possible means to get in but without luck. This was now beyond funny…
In the end a Swiss guy, we met at the gate, helped us out by picking up the visa on our behalf. He himself had a number that was smuggled out by a previous applicant

  

We also run into the long term Japanese traveler Daiseku. He has been on the road for over 10 years and CYCLED around 134,000km’s!!! Makes our trip seem like a walk in the park

The other highlight of our stay in Tashkent was watching a football World Cup qualifying game between Uzbekistan and Australia. We’ve never seen so much much police at a football match… and so few females. There was no crowd violence however and Australia even got a standing ovation, coming out victorious 0:1

After almost a week in Tashkent, it was time to hit the road again. The news from the China border was still good so we headed east towards Osh in Kyrgyzstan. The road between Osh and Tashkent cuts through the Fergana Valley. A main source of Uzbekistan’s (and Central Asia’s) fruits and vegetables. The unexciting landscape is a patchwork of fields in which Uzbeks grow watermelons, tomatoes, sunflowers and potatoes.

One thing we’ve really enjoyed in Central Asia, is the culture of drinking chai (tea) and eating lepioshka (bread) while relaxing on comfy ‘tapchans’ (raised bench seats with cushions). They’re often placed outside the actual cafe and some set amongst shady bircher trees. This makes for a very ‘cool’ setting…

We’re currently in Osh (for the socond time) and will continue towards the border with China at Erkeshtam tomorrow. On the way we plan to visit the base camp of Pik Lenin, which should make for some nice views.