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 [...]

Dushanbe is very typical of a large (capital) Central Asian city. It has wide tree-lined promenades, many public parks, fountains… and police on every corner ‘maintaining the peace’
Everything seems orderly (even the traffic).
This is more than we can say for the Uzbekistan embassy. Here chaos reigns. Locals push, shove and use every trick in [...]