Caravanistan

Sounds normal from what I've heard. Makes me never ever want to do this route, unless I've got some cash to spare!

I successfully got out through this border, no issues at all. I had a migration card which listed an expiry date of 28/7, when I left 30/7, but they didn't say anything about it. Seems that with visa-free you don't need to register, but it's probably still better to do it anyway.

I've met a bunch of Brits who successfully crossed. I crossed from Tashkent to Shymkent and it took 15 minutes for the border officials to call and verify how to process. Everyone I know who has tried has been successful.

Glad to hear it worked out. I've heard horror stories about Azeri registration, especially staff at the PO simply not wanting to deal with registration. I heard about the guy whose visa was running out...

Crossposted from LP's Thorn Tree forum: Late May/early June, 2014: Dushanbe: I flew into Dushanbe, Tajikistan from Moscow and stayed at Yeti Hostel, the first and only real hostel in Dushanbe, which was a great place to meet other travellers. I highly recommend it, though it can be a bit tricky to f...

Crossposted from LP's Thorn Tree forum: Beginning of June, 2014: As part of our tour of the Pamir Highway, two companions and I were supposed to have two nights in Afghanistan arranged as a tour. Our guide in Tajikistan had a contact and walked us over to meet them. This was near Ishkashim (Tajikist...

I just ran into this and noticed that I've gone through that agency before. I actually had a bad experience with Wakhan Adventure when I and two other popped into Wakhan for 3 days in the beginning of June. They were just completely disorganised, the owner nowhere to be found even though he was supp...

Forgot to note - most people I've met have had 4-day transit visas, sometimes 5.

Turkmenistan tours are indeed astronomically expensive. Even StanTours, for example, isn't cheap, though my trip wasn't as much because I joined an existing tour with two other guys. If you email most tour agencies they will give you an idea of which tours you can join.

I posted this on a different forum a while ago, but thought it might be useful. Edited for length. I'm preparing to apply for a visa to Uzbekistan. I'm a US citizen currently in Moscow, so have been trying to figure out how to do this process from here. There's a lot of different information on the ...