Kyzylart - Bor Dobo border crossing (Murghab-Sary Tash)

[landstrykere]

I dug a bit deeper into the eco tax. Turns out it does exist. It was 1000 som when introduced in 2015, but now seems to be 740 som according to 2 reports I read.

I was at that border the 27.07 (2016). We talked with the customs officer in order to see the regulation, and it did look legit. He sat at his desk, spent time reading the car registration's card, and wrote down engine specs (volume, power, no turbo, gasoline - an old Forester, which is btw. common in KZ, many in Bishkek) and computed en eco tax of 1000 som. Receipt attached to customs form copy for the car:




There's no import tax : KG is in the Customs Eurasian Union. I drove in through Russia and KZ: the customs declaration, for temporary import of the car was filled when I entered Russia. Exiting at KG border, customs-wise, is like exiting at RU border.

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On the Tajik post at Kyzyk-Art, there were a sanitary fee (a guy sprays desinfecting product on the wheels !) and an import tax. All written down on two official forms with lot of stamps, that where collected exiting the country (maybe I have pictures in some SD card...). It did look legit also but who knows... I hadn't somani on me but USD and so I paid 20 USD for the sanitary, and 35 USD for the car import.

[Idberg]

I crossed in July 2017, in a Tajik car with a Kyrgyz speaking Tajik driver from Murghob. He knew the game at the border and there was no scam at all. I did not expect problems and there were none - the driver had to talk to a lot of different staff and stayed in the hut of the veterinarians for 15 minutes, but either he paid no bribes or it was included in our agreed price anyway.

Arriving to Sary-Tash, I found out that we actually had been rather lucky. I' heard a lot of scam stories there, especially from people travelling on their own vehicle in the other direction. Plus on the Kyrgyz side, apparently, several tourists have been detained recently because of taking pictures or videos. Watch out!

Here's a detailed report on my crossing:
https://passportparty.ch/2017/07/22/border-22/

[GoingAroundPlaces]

Update:
I just passed thru the Tajik border post at Kyzyl Art on my bicycle on 2 August 2017. Had to wait about 30 minutes outside the gate and another 30 minutes after being let into the compound while immigration processed and stamped out a huge line of jeeps and motorcycles headed into Kyrgyzstan.
Once I got into the office, however, I was quickly stamped in (it seemed that they were stamping everyone's e-visa printout now instead of an immigration card? Is this right?) rolled down the hill and had my passport number written down by the guy in the customs shed, and then was on my way. No one asked for money for anything or checked my luggage. Cycle tourists I met in Karakul also reported that they were not asked for money, and that the process was quick and easy for them as well. Not sure if we were just lucky, or if behaviour at the border has been cleaned up lately, but it was a nice surprise.

[robert]

We went from Tajikistan to Kirgistan through Kizilart this month, with our own car:

Tajik side:
* Customs officer was a bit confused about the extension of our temporary car import document, but no problem at the end.
* We then were sent to another office, where a guy requested 300 Somoni for not having some document (obviously asking for a bribe). After some discussion he took 50 Somoni and let us go.
* We then were sent to the "Doctor", which was another guy who wanted to see some documents we didn't have (one was a a disinfection certificate), but this was clearly a request for bribe. One of the documents he showed us which we should have was a copy of some Kirgiz document. At the end, he let us go without paying.
* Next stop was immigration, they stamped our passports without asking for anything. It was no problem that we had our eVisa on the phone only, and not on paper. Car inspection was very quick and superficial.

Kirgiz side:
* Very friendly, no requests for bribes
* We had to pay 1000 Som (they also accepted Somoni we still had) environmental tax. There were signs on the wall (in Russian and English, the fee is 500 Som for a Motorbike, 1000 for a passenger car and 2500 for a Truck / Bus), and we got a receipt, so seems legit.
* They didn't look inside the car or checked any luggage, just asked if we had weapons or drugs with us.

[yhpans]

We were three indians travelling - Did the crossing from Tajik to Kyrgyz side in a car with Tajik driver (having a Kyrgyz number plate car). We didn't even had to get down the vehicle in Tajik side. He took our passports and got us stamped out. The officer came and inspected the vehicle with luggage for two mins.

On the Kyrgyz side, we had the sticker visa in our passports. One by one we were called and took 2-3 mins for each person. Stamped in quickly and another officer inspected car with luggage for two mins and let us through.

[maat-re]

As a solo traveller-hitchhiker from Russia I didn't have any problems crossing KZ-TJ besides being stuck there for more than a day because there were almost no cars passing at this time of year. Slept on Kyrgyz side as a guest, the guards were super friendly and nice, we parted as friends.

[marten568]

Crossed from Sary Tash to Murghab in May 2018 in own vehicle. Kyrgyz side was easy, no problems. Tajik side, was first asked for $5 charge per person for the migration card. Seemed like an obvious bribe so we politely stood our ground and the guard eventually gave in reluctantly. Then paid the import tax of $25 which seemed official. in between there was a "drug smuggling control agency" or something like this that had to look at passport etc but no fees. All in about 2 hours on the Tajik side in miserable weather and just as we thought we were done we were pulled into another hut where we were presented with official looking documents (I don't speak/read Russian so who knows...) and were told we had to pay 240 somoni for disinfection and quarantine fees

[weissdergeier]

Crossed in August 2018 from Kyrgyzstan to Tajikistan. Kyrgyzstan was inefficient but easy, done in about 30 min.

Tajikistan was a 5 step process.

Step 1: Passport and visa check. Everything was written into a big book by hand.
Step 2: Veterinarian and health check. Had to pay 90 Somoni (or 900 Som or possibly 10 USD). This is legit as far as I know. Tires of the car got disinfected after paying. Picture of the document attached.
Step 3: Narcotics check. Wasn't actually checked for anything but my passport and visa information was again written down in a big book.
Step 4 & 5: This is where the fun started. The custom officers are all nice and friendly and you sit down in their house on their bed while they once again write all your information into a big book and fill in a customs paper for you. This takes about 10 min and at the end they ask for 15 USD. I declined and they told me to go back to Kyrgyzstan. Another officer told me to follow him and he started filling in another paper. He never really explained what it was but he said I should show that to the police if I get stopped in Tajikistan and I would have no trouble to continue my journey without paying anything to the police thanks to the paper. Turns out he wanted 9 USD for it. None of the officers was willing to budge showing me all the receives of others who had paid. Even a pretend call to the embassy didn't scare them (probably knew that I didn't have signal up there). After much discussing I was close to paying when my girlfriend started filming the whole scene. Within 20s they offered to let us go if she deletes the video in front of their eyes which she did. They didn't give us the customs declaration they had filled in earlier which became a bit of a problem when we left Tajikistan but we were let out anyway. The car and suitcases were never actually checked by customs.

All in all this took about 90 min but could have been done in under 60 if my girlfriend had started filming earlier. All other checkpoints along the Pamir highway in Tajikistan were either absolutely smooth or only very halfhearted attempts at a bribe were made. In those cases the officer in question could mostly be ignored since even his colleagues seemed to do so.

[thijsbroekkamp]

We crossed a week ago from Tajik to Kyrgz and it was a very easy process. They did not search our car or anything, we had to pay 10 usd for the car and in Kyrgyz side 15 usd. No bribes and no eco tax of 1000 somoni. Quite an easy process.

[steven]

Someone asked me to report the following:

At the Tajik side, a Norwegian girl was sexually harassed by the border guards, touching and forcibly kissing her.

Keep your wits about you, girls.