Tashkent to Shymkent border crossing Q&A

[kvw]

With regards to the cross-border bus that started last year, does anyone know which bus station it departs from in Tashkent? Is it the bus station near Sobir Rhaminov metro station? Also, where can tickets be bought in Tashkent?

It is the bus station just across the street from Olmazar metro station on Chilonozor line. The large bus station building seems to be closed, but the buses stop just next to it and there are ticket booths - one of them sells tickets to Shymkent. The price is 40000 UZS.

[unborderedlife]

Cheers, I just went there today to try and get tickets for Friday. Was told they only sell tickets from 2 days in advance, so come back tomorrow....I will just have to get tickets on the day, hopefully it won't fill up by then.

[unborderedlife]

Well, the tickets did sell out on the day. Arrived around 8:30am, and told there were no more seats for buses until late afternoon. So I had to use a private taxi instead. The border crossing itself was relatively smooth and fast. I wrote about the entire experience on my blog here:

https://unborderedlife.com/report-uzbek ... bek-zholy/

[AlbertoBoero]

We took the 12:00 bus from Tashkent to Shymkent. We arrived at the bus terminal at 11:33, so pretty lucky that they still had tickets. Next bus would go at 18:00! Price was 40k, bus has AC and tickets with seat number, no extra charge for luggage.

We departed at 12:30, reached the border at 13:00 and rode off to Shymkent at 15:00 (arrived at 5). We changed money in the bus like all the locals did. Exchange rate was incredible (2 cents difference with official rating).

Our bags went through the X-ray at both sides. Uzbeks asked for our hotel registrations. Ours covered all days except the last two nights, which was not an issue. At Kazach side no problem either. I think we got some priority as bus passengers. Though still a lot of time was spend on waiting for nothing really:p

[Gio]

We crossed from Shymkent to Tashkent about a month ago.

Following the information we found here we tried to call to book bus tickets in advance. No one was picking it up so we took a Yandex taxi to the bus station as soon as we arrived in Shymkent.

We bought tickets 2 days in advance. They only had 3 buses per day (I think 8:00, 13:00 & 19:00), but on their FB page they advertised more buses.

The bus was full so booking in advance is recommended as locals use it a lot. Someone comes on board before the border to exchange money, not at a bad rate.

The border experience was very smooth as officers make way for the bus. It took 1.30-2hr overall. Our bags were x-rayed on both sides. UZ officer asked if we carry sleeping pills or religious books, but didn’t open our bags.

[steven]

Can anyone say if the new bus station in Tashkent is now already in use, or if they are still selling tickets in the booths outside? Thank you!

[AlbertoBoero]

Yes it is already in use! There are normal counters inside. Didn't even see any booths outside.

[SloTravel]

Report about Shymkent-Tashkent crossing by train:
- inspector Cocker Spaniel came to say hello and sniff around
- border official collected passports and asked about visa ("bez viza", "jevropski sayuz" should explain things for EU people)
- another officer told me to open bags and move some things away. No interest in prescription drugs or amount of money.

[Bakhtiyark]

This time I took a return trip by Shymkent-Tashkent bus:
When you say avtovokzal, Most taxi drivers in Shymkent assume that you need the "Samal" one where minibuses and sedans depart, so i had to specify that i need to get to an old one. And the station itself is quite a bit old and somewhat dilapidated soviet-style avtovokzal. I got my evening ticket for 1500tg. Luckily the bus arrived and departed on time and we there were only like ten other people inside the bus so i had plenty of room to relax, bus itself is chinese-made and pretty decent and relatively new, when we arrived at the border it was getting dark already, yet there were people and cars crossing. Bus driver dashed forward and the conductor guy told us to follow him, we had to wait about five minutes before border guys started processing our departure, it took about 15 minutes on KZ side. Uzbekistani side took about the same, no declaration, no nothing, the guy just took a quick look at my passport and stamped it with no questions other than asking me to take off my glasses. So 30 minutes in total, despite some line cutting drivers. We went back to the bus and soon arrived to Tashkent avtovokzal which was much better, it has some ATM's and minimarket upstairs, plus it has convenientional Taxi drivers just outside the station. However i would recommend using MyTaxi(if you have an Uzbek mobile number) or Yandex Taxi (if you don't) as they offer nearly the same price(in some cases it even better) and you have an option to contact the driver in case if you left something in the car.
Beeline roaming started working about 10 minutes into Uzbekistan.

P.S. Some guys offered money exchange inside the bus on both trips, however they offered rip-off exchange rates (about 10% below market rate), so i would not recommended unless you really need some tenge or soms for taxi.

P.S.2 I totally forgot about the X-ray on entry to Uzbekistan, it had rained that day and the conveyor belt was super dirty, backpack suffered a bit. Kazakh guards are able to speak Uzbek at a conversational level, however i'm pretty sure that English is not their forte.

[Bakhtiyark]

I would like to share an almost surreal border experience.
Buddy of mine crossed the border with his family thru Chernyaevka to attend a wedding. Unsuprisingly there were very few cars but otherwise entry to Uzbekistan went smoothly on both sides.
Upon arrival to the Uzbek side they were sent to a mini-laboratory, to make mandatory express tests (costing ~20k UZS and took in 20 minutes total for a family of four). They were given receipts and results with barcode with a trilingual statement that test is valid for three days.

However, the most interesting part happened on the way back, Uzbek side took 10 minutes, no questions asked. Kazakhstani side however was a whole different kind of beast. Border officer took their passports and asked to wait a bit until there is enough people to be sent on a bus to "an accredited laboratory" in Saryagash for "testing". Well, bus filled up, border guards entered the bus and went thru everyone's phones to inspect if someone recorded anything incriminating.
Afterwards, an extremely obese officer entered the bus and asked if everyone would like to go home right away or make a little detour to Saryagash for "testing". The former option costs 2000 KZT per person. Chubby officer graciously accepted the money from everyone and his goons started to hand passports back to the owners.

I couldn't fathom that these types of abuses still exist.