Border crossing report: Gulbahor: Shahrtuz (TJ) - Termez (UZ)

[steven]

Just putting this out there - received via e-mail

last Thursday we were the first "real" foreigners to cross this new (it opened on 7th of march) border to enter Uzbekistan. Everything worked pretty well and was good organised, even it took some time of the uzbek side, where we received a very thorough examination of luggage, mobile phones and still money. On both sides of the border were taxis and marshrutky available and between the border posts you have to use the marshrutka for 1 somoni or 10000 som.

There are also changes in the train schedule with the opening of this border: Train 319/320 Kulob - Moscow now takes the direct route via Termiz and 319 leaves on wednesdays at 18.05 instead of thursdays. Actually it is not possible to use it for trips to Uzbekistan and it is also not allowed to leave the train at border station Amuzang. We had to get off at Sharituz, stayed the night in a platskartny and took a taxi (driven by the Station Nachalnik!) the next morning.

Because the coaches to Moscow come from Dushanbe the local train 602 now departs on wednesdays and saturdays instead of tuesday and returns on thursdays and sundays from Kulob. On wednesdays a part of the train is coupled off in Kurgonteppa and waits until 10 p.m. when the service from Kulob arrives back to continue to Moscow; one can stay on board if requested. Trains 6373 and 6374 to/from Pakhtaabad still run daily.

both border posts are about 500m away from the border. Nevertheless you have to use one tadjik and one usbek marshrutka (change vehicles at the real border) between them.

The "station" of Amusang where usbek controlls for train passengers take place lies on usbek territorium abour 200m south of the post in tadjik direction. Border controlls by tadjik authorities for train passengers are carried out on Khoshedy station which is situated about 20 km south of Sharituz.

[Khanabadosh]

Thank you so much for this. I am thinking of using this border tomorrow. If I do, I reckon I will be the first person to try and use an e-visa for the crossing. Fingers crossed!

[Khanabadosh]

I have now crossed this border, and since I did it by road, which I imagine is the more common approach, I will write about it here. Its very easy. I chose to do it in part because the main border by Dushanbe sounded like a bit of a hassle. This border was active but calm and not stressful at all .

If you want to Travel to Tirmiz from Dushanbe, here's how it goes:

tl;dr: You can easily get public transport from Dushanbe to the border for 50+30=80 somon, with cars going regularly, and the border is easy.

1) A block or so South (I think) of Sokhovat Bazaar there are cars going to Shahrtuz. They are 50 somon a seat, and the trip takes about 2.45-3 hours. Get dropped off in the bazaar, not the vaghzal.
2) You came to Shahrtuz, so you really should see its great site, the 44 springs(chihil o chahar chashma). To get there, take a shared taxi from the Bazaar. They'll be yelling out "chashma." 5 somon a seat. Rent a whole taxi yourself for 20 if you're rich. Really, though, the Chashma's great!
3) Once you're back from the Chashma. still in the bazaar but a little north, by the bank, there are cars going to the border (tajik: sarhad, Russian: Granitza. Or they might just say Termez.) This costs 30 somon a seat. If you go in the morning, the wait shouldn't be too bad. Rent the whole thing for 120. The journey takes a little over an hour.
4) Once you get out, you'll immediately enter a check post. Inside, there's the customs room first (really she just writes down your name and birthday, no questions), and after it is the immigration. You could end up doing them in either order, but don't miss the customs, or she will chase you and tell you she's throwing you in jail with a big laugh. Really very sweet.
5) Then, you walk, for maybe 10 minutes. Its very hot, so if its an option, do this as early in the morning as possible.
6) Uzbek check post. Wait here for a van. You should be paying the van driver 1somon or 1000 som, but he seemed to collect it fairly randomly.
7) Drive about a mile.
8) show your passport to enter. Then immigration processing at the window. All very quick and easy.
9) Then, behind you, there's a door leading to customs. Only 2 may enter at a time. Then they scan your bag. And here's the crazy thing (for me): if you have a laptop or phone, they will make you (at least they made me) unlock both so they could search it for porn. This seemed very serious, as he knew his method exactly, and also activated "show hidden files." Luckily, I had no porn and got through. The search method, fyi, is to type in 'mp4' and randomly click on videos to see what they are. Felt invasive, but was not unprofessional, ultimately.
10) You're out. There are mashrutkas waiting. The cost to termez is 10,000, but you can pay in somoni. They'll drop you at the back of a bazaar downtown. There are money changers on the other side of the bazaar, though their rates were really no better than the bank's.
11) Since there's no point in changing with in the bazaar (unless you're trying to dump somonis, which are exchanged at around 1-650 and aren't accepted at banks), you can fairly quickly walk to a few banks on the main street in front of the bazaar. However, if you're planning to get a sim card, you might want to kill 2 birds with one stone by asking the mashrutka driver to let you out at Aloqa bank, which is on his route, but only about .5km from the final stop at the bazaar. Here you can easily change cash. Once you're done, exit the bank, turn right and walk a few minutes to the Beeline head office. A SIM here was 5000 and it was instantly activated. Or, you can turn left and walk 2 minutes to Ucell's head office. You will have to come to one of these offices to get a SIM, you can't get it registered elsewhere.



Note: you can, and maybe should, change your somoni in Shahrtuz. I wished I had, but didn't see the guy till we were pulling away.

[chengtse]

Update - 2019.July

We crossed the border yesterday from UZ to TJ, using Taiwan passports.

1) We found a taxi to drive only us to the border. 60,000 sum. (We had not go to bazzar to find out the marshutku). It took 50 minutes from Termiz to border. Arrived at 9:30.
2) The border work from 8 to 17. (The sign I saw at UZ border post)
3) However, yesterday morning there was a military exercise at this border. The guard told our driver border will re-open at noon.
4) The driver could not waiting there, so he sent us back to Gulbahor train station, saying we can have some tea there. While we sitting at the station without any idea, one of the UZ railway worker came and showed us we can stay at their resting house to wait border reopen. Meeting him is one of best experience for our Uzbek travel.
5) Around 12:20, he confirmed the border had reopened. It takes 15,000 som for two persons from Gulbahor to border (6 km and 5-10 minutes drive).
6) At UZ side, first is custom, they asked us where had we been in Uzbekistan and we have good chat with the weather. Asked do we bring more than 2,000 usd, just answer no then is fine. They did ask us to open our bags, but only a roughly check. Officers are friendly and English-speaking.

7)Then is UZ immigration, he took some time to check our passport and visa and asked for accommodation registration. For the registration, only a roughly check (we had missed one hotel registration but have pictures). Then get stamp on passport, then you go to a booth to wait minivan to transport you to TJ side.
8) The van can take 7 ppl in maximum, and it takes around 8-10 minutes for waiting next van. There were about 15 people at noon time, so we waited around 20 minutes. It is super hot at Termiz during summer ... so remember bring your own water.
9) One mile drive, but no charge. We did see other local passenger paid the driver (also the officer), but when we asked the driver the price, he just waved his hand and said bye-bye to us.
10) TJ side - immigration first then custom. Immigration took some time to check our e-visa and he also confused about the difference b/w TW and China. After his colleague explained, we got the stamp and "Welcome to Tajikistan". For the customs, he only made some registration on his notebook. No checking bags. However, he did check other Uzbek's luggage. I would say TJ side is also very friendly to tourists.
11) Walk out the border post, then there are some taxi driver waiting for you. We got one shared taxi with 25 somoni/ 25,000 som per seat. We did not find the bank at Shahrtuz so we changed small amount somoni with the driver...

* We did see some people travel with their own vehicle to pass this border.

[wildlight]

Crossed with my our own car UZ > TJ.

Main relevant points:
- Make sure you have your registered for Uzbekistan. It WILL be checked!
- Lots of questions asked about whether we went to afghanistan/are planning to go to afghanistan on both sides.
- Bringing your own car, they won't give you more than 15 days. We asked for 30 and the official told us no and that it would be a "Big Problem." We're gonna try to extend in Khorog.
- Car was searched somewhat thoroughly on the Uzbek side and I was given a pat down. No searches at all on the tajik side.
- When performing the car import TAKE EXTRA CARE TO ENSURE your information is entered correctly. The guard wrote my friends name wrong.
- Marshruktas are available in no man's land after the Uzbek side. There's also a bench to sit on after crossing if you want shade. It doesn't do much to cut the heat.

One final note: Although I strongly recommend using this border crossing because it was so easy, do be advised there is no insurance or money exchange on the Tajik side when we were there. Nor the Uzbek side.

The road on both sides is poor, and on the Tajik side many areas are partially or completely sand covered.

Watch your speed, we got stopped for "speeding."

[fuzzyfurs]

Crossed this border (TJ - UZ) 5 Sept 2024

Shahrtuz
- Stayed two nights at Gostinitsa Shakhrituza for 100sm per person, was clean and comfortable enough.
- Took a shared taxi for 50sm each to the border, didn't see any marshrutkas and our host said the same. Journey took only 35 mins, only a few vehicles and you can see Afghanistan on the other side

At the Tajik border
- Took a long time to be stamped out of the country. Luckily there was someone who spoke English and explained to us that we were waiting due to a power cut
- Everybody (admittedly not many) sat on the ground by the road for 4.5 hours (!!) until finally they allowed us to go through immigrations, only for the officers to write our passport details in a... book...

Between the borders
- There was a damas waiting to take us to the Uzbek passport control (3km away), cost 5000 som each

At the Uzbek border
- Fast and easy
- There are very irritating, dishonest and blood-thirsty taxi drivers waiting to take you to Termez. I suspect that there are buses (damas) that go to the next village. Cannot confirm their destination but saw two on the way
- Paid 50, 000 som per person to Termez

[MichelleK]

I crossed the border on a Monday 28th of October 2024

I took a taxi to the shared taxi meeting point in Dushanbe (on Maps.me: Marshrutki to Hishar, Shahrinav and Tursunzoda). I was lucky to find a driver for myself who dropped me off at the Tajik/Uzbek border for 100 somonis = €8.71 = $9.40. I negotiated to be dropped off at the border. This is important.
I changed my last somonis for sums before crossing the Tajik border. The exchange is correct. I asked the old man to add 20,000 sums = €1.46. He did it without any problem.
The border crossing is easy. First very quick passport check before following the path to the real check with stamping. There are only 2 offices. The one on the right handles the truck drivers who are very numerous. Trucks line up for several kilometers before the first checkpoint. Uzbek customs checks are more formal. Luggage goes through machines that scan it and the tourist stands in front of a camera. It's extremely fast. I easily found a driver to take me to Termez. I was alone again. I paid $40. He had asked me for $50.

[gkip]

I made this border crossing on November 18, 2024, travelling from Shahrtuz to Termez.

For anyone looking for a place to stay in Shahrtuz, I would highly recommend Hotel Chor Bed, near the hospital and park. Rooms for two people are 400/300 somoni (“lux”/regular) without breakfast but are very comfortable. I would not recommend Hotel Markhabo. Room rates are the same, but there is an extremely loud disco on the main floor (my bed was literally shaking from the music) and poor plumbing made for unpleasant odours in the room as well. I should have guessed something was amiss when I was asked to pay for room when I checked in.

Near Shahrtuz’s bazaar there are shared taxis available to take you to you to the border. I asked several people about the cost and was told uniformly that the cost is 100 somoni per person, and this is what we paid for the trip. We were picked up at our hotel at 7am and the trip took just under an hour. While I understand that the border post is supposed to open at 8am, in fact they only started letting people through at about 8:20. By the time the border was opened there were probably 40-50 people in the queue. Groups of about a half dozen people were let though at a time for processing in a small building. Our passports were reviewed and stamped by one official, and then we were let into a second room where another official entered our passport details by hand into a book and he then took an interest in my backpack. He wanted it opened up and did a cursory search before bringing someone else in who asked if I was transporting any drugs. When I said no the searching stopped and we were allowed through.

After a final passport check we passed into the no-man’s land between the two border posts and waited about 20 minutes for a full-size bus to show up to take us to the Uzbek post. We paid 20 somoni per person for the bus ride, although the driver seemed to have a preference for Uzbek som (2,000). The crossing on the Uzbek side took a quite a long time. One first waits at a gate with a border guard letting small groups through at a time. First stop is a kiosk on the left where one’s passport is reviewed, details taken and the passport is stamped. Then one waits in line to enter a small building where everyone was being searched fairly thoroughly. We went through a metal detector and our luggage through an x-ray machine. The border guards spent a lot of time examining the images from the x-ray and asking us to show them various items from luggage they had concerns about. They seemed primarily focussed on drugs and antiquities. Outside we saw a car being very thoroughly searched as well, with tires being removed, etc.

From start to finish the crossing took a little over two hours.

Once we were finally through onto the Uzbek side, there is unfortunately a taxi mafia present which is quite unpleasant to deal with. They bullied the damas drivers into not giving us a ride and then physically stopped another driver we had negotiated a price with to take us to Termez from loading our luggage into his car and afterwards pushed him around. We finally agreed on 40,000 som for one of the drivers to take us to Termez (who also had a couple other passengers in his car), but on arrival the driver insisted that he had said the price was double this amount. To avoid this hassle it would probably be a good idea to pre-arrange a transfer from the border if possible to arrange.