Denau-Tursunzade (UZ-TAJ) border crossing

[plovgrrl]

We were 2 people (man and woman) and made the crossing from Samarkand - Dushanbe on Sunday 3rd September 2017. We thought we might have problems because we were travelling around Independence Day/Eid, but it was completely fine.

1. Left our hotel at 6.40am for the Grebnoy Kanal / Betonka shared taxi station. Something to be aware of is our hotel and other people we asked advised us to go to the Ulugbek station - Ulugbek IS NOT the right one! I think that the Denau crossing is less well known so if you say you are going to Dushanbe they will advise you to go through the Oybek crossing. Here is a link to the Grebnoy Kanal / Betonka location. Dropped pin
near M-39, Samarkand, Uzbekistan
https://goo.gl/maps/1CBeCrrSurP2

We prebooked a taxi through our hotel and it was 25,000 som ($3.50). Probably could have got it cheaper but we decided to book ahead to save hassle in the morning.

2. Arrived at 7.00am at the station. Immediately some man (later turned out to be our taxi driver!) started opening the boot and taking out our backpacks which freaked me out a bit as we hadn't agreed a price - but turned out to be okay. We were quoted $30 per person for a shared taxi to the border. We haggled a bit and got the cost down to $25 per person, so we paid $50 in total.

3. We waited until about 8am. There are places to buy food and drink at Grebnoy Kanal / Betonka, as well as a (grim) toilet. At one point our driver asked us if we wanted to pay an extra $25 to go now - we just said no thanks - and within about 20 minutes two other guys showed up and we were off. We left at 8am. I think the going rate for locals is about 60,000 - 80,000 som to Denau, after I had a sneak look at what our companions handed over at the end. So obviously we massively overpaid but really didn't mind as we had figured it would be expensive, and I don't know if they'd give the local rate to travellers.

4. The journey all the way to the border took about 7 hours. It's bumpy in places, but generally good quality roads. We were stopped twice at checkpoints but our driver helped us out at each one. The other two passengers were friendly and we stopped for excellent lamb somosas along the way!

5. It took us about 1 hour to make the border crossing. After having read these posts we were prepared for a difficult one but it was actually fine. The border guard just asked me if we had any porn or extremist material (I said no). She checked the camera but not the phones or iPad. Asked to see all our books, asked if they were 'religious' books (they weren't). We had to unpack our bags but just to show her a few items that came up on the X-ray. Overall it was much better than we were expecting. Tajik side was fine.

6. There were a few taxis waiting on the Tajikistan side, not as many as I'd thought. Our Uzbek taxi driver told us that we should only pay $2 each for our taxi to Dushanbe - we gave it a go but of course everyone laughed at us. In the end we haggled from $45 down to $10 for two of us. The same thing as in Samarkand - they then said it was a shared taxi and offered to go now for $40. We said no thanks, and 20 mins later a woman and her two kids arrived and took the extra seats.

7. Arrived at our hostel at about 5pm. Door to door it took 11 hours.

Overall much easier than we thought - would encourage others to do this route!

[Bob1]

Travelled Dushanbe to Termez on Tuesday September 5. All very easy: left my hostel in Dushanbe at 6.45am and was in Termiz by 1pm. Mashrutka 8 to Zanisar taxi park and then share taxi to Tursanzade and then same taxi to border (50 Somoni). Had to wait about 10 minutes to be seen by Tajik border officials and then quickly stamped out of Tajikistan. No mention of entry card. All very friendly. Had to wait about 15 minutes to see Uzbek customs people and then spent about 10 minutes with a serious but quite friendly official. Checked my medications, books and a cursory look at photos on my phone. And that was it! The border was all pretty quiet at 9 in the morning. I was only person wanting a taxi so I paid $30 for a private taxi to Termiz. The drivers initial asking price was $50.

[aal]

Hi,

I am hoping to cross this border from Tajik. to Uzbek. in a few days. I don't have the vaunted tajikistan immigration card, as none was provided upon entry.

Reading all the posts in this thread, it seems that no one has ever actually had a problem, and there's been no mention of any Tajikistan immigration official asking for the card for at least the last year.

Does anyone know if this is still a real issue, and, if so, what to do about it? (eg: perhaps I should pay a visit to OVIR in Dushanbe?)

Cheers....

Andrew.

[KevinLi]

Sharing our experience crossing the border from Samarkand to Dushanbe on Sep. 19th 2017:

Basically it all went as previous blogposts have described (thank you guys so much for the information!)

We were already four people, so no need to wait for shared taxis to fill up.

From our hostel (Bahodir), we started at 7 AM and spent 25.000 SUM to get us to Grebnoy Kanal / Betonka shared taxi station. There it was a little bit difficult to find the right car as we had a loooot of luggage with us. Eventually settled with a driver for the price of 440.000 SUM (= 55 USD). The drive took us until 15:30 to arrive at the border. We crossed several checkpoints but nothing major. We didn't drive through Termiz but cut left before the city.

Leaving Uzbekistan was easier than we thought: The border guards only very superficially looked at our registrations. They checked some of our camera equipment and my laptop (only scrolling through the photos).

On the Tajik side, we had to wait quite some time, but eventually crossed. On the other side, we were able to exchange our remaining SUM to Tajik Somoni. We took a taxi and paid USD 20 (probably too much, but the driver took us straight to the hostel).

So all in all, no problem! We arrived at 6:30 pm, so door to door it took us 11h 30 min.

Hope that helps!

[yhpans]

We were three indians travelling, did the crossing from Uzbek to Tajik side on SEP 28th.

While roaming around in Samarkand we were approached by a taxi driver who offered us for the entire car for 600,000 soms but we got it down to 500,000 soms. Pickup 7:30am from bahodir BB. He came right on time with a brand new sedan car and took us to the border making one quick breakfast stop, we reached the border at 2pm.

It took us almost two hours to fill forms, go through security checks and getting stamped out of Uzbek. Followed by just 15 mins on the Tajik side. We were having Tajik e visa with gbao permits.

At 4pm we were on the Tajik side. Taxi drivers started asking from 200 Tajik somoni for our hostel address, but we managed to find a gas run car (which are way cheaper in fare) for just 80 somoni. Reached hostel just before 6pm.

[Tonini]

Hi,
I read this topic and everybody cross this border by foot. I'm with a van so i'm asking if this border is open to foreigner car's ?

[steven]

Hi,
I read this topic and everybody cross this border by foot. I'm with a van so i'm asking if this border is open to foreigner car's ?

yes

[waltereegho]

Crossed recently from Uzbekistan to Tajikistan. All smiles and politeness, no trouble whatsoever.
Shared cab Termez to border 50.000 som (locals pay 25), or get the bus to Denov for 12.000 and taxi from there.
I didn't have registration for every day in Uzbekistan because I couchsurfed. Deliberately piled my registration slips into a messy pile. The border guard started checking but lost interest and waved me through.
On the Tajik side, I paid 4 USD for a shared cab which delivered me straight to my hostel in the centre of Dushanbe.

[heightwithoutflight]

Crossing was easy and hasslefree. Friendly guards.
Taxi from Denau for 10000 USom per person straight to the border. Money exchange on Uzbek side with a normal rate.
First border guard looked at the registration slips (we had a registration for every 72 h from 3 hotels and one from online system for a week, as well as an overnight train ticket, in total 5 papers for 3 weeks) He waved us through, Xray was smooth, no checking of medicine or photos. Last guard at the stamp office, he also wanted to see the registration but obviously he did not check the dates either. No problem that we had it not for each and every night.

Tajik side: very welcoming at the stamp office, we had printed evisa. Xray officer did not care at all. Welcome to Tajikistan! We ignored the taxi guys and hitchhiked in 3 different cars to Dushanbe.

[Irisz]

we crossed from Tadjikistan to Uzbekistan today. We took a shared taxi from the "Zarnisor" station for 20 somoni per person directly to the border.
Walked through, there was noone operating the security check on Tadjik side, so we just passed. When entering Uzbekistan, an officer took me to a seperate room, but just scanned my passport and gave me stamp, same as the officers at the main counter. No problems at all, people were friendly. No checking phones or opening backpacks. On the Uzbek side there are some small restaurants and shops and a toilet after the border station. Some friendly guys organized another shared taxi for us to the train station in Sariyasia for 10.000 som per person.