We picked up our Chinese visa at around 3:30 pm and then rode as fast as we could to the Kazakhstan border about 20km north of Tashkent. We had a five day gap in our registration record so we did not want to stay in Uzbekistan for another night and add a sixth day to that gap. We really hoped that they were not going to check our registration at the border.
Once again, the Uzbek side of the border was very chaotic but like last time we were called to the front of the qeue. For some reason, a bride and groom were among the hundreds of people at the border. She wore the typical white Kazakh wedding dress which is very poofy and frilly plus she had a pointy, Kazakh wedding hat on her head with a white furry rim and a tuft of white feathers on the top. She looked like a snow princess, completely out of place in the midst the frantic craziness of the border check point. She sure would have made for several award winning National Geographic moments but unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures at the border.
By the time we crossed it was already dark. Things had gone quite smoothly. When the guard inquired about our registration slips he was satisfied to see a bunch of them in James' hand and did not bother with checking the dates on them. WHAT A RELIEF!
In the little village just on the other side we asked to camp in a family's yard. They were very nice and allowed us to sleep on a covered deck, which was perfect because it started raining very hard in the night. They even brought us some food and Lisa made us hot coffee in the morning.
THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR HOSPITALITY!
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