I'm finding internet connections quite difficult to find as we are doing a lot of camping, but here's the latest update.

We arrived at the Uzbek border near Tashkent at 3pm. Forget anything I said about Russian borders, this border took us 18 hours to get across. Again there weren't many cars when we arrived however a number seemed to be going down the 'fast lane' usually after a quick exchange of dollars with a border guard. We tried this but our skills obviously weren't up to that of the locals.

Four hours later we were still there so decided to create our own entertainment. Our Spanish speaking contingent cranked up the volume on the car stereo and started Salsa dancing quickly followed by the Mexican Sombrero dance. The big queues of people waiting to cross, the money changers, food sellers and taxi touts all didn't quite know what to make of this until one gentleman took off Ingrid's hat and put some money in it.

This started quite a flow and we ended with enough for a round of beers and some bread. During this time the English contingent got out the camping stove and made a nice cup of tea. The dancing caused quite a sensation and even the next day after we had crossed we had people coming up to us and showing us their video phone footage of the dancing.

A nice cup of tea" as seen by Adactio http://www.flickr.com/photos/adactio

This was a long wait but at 9pm everything exploded into chaos. The gates were shut and suddenly people were desperately scrambling everywhere with shouts and arguments filling the air. There were people going over, under and through the gates, the guards maybe stopping half. Little old ladies piled high with goods would come come over from the other side and as soon as the gate opened a crack a mad rush ensued. It was fascinating to watch but at the same time we didn't want to spend the night waiting to get into the border area so we reopened negotiations with the guards.

60USD got us past the queue and into Kazakh clearance only to find the Uzbek side was already shut. This left little option but to spend the night camped in the carpark of the Kazakh customs area. The next morning at the front of the queue it still took 3 hours to get through as we headed for Samarkand.

Read about it in Part 6 http://hereorthere.com/members/davi...perience/721