Friday, 9 October 2026

 

Start: Khujand (TJ) 9:15

Arrival: Tashkent (UZ) 15:00

 

Total: 161 km

 

 

When we left Khujand this morning, we took a wrong turn into a small alley. An unmarked police car with two cops in uniform in it was in front of us. Suddenly they stopped. Two young boys saw them and made a runner. One of the cops got out and gave chase. The other one laughed. Two young miscreants caught in an illicit act? We had been witnesses of something interesting for sure, but we didn't know what. Sadly, we didn't see whether the boys got away or not.

 

 

Order of the day: the Tajik-Uzbek border. I was not looking forward to it, but unless we wanted to apply for Tajik or Uzbek residence (we didn't), we would have to brave two chaotic border crossings in as many days.

 

Khujand was 70 kilometres from the border. The road was okay enough to go a lot faster than the mandated 60 km/h. Then the posted speed limit changed to 40 km/h. On a perfectly empty and straight country lane. This, of course, screamed: Radar control. Fill the state coffers with speeding tickets, the strategy must be as old as Mercedes Benz. I slowed down. A car was coming towards us. The driver flashed his high beams at us. Ah yes. I thanked him and slowed down even more. The next driver flashed again. I love Tajiks! Soon we met the police control. We puttered past them at snail pace. As everywhere in Central Asia, the police were busy at it. Several times, we had occasion to return the favour and flash our high beams at drivers to warn them. Bonding with the locals.

 

 

The light in this part of Tajikistan had a strange yellowish tinge to it. The nearby villages and mountains seemed shrouded behind a thin veil of sandy air. First we thought it was smog, like in Almaty and Bishkek. But the air smelled fresh and I had no trouble breathing. A mini sandstorm? Maybe in this part of the world, there were always tiny sand particles hanging in the air.

 

We stopped at a Gazpromneft and filled up. "Navad o panj", I said to the gas pump employee, proud to be able to communicate in the local lingo. He smiled and nodded, but I doubt that he mistook me for a Tajik gal.

 

 

 

We reached the border. Sonia was determined to stay in the car unless they physically removed her. The Tajik border guards were so nice! Smiling and chatting in broken English. And yes, Sonia could stay with me.

 

On to the Uzbek side of the border. I had to register the car. By now old hat for me. Import duties: 3 dollars. "Dollars?" I asked nonplussed. He nodded impatiently. Obviously I had no three bucks on me. That's about 30,000 Uzbek som, so I took those out. He shook his head. Seriously, mate, you want greenbacks? Since when was the US dollar Uzbek currency? I couldn't remember whether I'd had to pay any registration duty on the Osh-Andijan border. "Somoni?" he asked. Yes, I still had 30 somoni, which was about 3 euros. He took them and finally gave me my registration slip. According to sources on the internet, there are no registration fees to be paid. So: corruption. Uzbekistan, living up to the impression I've had in the two weeks we spent there. Happy to have seen it. No plans to be back.

 

I got back to the car. We had to drive through a narrow corridor where a man was busy giving every car a good wash. Well, I didn't mind getting the dust off mine. In two minutes, Old Trusty was sparkling once more, but the border guard refused to open the gate. The car washer motioned for me to roll down the window and screamed something at me. "Huuuh?" The din of his high-pressure water hose was deafening. He yelled again: "Two dollars!" I laughed. The mighty dollar was indeed Uzbekistan's new currency. Well, two dollars was a cheap carwash. I gave him 15,000 som and the guard finally opened the door. We were back in Uzbekistan!

 

 

Back in the country of horrible potholed roads, women and schoolchildren hitchhiking on the hot dusty wayside, the country of tailgating white Chevys and shashlik stench. Oh, how I have missed you...not!

 

We bounced and jolted towards our beautiful hotel in Tashkent, the staff recognized and greeted us, we checked in, had food in the almost empty hotel restaurant and called it a day.