Greetings from Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Yesterday I cycled 105 kilometres from Denau to reach Dushanbe. Going through the Uzbekistan immigration was a pain in the arse. I was the only visitor at the check post and seemed the border authorities had nothing to do so they decided to kill some time by checking all my stuff. One was checking out photos on my camera, the second one was reading SMS on my mobile and listening to the Uzbek music, and the third one was watching my cycling clips on my laptop while pretending to be searching for pornographic material.
All this in the name of “border control”. It took me an hour to get through the Uzbek border.
The authorities at the Tajik side were completely different though.They were super friendly, didn’t hassle me by going through my stuff, and even offered me a cup of tea.
In Dushanbe I am camping in the garden of my French host. There are two female Polish cyclists staying here who also intend to cycle the Pamirs with a group of six other Polish cyclists. Today we will go together to the OVIR office as they need GBAO permits and will ask them if we, the foreign cyclists, are allowed to enter the Pamirs.