It has/had been our plan for some time that we would get our Visas for Iran, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan while in Bishkek. So on Monday morning (29th) we set off to the Iranian Embassy armed with our passports and the email from the Iran visa agency that contained the visa approval number from the Iran Ministry of Foriegn Affairs.

The young lady behind the counter gave us an application form to complete and then handed us a very, very, small piece of paper that contained the address of a local branch of the National Bank of Pakistan where we were to pay the visa issuance fee. At the same time she told us that we needed to provide passport sized photos for the visa.

This last requirement was a bit of a surprise as we understood from the visa agency that in her visa photo Nina had to be wearing a scarf to cover her head and that the Embassy would make that photo themselves.

So we set off down the street towards the Pakistan Bank looking for a place to get a visa photo. Luck was on our side and we got the photo within 15 minutes and at the bank it took about 30 minutes to get served and obtain the necessary receipt.

Back at the Iranian Embassy all the paper work seemed to be in order and we were about to submit everything when we were told "come back in 5 days". No that was not going to work for us - "can we pay more money and get it faster?", was the question. So back to the Pakistan Bank and pay some more money for the "express service (1 day)".

After the second visit to the bank I got back to the Iranian Embassy 5 minutes before they closed for lunch. However the hiccups were not over as it seemed that Tuesday was a holiday for the Embassy and so the earliest we could get back our passports with those Iran visas was 11:00am Wednesday 31st.

So we returned to our hotel faced with a days delay in our visa program.

The next step in the overall visa process was to make an appointment with the Uzbek Embassy. We had arranged with Celestial Mountain Tours to make this appointment for us as such appointments can only be made in Russian. During the course of the afternoon we discovered that:

  • appointments can only be made for 10:00am (which ruled out Wednesday)
  • and the Uzbek Embassy was closed this coming Thursday

Hence we would not be able to get to the Uzbek Embassy until Friday.

Tuesday 30th was a quiet day for us. We spent some time looking around the city's central area near our hotel, and in the evening met up with a young man named Aziz and his friend Shaka for coffee. We were put in touch with Aziz by a friend in the US.

On Wednesday (31st) we presented ourselves at the Iranian Embassy at 9:30am in the hope that we could get our passports (with the visas) early enough to then visit the Tajikistan Embassy before they stopped taking applications for the day at 11:00am. The Tajikistan Embasy website told us that between 9:00 and 11:00 they take applications and between 11:00 and 13:00 they return issued visas.

We sat around in the Iran Embassy waiting area for about 45 minutes and eventually, just before 10:30, we were called up to the service window and our passports with visas were returned. Success!!

Outside we found a taxi, showed the driver the address of the Tajik Embassy (in Russian) and we were on our way to our next stop. The Tajik Embassy is in one of the less propserous areas of Bishkek and for a little while we thought the taxi driver may have been lost but our concerns were misplaced and he dropped us right at the gate.

It took us a few minutes to find the correct entrance gate to the embassy and then it took 10 minutes for some one to open the gate in response to us (and the gate guard) pressing the door bell button. Inside the embassy we quickly determined that visas were being issued on the spot. We waited around while a South African lady was served, were given and filled out applications forms, paid our money and within an hour we had both our Tajik visas and our GBAO passes that would allow us to travel in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast region of Tajikistan.

The South African lady (Isabel) is hoping to live in Dushanbe (Tajikistan) for a period and invited us to contact her when we get there. While we were waiting for our visas to be issued an American guy came in for a visa. We found out that he runs a green house in Utah for 6 months of the year and during the hot months in Utah (when green houses don't work) he travels.

In the afternoon we ventured out into the heat again to do some shopping (a light weight scarf, blouse and makeup for Nina), visit a nearby coffee shop and generally have a bit of a look around.

On returning to the hotel we noticed that 3 vehicles engaged in the Mongol Rally were now parked in the yard near our truck.

Part III of the visa story will take place on Friday when we go to our appointment at the Uzbek embassy.