Kazakhstan > Computer malfunction at the border

I leave Tashkent during the morning rush hour. For the last time, I see Amir Timur on his horse standing in the central square. The opera and the theater. I leave Tashkent along the wide Russian-style boulevards. In about an hour, I reach the border with Kazakhstan. I say goodbye to the driver and walk to the customs building. Leaving Uzbekistan goes smoothly. I have the exit stamp in my passport. I walk the few hundred meters to the border with Kazakhstan. At the border, they check whether I have a valid visa. A little further along, a second officer checks exactly the same thing. I enter the customs hall and join the line. Suddenly, the counter is closed. All counters are closed. It’s unclear to me what is happening. Nobody is being allowed into Kazakhstan. Outside, the entry gate is also closed. The new stream of people coming from Uzbekistan must wait in the blazing sun. Various things are being shouted in Russian. From bystanders, I gather that the computer system has crashed.

Kazakhstan - The toilets of Kazakhstan

The wait is long, especially since there’s no indication of when anything will happen. Every time it seems something might happen, everyone pushes forward. Elderly women shove their way to the front. Women with small children squeeze ahead in the line. Nothing happens at the counters. Uzbeks are apparently being asked to return and travel via another border post. I can’t go back because my visa is already stamped. After an hour and a half, an officer gestures that I can come to the back with other tourists, much to the annoyance of the waiting people. Once behind the customs booth, I find I can only leave my travel luggage there. I have to go back and join the end of the line again. After three hours of waiting, the systems restart. Immediately, a rush forms at the counters. I am allowed to bypass the waiting line. At a separate counter, my passport is stamped. I am finally officially in Kazakhstan. I’m only staying in Kazakhstan for two days, so I exchange just a few dollars into tenges, the local currency. Then I take the bus toward Aksu-Djabagly, a nature reserve in southern Kazakhstan. Looking outside, I notice that everything has a Russian appearance—large monuments, tidy towns—but with an incredible amount of litter on the streets. I also see a yellow pipe running along the houses. This turns out to be the gas line. At every house, the pipe arches meters into the air, forming a gate. Ugly, but practical against earthquakes. The landscape of southern Kazakhstan is much greener than I expected. Trees are abundant in the rolling green terrain. In the distance, the peaks of the mountain ranges can be seen. At the beginning of the evening, I arrive at the guesthouse of Lammert and Elmira. Lammert is from the Netherlands, Elmira from Kazakhstan. After dinner, Lammert talks about the country. Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world, but only fifteen million people live there. The desert area in the center is practically uninhabitable. Tourist locations are so far apart that combining them into a single trip is difficult, which limits the development of tourism. Due to the location of two mountain ranges, the south of Kazakhstan has unique nature. Special migratory birds also winter here. The high mountains bring relatively high rainfall, keeping the landscape green all year round.