Shavat-Dashoguz border crossing report

[hitchhaning]

Happy 2017 everyone

I crossed the Shavat-Dashoguz border in mid December and wanted to share my experience.

From Dashoguz to the border you don't need a taxi, there is a bus no 4 (if I remember correctly) leaving from the Bazaar and going all the way (200m away from the border). The village by the border is a nice alternative, you can easily find accommodation in private homes there, also possible to camp.

We were the first ones on the border in the morning and the whole process of getting to Uzbekistan took us 1h45min.

Guards on both sides were pretty easy on us, the Uzbeks just took a longer time to analyze our pills. The ability to read cyrillic proved helpful: the guard by mistake categorised our flu medicine as heavy drugs and pointed it out on his long list of prohibited substances, but quickly accepted that he was wrong.

The marshrutka driver in the no-man's land charged is 1$ for the both of us and fortunately didn't wait until his car was full.

The taxi drivers on the Uzbek side surprised me though, they wouldn't take us to Khiva for anything less than 30$, which was a total rip-off.

[ico84]

I will be there in few days and I give you an update.

Do you know if there are money exchanger on the Uzbekistan side?

I read it is like 10-30$ to kiva. Can you pay in dollars or you have to change in Som?

[steven]

Everyone is always happy for your dollars in Uzbekistan.

[ico84]

I paid 20$ but I guess with a little russian you can set the price at 10$.

On the uzb side they asked me if I had a camera and I was so dumb to answer "just my phone". They got one of the 2 I had and started to look inside.

I had deleted every "sensible" folder before getting there.

At the beginning was funny because you can use my phone just with gesture and the guy was not able to get in the drawer. Eventually he got there and opened google photo. Fuck! I forgot of that app: he was able to look at every picture I uploaded in the past!
He watched at "whatsapp" folder and found some "funny" picture of girls, meme and so on (nothing illegal or porn)

He was very happy to watch them but after 5 minutes a collegue of him (a very kind lady) told him smt that sounded like "stop to be an asshole an look the pictures of other people".

that's all

[julotlafrite]

I will be crossing in opposite direction next Monday late afternoon. Any know when the border close?
and how much time I should plan for crossing including immigration formalities on both side? much appreciated!

[Fitorsel]

Hi there,

do you know whether the crossing point is also opened to self driven cars?

Thanks,
F

[steven]

Yes, open to self-drive cars. All borders are open to self-drive cars except Chernayevka between Tashkent and Shymkent.

[ellenenerik]

We enterd from turkemenistan into uzbekistan with our OWN car and did not pay anything at the border. We've got our insurance for 2 usd in Khiva.

[daftmovement]

Crossed the border a few days ago from Turkmenistan to Uzbekistan. Turkmen side luggage was searched and medication examined. Taxi bus across border supposedly costed 10 Manat according to the guard. The bus driver wanted 20 Manat, but I only had 10 Manat left to give.

Uzbek border guards were really friendly and didn't search my luggage, cameras or medication. They mainly peppered me with questions and cracked jokes about the US.

They even told me that taxi ride from the border to Khiva should be no more than 5 USD. I used that in negotiating the cost of the taxi to be 10 USD as most people here report should be the standard. I think it might be harder for couples or groups to negotiate that amount, but worth a try.

[seysearles]

The taxi drivers on the Uzbek side surprised me though, they wouldn't take us to Khiva for anything less than 30$, which was a total rip-off.

We paid USD20 for Shavat --> Urgench (to buy train ticket) --> Khiva. The driver helped to organise the train ticket also (although he did give us a sort of dirty look when we paid him as though his help warranted more on top of the agreed amount).