April 22, 2010

by Stephen Jan in Washington DC

Traveling through Uzbekistan requires Uzbek visas. According to the Uzbek embassy website, imperialist Americans representatives pay a premium for a visa that generally much cheaper for non-Americans. On the other hand, a transit visas cost only $20. Given that we’re all pretty broke, we decided to find out from the embassy exactly who we’d have to bribe to get a transit visa.

After an unproductive visit to the Uzbek embassy that turned out to be open only 2 hours out of the day, we stopped by the Azerbaijan Embassy. When we arrived, like Uzbekistan, the sign stated that they worked only 2 hours out of the day which totally bummed us out. But as we were about to leave, this thin, Central Asian looking man dressed in T-shirt and slacks washing this black Cadillac told us that the consulate door was open and that we should just go in. Once inside, we immediately ran into 2 men in the back office with “Who the hell are these people?” written all over their faces.