Getting a Uzbekistan visa in Singapore (DIY Method)

Information is as of May 2011 and based on my own experience. Thus may vary with other people.

Website of Uzbekistan Embassy is www.uzbekistan.org.sg/ though often somehow my Norton virus scan will say the site is unsafe. So i also try not to en

Getting the Uzbekistan visa is a little bit more complicated as we need to get a letter from Invitation from agency in Uzbekistan.

Plan about 3 weeks to get the visa unless you want to pay extra to speed up processing.

1) Contact travel agency in Uzbekistan, think you can google for travel agencies in Uzbekistan that are willing to help you with a letter of invitation without needing to take their tour. You must of course pay a fee for the letter. Alternatively, some hotels are also willing to help you with the letter if you have booked some nights with them. The letter will take anything from 4 days to 2 weeks to reach you as I think the agency will need to send your form to the Foreign Ministry. Note that the agency will ask you for

--your personal informaton
--digital scan of your passport
--scan of a letter from your company confirming that you are employed

2) Once the letter of invitation is received, bring the invitation letter, passport and application form to the uzbekistan embassy

3) Get a slip etc for the amount to be deposited or transfer to the embassy account. We also do a cash deposit via HSBC as the Uzbekistan embassy also use HSBC account in Singapore.

4) Collect the visa in about 2 working days.

Getting a Kazak Visa in Singapore (DIY Method)

Is relatively easy to get a Kazak visa in Singapore as there is a Kazakhstan embassy here. The information is correct as of May 2011 and represent my experience in getting the visa.

The website of the Kazakhstan embassy is http://www.kazakhstan.org.sg

Address of Embassy:
1 Kim Seng Promenade #09-04/05
Great World City, East Office Tower
Singapore 237994

Steps
1) Fill in the application form which is downloadable from the website

2) Singaporeans do not need any special letter of invitation if you are applying only for tourist visa. Just write a simple letter yourself with the reason for your visit (eg Tourist), date of visit, places to visit and the address of accomodation (can just put a hotel address).

3) Bring the form and your passport to the embassy in the morning (9-12am) on Mon, Wed and Friday only. I suggest you give them a call to check they are opened, just in case as some days may be holiday for them.

4) If the form is filled correctly, they will give you a letter with the amount to pay and the bank details (is a HSBC account) as well as the date to collect your visa. No credit card payment or cash payment. Amount to be paid is in USD. You can do cash deposit or transfer money. I did a cash deposit by going down to the HSBC Colley Quay branch. Relatively easy though you may need to wait for an hour etc. The bank staff are used to people doing USD cash deposit to the embassy account so is not an issue. Use remember to bring the slip the embassy gives you as the slip has a number that you need to put in. Better to do cash deposit if you do not have HSBC account as there is no transaction cost involved. My friend did a transfer and I think she paid quite a bit of transaction cost. By the way for the cash deposit, do not bring USD dollar, just use SGD else you need to pay a transaction fee. You just need to accept the exchange rate given by the bank. Works well if the amount to transfer is not high.

5) About a week later, you can now collect your visa and passport. Collection only available at 4pm - 5pm on Mon, Wed and friday.


For my case, I needed a triple entry visa but triple entry is only available under Business Visa, thus I got a single entry Tourist Visa first from Singapore and later on apply a Double Entry Tourist Visa when I am in Uzbekistan.

Back Home

I am back home after three weeks in Central Asia. Will start to write my experiences and share with you all! :)

Visa Issues

This region must be the most difficult region in terms of visa requirements that I have travelled to. Bhutan seems such a breeze last time.

Letters of invitation are required etc. Thus have to pay to get the letters and only after getting the letters can then approach the embassy.

Wow all these visa procedures are giving me a headache at the moment...

Visa, flights, border etc

Is really a lot of checking to do. Checking the transit flights, borders... whether it is opened for overland trip etc. Looks like I will not be able to go Tajikistan.

Will be transiting from Bangkok.

The plan now is to go Bangkok--> Almaty (Kazakhstan)---> Taskhent (Uzbekistan) ---> Almaty ---> Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) --> Almaty --> Bangkok

Tentative plan

My tentative plan is to go in End May so that can see the Silk and Spice festival Bukhara. Have booked my leave tentatively. Instead of a 2 month trip that I have wanted to, it will be a shorter trip around 21-day.

To Urumqi --- Uzbekistan -- Kazakhstan -- (possibly kyrgyzstan) --- Urumqi

Books

Been reading a few books on this region recently. Some interesting reads include

-- Apples are from Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins
-- Out of Steppe, The Lost People of Central Asia by Daniel Metacalfe
-- The Last Secrets of the Silk Road, 4 girls follow Marco Polo across 5000 miles by Alexandra Tolstroy
-- Over the Edge by Greg Child
-- Misson Mongolia, 2 man, 1 van, no turning back by David Treanor

Actually not many books seems to be written about this region relative to other regions/countries.

Each book gives me new knowledge and insight about the region. Have a few books in line to read still.

Just 1 lesson

I rushed to the CC again thinking there is a Russian lesson. Alas, it turned out that there was only going to be 1 lesson. No wonder I thought the price was ridiculously cheap for language lesson. Thus I only learnt about 8-10 phrases from the "Russian for Travellers". Guess I will have to go to youtube or some other online resources to learnt it myself.

Russian for travellers

Chanced upon this "Russian for travellers" course when I was checking up a workshop recommended by my friend. Price was also very reasonable ($20 for 6 or 7 sessions). I did a double take when I saw the price initially. Most language courses are a couple of hundreds dollars. Thus I signed up for it. Just went for my first session over the weekend. Instructor is a Russian gal, she has a language school apparently that charges a few hundreds for beginner Russian. I think this course may be like a appetitizer for people to sign up her proper beginner course. Russian is indeed a difficult language. Even a simple hello seems hard to pronunce. My class has an informal setting, the instructor will ask us what we want to learn. The first lesson, we learn how to say Hello, Thank You, Excuse me, etc. Not much of teaching materials, you just write them in your own notebook whatever way you want as she pronunce the words we want to learn. She gives us a lot of opportunity to practice with the person next to you and the pace is relatively slow. I guess that is why the price is so reasonable. It suits me since I pick up languages slowly. Also, I just want to learn the basics for travelling. Just to learn the few phrases to hopefully get by in case I encounter situations where there is no English speakers.

Wind Valla to Central Asia

Decided to chronicle my journey to Central Asia. I have been thinking for years and am shooting for this June. Whether it is possible, I am not sure. Will see. :) Often the very first question people ask me is "Where is Central Asia?".

• Hmmm the countries with the 'stan', Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan & Uzbekistan (former Soviet Union Republics).


• Some definitions include countries like Mongolia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Xinjiang in China etc.


• Broadly, Central Asia is strongly linked to the Silk Road.

Many people also ask me, "why Central Asia?". Many of time I can feel they are anticipating a very elaborate answer. Some must be disappointed by my answer. But sometimes the simplest reason can be the strongest. "Because it is there and not much is known at the moment of this region. "