I want ’em all! This week I have had telephone conversations in German with native Russian speakers about our Kazakh and Kyrgyz visas (or visum or виза depending on whether you are English, German or Russian speaking). How very very random!

We actually can’t use the London visa agency, because apparently it’s a bit illegal for us to be in a foreign country and send our passports back to the UK. I haven’t actually told the agency yet – they think I am arranging the pointless letter of introduction they have asked for which neither of the Bonn consulates have mentioned (unless something has been lost in translation?!). I don’t feel bad about this, they took over a week to get back to me with information that I found in a couple of hours myself over the internet.

So, on Tuesday, I’ll be driving to Bonn and arranging an express visa/visum/виза for Kyrgyzstan (which they tell me will take 15 minutes!) and then I’ll be driving across town to the Kazakhstan Consulate and dropping off the passports and leave them to get the Kazakh visas which will take about a week. Nige will drive to Bonn the week after and collect the passports.

Sounds simple doesn’t it? It can’t really be that easy can it? Everything you read about getting visas (particularly in Central Asia which is not on the backpacker trail and is just starting to open up borders and the wonder of their countries and culture to Western visitors) suggests it’s not as simple as one might think. It will be interesting to see what I have to tell following my trip on Tuesday. I hope it will be a dream rather than a nightmare!