United Arab Emirates

I, Christopher Renfrow, am a “travel planner extraordinaire.” I have spreadsheets with accommodations/bus tickets/route maps, photocopies of every identification document I own, ten passport photos ready for visas, a copy of my marriage certificate/birth certificate/yellow fever vaccination card, phone apps with all our flights… Everything is well organized and mistakes are never made.

Some of the most important documents I prepare before a flight are visas. Visas are an essential (yet cumbersome) part of a world trip. Depending on the country, no visa = no trip. So…you can imagine my surprise when I went to check in for our flight to Uzbekistan (72 hours in advance of our travel date because, you know, “travel planner extraordinaire”) and the airline website prompted me to upload a visa I didn’t have. “But we don’t need a visa for Uzbekistan!” I say.

But we did need one.

It’s Sunday, our flight is on Wednesday, and the Uzbekistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs website says that any visa application takes at least three working days to process.

I quickly filled out the applications (fussing with the website for over an hour on my phone because it wouldn’t accept my 2x2in passport photo, a photo that was accepted for every other visa on this trip). I'm an optimist and think that our visas will be ready on time!

I go on Reddit (the hive brain) to see what I can find out. Some folks have reported they got their visa in two days. Others say it took a few weeks. One post in particular contained a Telegram number (Telegram is a messaging app like WhatsApp) for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs! I texted the number and asked about processing time and the response said it would take a couple of days. Great!

So… we now have two full days to explore the UAE while we wait! The last time we were here was for a stopover at the Abu Dhabi airport en route from Ireland to Bangkok. We were excited to see more of the city than just the cold airport (see Thailand post for that story).

With an upcoming wedding in Ireland, we took advantage of the many malls for which the UAE is famous to buy some decent clothes (unsure if we would be welcome at the wedding if we were in sandals and cargo shorts).

We did get to explore a bit of the downtown as well (after the sun went down of course…Abu Dhabi is HOT during the day).

We also enjoyed a few walks on the promenade for sunset. This promenade comes alive at night as locals get out to enjoy a few hours of tolerable weather.

We also finished more of our wedding “thank you postcards” and dropped them in the mail. This was a rather silly experience where the Abu Dhabi postmen excitedly sold us enormous commemorative stamps…stamps so big they had to be folded over on the backside of the postcard. They even suggested these stamps could be given as gifts, which seemed odd as they were a fairly boring design (see photo below). After saying we needed one more stamp, they offered us a neat small stamp with an eagle… Of course.

To their credit, they did assist us with applying the enormous stamps to the postcards (which required a lot of licking). And, for a very brief visit to the UAE that was mostly spent stressing over visas, buying wedding clothes, and drinking tea, it was a nice chance to chat with a couple of Emiratis in their traditional long white dress kandura and headdress gutra.

*Note: if you are still reading this blog and haven’t received a postcard from us, send us your address!*

As the date of our flights got closer, I spent more time on the phone… *Check Uzb visa website, enter application number, see “still processing,” shoot…..text the telegram number for an update, they say it’s still processing, should be ready soon*

I did put down the phone long enough to enjoy this cup of Karak chai (strong black tea with milk and spices) made for us by a young man who moved from Bangladesh to Abu Dhabi to open a small shop. Delicious.

Another day, another coffee shop visited. I religiously refresh the Uzb visa application website and text the telegram number (at this point they have stopped responding to me so I use Marlene’s phone to text them from a new number).

The night before our flight we still didn't have our visas. I set an alarm for 2 AM (the last possible moment I could move the flights without forfeiting them) and woke up to check the website. No visa. Dang.

Flights moved to the following day (still being a foolish optimist), penalty fee paid, and back to sleep.

Another day passes and we still don’t have a visa. I’m starting to panic as the mistake is becoming expensive. Another 2 AM alarm set, another telegram message sent, and still no visa. Flights moved again to the following day, a second penalty fee paid, and back to (a now very restless) sleep.

Andddd another day passes and still no visa. I’m in a full panic. Do we scrap our plans for Central Asia?? It’s 6 PM and I send one last text to telegram.

*Ding* Marlene’s phone rings and the visas are in! Hallelujah!

Feeling like we needed to celebrate, we got pizza (notice the bathroom signs at the restaurant…not something you see in the USA) and ran back home to pack.

Onward to Central Asia!