After a couple of days kicking my heels and doing a bit of bike maintenance (new headlight bulb and air filter) in Bishkek, it was time to try and re-enter Kazakhstan for a Mongolian visa. This was potentially tricky as I didn't technically have a Kazakh visa. There were several rumours of being allowed to go to Almaty from Bishkek, IF you had a double entry Kyrgyz visa. So, with some trepidation, we approached the customs man: he spent a long time looking at my passport, and specifically my Kyrgyz visa. Then he had a look in his rulebook, stopped to shout at some poor woman who was stood in the wrong place, looked at my visa again and stamped me in! Result!
We headed for the Mongolian embassy in Almaty (still 3 or 4 hours away) where we found Iain sitting outside waiting for his visa. After filling in the forms and paying for the express service, the visa was issued after only an hour or so. Result! Had already booked two nights in Almaty as I hadn't expected it to be this easy. As I had left my bike in Bishkek, I played tourist for a while in the big city.
Soundtrack: Tindersticks - A night in
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