Border Crossing from Uzbekistan (Tashkent) to Kazakhstan (Shymkent) with a Malaysian Passport & Motorcycle

It was time to say goodbye to Uzbekistan and further continue my exploration in Kazakhstan. While the silkroad cities were beautiful and a wonder to look at, the burning hot weather constantly around 40 degrees during the day was a super large deterrent to do anything.

I decided loitering around just to sit down every day at the main square in the evening and admire the old architecture Madrasahs was not so enjoyable when the bulk of the day was wasted hiding in the air-con room.

Tashkent-Shymkent Border - Uzbekistan side

I rode to the border in the morning and at the Uzbekistan side got down and pass on my passport with Vehicle Ownership Certificate (VOC) to the customs officer for processing. There are no temporary import papers like other countries for the bike if you remembered my previous post when entering Uzbekistan.

It took maybe 15 minutes for the officer to key in stuff into the system and then I was told to open up the box for customs check. Top box cleared, side panniers opened and rummage through, main bag looked through and finally a few questions was asked which I could not understand.

The guards mimed the questions for me which translate to,

Do you have any Guns ??? NO

(Mimed like a person holding a rifel and shooting)

Do you have any Drugs ??? NO

(Mimed like someone injecting his own hand with drugs)

I was cleared to go and the little slip for customs check was stamped and I could now move forward a hundred meters to clear immigration. Stamped out quickly of Uzbekistan and a short ride to the gate separating Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. I passed the little customs paper slip and was cleared to leave.

At the Kazakhstan side, It was customs first and this time I got a custom declaration paper for Bragge which was similar to a temporary vehicle import permit, but they actually call it ex-soviet custom union papers. 

Shymkent - Tashkent Border - Kazakhstan Side 

This was the first time getting the custom union papers from Kazakhstan since the last time I crossed into Kazakhstan I was holding onto the Kyrgyz customs union papers. Same procedure again at the Kazakhstan side for immigration and then baggage check. All in all the whole process took maybe an hour.

So what I realized is that the customs union papers for Uzbekistan was independent hence there was a new issuance of custom papers from Kazakhstan side. The previous crossing from Kyrgyz to Kazakh had no paper because they share this. 

I was using the Kyrgyz paper in Kazakh actually but this time round I had the Kazakh customs papers and when I cross back into Kyrgyz a month later I was actually using the Kazakh papers in Kyrgyzs. A very interesting customs union in this part of the world

Back in Kazakhstan and onward to Shymkent

Travelled on: Aug 2024