A Little Shock when we Lost the Temporary Vehicle Import Permit in Naryn.

I stayed in Naryn for two night slowing down the pace a little from China fast moving journey. Nothing much to explore in downtown Naryn really other than some supermarket and good food. 

Chye & May joined me at the hostel while the group slowly dispersed going their separate ways through Kyrgyzstan. The free day in Naryn was spend just walking around buying some groceries and doing route planning. 

Welcome to Naryn - Kyrgyzstan

In the evening we decided to find a copy shop to make copies of the Temporary Vehicle Import Permit. It was told by the customs officer at the Kyrgyz border crossing that the permit works for the five Central Asia countries under the ex-soviet agreement but sometimes each countries will exercise their own rules and judgment ignoring the old ex-soviet agreement.

I had no knowledge of this and after researching could not really find any hard proof info but in the event we left Kyrgyzstan and the TIP was retrieved, we wanted to still have a copy. 

Grocery Shopping in Naryn - Kyrgyzstan

Grocery Shopping in Naryn - Kyrgyzstan

Grocery Shopping in Naryn - Kyrgyzstan

To copy shop and we got 5 sets of fully color copy TIP. I left my set together inside the file with Chye and we proceeded to walk around Naryn going to the market and visiting the river.

On the way back we stopped for dinner at a local diner and reach back the hostel all rest and relax. Around 11pm I got a knock at my door and May was asking if I had the file with the TIP. 

I had forgotten about that file, even forgetting that the TIP was with them. Apparently they left the whole file inside the local diner so Chye & Me rushed back to the diner close to midnight with the hope they were open.

Local Market in Naryn - Kyrgyzstan

Naryn River - Kyrgyzstan

The diner was closed and banging at the doors yielded no results. I called the number at the shopfront advertisement but could not speak the local language so got hanged up after a while. 

Waved down a passing local and using google translate to explain our problem asked him to help call the restaurant and explain our predicament to them in Russian. 

It was amazing problem trouble shooting I felt, but it still yielded no result. The restaurant staff replied that they did not notice any file left behind. Nothing much we could do after that so back to the hostel for a restless night sleep. 

The next morning I messaged Richard & Judith with the hope they were still in Naryn. They were still around and I explained our predicament and that we may need Judith help with translation if we had to go make a police report and somehow figure out how to get a TIP replacement.

Chye & me proceeded back to the diner in the morning with the slim hope the file was around. The diner was open early at 8am and the first thing we saw walking in was the file on the table. Minor crisis avoided, I dropped a quick message to Richard & Judith that we we good and thanks for standing by.

I think that I was very lazed with this travel so far. The solo travel experience did not really start until after exiting China. Thailand, Cambodia and Laos were like old friends and China had a guide which sort out all these bureaucracy that we had to figure out as long term over-landing traveler. 

First few days in Kyrgyzstan was a wake up call. Now the real adventure begins where everything had to be planned and research by ourselves, where information had to be mined from the net or from passing travelers which path & fate crosses.

Traveled on: Jun 2024