Im a planner. Im a plotter, Im an organizer and Im a dreamer. I can be a bit of a romantic, an adventurer and an information seeker.
I know all of these dimensions about myself because of travel. I have learned I have an insatiable appetite for information when I am planning a trip. I have learned that I want to plan and plan and plan, but I dont want to create a rigid travel itinerary. I want to lay out an old fashioned paper map and I want to trace routes. I want a trip that lands somewhere between overly scheduled and do whatever whenever the spirit moves me. I want to see everything, but I also want long, leisurely moments where I simply watch the world go by before my eyes.
Travel has also taught me I must be willing to be a I must remain flexible and I have to muster up more patience than I normally can muster.
when 2021 rolled around, we were lucky enough to be vaccinated and the pandemic shifted slightly in parts of the world, it was time to find that inner adventuring romantic who likes to plan and plot.
Where will we go in a constantly changing travel landscape? If we dust off that long lost friend my passport, who will be the first to leave a stamp?
Many months ago, the target was India. The route was mapped, the sights were identified and the dates were set. Then we started tracking the news. India was moved to the 2022 travel list, sadly and with a heavy heart.
A new list was developed. It was based on who accepted Americans and who was COVID safe. Not many requirements, but a short list nonetheless.
Montenegro, Sarajevo, Bosnia. Then Romania or Georgia. Armenia, maybe Turkey. Egypt was always a fallback to return. All were fair and intriguing options until a sparkling little gem came on the scene: Uzbekistan.
Finally, one of my dream trips to continue tracing the Silk Road. Yes, Uzbekistan sense and that was that. We
Booked the tickets with lots of struggle, but were able to include an entire day layover in Istanbul. See? COVID travel isnt that bad.
Next step, apply for visas. This was supposed to be easy as Uzbekistan is pushing for more tourists and instituted a simple process. Easy? Not so much. Spent nearly an entire day trying the process without any success. An email to the Embassy sent during a wave of frustration revealed Uzbekistan stopped the process during COVID.
No time to discuss the absurdity of this because we needed money orders, overnight shipping, paper applications, a significantly larger amount of money and we needed to ship our passports off the old fashioned way.
The planner in me became the worst case scenario thinker when I counted on one hand how many days we had to get the passports sent off, processed and returned before we were to board a plane.
It was a rollercoaster of fears, but the Embassy employees went above and beyond to ease our minds and process our passports in record time.
The passports arrived and the exuberance was equal to that of winning the Super Bowl. We are going to Uzbekistan! At this point I could already see myself walking through the streets of some of the most significant Silk Route cities.
Next step was to get the COVID testing requirements hammered out and make lab appointments because we were leaving in a few short days. With the air of exuberance still fresh, our hearts fell into our stomachs as we read Uzbekistan had, within hours of our research, just changed their travel restrictions.
There is no one central clearing house of information on this stuff, so naturally the messages conflicted. Contacted the Embassy and they said to go and enjoy our trip. Contacted our hotels and they said the same. Referenced news article and health organizations who reported the capital was shut down only allowing for medical emergencies and tourists. There were curfews and some businesses may be shut down. The vaccination rate for the entire country was 4 percent. The Delta variant was sweeping through the countr.
