By the time we'd had lunch and hit the streets it was already a tad later - later than midday anyway. Vadim, Susanne and I went to the Russian embassy - I also had to get a Russian visa sorted, otherwise we had no way of getting into China anyway. Luckily for us Vadim had a friend who works in the embassy and we were seen without too much waiting but - as we were shocked to find out - a transit visa was going to set me back US$300! This really didn't seem viable, but we went along to the train station anyway.

Taking the train from Ukraine to Russia - what could be simpler? Would you like a list now or should I start a forum on the subject. This did not actually seem as easy as one would imagine. Let's start with train times... etc... etc... While waiting in the queue Vadim and I kept our spirits - and those around who could understand English - with alternative ways of getting through Russia. My favourite was the Kangaroo drawan cart that would have the axles not quite in the centre of the wheels to counterbalance the effect of the Kangaroo bounding!

Wondering what else we could do we suggested the possibility of flying to Uzbekistan and missing out the Russian part to our trip. I felt guilty about this as Susanne had already forked out US$100 on her Russian visa - but it seemed like a better alternative to paying for the transit visa. Susanne was understandably mad at me for not doing all this in the UK, but London isn't a trip I wanted to do every two days while I was home in the UK and at that time my passport was already tied up in the Taiwanese Visa Section. Well, they say that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger but I'm sure that Susanne was pretty near some murderous thoughts at this time.

Vadim took us to the Uzbeki airways office and we were served by a young lady who struck a resounding resemblance to Sigourney Weaver - Top Tip! Don't try to explain actresses to foreign nationals by their famous films if these films describe space aliens! It's possible that the listener understands that you're comparing them to some slimey alien!

As it turned out we could get our ticket to Tashkent with an internal return flight to Samarkand all for less than the US$300 it would cost for a transit visa through Russia. We were pretty much sold on the idea and Susanne was positively beaming (despite my charm with the young lady at Uzbek Air) at the prospect of actually getting to Samarkand. Apparently there's a Swedish song that goes along the lines of 'You'll never get to Samarkand..!' I wonder if it's at all like that Spitting Image song about South Africans?