I have been back in Bantry for just over a week now. Things in Russia went very well. I had a wonderful visit with Sergey, Katya and Vasya. Vasilly was quizzing Sergey over the past two years wanting to know when Uncle Neal would be returning to Moscow. And then there I was! I brought him a toy robot that I found in the toy store here in Bantry. He loved it. He has learned a lot of English since I was there in 2007 and we were able to make up the gap using Google Translator. It was a short visit but I think we all liked it.

I met many people from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan who were willing to share their stories with me. Many of them are helping me get connected with friends and family back in Tajikistan when I head there in less than a week. That is assuming I get there on 5 October.

Getting a visa to Tajikistan is not as easy as getting a visa to other countries. The Tajikistan government does not have embassies in many countries. Because of this they have a rule that if you are traveling from a country that does not have an embassy then you can get your visa when you arrive at the airport in Dushnabe. Sounds like a very workable solution, all you need is a letter of invitation from some person or organization in Tajikistan. Well it turns out the organizations I contacted about this letter will only provide one to tourists who are using their other services. Since I was not interested in booking a tour with them then I was unable to get a letter.

I found out that the embassy in Austria would provide me with a visa if I wrote a letter asking for one and describing the nature of my visit. No problem I’ll get that in the post to you right away. Oh wait the Irish post will take four days to get to Austria? Lets see four days to Austria, four days to process the visa then four days back to Ireland—crap I leave in ten days! FedEx to the rescue! After a drive up to Shannon yesterday I got it all sorted and the embassy is rushing the visa (for double the fee) and it should meet me in Dublin just before I leave.

So I leave for Dushanbe in six days. I will be back in Ireland sometime in late October then it is time to start trying to sell the story.