It was time for the team to bid goodbye to Tashkent. Consul Suresh Kumar and his wife Mini had arranged for a divine send off at the ISKCON Centre at Tashkent. They arrived at ISKCON by 8.30 am. There they witnessed a wonderful aarthi which was indeed a blessed way to start their rather long and arduous day.
Border crossing in Uzbekistan was excruciatingly slow. At the Kazhakstan border too, much to the disappointment of the team, the computers were down. It was 2 pm, when they finally got through. They then got some Uzbek currency exchanged into Kazakhstan Tigen. After this, they had to get some fuel. First, they got fuel for 3000 Tigens at 129 /lt. The second time around they told the guy to pump for 1500 T and 500 T for emergency.
Mookambika pumped the fuel and then they rode off. In about 3 minutes they realized that the fuel had not been pumped and the needle had not come up. They had to head back to the fuel station and it was an ordeal explaining to the guy that the diesel did not get pumped into the tank.
They reached the hotel at midnight to found Priya already waiting there! It was great to have the team reunited.