After a long chat with Mr Sultan at the Uzbek embassy by phone, followed up by a fax establishing my work credentials (had to be a touch creative on that one) I am now the proud owner of the visa. Thanks for the advice MotoEdde as I did wax lyrical about the many attractions of Uzbekistan - reading directly out of my LP guide!

But what have the Azeris done? I asked David at Stantours for the LOI (letter of invitation) to get the Azeri visa and I find that My name is on someone else's LOI - a bunch of guys who are nothing to do with me and more worryingly, they are not travelling through Azerbaijan until July and I'm going to be there in two weeks - eeek.

stantours have assured me there is no problem as there are no dates on the LOI and that I will be fine just turning up by myself at the border - they think the Ministry at Baku don't like the idea of me travelling on my own and have added my name onto the other list to look better.

As a reply to the getting the visas on the road- yes, I've done that a lot as well but as I am actually setting off from my home country and have the time to get the necessary ones in advance then that's what I'm doing.
I'm not a big fan of major cities, I prefer to explore the countryside, so not having to go to capital cities to hunt down consulates and visas while I'm travelling is a big plus - especially as they are not always very keen to issue visas to lone women in other countries, as I have found out on several occasions.

There are definitely many advantages to being female and travelling but the pursuit of visas is more difficult.

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Tiffany
On the road from...I'm not sure any more
http://www.tiffanystravels.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUhV1r-kUo