The common way to cross the border between Uzbekistan and Southern Kyrgzystan is the Dostyk border crossing, open 24/7 for both pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
However, there is another border crossing that will shave off around an hour of travel time between the Fergana valley and Northern and Central Kyrgyzstan, the Madaniyat border crossing, open for pedestrians. It is also sometimes referred to as “Izboskan crossing”, referring to the greater area the town is situated in.
Getting there from the Kyrgyz side
Any vehicle on the route between Bishkek and Osh will pass Madaniyat, so it should be no problem to get a marshrutka or shared taxi to drop you off at the petrol station at the junction 3km away from the border. The petrol station has public toilets for KGS 10. In the worst case of your driver not dropping you off and continuining to Osh, you can still use the Dostyk border crossing located only a couple minutes outside Osh.
Getting there from the Uzbek side
From Andijan, there are two possible ways to get to Madaniyat:
- By shared taxi from the Andijan Bus Terminal: This option works until the early afternoon, since the Madaniyat border is less used, it might be helpful to have the name written down to show the the drivers.
- By city taxi from anywhere in Andijan: You can get a taxi from anywhere in the city, a major taxi rank is near the commercial centre. Again, showing a the written name of your destination will make it easier for the driver to get you to the desired border town. As of 2022, you can expect to pay less than UZS 100'000, so less than 10 dollars for the one-way route taking around 30 to 40 minutes.
Before entering the border premises, you will be offered to exchange your Uzbek sum into Kyrgyz som, if you have a lot of spare sum, you might want to use this opportunity, as the rates in Kyrgyzstan will be worse. There is no need to exchange foreign currency like EUR or USD though, there is an ATM a couple kilometers away from the border and taxi drivers will gladly let you quickly withdraw some money to pay them at the end of the ride.
Crossing the border
As opposed to the more popular Dostyk border, there are only pedestrians crossing the border here, so expect less traffic and shorter waiting times. Both sides will check your luggage, on the Kyrgyz side manually, on the Uzbek side with the help of an airport-style X-ray machine. Since there are fewer third-country foreigners passing this border crossing, your passport might attract some curious looks by both fellow crossers and officials, but both sides are professional and you will get your passport stamps sooner than later. In case there are any problems, you can still retreat and try again on the Dostyk border around an hour away from either side.
The actual border crossing is done by around 100m of walking across a bridge through fairly populated no-mans-land.
Getting away to Jalal-Abad, Toktogul and onwards
After exiting the border premises, you will be swarmed by taxi drivers offering their services to you. Depending on the time of the day, you will have to wait some time for the shared taxi to your destination to fill up, but there is usually a constant trickle of people crossing the border, so chances are high that you won’t spend too much time in the border town, which has a basic selection of stores and cafes offering local food. There are also sales offices of Kyrgyz mobile operators in case you want to get a SIM card.
In case you do not want to use a shared taxi you can also try your luck at hitch-hiking near the petrol station, chances are high that cars and trucks passing by will take you closer to your destination with or without payment.
Getting away to Andijan and onwards
There isn’t a lot of traffic on the Uzbek side, but on the other hand many fellow border crossers will want to head towards Andijan as well. Shared taxis will usually drop you off at the Andijan Bus Terminal in the centre of the city. The Andijan I station with trains through the Fergana valley to Tashkent is just a block away.
Summary
The Madaniyat border is a lesser travelled border crossing between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan that is generally less crowded and therefore might save you up to an hour of travel time if you do not intend to visit the city of Osh. Updates and experience reports are available in this thread on the Caravanistan forums.