Taking the long way home from Japan to Frome, UK
The Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, or rather, where the Aral Sea used to be. A rather poignant place made even more depressing by the fact it’s here where we found out that Trump had won the Presidency. 🙁
The photos show the remnants of the fishing fleet at Moynak. Once located at the sea shore, Moynak now lies 100km from what remains of the sea.
I’m currently typing this from the city of Atyrau in Kazakhstan having crossed the border from Uzbekistan a few days ago. The entry and exit procedures from Uzbekistan border on the ridiculous with our exit taking over 4 hours. The border guards had a very thorough rummage through literally everything – including a good sniff of Clare’s baking powder.
Our time in Uzbekistan was, by necessity, short and we stuck to the sights, which meant many more nights spent in city hostels than normal. It was an interesting experiment but I think I’m happier when it’s just us and the car out in the countryside.
The next milestone will be our happy reunion with Brian (our drone) at the DHL office on Monday morning – drones are banned in Uzbekistan so we had to post ours from Tajikistan to Kazakhstan. With Brian safely back on board we’ll enter Russia on Wednesday and make a mad dash for Georgia over the next few days in accordance with the strict timetable dictated by our transit visa. We’re both excited to see Georgia 🙂
#1 Practically every car is a white Chevrolet……and that really is no exaggeration
#2 Hardly any petrol or diesel. Most of the cars have been converted to run on gas. In Bukhara we had to queue for 1 1/2 hours to fill up 🙁
#3 Many of the buildings are painted creams, magnolias – think too of Angel Delight butterscotch
#4 Many farmers are forced to grow cotton (a legacy from the Soviet Union days) even though the climate and soil conditions don’t really lend themselves to the crop.
#5 All tourists exchange dollars on the black market – the exchange rate is practically twice as good as the official exchange rate
#6 The men, especially the older generation, wear long dark blue padded coats that look a bit like dressing gowns
#7 There is endless flat desert in Uzbekistan stretching east from Bukhara all the way to the Caspian Sea
#8 There are some very friendly cats
#9 There are quite a few housing estates where the houses are all identical – think Edward Scissorhands….and yes…they’re all magnolia
#10 Some stunning, if over renovated, old buildings in Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva (see my blog Building with Botox!)
Today we changed another £60 to cover our fuel expenses for the rest of our time in Uzbekistan – this time we got our Uzbek money in 1000 som notes! The wedge is even more extreme.
Around £60 – this time in 1000 som notes
Another day and another stop on our tourism-optimised drive through Uzbekistan. Today we are in Khiva – a city in possesion of an ancient mud-walled citadel stuffed to the brim with madressas, mosques and minarets.
It’s all very interesting, but at the same time a little bit weird. Clare sums it up in this blog post.
Khiva
We’ve spent the last week travelling to the classic tourist sights in Uzbekistan: Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva. To be honest it’s hard to do anything other than that as the road literally leads you from one place to the next with little chance to detour. Whilst the immense desert doesn’t help, you also get the feeling that the powers that be just want you to stick to the tourist trail too.
Kalon Mosque
Bhukara
We’re packing a big old wedge in Uzbekistan! Not the result of a successful drug deal, but what you get if you change £100.
With the cost of most things being in the 100,000s we’re quite paranoid about accidentally overpaying by a factor of 10!
About a hundred quids-worth of the highest denomination notes available in Uzbekistan
Bukhara, the second stop on our uber-tourist tour of Uzbekistan. There are literally more madresses and mosques here than you can shake a stick at. It’s took all the resolve I could muster to remain focussed over the day. Plus a lot of beer stops.
Nadir Divan Begi Khanaka
Bukhara
As you’ll recall from Part One, rather than attempt to take Brian into Uzbekistan, we packed him on his merry way to Atyrau, a small city in the far western part of Kazakhstan that we would be driving through on our way to Russia. It cost us $150 and was worth every cent just for the piece of mind.
So, with Brian safely on the hands of DHL, we rocked up early to the Tajikistan/Uzbekistan border the next morning without a care in the world. As we left the Tajikistan side and approached the Uzbekistan side of the border the gun toting guards became more frequent and the barbed wire sharper. And when I saw the huge van that X-rays cars I knew we had done the right thing posting Brian. Honestly, if we had had Brian in the car, I would have had a nervous breakdown. As I kept saying to Captain – Uzbekistan is: fundamentally a police state; in a period of political turmoil with the recent death of its long standing President and is a country with one of the worst human rights record in the world ……. what the hell were we even thinking considering smuggling a drone in?
It is against the law for any foreigner to take a drone into Uzbekistan so we always knew that Brian (our drone) was going to be problematic! Being optimistic people we decided that we’d solve the problem ‘nearer the time.’ And being also procrastinators (well mostly Captain) we found ourselves with only two days until our visa started to ‘solve the problem.’
We had two options:
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