Uzbekistan

Into Tajikistan

24 May – Uzbekistan – Tajikistan – ~37 miles

A very short day riding-wise – just crossing the border from Uzbekistan into Tajikistan. Apparently this border is only very recently open for “tourist” type crossings… so nobody had any idea how long it might take. It turned out to be rather painless – I believe the last of us were through in well under 4 hours.

Which means we’ve arrived in the town of Penjikent – very early. And Penjikent does not have much in the line of sights or attractions.
So – after a wander around town to confirm there’s absolutely zero to see or do, finding a bite to eat, and watching the last couple of episodes of the latest TV fad… it’s 4pm, and I’ve run out of things to do.
And internet is still extremely slow – so not much point in trying to retrospectively upload photos.
I guess I could try to sift through video footage… but I’ll return to that idea if/when/after I find a beer (itself, looking problematic).

Samarqand – the Crossroads of Cultures

23 May – Uzbekistan – ~169 miles

A bit more of the Silk Road… Samarkand.
Relatively short ride, arriving in enough time to look around some of the major sites, before a “team dinner”.
Impressive looking city, plenty of cool big old stuff, and when taking a taxi to the restaurant for a (large and cheap) dinner – new city looks modern/prosperous.

Road-side snack of Somsa, then watched the lads re-pack the oven with a hundred or so stuck to the side of the oven walls
Registan
The inside of an average Registan Madrasah classroom
A mosque

Bukhara

A day walking around Bukhara – done in a couple of hours really, including the inside of the Ark (the old fort).
Spent most of remainder of the day trying to figure out alternatives to sitting down and drinking beer. While sitting down and drinking beer.

Ark of Bukhara
One of several Mosques
Chor Minor – not entirely sure what this is for, but it’s a nice spot for a sit-down, a beer, and making friends with local/stray cats

Silk Road Proper: Khiva – Bukhara

21 May – Uzbekistan – ~284 miles

Uzbekistan – not much petrol to be had. Nearly all cars are running on one of several derivations of natural gas, with lots of “Metan” or “Propan” stations available. “Benzine” or “Petrol” – not so much… and where there are some, they’re often selling only 80-grade petrol. Not sure how the bike will handle that, but need to ask the owners of the bike if it would be acceptable in an emergency. But today – made the journey, with the petrol sign flashing a warning for several dozen miles… but made it.

Rode from Khiva to Bukhara – the second of the “Big Three” Silk Road cities in Uzbekistan… many miles of boring highway on fresh concrete roads, and quite a few miles on “in-progress” motorway… at best, pot-hole trap-filled sections (feeling good about dodging a few potholes, then see a six-foot wide 1-foot deep trench I’m about to hit)… and some simply “this isn’t road, this is just base rock with remnants of road gravel with pits”.

A late afternoon recon of Bukhara – suggests it’s a slightly bigger version of Khiva. Full day tomorrow to wander about a bit more, but I’m figuring the day is going to go similarly to Khiva. Although I might need to re-stock on local currency… I don’t know how, but 1 million Som didn’t seem to stretch that far.

Pulled over by the cardboard-cutout-cops.
A typical view of a random spot in Bukhara

Xiva

Probably the first “proper” Silk Road town on the trip. And pretty cool. Had no idea what to expect, wandered into the “Old City” yesterday evening – and discovered a massive wall around it made of mud. Went back in again today, had a bit of a meander… a fairly small place once you get your bearings – the north end of the Old City being actual locals/houses/kids-on-street, and the southern end – tourist-central.
I believe it hit 36 today as I was walking around… but luckily I realised how small the actual number/distribution of central sights was… and punctuated the day with beers, lunch, beers, a “haircut”, beers… until I ran out of money. It turns out to be rather difficult to correctly budget how much cash one should carry, when one’s normal “wallet supply” is about the size of a brick.
So – came back to the hotel, and found internet connection good enough to connect to my own website, and even post photos… albeit extremely slowly.

Local food is turning out to be rather tasty, but it’s getting a little difficult to eat sensibly when a soup, salad, main, and a couple of beers – is costing around £8. One just wants to try a little of everything… considering I think I’ve only got 4 more days here.

View from City Walls
I dunno – some sort of Madrasah?
Minaret, I guess.
A bit of Khiva
Another Minaret

Escaping Turkmenistan

19 May – Turkmenistan – Uzbekistan, ~53 miles

A very short day today (riding-wise)… last day’s stop at Dashoguz wasn’t on the schedule, but a relatively ad-hoc stop to bring us back on schedule (after the unexpected early sailing over the Caspian)… allowing for a shorter “border-day”.
Just 10 miles or so to the Turkmenistan Border-Control… arriving bang-on 9am, when they open the gates. 3.5 hours later – we’d been processed through the entire border (including a reasonably serious looking “DMZ”… plenty of barbed wire, closed cast-iron gates, and the such).

Uzbekistan is looking good thus far, really friendly people (including the army guy meeting us outside first gate), and actual tourism… not sure I missed that, but Turkmenistan was weird in it’s total absence.
Oh – and I’m a millionaire. Changed a bit of money into the local “Som”… and now have a little over 1.1 million Som burning a hole in my pocket. Or rather – spread all throughout my luggage, as 1.1 million Som (in 5,000 Som notes) is actually a sizable chunk of paper.
Internet here is unmonitored and unrestricted – I believe, but quality is still rubbish… so probably still unable to upload photos. And it took me 24 hours until I could upload this post.
Staying two nights in Khiva/Xiva – one of the principal cities on the original Silk Road, or some rubbish like that. Have had only a cursory look around this afternoon – looks like it’s going to be a long decent wander around the “Old City” tomorrow, in 35°C heat.

Between Turkmenistan & Uzbekistan
One-Million-And-Change