Anyone for Dessert?

Greetings from the ancient country of Uzbekistan, a fabulous contrast to the striking white marble and modern opulence of Turkmenistan. We are now surrounded by narrow streets filled with sand coloured mosques, minarets and medressas decorated with every variation of turquoise imaginable. One thing we didn't leave behind when crossing the border however was desert.

11th Century Caravansary enroute

An early morning wake up call in Ashgabat, a strong rap at the door for those on the 7^th floor, opening the door to a lady saying firmly “close-ed di door” and gesticulating wildly towards the balcony. Bleary eyed and mind racing as to why, could there be a sand storm coming, thick smog or perhaps even an earthquake? Thankfully it was just the president's motorcade passing through and they had to make sure all doors looking out onto the road were closed, paranoid after previous assassination attempts on a former president.

View from our hotel, Ashgabat

After a few hours exploring the Russian bazaar we headed North for a change, dissecting the Karakum Desert, the country being 90% desert, there there was rather a lot of it to cross. Turkmenistan may be able to print money with the amount of oil they have but certainly can't build roads. Although in their defence they are battling the heat and desert which constantly tries to reclaim the road, and wins a lot of the time. Monitor lizards stealthily creeping across the road and camels crossing broke up the desert landscape from time to time. Loaded up with a full water tank and jerry cans we bush camped for the night at the half way point, where there also happens to be a rather bizarre and breath-taking sight. The Darvasa gas crater. There used to be a town in the region too but sadly the previous president on passing through decided it had seen better days and ordered it razed. The gas crater continues to burns though. Various theories float around as to how it came to be, most probably a failed 1970s Soviet drill site which collapsed, so rather than have the gas leak out they decided it was safer to light it thinking it would eventually burn off. Another delicious supper of barbecued burgers and chips, topped off with Di's banofee pie to further celebrate Laura's birthday, it also happened to be Jubilee day in the UK and Gill had very sweetly packed some bunting, a rather dishevelled little bunch but the thought was there! The crater best seen at night, so after supper we climbed aboard a big Russian six-wheeled drive truck and roared up into the dunes. The orange glow in the distance grew ever closer. Walking closer towards the edge the wind whipped round and hit us with a wall of heat, like a full body hair dryer. Ducking to avoid the heat we moved around to the other side and peered in. Out of a rock strewn crater flames soared, huge infernos burned out of bigger holes at the base and smaller flames all around. We watched and wondered at such a spectacular and unusual sight before returning to camp for the night.

Russian monster truck to take us to the crater

Rowan

Mikkel and Betsy with the burger BBQ

Birthday bubbles for Laura from Rowan and Jody

Happy birthday Laura!

Some were up before the sunrise the next morning to catch the transit of Venus. Betsy had brought with her glasses for looking at the sun especially for this once in a lifetime event where Venus would be passing between Earth and the Sun. The keen ones climbed the hill next to camp and sat and waited and watched. It could still be seen over breakfast half way across the sun and best described as a full stop against the sun. Not as dramatic as a total eclipse but still impressive, and we looked pretty cool in the glasses too.

Cher

Gill

Jeff, Ryan & Betsy

Julia

A long drive the next day to make up for our unplanned second night of luxury on the ferry. We continued along the desert road, making it to the border in time for lunch, and in time for their lunch break too. Thankfully the police let us drive under the vehicle inspection shelter so we could have a shady lunch. Border and immigration officials watched with curiosity from the windows as the tables, tablecloths, wash bowls, chopping boards and food came out from various parts of the truck with efficiency and sandwich making was under way.

Entering Uzbekistan, one of the simpler and more friendly border crossings (apart from the customs form in Russian), we drove a short way on to Khiva. The historic heart of Khiva is completely preserved, perhaps even a bit too squeaky-clean, but a great introduction into the history here and being compact in size making it easy to see a lot. Even our hotel occupying a building of a former madrassa, built in the middle of the 19^th century, was part of the tour. Crossing borders also means changing currencies and remembering where you are and what it's called and what the exchange rate is. Uzbekistan offered us our first real taste of silly money, with an exchange rate that varies between 1,800 and 2,700 to the US Dollar, depending on where you change it, you need a backpack to carry a couple of hundred dollars worth!

Chris getting the best angle

Khiva walking tour

Nick

It was in Khiva we received the news that due to the worsening situation in Tibet, and one particular event where two monks set fire to themselves outside the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, a popular tourist site, China has taken the decision to close Tibet to foreigners for the foreseeable future. Very disappointing news for us all, but means that we will now continue further on through China, adding in visits to the Terracotta Warriors, Great Wall of China and pandas in Chengdu, and be able to say we travelled all the way to Singapore by road rather than taking any flights. As well as another unexpected bonus of exploring a new destination, we plan to spend a couple of weeks on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Uzbekistan would own the top-three entries if there was a Hall of Fame for Central Asian cities: Khiva, Bukhara & Samarkand and we spend a couple of nights in each. The group are enjoying the run of hotel nights with not a tent to be seen for a whole week.

Bukhara, Central Asia's holiest city, boasts over 140 protected buildings which would take a full week of tours and a record breaking attention span to take in so we condensed it down to the highlights with a half day tour from our informative local guide Yura who currently joins us whilst we are in Uzbekistan. Stopping off at the puppet museum, carpet shop and metal worker along the way helped to break up the history and allowed us a few minutes respite from the heat. We also have regular intrusions on our tours, local passers by wanting photographs with our resident celebrity Cher from the US due to the colour of her skin. Normally it's the fair haired ones amongst us who receive all the attention but they are even more fascinated with her, she patiently obliges and poses for photos. Bukhara was buzzing with locals visiting to enjoy a 3 day Silk and Spice Festival. No one spotted the deliberate spelling mistake on the poster before they went to print, oops.

Di and her donkey

Jody

John's look-alike puppet

Our hotel in Bukhara

Ryan

Helen

Our third city tour, Samarkand, did not disappoint, the Registan being one of the most awesome single sights in Central Asia.

No blog would be complete without Mikkel's catch of the day, so not forgetting his camel spider from the previous blog, picture as promised. He is struggling to find creatures in our run of hotel nights so hopefully when we return to camping he will be back on form.

Camel spider

Next stop, Uzbekistan's capital, Tashkent for a night. Where we hope to take a quick spin on the elaborately decorated metro, sadly we won't be able to share any photographs as they're forbidden. Then another border crossing up into Kazakhstan and time to get the tents out again, it'll be about time!

Cher

Rogan with Uzbekistan's crazy money

How much for one coke???